Archive for August, 2011

On Building a Small Agency

I’m surrounded by friends and fellow entrepreneurs who don’t nearly blog as much as I do. They don’t have time — their busy building businesses. Yes, they tweet and check-in and play around on G+ and Facebook, but they’ve made different choices, in large part driven by their passions to steer the ship. For some of them, that choice is truning an independent consultancy into an small agency that in time, employs people. Look at Heather Whaling for instance. In the last year, her firm has blown up, and she’s now employing 3 people aside from herself. Geben Communication now comes complete with the newly acquired office space to house the Geben Team. Combine those factors, along with obligations to do great work for clients and you end up with one huge responsibility that falls on her shoulders. I’m willing to bet that she spends the majority of her time now, managing and coaching and developing her team. I’ll also bet the remaining portion of her time is spent filling pipelines and managing the business side of a public relations agency. It’s the same thing with Webbed Marketing and Bill and Amy. Even with the Fathom acquisition, they’ve still got an office full of people to manage, lights to keep on and floors to occasionally sweep. Make no mistake about it – whether you’re the owner or not, when you build a company, it’s usually you who’s the floor sweeper … at least in the early days, anyway. Hat Tips Entrepreneurs like those folks above deserve a hat tip from you and I. They are incredibly diligent and mission-driven individuals who deserve our respect. Why? They’re the ones who are already reshaping our fallen economy and giving skilled people the chance to work and support themselves and their families with the paychecks that buy food, pay rent and keep lightbulbs glowing. Folks [...]

Read This Post

Refreshing Brands: 3 Case Studies on Transitioning Your Customer Base

What happens when your tried and true customers start to age? It seems like that question has been haunting brands, forcing them into a position where they can either refresh the brand and retarget a new customer segment, or watch their profit margins slowly fade quietly into the night. Let’s take a look a look at a few examples if this, shall we? 1.  Your Man Could Smell Like Mustafa I tell this story sometimes when I do talks. Buying Christmas presents for my Paka was always easy. Nick and I knew exactly what he wanted from us every year, since it never changed. Christmas morning, my grandfather would get to the gift marked from Nick and I and the room would echo with jovial comments: “I’ll bet I can guess what that is!” “Looks like Paka will smell good for another year!” His gift, was the timeless scent of Old Spice cologne and he loved it. Paka would immediately open the package, untwist the top and splash a little bit of “smell good” on his neck. We’d smile and then move about opening the rest of the presents. I still keep one of his bottles of Old Spice on my desk for good luck. My Paka was a mover and shaker for American Greetings. All that said, I would have never bought Old Spice for myself. And actually, I kind of enjoy the scent. But, it will forever be the cologne that my grandfather wore and way to senior for my taste. Enter W+K and the now famous viral YouTube campaign centered around Isaiah Mustafa, better known as “the man your man could smell like”. This brilliantly executed campaign that’s still in process today worked to refresh the Old Spice namesake and make it hip and cool once again. I’ll admit — at age 30, I now use Old Spice Swagger body wash as a regular [...]

Read This Post
  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. ...
  10. 13