Spend Less and Get More with an Integrated Brand

What do senior leaders of organizations, regardless of size or industry, think when they are asked to commit more resources to messaging and selling?

While those working in the field talk about different disciplines like marketing, public relations, sales, communications and advertising, decision makers tend to lump them all together and ask:

• Do we really need to do that?
• How much is this going to cost?
• How will we know if it is working or not?
• Isn’t (insert name of person or department) responsible for that?

Marketing and messaging professionals are quick to passionately explain why their recommendations are vital to the organization. However, they often do not focus enough on the return on investment in terms entrepreneurs are accustomed to hearing and end up without the buy-in necessary for success.

Senior leaders also tend to lose patience with multiple vendors (PR, marketing, advertising, etc.) that rarely communicate with each other as well as they should. Each function or area sees things in their own biased way.

Producers think they’re king because they bring in the business. Others find them arrogant and demanding. Advertising vendors see themselves as cool and full of big ideas. Others see them as full of something else. PR or marketing vendors talk about framing the message but frontline CSRs wonder what they really do. The list could go on and on. The end result is a perception among agency principals that branding-related function areas are inefficient cost centers with overlapping, duplicative efforts.

Businesses often talk about getting all functions to work together more but become frustrated with mixed results attributed to the type of work and workers involved. Phrases like “You know those creative people,” or “He’s a marketing guy, they’re different,” are used to explain it away.

How can organizations overcome this vicious cycle of frustration?

Senior leaders need to champion the idea of creating a true integrated marketing and PR program—which ultimately creates a brand—and then focus on strategic initiatives to make it happen:

1. Find out what each customer target market for your agency wants by asking them, through multiple channels. While engaging a market research firm is the most formal of research methods, don’t overlook other ways to learn about target markets. Producers can ask customers and prospects what they think and track the results. Your communications vendor (or in-house communications person if you have one) will be able to easily survey employees. Your methodology doesn’t have to be perfect. The key takeaway is that you should ask your customers, internal and external, what they think and act accordingly.
2. Develop a consistent message and require all employees to live by it. Be vigilant about message integrity and consistency but also be flexible. For example, producers might not use your branding tagline all of the time. Tweak the messaging accordingly for each target market but ensure that the overall theme and key message points are still being conveyed. Consider secret shopping so that you are more aware of what your customers are really seeing and hearing.
3. Work with each vendor and internal staff function area to clearly define their goals and the market forces that affect their ability to achieve those goals. Develop a summary of each department or vendor’s specific roles and their strengths. Then, convey these key points to everyone involved. The goal is to increase the level of understanding and respect across functions.
4. Instill an agency-wide branding ROI focus. Challenge your marketing and messaging professionals to provide rationale in terms of marketing ROI success metrics. Then, report the success metrics to all of the agency’s employees. The more everyone understands the marketing, selling and messaging goals and processes, the better.

Developing a true integrated marketing, PR and selling program doesn’t just happen—it takes a coordinated effort to build a brand with all of the necessary elements. But once you invest the time and effort, you will reap the benefits of a positive ROI.

David M. Mastovich (massolutions.biz), MBA, is president of MASSolutions, Inc. and author of “Get Where You Want To Go: How to Achieve Personal and Professional Growth Through Marketing, Selling and Story Telling.”


Define the Target
First, identify your agency’s target markets and get buy-in from employees and vendors on the agency’s branding and sales goals. Far too often, target markets are described in broad or general terms. Drill down each target audience into manageable market segments, then make sure the producer focusing on those areas agrees on the segmented target markets. For example, producers often might overlook the importance of CSRs as a key target market. Communications vendors sometime focus so much on the creative message they forget that the target audience has to see or hear it when they are able and willing to buy. Taking the time to clearly communicate information about the target market segments is the first step toward successful integration.

—D.M.