The Marketing Book 5th Edition

1. Define requirements


2. Formal presentations
   7. Contract


3. Shortlist of probables


4. Credentials presentations


5. Pool list of possibles


6. Desk research

Criteria

First decision

Second decision

Third decision

Promotion 443

degree of stimulation and motivation that
agency specialists derive from working for a
considerable variety of clients over the course
of a typical career. Recruitment would thus be a
problem even if the price could be afforded.
Therefore, it has become normal practice to buy
a share in the collective skills of established
service providers, rather than to try developing
them in-house. The loss of controlis offset by
the acquisition of affordable expertise.

Choosing the collaborator

An obvious way to reduce the probability of a
premature rift in the somewhat precarious
originator–intermediary working relationships
is to take as much care as possible over the
selection process that initiates it. Analogies
with courtship and marriage characterize the
relatively few discussions of this subject in the
literature. This is true even of a very recent
insider’s guide, Using and Choosing an Advertis-
ing Agency(Ward, 2001), the scope of which is
actually rather wider than the title implies.
Apart from trivializing an important decision,
such vocabulary offers as a template a proce-
dure that is normally far more emotional than
rational, and an institution by no means always
effective or durable.
Therefore, this section proposes an appro-
priately systematic approach to the task, based
on an excellent pamphlet published by the
Incorporated Society of British Advertisers
(ISBA), plus the often bitter fruits of personal
experience at first and second hand. It assumes
that an originator, henceforth ‘the client’, is
setting out to find a suitable intermediary as a
working partner, henceforth ‘the agency’,
though the process does occasionally operate in
reverse. Figure 17.5 summarizes it as a step-by-
step guide.
Step 1, formally defining what will be
required of the agency, often falls victim in
practice to the false doctrine: ‘cut the cackle and
get down to business’. To avoid the necessary

intellectual effort would prejudice the outcome

at the very outset, for this crucial step is the

source of decision criteria needed three times

during the process, and avoids the need to

reinvent the wheel each time. The requirements

should be discussed and agreed by all who

have a legitimate interest in the outcome, and

then recorded formally.

Step 2 is in effect window shopping.

Sources of this preliminary information include

the trade press, a range of directories, websites

and the informal grapevine within the busi-

ness. Trade associations such as, in the UK, the

Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA),

the Institute of Sales Promotion and the Direct

Marketing Association will provide a list of

suitable agencies, in exchange for a statement

of requirements and a company profile. Pro-

spective clients seeking an advertising agency

can study video presentations prepared to a

standard specification at the premises of the

Advertising Agency Register, for a fee, or carry

Figure 17.5 Choosing a working partner