Category Archive :Marketing Services Solutions

I came across this poster in one of my LinkedIn groups and it made me wonder – if these perceptions are accurate it may explain the generally dysfunctional relationships clients and agencies have with one another.  It may also explain why it appears so difficult to get things done in an agency.

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What happens to all those professionals who lose their jobs as marketing services teams disappear?

It’s something I thought about as I reread a post of mine from last year. I wrote then about how companies, particularly CPG companies, are getting rid of their in-house marketing services teams, and I recommended ways for companies to better manage without those teams.  This time I want to focus on all of those marketing services professionals who find themselves looking in the mirror and wondering where their careers went.

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Recently I was catching up with a former agency partner and we got into a conversation revolving around two specific points:  1) The ability of midsize agencies to survive in these tough times; and 2) How to grow the business at a particular client who has never retained an agency or spent consistently.  In my friend’s case, it was the area of PR.  This conversation made me realize that often agencies do not understand how their clients think.  The answers to both of his concerns lay in better understanding client motivations and spending.

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This is a follow-up to my recent post on the same topic, but I am tackling it from the agency perspective this time.   If you’ve read my post on the client perspective some of the same themes are valid here as well. (see below)

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It is inevitable that at some point in your career you will encounter a client, whether internal or external, that just never seems happy with the end product.  You have presented them with what you consider good work, the best you and your team can deliver and then they make a funny face, sigh or simply say, “This isn’t what I was hoping to see” or “why did you do it this way?”  You want to argue with them, explain why it is what they asked for.  But, instead you most likely apologize and then figure out how to make it better – you don’t want them disappointed or angry, and you want to get paid for the work you have done.  You also want to maintain the relationship you have been developing for months.

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