Every service company tries to differentiate themselves from their competitors, as they should. In the agency business this can often get a bit silly. Whether a snappy formula that apparently solves all issues with an elegant ease, or a barrage of the newest industry buzz words strung together in a blistering “doesn’t your agency know these words’ broadtip arrow, in the end it is all...packaging.
We’re in the service business. If our clients have to ask us anything – we blew it. “When will the copy be done? What’s this item on my bill? Why is the photo this color? I don’t understand the research? Why did you buy this station? Are the brochures delivered?” Whatever, it doesn’t matter. It is our job to anticipate the needs and questions of our clients, and proactively address them — without them having to ask.
Great isn’t easy. It takes longer, is more elusive, and requires more effort than “good.” We are committed to great — in everything we do from creative to media, proofreading to production. We never stop and always press ourselves with the question most agency people shudder at, “… is this the best you can do?” It’s a fair question. It’s a good question, and when you’re being paid to impact the bottom line, it’s a question you’d better be comfortable with.
Compelling advertising almost always begins with an emotional impact. Consumers are not waiting to hear or see our message, in fact the opposite is true – they are waiting to switch the channel, turn the page, click the mouse, toss it in the trash or look the other way the microsecond you bore them. And that becomes the world’s most expensive advertising.
Effective advertising must connect emotionally. After that, you can build your brand, communicate your benefits, sell your products, and assure your future.
This is as sure as a sledgehammer versus a box of crystal. Any communications campaign produced without a clear picture of exactly who the target audience is — and what makes them tick — is destined for mediocrity.
At Brothers & Co., our Senior Creative Director is also our President and started our research department. This creates and fosters a top-down culture of due-diligence for target information within our creative department. If we don’t know exactly whom we’re targeting creatively, we won’t start work until we do. Advertising is expensive. Making sure your communication messages hit the target exactly where they tick makes it infinitely more effective and greatly increases the return.
The level of service we strive for is not intuitive, it takes time to burn it into your heart and make it a regular part of your day.
At 35 years old, we’ve been around the track a number of times. We’ve hired team building consultants, vision consultants and probably a couple of consultants we’re embarrassed to mention (and would certainly like our money back).
Finally, in the late 1990s, when the President of our company was returning from a private tour of WalMart’s home office in Bentonville, the light went on. And has stayed on. Who we are as a company starts with what we believe, in our hearts, about service.
We believe on the most basic level, we are in the service industry. It is our "lot in life," and determines the role we play with our customers. We also believe service can and does impact the final product. Not just in the daily warfare of creating that product, but in its effectiveness to bring an acceptable return on investment to our customer. Passion, research, creativity, guts and glory: and service. Not a very marketable concept in an industry that places creativity above all else, but we respectfully submit, the industry has it wrong.
So here’s our lighthouse. We have these “precepts” hanging on our walls, and talk them to death with every new interview. The level of service we strive for is not intuitive, it takes time to burn it into your heart, and make it a regular part of your day. But if you’ll do it - it works. And works well. Not because it is sells more services, or grows our company - but because in the service business, it is the right thing to do. Which, ironically, sells more services, and grows our company.
