Branding Agencies on Solid Ground … or Are They?

Written By Ted Grigg

I recently sent a note to the President of one of my favorite advertising agencies. I congratulated him for his fabulous white paper expounding the positioning and branding services offered by his team.

It was clear, interesting, compelling and hopefully all of his clients and prospects will take the time to read it.

Even the agency’s process for helping clients with identifying their positioning strengths deserves commendation.

Many clients do not understand the fine line between positioning and the brand. Understanding this will save many from unsuccessful marketing programs.

But I did ask him these questions.

The white paper talks about the aim of branding. It says that the branding goal is to build awareness of the client's product

allowing consumers to differentiate the client's products from the other options out there. Did he think that branding and awareness building were actually strategies for improving the client's bottom line? In other words, isn't the aim for all of this deep thinking to find a way to help the client make more money now and over the long term?

If that is so, how are branders evaluating the strategy as it applies to the goal? How do they quantify the financial contributions of positioning and subsequent branding activity?

The direct marketing, sales promotion, public relations and general advertising strategies are converging with the impact of multi-channel marketing. And great brands definitely improve the response rates of direct response programs. But how do we go about assigning credit for these various activities?

I would like to ask you, the readers of this blog, to give me your answers to the same questions. I will then compose an article for a national magazine within our industry and quote your name if the idea originates from you (with your permission, of course).

Ted Grigg

Ted Grigg is a direct response strategist who helps growth-focused companies reduce risk by identifying weak assumptions before they become costly mistakes.

Over the course of his career, Ted has evaluated several hundred million dollars in direct response testing across direct mail, digital, print, television, telephone, and other channels. His work combines direct response strategy, acquisition economics, customer analysis, creative evaluation, offer development, and disciplined testing.

Ted has worked on both the client and agency sides of the business. That experience gives him a practical understanding of the pressures facing executives, marketing teams, agencies, and service providers—and of the problems that arise when activity, media volume, or creative preference replaces a clear economic objective.

His consulting work helps organizations examine such questions as:

  • Are acquisition goals economically realistic?

  • Is the allowable Cost Per Sale supported by customer value?

  • Are targeting, offers, creative, media, and response paths working together?

  • Are tests structured to produce reliable business decisions?

  • Are unproven assumptions being treated as facts?

  • Is the organization measuring sales outcomes rather than convenient proxies?

Ted’s experience includes the development of direct mail and multichannel acquisition programs for insurance, healthcare, financial services, technology, nonprofit, manufacturing, retail, transportation, communications, government, and business-to-business organizations.

For a national direct-to-consumer insurance company, he developed a direct mail format that defeated established controls and helped expand the productive use of compiled prospect lists from less than 10 percent to more than 30 percent of total direct mail circulation within one year. He also planned Medicare lead-generation programs for more than 60 regional and national HMO and PPO organizations, with some programs exceeding sales projections by as much as 60 percent.

Ted founded Wyse Direct, a direct marketing division of Wyse Advertising in Cleveland, where he developed acquisition programs and helped launch a new technology product for Seiko Instruments by generating a predictable flow of qualified sales leads for its national sales organization. As vice president of new business development for the Grizzard Agency, he helped broaden the agency’s strategic capabilities and pursue new commercial and fundraising opportunities.

He is the author of The HMO/PPO Marketing Plan—A Step-by-Step Guide, published by Executive Enterprises, and has written numerous articles and conducted webinars on direct response strategy, testing, creative development, and marketing economics.

Ted earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Abilene Christian University and completed two years of graduate study at Texas Tech University. He is the founder of DMCG, LLC.

http://www.dmcgresults.com
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