Business Articles from Design Management Resources: Free Advice from the Experts!

About the author:

Rob Wallace

Rob Wallace is managing partner of Wallace Church, a Manhattan-based, global brand strategy and package design consultancy. Wallace Church's core capabilities are determining branding strategy and then implementing it through sales effective in-store brand presence for many of the most successful consumer brands. Current clients include Gillette, Kodak, Schering Plough, Dannon, Unilever, Brown Foreman and over three dozen leading consumer product corporations.

Rob's the guy you might see running through the airport still trying to finish a telephone call. High energy and smart. When I think of Rob, I think of the cartoon where the doctor comes into the office to tell the patient the news. The doctor says, "Sorry but design is in your blood." Rob is passionate about bringing more design into the world. He shares with us many of the ways he runs his successful business.
          Thank you, Rob.
          Linda Fisher

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Business Articles are by diverse writers, from authors to attorneys to design professionals like you -- words of wisdom from experienced, creative business people. The articles offer secrets, statistics, and proven strategies to help design firms build a solid business.

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Practicing What We Preach:
"Branding & Promoting Your Design Firm"

By Rob Wallace
Wallace Church

Why is it so hard for consultants to take their own advice? There's something about the "cobbler's shoeless children" cliché that rings all to true for design and communications consultants. What was the last great ad for an advertising agency you've seen? What product design firm has a new product for sale?

As consultants, we're bad at creating our own communications, because, inherently, we are bad clients. When we are building our own brand we rarely clarify our objectives in concrete terms; we rarely establish actionable standards on which to base our decisions. All too often we don't even establish a timetable and a budget for our own work.

Wallace Church has been as guilty these sins as anybody else in this industry. But, we have at least learned to follow an (albeit) obvious process for promoting our brand perception. This article highlights some of the steps to get you started.

Build a Distinctive Brand Essence:
Great Work & Killer Service Ain't Enough

It's not about the creative anymore. It's not even about the strategic thinking behind it, or the proprietary process, or even the "get it to you before Friday" service. (And let's all of us work to ensure that it's not about the price . . . future articles to come). The real first step to determining our brand perception is to create a truly unique benefit to the client. Note that I said "create" and not "identify." In many cases, this means actually changing the way you do business so as to provide your clients with something more/better/different than your competitors. That's hard, but it's essential. If you are having trouble creating a new benefit offering, think outside of your current core capabilities. Think beyond the product and the service. Think about how to make the process of working with your firm a truly proprietary and highly valued experience.

Think of it this way… how would you behave if you were your own best client? What would you do differently for them than you'd do for anyone else? How would you expect them to behave?

Set a Goal, a Date and a Budget

Seems obvious right? Well outside of the tradeshow that you had to attend or the article that someone asked you to write, when was the last time you started a self-promotion project by identifying when it would be done, or how much it should cost? Approach the process as an assignment with a real deadline and a real budget. Dedicate team members to it. Schedule client work around it, rather than the other way around. I know, I know . . . just do it.

Trouble setting a budget? There's no hard and fast rule, but consider dedicating 25% of your gross profits to the entire new business development effort. That means appropriate a portion of your and your staff's salary spent in actually generating new business (count everything from the phone calls to the time designing your brochure). Add in the total cost of all expenses, including your travel time to and from clients, your print/mailing costs… everything. Whatever's left over dedicate to a regimented, pre-scheduled, self-promotion process. Now, manage this remaining budget as you would your client's budget. Generate the most bang for the buck. Here's how.

Use an Outside Consultant to Test Your Brand Essence

As a strategic consultant, I believe strongly in the value of an educated, dispassionate outside analysis. Using an outside marketing consultant to analyze our essence and determine the visual language used to communicate it has been one of the most valuable experiences we've forced upon on ourselves. You'll never know your current perception until you've seen yourself through the eyes of the industry and your prospective clients.

Synthesize Every Brand Message

Make sure everything looks and feels the same. And sweat the details. Your "music on hold" is as important as the graphics on your business cards.

Sounds obvious, but the obvious strategies are sometimes the most difficult. As designers we get tired of things much faster than our clients do. Our short attention spans sometimes causes things to change things too quickly, making everything look fragmented. Make an integrated change of all your communications one of the key objectives, and wait to launch the individual piece until the overall program is finished.

Web Site: What's It Worth?

Good question. We've rarely had any direct business come through our site, but it surely has helped us close a lot of clients. Again use outside consultants not only to help with the technology but also to help shape the user experience. Our site is as intentionally different in its user interface as it is in its graphic design and message.

Once the site is done, get it seen. Consider using an outside consultant like MoreVisability to ensure that it pops up close to the top of the list on all relevant search engines. Yes, you have to pay someone to help you do this.

Also strongly consider listings or links on industry related sites. We have an active working relationship with DesignScout, the industry's best-dedicated resourcing service.

Attend and Speak at Association Meetings

Our active involvement in DMI, AIGA, IIR, AMA, CMG has been a great way of getting our message out and enhancing our perception. Get involved, get a soapbox and then get on it! My personal axe to grind is proving, in empirical financial terms, the unparalleled return on investment that comes from brand identity--literally hundred-fold that of advertising.

Advertise

Having just slammed advertising, we do make a semi-annual commitment to this "spay and pray" strategy. We have had an insert in Brandweek's Super Brands issue for the past several years. We custom mail the additional print overruns that we order. Again, we rarely can track this back to direct sales, but we're confident that it builds our perception.

Read, Share and Collaborate

Check into design and design management books. My favorites: The Art of Innovation by Tom Kelley and Experiential Marketing by Berne Schmitt.

Subscribe to web news services (i.e. Coolnews.com) and industry specific publications (like the one you are reading). I've got great respect for a monthly newsletter called "Persuading" by David Baker. I find it readable, informative, and actionable. Share info and collaborate with friends. Case in point . . . Feel free to download and use my case study on brand identity ROI found under the What's New icon at wallacechurch.com

Any other great ideas? Drop me an email!

Hyper-Targeted Promotions

Hyper-customized mailings should be sent to a hyper-customized audience. For example, we are interested in doing more in the wine industry. We designed a number of wine labels, attached them to bottles and sent them to friends and clients. We then created a mailer to the wine industry showcasing our work.

Public Relations

Write articles--like the one you are reading. And do so not expecting them to generate business, but to help support the industry. Hopefully this piece has been of value. If so, prove my point; send it on to other folks to whom this may be of value. The industry is too small not to band together and help one another by proving the value we provide our clients.

Think of It as a Process, Not a Project

Lastly and perhaps most importantly, consider the refining and optimizing our your brand not as an assignment but an on-going process. And even if you can't directly attribute new business to the process, do it anyway. At best it will make you a better consultant. At the very least, you'll earn the respect of your employees and your industry in proving that together we walk the talk.

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