Latest Press

DIFFERENT CLIENTS BUT SIMILAR NEEDS

In my 48 years in the agency biz, I’ve encountered clients of all sizes, shapes and interests.  We’ve worked for multi-national mega corporate giants, mid-sized entrepreneurial businesses and family-run companies who, in several current cases, have passed the operation onto the third generation.  Had one family biz, long ago, who was on the SIXTH generation, when the last owner sank the company, a malleable iron foundry here in Chicago.  Didn’t stay responsive to the times and market forces at work in his industry.  

Today, we have all the above sizes as clients at our strictly industrial ad/PR agency.  For our offshore clients, we generally handle the marcom for North America, while we market globally for our domestic guys, in most cases, including the undisputed world leaders in three categories.  If anyone ever tells you the world isn’t still hungry for American technology, have them call me.  

Since the emergence of the computer, many marcom people have decided they can do what we do.  As I’ve long said, you can buy a hammer, it doesn’t make you a carpenter.  The marketing insights, creative talents and media savvy PLUS the objectivity at our agency constitute the ideal partner for any industrial account.  No brag, just fact.  

Every client we serve needs to identify their markets, both current and emerging, target the key and up-and-coming accounts, prepare solid content and deliver it on all SEVEN of the portals we’ve identified as viable in today’s marcom environment.  Budget is ALWAYS a factor, but a good rule of thumb is, ironically, something that has NOT changed in our agency’s long history.  The average client spends 1.4% of gross sales in marketing.  Amazes me how consistent that figure has remained, since I joined the agency in 1976.  

In this issue, you’ll see Brian McMinn of Siemens talk on a topic that didn’t even exist, when I got into the business.  Meanwhile, our rock solid, longtime client Preben Hansen, who just celebrated his family’s 100^th year in the machine tool industry, has recently gone on a mini version of the feeding frenzy many of our mega clients have.  Namely, he’s brought several new lines into his family of machine tool accessories at Platinum Tooling to expand the focus and value-add of his company in his market.  By the way, his son Luke now works for him.  

We have served the above two clients for a combined total of 53 years.  Says something about the value of partnership and our ability to tailor the marcom strategy and tactics to meet any challenge.  

Onward!