Know What Works Blog

After leaving a brief stint at a regionally recognized ad agency, I realized that you can’t understand what happens within the client’s company while simply designing and placing ads, no matter how many meetings and conversations you have.  There is too much to be learned by being a part of the company’s culture, even if only for a short time.  For the past eight years, I have worked within the offices of a client company at least one day a week and here are the top ten things that I have learned:

10.  Very few co-workers understand marketing and its purpose.  They also don’t always realize that they are part of the marketing endeavors of the company. 

9.  Very few co-workers understand the costs associated with marketing, and why it is important to collect information to determine if it works or doesn’t.

8.  The customer touch points are all marketing vehicles

7.  The company culture needs to be aligned with the brand or brands to facilitate marketing communication.

6.  All operational functions can be helped with general marketing principles.  An example,  individual meetings can be branded, communicated, and the effectiveness evaluated. 

5.  Marketing endeavors need to be communicated to all front line personnel.

4. All managers need to understand the customer, not just the marketing department. 

3.  All managers need to understand marketing principles.  The company needs to be support the brand internally as well as externally.

2.  Everyone’s ideas are important when it comes to marketing, and the not-so-reasonable contributors need to be let down gently so that they don’t stop coming up with ideas.

1.  The number one thing that I’ve learned, is that the owner’s vision, personality, and character can aid the marketing momentum just as much as it can hinder it.