San Antonio Ad Agency Celebrates Anniversary

22 07 2009

It’s hard to believe that I’ve had Creative Noggin for 9 years now. Seems like just yesterday I was trudging through agency cubicle land, bleary-eyed with my daily Diet Coke in hand. And just the other day, I celebrated one year with my business partner, Tracy Marlowe. Although we simply celebrated with a quiet lunch before a meeting with one of our web partners, we reflected on how fast the past year has gone by.

Tracy Marlowe & Trish McCabe Rawls
Tracy Marlowe & Trish McCabe Rawls

I had always liked having “my own deal”  but one of the best business decisions I made was to partner with a smart and experienced account director. I always wanted a partner – even from day 1 nine years ago. But never really met anyone I trusted and felt right about. Until Tracy and I started working together a few years ago. We both have the same work ethic — work hard, work smart, produce great results and let your pedestals hold plants in your back yard instead of yourself.

So this is simply a shout out to Tracy. They say that to better yourself, you should surround yourself with people you can learn from. Thanks to Tracy, I do that every day. (Although sometimes reluctantly.) For those of you who have not had the privilege of meeting her, she is a blond concoction of energy, enthusiasm, intelligence and grace.

Here’s to another year chickadee!

By Trish McCabe Rawls


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Do you truly understand your market?

24 06 2009

I know what you’re thinking.  Know your market?  Duh!  Of course I need to know my market!  I wasn’t born yesterday.

But I’m telling you, I am surprised every day at how many marketers out there know only the bare bones about who they are hoping will buy their services or products.  How can you hope to talk with these people if you don’t understand who they are?

Problem number two…companies who say their market is “everyone.”  There’s no such thing as having a market who is “everyone.”  Your market may be huge, but you still need to understand them and why they buy, or should buy, from  you.

Whenever an ad agency starts a creative project, a document called a creative brief is prepared by the account executive.  The purpose of the brief is to distill down all of the critical, project-specific information and weed through all of the superfluous data so that the creative team can execute a strategic piece that will help the client meet the goal they are trying to accomplish with said project. 

Each brief has a section dedicated to the market that this project is trying to reach.  I’ve seen hundreds of these briefs over the years and know that this is one of the key areas that really differentiates a strategic agency account executive from the typical order taking account executive.  Unfortunately, the order taker tends to be the norm at most agencies. 

The typical market section on a creative brief will have three basic areas filled out.  Here’s an example of what you might see:

Gender: 60% female; 40% male

Age: 35-65

Household income: $50,000-$75,000

Now what does this arm the creative team with about this market?  Basically, squat.

Our job as business owners, marketers and/or account executives is to really, TRULY understand our market and put together a killer brief before moving forward on a project.  As an agency, this is one of the services that we, of course, provide for our clients.  But most of our really adept clients already know this information when we first engage with them.  After all, how can you make certain that your product or service is meeting your client or customer’s needs if you don’t know who they are and what makes them tick.

Here’s what you should know about your market:

  1. Who are they?  This is the gender, age range and household income part.  Drill down as far as you can so that you don’t have just broad, meaningless ranges.  If you have a large range of ages, for instance, they may have different reasons for purchasing so you may want to break this market down further and segment them out. 
  2. Who are they, part two?  This is where you really dive into what really drives your market.  Why do they get out of bed each day?  What is their top of mind concern?  Describe your typical consumer?  Describe your ideal consumer?  You need to understand both and figure out who truly is your ideal target.  You can define multiple markets, but identify your primary, then secondary and tertiary markets.
  3. Why should they use your product?  What is the benefit to them?  What problem does it solve?
  4. What differentiates your product from other products?
  5. What appeals to them as a whole?  Are they primarily business owners looking to promote their business?  Are they moms of young children looking to keep their kids safe? 
  6. Where are they?  Is there a geographic nature to them?  Do they hang out at the mall?  Do they spend a large % of their work week in airports?
  7. When should you reach them?  If you understand the cycles that they go through on a daily basis, is there a point at which you can really capture their attention? 
  8. How should you reach them?  What is your ideal medium?
  9. And what voice should you use?  Professional?  Casual?  Empathetic mom?  You want your market to know that you really get them so it’s a good idea to use a voice that mirrors their own thoughts.

Okay, I know that’s a lot.  But if you keep these things in mind when you’re doing an exploration of your market you’ll end up with a much better executed and successful end result, I promise you. 

How do you find these things out?  Talk with your market!  Also, the Internet is a great tool.  Social media, such as blogs and Twitter, can offer invaluable insight into markets.  This ah-hah likely won’t come overnight and will take time.  Plus, things can change with your market so make certain you continue to stay abreast of market trends and updates.  You want to keep your finger on the pulse of what is top of mind.

Last, go ahead and ask your agency if you can approve their creative brief on your next project.  If all it has under target market is age, gender and HHI, then you may have your answer on why their marketing isn’t driving more sales.

by Tracy Marlowe


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Seth Godin knows it’s all about trust

19 06 2009

I was just reading Seth Godin’s current blog post about “Two ways to build trust.”    As I read it, I kept saying to myself, “Uh huh!  Yes!  Yeah!  Oh, that’s so true!” 

He hit home on a very simple concept that seems fairly common sense, yet there are still so many companies out there who just don’t get the point.

Let me give you the gist. 

As consumers, we are more likely to do business with companies we trust, right? 

Of course, you say.  That’s an easy answer.

Well then why is it that there are still so many companies out there who aren’t up front with the core information that consumers are looking for?  Whose websites make you jump through hoops to find out price, to fill out forms to gather basic information that should be right up front, who try to use bells and whistles, with gimmicky marketing to try and get your business. 

What does that do?  It puts you on the defense.  It makes you feel cautious.  And from my experience, less likely to engage.

As consumers we just want the basic information that we are looking for on products and services given in a forthright, upfront and informative manner.  It should be easy to find.  Easy to read.  Easy to share.  And easy to get back to. 

Divulge a little.  You don’t have to give away the farm!  But it should be enough to show your consumer the nature of your company, your products and services, and that you truly care about their business and aren’t going to put them through the old fashioned used car salesman selling cycle when they finally decide to engage with you.

And guess what.  If you make it easy and develop a trust with your customer…they’ll tell all their friends about it and help your business tenfold.

It’s not enough to have great products and smart business practices.  If you put your customers on the defense right from the start and don’t seem human and like you care, they’re going to go someplace else.

It’s as simple as that.

by Tracy Marlowe


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Embracing Competition

7 06 2009

Ahhh. Competition. It’s one of the most critical elements we consider when developing marketing strategies for a client. The mere mention of the word can make one sit a little straighter and feel a little more defensive.

But it doesn’t have to.

I overheard a conversation at my son’s t-ball game the other day and it got me thinking about competition. The husband of a friend of mine owns a small jewelry store in my area and there is another jewelry chain coming into town.

My friend (who’s husband owns the first small jewelry store) was asked by another woman how her husband felt about this new store coming to town. She was very upbeat and positive. Instead of the expected defensive nature, she was in fact, genuinely unbothered by it. She knew that this store did not deal in custom orders and felt their presence might actually provide them MORE business. This new store had already sent business their way in the past and they already were friendly with the owners and shared a mutual respect.

I remember when my husband had a brief stint as a gallery owner in a small Hill Country town. Instead of other gallery owners feeling threatened upon announcement of this new gallery, I was surprised to find them welcoming it with open arms. As a marketer, I’m not sure why that surprised me. But their logic was that the more galleries that came to this town, the more people would think of this town as an “art destination”  and then the more people they would get to THEIR own galleries.

It is so easy to want to “take the gloves off” when we hear about a new competitor. But before you start imagining yourself stepping on their head to get up the ladder, remember some important things.

1. Are they really competition? Just because they are in the same industry, do they serve the exact same clientele. (My jewelry friend, for example.)

2. If they don’t, great—embrace them. You never know when you can scratch their back and they can scratch yours.  The gallery my husband owned was a photo gallery. The other galleries were traditional art. Somewhat different targets. So we all worked collaboratively to create an annual event to draw art lovers. Now there are  numerous galleries and the event is still going strong — 10 years later. As another example, our gallery did not provide framing, but because they had been so encouraging to us, we sent all framing work to one of the other galleries. If we had received negative vibes, I’m not so sure we’d have felt so giving.

3. If they do, bummer—but still embrace them. Congratulations! You just got a whole new incentive to “up your game.” It would be pretty boring if the swimmers in the Olympics swam by themselves individually. What makes them go faster and break all those records? It’s not the fans looking on saying “He’s so great!” It’s the swimmer seeing someone only one hundredth of a second behind him. (OK, maybe those new body girdles have a little to do with it.) But having competition is what makes our blood pump. You might even uncover some nugget of gold that you never knew you had in you.

4. Analyze them. Do you really think they are better than you? Then instead of going and sulking in the corner, analyze them and figure out why? Do they have a better product? Better marketing? Better attitude or brand? What could you be doing better? On the other side of the coin, figure out what YOU have that they don’t. In other words, get to know them as well as you know yourself.

5. Use your competitive energy wisely. Don’t worry about keeping tabs on all your competitors. It will just eat you alive. Back to the swimming scenario—that swimmer is only concerned with the 1, 2 or 3 swimmers that are the closest to him. Trust me, he’s not worried about the guy 50 yards back just because he’s in the same pool.

This applies to small jewelry stores and large mega-corporations. Remember truly understanding what your competition means to you could be the difference between the survival or demise of your business.

Want more? Here’s a great article on this very topic. Among the many great lines is this: “Truth is, we succeed or fail in business largely due to our attitude and character, than on circumstances.”

By Trish McCabe Rawls


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A huge YES to Internet Marketing. Even if you don’t need it.

27 05 2009

We have a client who had a long-time website that had, like most website, stood out there on the web as basically a brochure for the company.  Who was going to the site?  Mostly people who had heard about the company and were seeking additional information.  Most of their traffic came from email blasts and search engine searches of the company name. 

Enter our company.  We gave them a proposal which included a website update, social marketing and SEO in additional to several other marketing components, including collateral, etc..  They asked what the priorities were in our plan and we quickly responded, “The website.”

They were puzzled.  “But more than 95% of our business comes from referrals.  And we didn’t get a single client through our website last year.  That doesn’t make sense.”

We explained that, since their primary market was aged 26-32 and would be in an information gathering state of mind when they came to them, the Internet was a logical medium for engaging this market.  Especially since they were spread across the country. 

They were a great client, because even though it was outside of their comfort zone, they decided to trust us, as the experts, and invest in some updates. 

So four months and a website update, SEO, blog and Facebook page later…they are now proud believers in the power of the Internet.  The very first month that we implemented some simple SEO practices, they received 19 new applicants through their website.  They were excited and amazed.  And we’re happy to say that their success has continued to blossom.

The moral of all of this?  Two things.  First, just because you’re using a medium or marketing tactic and it hasn’t worked for you doesn’t mean it doesn’t work.  You may not be strategically using it to it’s best potential.

And second.  Basically, history is not always the best predictor of future failures or successes.  The world is changing and different markets and generations act differently than the ones preceding them.  Keep your mind open, continue to learn and trust people who are experts.

I know I could fly fish all day in one spot and never get a single bite.  But with an experienced guide who can help me better understand timing, tell me what rock or tree branch to cast under, what flies to use, and even how to reel a bite in once I’ve gotten a nibble, I could catch a boat load in the same exact spot. 

by Tracy Marlowe


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Can you ever stop branding?

22 05 2009

At a meeting the other day, Tracy and I were asked a question we had never really been asked before.

“So, when can we stop ‘branding’?” the client asked.

This particular client had really stepped out of its comfort zone and ramped up branding efforts in order to make its public persona match the incredible level of its service. For companies that have never done a true branding exercise, this takes a great amount of trust in their marketing partner, not to mention a bit of money from their accounting department. So kudos to them!

When a company launches its first major branding campaign there is always a honeymoon phase—the time when the company, its employees, and the public is interested in this new look, attitude or personality. The “branding high” I like to call it. As this phase slows, the client is left wondering “what’s next.”

Tracy and I both looked at each other knowing he was was expecting us to give him a date—or at least a vague time frame—but we knew that he really knew the answer. And we almost simultaneously said:

“Never.”

That is the whole point of branding. You want to establish a consistent look and message—a personality, a promise that your customers can come to know. It describes you so perfectly that you can’t imagine presenting another side. Hence the definition of “brand”: to “indelibly mark something — meaning it never goes away.”

With further prodding we realized that what was really at the heart of the concern was making any future branding accountable to the number crunchers. While most branding work is measurable to a degree, it is not like a price and item direct mail piece for a widget that you can easily justify by the widget sales. But you can tell over time by pre and post research studies if your branding is working. And for this client, it has been.

I’ll segue for just a minute.  The purpose of branding is to create an emotional connection, establish a memorable and desirable image so when the time comes for a consumer to consider your product, they will have strong feelings about it.  Price and item advertising with NO brand, is meant to merely solicit a response and does NOT have any emotional connection.

Knowing the client was concerned about justifying further costs to the accounting team we explained that once a brand is established, (or well on its way) and especially in these economic times, there are ways to make your advertising vehicles work a little harder for you. For example, I’m sure all of these land developers would love to just have big ads touting the beauty of their development. But right now, they have got to leverage those ads with some strong call to action offers to get potential buyers in the door. Or you might see companies that previously ran beautiful TV spots now putting offers at the end. That’s okay — as long as the brand stays intact.

Part of the problem is the various definitions of branding. Branding is not the vehicle (ie. TV, national ads, radio, etc) — it’s the message and personality. A good marketing partner will always consider your needs, budget and goals while developing a marketing plan that doesn’t have to sacrifice your brand.

by Trish McCabe Rawls


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Marketing and Advertising in San Antonio – What’s not to love?!

9 04 2009

I had a client say to me just yesterday, “You know, I just want you to know, you all are doing fantastic work and I am really enjoying working with you.  It’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed the creative process so much.”

This meant the world to both Trish and I.  We truly enjoy the work that we do.  And we love our clients, so it’s so much fun for us to strive to do the best work we can for them and to blow them away with the results. 

It’s also great to hear that they’re having fun along the way.  Especially from a client I know for a fact has over 15 years experience working with other creative firms. 

I had another client recently tell me that he would get so excited on days when they had meetings with us because “it was the most fun part of his day.”

How awesome is that? 

I feel blessed to be making a living doing work that is fun and that I enjoy, working with a business partner whom I think hung the moon (Trish, you’re amazing!) and working with clients who truly appreciate the work we do for them.  Life is just too short not to enjoy the work that you do, especially since we spend more than half of our waking hours at work!

Love what you do, whom with work for and with.  It’s as simple as that.  If you don’t…isn’t it time for a change?

by Tracy Marlowe


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