Managing The Commercial Communications Process (Week 3)
Agencies are employed by business clients for a reason. Organisations want new, innovative ideas for campaigns, they want to increase their audience and customer base and they want to make profit. They hire Marketing, Advertising and PR agencies to help achieve these goals. However, it is essentially useless if the relationship between the agency and their client is not successful.
Week 3 depicts the wider context of what agencies do, how they communicate with their clients, how their roles and skills are developed through set tasks and how they build effective relationships with the business in question.
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| 1) The way agencies see the world |
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| 1) The way clients see the world |
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| 2) How agencies see the world |
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| 2) How clients see the world |
Colour Code:
Grey - Minor Responsibility
Red - Main Responsibilities
Blue - Shared Responsibilities
As shown in the globe diagrams (1) above, both agencies and clients see the world in a very similar way. Both sectors see themselves as the centre of the "universe" and take control of set tasks around them.
However, the second diagrams (2) represent how each sector sees the world differently in regards to roles and stages within the marketing process. This is explained in more depth below.
Business Strategy
Clients see the overall business strategy as a main responsibility as they aim to achieve specific goals and objectives to help improve their company performance, As a result, this is a minor responsibility of the agency.
Communications Strategy, Communications Brief, Communications Plan and Implementation
As explained previously, business clients employ PR agencies to present and maintain a favourable public image of their brand. It's all about reputation, what you say, what you do and how you do it. As a result, it is the responsibility of the agency team to achieve this. Agencies key roles are to gain media coverage, reach wide audiences and potentially gain larger customer bases. It is only then the role of the business to track the success rate of the agencies work (this explained further below).
Marketing Strategy & Plan, Measurement and Review & Further Plans
As it is the responsibility of the client to produce the business strategy and the responsibility of the agency to help achieve this through implementing effective communication methods, there are a few roles which both sectors share. Setting out the marketing strategy and plan is partly conducted by the agency on behalf of the client (this can be completed through regular meetings beforehand, initial research etc.). However, it must then be totally agreed by the client before the strategy is due to begin. Any additional points the client wishes to hope for can then be added.
Once the plan has been agreed, implementation is conducted by the agency. Throughout the campaign, it is extremely important to track and measure it's success rate. The responsibility of this is often split between both sectors. The agency can measure the success whilst the campaign is still running and the client can view important figures to see if their goals and objectives are being met well.
Finally, when the marketing campaign has come to a close and the results are measured, the overall strategy must be reviewed. The agency will then collect all the raw data from research results available for review. The client will then meet with the agency team and discuss the strategy's success/failure and recommendations and plans for the future.
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| The Link Between Business, Marketing and Agencies (Marketing Management & Planning) |
Whilst these business tools are useful, they have to be matched alongside a deep and never finishing quest to "know the consumer".
"It is insight into human nature that is the key to the communicator's skill. For whereas the writer is concerned with what he puts into his writings, the communicator is concerned with what the reader gets out of it. He therefore becomes a student of how people read or listen."
- Bill Bernbach.
- How does this strategic tool relate to agency personnel skill sets?
- Are these skills seen in agencies– or are they still "down river"?
- What might move an agency up stream?
- What is often the source of much "information" about a business?
- What are we all sometimes "drowning" in? Technology
The Impact of Digital Technology
- With the growth of digital comes what? More opportunities? More platforms to target wider audiences?
- What skills do we need in our agency in terms of types of employees – Business Skills, Consumer Insight, Data Analysts etc. What else? Will that depend on if you are devoted to one sector or more?
Convergence
- Some organisations now have continuous access to data via a direct link to customers (databases). Therefore allowing the marketing industry to become more fluid.
- Marketeers are ore driven by customers’ behaviour. This is because we are more aware of what customers are doing via that technological links (we see it in more quantity and frequency of contact data than before).
- Key information derived from these links can be utilised effectively.
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