marketing vs agency

This overview looks at the functions that fall under the umbrella of marketing and how they are provided and fit together in business. Most larger companies have a marketing department that carries out different specialised functions and may split further into in to sub departments. Some functions may be contracted out to specialised agencies

A product is conceived of and brought to market by a company. A product may be a tangible manufactured item or it could be a service provided by a solicitor or estate agent. The company will have invested time and money to study the market, identify a need, research how this need is being met at the moment and whether the product can do it better and make a profit.

All products have a finite life span; a mobile phone becomes obsolete in months whilst the Mars Bar is still a market leader after 75 years. It all depends on how soon a substitute comes along that the market thinks is better.

Product Development can be an activity undertaken as part of a larger marketing role or a job title for a specialist who works to ensure that a new product are manufactured to obtain the best balance between price and quality, incorporate all the latest must have features and eliminate the faults of its predecessor. It should be competitively priced, profitable and better than the competition! They achieve this through researching the market (see below) to find what it wants in a new product and what it thinks of existing offerings provided by the company and its competitors.

This information is fed to the design and manufacturing functions which consider what innovations and changes in the input side of things can be exploited to meet market expectations. The new product is then tested as a concept with focus groups or by test marketing. This may lead to further refinement or before the final product is released or alternatively quietly dropped.

A product Manager must understand where the product is in its life cycle and what needs to be done to maintain its standing in the market. Sales of Mars Bars are still healthy after 75 years but could this have been achieved without the regular use of advertising, special promotions and changes to the packaging and ingredients to keep up with the market’s evolving taste? Probably not, on the other hand no amount of clever advertising is going to create a profitable market for an obsolete product like the Sinclair Spectrum computer so a product manager must know when the end is near and ensure new product development has worthy replacement in the wings.

Most market research is carried out by specialised agencies which have developed specialised software and expertise in assessing the likely reaction by a target market to a new product or service or what features a new product or service should incorporate. Larger companies sometimes have their own in-house department.

The world may beat a path to your door to buy your product but only if knows about it!

Marketing services source and develop all the marketing material required to sell and support a product and a brand. This includes all types of advertising, packaging, instructions, websites, brochures, press launches, promotions, publicity stunts, PR campaigns, competitions etc. They develop relations with specialist agencies and other suppliers such as printers for all these materials and services. Sometimes they will just use one agency which handles all it can in-house and sub contracts where its lacks the specialist expertise.

Where a company is producing a lot of marketing material week after week using the basic designs over and over again it may set up an inhouse department to produce this material. Retailers often take this route to produce some or all of their advertising listing out the products and prices in hundreds of local papers across the country. They will only use a sophisticated agency for developing their brand or corporate identity.

A full service agency sets out to provide a ‘one stop shop’ for its clients whether they want PR, Advertising, Graphic Design, New Media and a road show or an integrated solution incorporating all these elements in one campaign. The account handling team become an extension of the client’s marketing department acquiring a total grasp of the strategy the client has developed to grow the reputation, the sales, the market share and the profitability of the company its brands and it products. Each press release, television advertisement and event is a building block in the overall plan produced with that in mind.

At the heart of the agency are the Creatives, consisting of art directors and Copywriters. They are there to generate ideas to capture and maintain the market’s interest whilst the benefits of the product are delivered. Usually they are good wordsmiths or artists but that is really not very important compared to the quality of fresh ideas they can produce. Other less original people can always be used to write the body copy or art direct the photographic shoot once the concept to drive the campaign has been identified.

Graphic Designers the rough visuals and copy produced by the creatives and turn them into fully defined advertisements, posters, brochures, exhibition graphics and so on. In some agencies the graphic designer will also fill the role of art director, particularly where the client is merely seeking to repeat and reinforce a tried and tested message.

Sometimes graphic designers are supported by Apple Mac Operators who take the specified advertisement and turn it into electronic artwork. One advertisement for a new car may appear in 50 different newspapers and magazines. It will be supplied to each of them to comply with their page and column sizes, printing methods and dead lines. Apple Mac Operators tend to be extremely neat and accurate people with an excellent eye for detail and a profound understanding of the little tricks to make something that was good look really great.

The Media Planners and Buyers know where to advertise to reach a particular type of buyer and how much it will cost. They advise what TV radio, national newspapers, regional papers or magazines are best. This is fed back to the creatives who need to come up with a concept in line with the chosen media. If an extensive TV campaign is chosen the lion’s share of the budget will be airtime so no expense is spared to make sure the money is not wasted and to make the best ad possible.

The Production Department is there to make sure all the concepts, copy, ads, brochures posters are are supplied at right place and time and to budget. All unforeseen costs incurred are noted and recovered and all outside suppliers and freelancers paid on time. They plan and monitor the progress of each project through every department making sure it does not over run. If outside specialists are needed such as printers, photographers and illustrators they will book the most suitable for the task in plenty of time. They will also oversee the quality of their work signing off print runs on the presses.

Account Management stands between the rest of the agency and the client letting each side get on with their work without interruption. The Account Director will be contributing to the client’s long term marketing planning whilst the account managers and executives will deal with day to day concerns, going through the copy for a new brochure and so on. They represent the client to rest of the agency and the agency’s work to the client. If they do their job properly the agency becomes too valuable to change and the thought of all the work to develop the same level of understanding with a new agency would be unthinkable to client.

This why an agency will often lose an account when a new marketing director is appointed.He or she may well decide (after inviting a short list of agencies to ‘pitch’ for the business) that it is easiest to appoint the agency that he or she worked with at their old employer.

Sometimes PR is provided as part of a full service agency’s offering in which case they will work directly with the client on all aspects of the business’s relationships which may include; local and central government, the city, the business community (geographical and sector), good works for local and national charities and staff relations. They work in parallel and co-operate with the the rest of the agency and may need the rest of the agency’s expertise to assist with some special literature.

Larger companies often appoint several specialist PR consultancies to look after different areas of PR as well as having several specialist agencies fot advertising, promotions and evets