Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Jelena Uzelac Vasić, Strategic Development Director, DNA Communications
The last two weeks of June in Belgrade, the weeks on the eve of Summer, the weeks full of euphoria of watching the FIFA World Cup in Russia, the weeks of sharp weather changes, from cold fall to desert-like summer. There was a little bit less traffic jam on the E 75 at 09:15am, as many were already on Greek beaches, but there was still quite a lot of intense working pace that seems never-ending. And yes, this may be the third summer for which the ‘dead season’ concept doesn’t apply – as if the marketing and communications industry has turned into construction industry. We build brands, we cement the stories, without pause.
This last week of June in Belgrade for me was a week with a record 16 meetings with clients and potential clients. In other words, these were meetings with owners of some brands or products that are likely to become brands. Maybe I would have forgotten this week, and mark it as just one in a series with marathon meetings, if all these meetings had not been so specific. And finally, it’s not just that I haven’t forgotten it, but it inspired me to write these lines and thus preserve it. I wanted to mark this moment and feeling of true revelation about the Serbian market situation, especially the marketing and advertising industry, it’s health and the unique passion of entrepreneurial spirit, as well as the revelation of that popular word that daily sparks hundreds of blog posts – TRENDS. Let’s start from the market …
Of the 16 companies I had a meeting with, none of them were anything alike each other – different years of existence, different themes of cooperation with the marketing agency, different views of the role of marketing in the company, different levels of knowledge about why they want to hire an agency, different approaches to measuring of whether I am – or I will be – a good partner for them or not. Some of them need a strategy to create a brand out of their product, some need design of tangible “paper” promo materials, some just need regular and constant consulting and support – to know whether their company is going the right way. Some want their brand to be completely differently dressed than it is today – to replace sneakers with high heels. And some just wanted a creative message or a tagline. And when faced with all that range of wishes, it feels really good when you can reply with “Yes, we can do it”. But the problem is a fact that has never been so clear to me like it is now – over 70% of them are looking for an agency to do something for them personally, not the brand they represent at the meeting. They want their name and surname to like something, to “love it at first site”, they want some award that they will put in their personal library. These 70% of the clients are those two thirds who want the invoice we give them to include their own name, not the name of the brand or the company that owns the brand that they are working for. It’s a seemingly common, but in long-term detrimental situation for partnership collaboration. The remaining third of interlocutors gave me some unbelievable energy and a promise –their behavior was a promise that they don’t want us to examine them and learn their own life habits. They showed that, same as us, they are interested in the habits of brands we work for – to create them, equip them, nurture them, walk them and let them walk on their own, but also to carefully watch their adventures and their interactions with consumers. To put it simply, they are asking us to nurture the brand equally, or even more than themselves, taking care of it at the place where it lives – in the head of the consumer. Thank you for that clients.
When I analyze the interlocutors from those meetings, I realize that they were the ones who caused the most engagement of all my senses. They were those who inspired me most, those who come from former micro and small, and today middle-sized companies. Such companies go through a significant process of professionalization of all aspects of organization and enter into the stage of dealing with their own brand at the right time – when business results are on a stable or growing level, allowing the company to invest in marketing and to work on brand building in a systematic internal manner. Apart from making almost half of the active business entities in Serbia and participating in the gross domestic product of Serbia with 30%, these companies pose a special challenge for all marketing consultants. The challenge lies in their clear aspirations for solutions, not just good ideas. It is very important to understand their business well, the specifics of different markets, and to dive deep into the core of their founding passion for the company, which is often the only, and at that a non-objective, decision maker. In the end, it is necessary to make very good and visible results for the company or the brand, in order to continue the investment in marketing – i.e. cooperation with the agency. This part of my meetings was a solid proof that our industry and professionals dealing with this industry will inevitably move towards wider understanding of the knowledge about clients and orientation towards industries and companies that will grow into bigger and bigger consumers of services provided by marketing agencies. These are the start-up markets and the segment of small and medium-sized enterprises. They often need better education, engagement, guidance, giving a brief rather than receiving one, multi-level explanations of even the smallest piece of the approved budget, but at the end of the day it is something that is profitable and what will change the job we are doing in the long run.
Lastly, the last week of June has certainly helped me to at least seemingly define some personal expectations in the further development of the market we are in. Thanks to my interlocutors who helped me in that defining. Some would call it trends, and some simple rules that will “erase” from the market those unable to adjust to them:
- Brands want and need solutions more than ever before, and not just plans and ideas.
- Brand is owned by the consumers, not clients – spend at least twice the amount of time talking about brand with consumers than you do with clients.
- Start-up and SME sectors will increasingly influence the development of services in marketing agencies – their needs will educate and change the knowledge and capacities of agencies.
- Successful agencies will first and foremost be those whose mindset is “everyone involved in the project” – everyone, and especially project leaders, must think strategically, everyone can and must be creative and produce ideas and solutions, and equally understand customer experience
- Emotions and passion for a brand you work for must be same, or sometimes even greater than that of the brand’s founder – partners in preserving a brand must experience it equally.
- ROI of marketing investments will be increasingly common, important and ever more deciding topic in negotiations with clients.
On the transition from June to July, it was as if I did not just enter the new season and the second half of the year, but as if I had neatly and safely packed some new knowledge from the previous weeks, with a desire to revisit it and make it a mantra. Some revolutions are created by big changes in technology, communication channels, social relations, or political arrangements, and some personal revolutions can be made by just a single week of work, observed from a distance. It seems that July will bring stabilization of weather, even less traffic jams and even more meetings based on brand-consumer philosophy. Thank you July, in advance!