What are we like to work with?

Choosing a marcom agency is a difficult task. Our client prospects are naturally concerned about what we’re like to work with and what to expect if they engage us. How do we begin an engagement? How can we possibly learn all about your complex technology and the quirks of your market niche without spending years at your company? How quickly can we get to the point where we can add value? How do we work together when we’re in different time zones and thousands of miles apart? This page attempts to provide some answers, but please contact us if you have specific questions.

Beginning the engagement
Before we begin an engagement we will have fully explored the fit between our company and yours. That means there will have been frank conversations between your decision-makers and our principals. Our intent is to find out if we can truly add value to your business, and if not, to clearly say so. Before we engage we will have defined the scope of the project, its inputs and deliverables, the process for carrying out the work, and the business objectives you expect to achieve. We will not have solved any of your marketing problems, nor will we have prepared creative concepts or other materials, but you will have seen relevant examples of our work and been able to talk to some of our clients. Prior to engagement you will have identified a budget for the project and we will have agreed on a price for our services. All of this is captured in a simple engagement agreement and project estimate. Once the estimate and agreement are signed, and your deposit payment has been received, we begin work.

Learning about your company and market
One of the earliest processes we installed at Hale! Marketing was the “7P marketing planning workshop”. If you engage with us, you’ll likely experience one of these in some form very soon after the engagement agreement is signed. The workshop is tailored and scaled to your particular marketing challenge and explores the items that affect the success of the project. Often, it’s a process of discovery for our clients just as much as it is for us. It might take just an hour or two, or it might take several days. In addition, holding the workshop often enables us to create a “frame” within which the creative aspects of the project can be approached, because there is no simple formula or process that can be applied to every project. Some years ago we met with Douglas Engelbart, the inventor of the mouse and the GUI. Douglas impressed upon us the need to work on “C level” tasks. “A level” tasks are those where the work itself is performed. “B level” tasks are those that improve how the work is done. “C level” tasks approach how the improvement process itself can be improved. Defining a project “frame” is a C level task – it defines the paradigm or lens through which the project can be approached. Selecting the right frame is crucial in order to develop the most appropriate solution. Working with many companies on a wide variety of projects allows us to apply a great deal of experience to your project, and it’s this aspect of creating the right approach where experience comes into play.

Adding value
Like consulting companies, we have a two huge advantages: our position outside your company provides us with a point of view that you can never experience, and we’ve likely met a similar challenge somewhere before. But how quickly can we start adding value? Typically, at the first marketing planning workshop. This is because adding value is a function of fit (between the challenges you face and the skill sets we have) and the experience we can bring to bear. It’s easy to ask hard questions during a planning workshop because many companies face similar challenges. And because we’ve helped many companies, and spent a large portion of our lives ourselves working in companies like yours, we’ve likely had experience in the areas that you need help. Understanding a particular market or a unique technology is simply a matter of “homework”, adding value is a function of experience and fit. In addition, many clients choose to work with us over an extended period of time. Familiarity with a client’ products and customers means that we can respond very rapidly to a market opportunity with the minimum of direction.

Remote working
Everyone has different working styles. We’ve found that most of our clients, wherever they are, are comfortable with email and the phone. In fact, we’ve performed work for clients we’ve never seen, and some we’ve only met via email – even when they’re only a few miles away. Our product launch work for Pixelmetrix, in Singapore, took place over a period of two years. During that time we visited Singapore once, and the client visited our office once. The date and time shift were beneficial in that engagement, because we could work “over night” and have items prepared for the client the next day. For Privaris, located in Virginia, we communicate almost daily but rarely meet. It’s easy to use web technologies to share concepts and have more formal meetings, and we’ve found that working remotely has the advantage of enforcing rigor and timeliness in communications.