The official blog of Ignition Consulting Group
Developing a relevant, differentiating positioning strategy is hard enough. But it’s harder still to bring your positioning to life throughout all the various dimensions and business practices of the agency. Here are 25 questions that will help you assess how well you’re doing …
During the past 15 years or so, there has been a pricing revolution in business. Most large successful companies are staffed with professional pricers – people who make their living by determining the value, and therefore the price, of their company’s products and services …
When creating an investment portfolio, no reasonable person would put all their money in just gold, just Certificates of Deposit, or just stocks (especially in today’s economic climate). In a marketing communications firm, your client compensation agreements are your most important financial asset. If they are all based on the exact same compensation system – just fees based on hours, for example – it means you’re not diversifying your portfolio …
It’s true that most clients want an objective outside point of view from their agency. But not until their agency has bothered to take the time to first understand the client’s expectations. Deep down inside, the thing that clients value most is an agency that listens. Not an agency that just takes orders or is afraid to say no. But an agency that is willing to make the effort to understand what the client really wants and needs from the relationship …
Agency professionals everywhere are frustrated by the master-servant dynamic that increasingly characterizes client-agency relationships. They feel that clients treat them more as a supplier than a partner. Agencies are quick to lay the blame at the feet of the client, but is it possible that the problem really starts with us?
If you really want to get paid what your agency is worth, you must first leave that state of denial in which so many agencies find themselves. Sigmund Freud described denial as “knowing-but-not-knowing” — a state of rational apprehension that does not result in appropriate action.” Medicine provides some other potent examples of how “knowing” doesn’t necessarily result in “acting," and how that relates to changing your pricing paradigm …
Clearly, a strong positioning is the most differentiating thing an agency can do, but there are countless other missed opportunities to differentiate both in terms of style and substance …
Agencies are indispensable partners in helping marketers differentiate their brand. Differentiation is, after all, the essence of branding. But when it comes to their own brands, most agencies haven’t thought through their own brand touch points to look for opportunities to stand out …
As agencies become more and more convinced that they should be selling their services based on value instead of costs, they need to learn a new set of skills to help sell the concept of value and get a better price for what they do …
Many if not most account people in agencies were brought up in a model where the “account executive” was expected to handle an incredibly ambitious list of responsibilities ranging from the up-front strategy work to the post-production billing …
Imagine three agencies presenting to a prospective client. The client has provided all three agencies with a list of guidelines for the presentation, which includes explicit instructions to outline the agency’s proposed compensation approach, including hourly rates, expected hours, and staffing plans …
Consider the deceptively simply question, “Where do profits come from?” When you pose this question to a group of agency professionals, the answers will typically include such things as clients, hours worked, and even efficiency. But the real answer to this question is that profits come from risk …
Why is there so much rework on a lot of agency projects? Because most agencies are so submerged with “rush” work (now the rule instead of the exception) that most assignments are initiated with incomplete information, no brief, no briefing – only a job number and a due date …
Agencies must think carefully if they want a partnership with their clients. It’s a different business model than the agency industry is used to, but it can be remarkably rewarding and successful for the right kind of client …
If you’re like a lot of business executives, you may be concerned that you haven’t adequately defined your “mission” or “vision.” These often feel like buzzwords, and that offsite planning sessions that seek to define them often end in a bland statements that reflect more compromise than courage …
