After Selecting a Marketing and Public Relations Firm: How to Work Together
Posted on 22. Feb, 2010 by Ira Yellen in Blog
Laying The Foundation
Just as every architect knows that a building’s design is no better than its foundation, we know that no communications creativity is better than the quality of the information/facts it’s constructed around. The first thing we do after being assigned a project is schedule information-gathering meetings between our account creative team and a company’s key staff. We are interested not only in scheduling, budget and job specifications, but also in your preferences, target audiences, goals, and objectives. In addition, we will want to know all the user features and benefits of the subject we will be communicating. Although this process is involves more time (we don’t like meetings any more than you do), it is also crucially important. It will help you sharpen your project focus and objectives, and it will help us assure that what we produce is not only creatively excellent, but strategically targeted.
Developing The Right Ideas
Despite popular misconceptions, good creative work doesn’t often come in a flash of inspiration; usually it comes from lots of trial and error and solid research. This is why we also need to take the time to consider several approaches (concepts), work them through, try them out, and then revise them. In addition, there are usually some practical and functional tasks we need to address before submitting our ideas/concepts— budgeting, client requirements, etc. All this, plus the need to schedule our workflow in a businesslike fashion, means that we normally ask for up to two weeks, depending on the job’s complexity, before we submit our concepts for your review. Of course, if you have a rush project or deadline pressure we adjust our schedule and timing accordingly. It is our experience that it is best if we first present our concepts to your project manager and just one or two others. This assures that we all stay focused on the project. Our concepts could consist of strategic marketing communication ideas and tactical tools, e.g., collateral, website, public relations, etc. . They are adequate to convey what we believe is the best approach to take, taking into consideration your budget, schedule, objectives and preferences. On the other hand, they are not so well-developed as to have wasted time and effort if we need a course correction. After presenting, we’ll sit back and ask for your comments. The more objective and specific you can be, the better we will be able to address and alter ideas as required. Comments are the input for revising the ideas into final products and programs. Revision normally takes us about a week and we will schedule a second presentation shortly thereafter. From the input at this second presentation meeting further minor refinements will be made as necessary. We will also finalize the production timetable, and the scheduling, as needed, of public relations, interactive tools, marketing, and photography.
Assuring Your Satisfaction
We recommend the finished project work be routed to the appropriate decision makers for fact and detail checking only, reserving stylistic and subjective decisions to your project manager. To avoid costly confusion, it is also important that all communication with us come from the project manager. During the course of the project we will keep the project manager informed of our progress. Activities that will affect the schedule or budget will be identified in writing. Our goal is to keep your project moving ahead quickly, smoothly and cost-effectively; to make sure that we’ll produce the best results than you hired us for.