Ok, which is more important, price or big ideas…

By Robert Wheatley

Many years ago I had a client who literally shopped every project among their current stable of agencies. It was a calculated effort to keep everyone grinding the budget pencil ever harder. Kind of like a bidding contest. Or perhaps the sort of challenge posed by Wal Mart buyers in a packaged good category pricing throw-down between competitors vying to retain in-store shelf real estate.

In our business (a strategic and creative endeavor) however, less is never more. And that pricing agenda drove out the passion for innovation and great thinking that lies at the base of campaigns that can transform business outcomes. I wondered are we in the arms and legs business or working to build a brand? The experience was discouraging and commoditized the entire agency/client relationship. This episode grounded me in a valuable lesson about why we do what we do, and served to refine the value proposition components we deliver to clients about competitive moves. We track shifts and changes in the retail environment and plot response strategies. We study. We pay attention. We think. We care. Great ideas drive stronger tactics…

In the mix of all this lies the tactics that will be deployed to communicate with consumers and other stakeholders. To get there we have a defined process that helps guide the selection of PR tools and how put to them to work. We built a planning model to help institutionalize the process that cultivates epiphany and insight. So our plans always come together with a sort of secret sauce attached to them. Either through conceptual thinking or research, there’s some significant audience, category, brand or product understanding that works to evolve the strategy into something quite powerful.

Not just awareness for awareness sake – or pushing the button on boilerplate tactics that get rolled out and arrayed like so many toy soldiers in a kids’ board game. My point: You can attempt to reduce the conversation about agencies, their value and services to a calculation of hourly costs – or you can replace this commodity view with an approach that’s more compelling and valuable.

Getting the biggest bang for your buck…

Tapping the brainpower and potential for great ideas begins first at an emotional level, one that springs from a sense of partnership rather than vendor-like behavior.

If you follow our planning model its virtually assured the relationship will start off on the right foot because the diagnostics require it. That said some PR assignments never get that deep because the goal is not about transformative business outcomes, but rather to address narrowly-defined communications needs that feel more cog-like than about brand building.

Our defined purpose…

As an agency we’re here to build brands and the best relationships are founded on that mutual goal. When that’s the starting point, clients always make an effort to involve us in their business from R&D to factory floor. They provide access, share research. We spend quality time with each other. Why? Because of what’s at stake. Or this can be about press releases and media tours, available at prices so low you have to stoop to pick them up.

What business should we be in?