How To Be A Good Client

Since, in nearly every post-Socialist country, when the boom was booming and money came in almost too fast to count it, there were far more marketing jobs than qualified marketing candidates, the vacuum was enormous. It sucked up a lot of folks who, in comparison to most of the rest of the corporate world, were at least two to five levels higher than their training or experience should ever have allowed.

As a result there are a lot of Marketing Managers, Marketing Directors, Directors of Marketing, CMO’s, Brand Managers, and subordinates who haven’t a clue what they are supposed to do, nor on what basis they are supposed to  make judgments.  “I like it.”  “I don’t like it.” Seem, more and more to be the existing criteria for passing or failing work submitted for consideration from your communications support agencies.

If there is one thing I’ve learned from my time as top management over my four+ year sojourn advising companies in countries whose expressed policies made Marketing pretty much Enemy Number One, it’s that out of captivity, everyone is too proud to admit what they don’t know. Now in some parts of the world this would allow for great creativity and enormous innovation.  Here it often leads to  something else: emotional blackmail, unsaid obstacles and roadblocks, massive misunderstandings about who does what to whom and why, what’s expected of them on the world stage, what really works, and what is just pretty pictures with tiny results.

So please allow me to step back in time, without pointing any specific fingers, or naming any names, and let me pass on a few necessary clues.

If you are the Top Gun, the Big Cheese, the Grand Poobah, or simply an ex-pat or local national who has had the privilege of some out-of-here training, you probably won’t need this. I suggest you read it anyway, just in case there was something you missed.  Then email it down your corporate food chain to anyone who, now or someday, comes in contact with your support agencies– advertising, media, event, PR, ATL or BTL.  Don’t tell ‘em you think they need it. That’s a guaranteed prideful <delete>.  Just say you thought it was interesting and ask them what they think. Most will criticize. All will absorb something. Maybe your relationships with these suppliers will improve.  Maybe your profits, efficiencies and customer satisfaction ratings will too. What’s the harm?

I’m borrowing this advice intact with full credit to David Ogilvy, of Ogilvy & Mather, NY, in his book, Confessions of an Advertising Man. He was one of the most celebrated, smartest, and richest ad people ever. Here’s what he told his own clients. The ones who followed this advice got rich too, and their brands got famous.

How To Be A Good Client:

   1. Emancipate your agency from fear.
   2. Select the right agency in the first place.
   3. Brief your agency very thoroughly indeed.
   4. Do not compete with your agency in the creative area.
   5. Coddle the goose who lays the golden egg. (provide enough time and resources to do the job well.)
   6. Don’t strain your advertising through too many layers.
   7. Make sure your agency makes a profit.
   8. Don’t haggle with your agency.
   9. Be candid and encourage candor.
  10. Set high standards.
  11. Test everything.
  12. Hurry. (Profit is a function of time.)
  13. Don’t waste time on problem babies (Back your successes and abandon your losses.)
  14. Tolerate genius.
  15. Don’t under spend. (The surest way to overspend on advertising is not to spend enough to do the job properly.)

It’s a good start.

articol scris de Shelly Roberts - Shelly Roberts is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of FireBrand, branding consultancy helping companies refine their marketing processes for maximum effect. She is a former Executive Creative Director for D’Arcy Advertising, Romania and ECD for Saatchi &SaatchiX US. For a free pdf copy of Firebrand’s 10 Most Effective Rules of Branding