Ask me that question 26-plus years ago (when we were starting this marketing firm) and I would have said YES! Pretty much no matter what, assuming you could pay your bills, that is.
15 years ago, there would still have been a 89 percent chance of that same resounding YES.
What a change. We're saying 'no thank you' more often, whether to a client or to a project that doesn't fit, and suggesting other resources when we do. We're not going after business where we think we won't click.
Serious competition and a roller-coaster economy have, rather than influencing van Schouwen Associates to go with the "any port in a storm" method of business acquisition, inspired us to hone our focus. I noticed today, for perhaps the six-hundredth time, that we are not alone. A scan of the marketing and advertising firms that made this year's Inc. 5000 fastest growing small companies reveals some pretty amazing discipline in pinpointing and promoting expertise. From companies that serve payday loan clients, to specialists in marketing passion brands (sports and entertainment) to firms that (not surprisingly) focus on SEO, or on outdoor advertising, the best of "Marketing 2012" is a far cry from the 1980s-style ad agency that wanted to secure all-the-clients-in-the-world, including a fashion brand, a car manufacturer, a politician, and an insurance carrier... AND then insisted they could "do it all" for pretty much anyone.
Here in the otherwise peaceful Longmeadow offices of van Schouwen Associates, we've taken a long and piercing look at ourselves and revamped our messaging to say what is real today. Honing a focus is painful at times - sadly, there will be no high-end lipstick samples for us, and few meetings with rock stars (although I hasten to add that we are not ruling that out).
But let's face it -- as difficult as self-knowledge is for a marketing firm, it is no less challenging for our clients to give up cherished but flawed concepts about their own brands to focus on what really works.
Which brings us to our final point for today. If we expect our clients to come to know themselves and market accordingly, don't we owe it to ourselves to do the same?
(For those who care, here is an excerpt from the van Schouwen Associates website, telling the world who we are and what we do best.)
We have particularly deep expertise in several key arenas: manufacturing and related business-to-business marketing, financial services, health care and medical manufacturing, non-profits, and specialized technology products and offerings. Drilling still deeper, vSA intimately understands fire and security, facility development and management, architectural and design products and services, power and utility, safety products and services, building products, green marketing for business, products for industrial and hazardous environments, and insurance and banking.
