I have been running an advertising company for nine years, and now I write down my feelings and share them with you.
First, the competition between advertising companies is management competition.
The competition between advertising companies is the competition between bosses, the competition of management ability and the competition of comprehensive strength. Many bosses have strong professional ability and public relations ability, but weak management ability. You can do things by yourself, but not with a group of people. There are also some people who come from design technology and are design masters. They are not good at starting a business, but they can play small games. When the competition in a certain scale or industry is fierce to a certain extent, they will fall behind.
The only criterion for an advertising company to evaluate whether an employee is excellent is his performance and the value he has created for the company. Then the criterion for evaluating an advertising company is not how famous it is, how well-known it is and how professional it is. The key is to see if it makes money and how much money it makes.
The operation of advertising companies lies in accumulation. Two kinds of resources are very important: first, the company's human resources, that is, whether to bring out a group of professional and brave teams, obey the company's cultural concept and be loyal to the company; The second is customer resources, that is, there are a group of customers who recognize you. A group of stable relationships, recognizing and believing that your customers are a valuable asset, is the core factor of a company's success.
There are several elements in the management and operation of advertising companies: talents, products, mechanisms, brands and funds, all of which are indispensable. There is a professional and dedicated team, a benign incentive mechanism, products with accurate positioning and excellent quality, corporate brands with good reputation inside and outside the industry and appropriate financial support. The most important thing is people, because everything depends on people to operate.
Advertising companies are not only competing for customers, but also for talents. Excellent professional employees need to like everything there. The key is to build a good platform, build a nest to attract phoenix, let employees have room to play their potential, and let the value of employees be reflected, sometimes more important than money.
Ogilvy & Mather has two magic weapons: one is creativity, and the other is training. Creativity lies in advertising and training lies in employee management. They are equally important. Improve people's professional skills, change their attitudes and build an invincible team through training. Working together as a team and coordinating with each other will produce many good ideas.
When advertising companies develop to a certain stage, management should be on the right track. Rule by law, not by man. The system should govern people, not people. System is to restrain people's behavior, not to imprison people. A few sheets of paper are enough for a small company. It's concise, but it can be improved at a certain scale.
System is more important than talent. A good system has more talents, while a bad system buries talents.
Advertising companies should have their own accurate positioning, know their own advantages and disadvantages, cultivate their core competitiveness, and be "small but refined" instead of "big and comprehensive". It is suggested to take the road of specialization according to the place, the person and the time. Being the boss and the second child in a certain field can lead to benign survival and development. The most taboo is all-round attack and diversified development, and the last one will not work. Advertising company is an intellectual, technology-intensive and talent-intensive enterprise, so learning ability is particularly important, and it is necessary to have a good learning atmosphere to make it a learning organization. Whether it is customer service, advertising creativity, planning, media operation and other all-round learning, we must surpass customers professionally, guide customers and serve them well.
I often hear salesmen of advertising companies say three things: "Our price is lower than others", "Our quality is better than others" and "Our kickbacks are more than them". The author calls it "three sentences and a half sales promotion method".
Business is the leading and throat link in the operation of advertising companies, occupying a very important position. Without business, there is nothing. No matter how good the design idea is, with strong backing, it will also promote the previous business and complement each other. Some advertising companies pay attention to internal management and internal learning, which is one-sided. More importantly, it should be business, that is, customer management and development, and truly realize "all-staff marketing", from boss to salesman to designer. Business is always the core work.
Advertising companies pay more attention to business promotion than scientific customer management and development. Often a group of customers who run salesmen either take the salesmen away or lose contact after jumping ship. A new group of salesmen came to run customers again, which on the one hand led to the loss of customer resources, on the other hand led to customers being taken away by employees who jumped ship.
Customer management is particularly important, not only for customer service personnel (salesmen), but also for managers. On the one hand, managers should contact and communicate with the top managers of customers regularly and irregularly. On the other hand, it should be a team, including planning, marketing, copywriting and designers, not just a salesman. It is a team that serves customers, not salesmen.
Companies should effectively classify customers and evaluate them according to business volume and customer potential. 80% energy is spent on 20% customers who create 80% value. According to the degree of importance, it can be divided into Class A, Class B and Class C, and the target customers to be developed are Class D. Then how often do Class A customers visit, Class B and Class C customers visit, and Class D customers make several indicators every month. Finally, clean up the original customers regularly, downgrade or eliminate those customers who spend a lot of energy but have little profit, and optimize your customer team resources regularly.
Advertising company is an intellectual industry and should be very professional. Creative designers are like this, and so are customer service staff. In addition to extensive knowledge structure and communication skills, image is also very important. The professional image makes people feel trust, and the business transaction rate will increase.
Advertising companies make up for others and make up for themselves first. Create your own image first and then spread it to others.
Advertising is a sunrise industry, which is knowledge-intensive, talent-intensive and technology-intensive. The advertising industry is also an industry with disproportionate input and return, except for 4a companies and big advertising companies. In addition to doing things professionally and paying attention to strategies, we should also "choose the right pond to catch big fish" and use different operation methods in different market environments, otherwise we will get twice the result with half the effort.
The advertising industry is also an exercise industry. "If you love someone, let him (her) advertise and have heaven; If you hate someone, let him or her advertise. It is simply hell. "
Advertisers are people made of special materials. We should not only have the spirit of hard study, but also have the spirit of persistent pursuit. If you put your heart and soul into it, you will get something in the end. After all, it is only a matter of time before heaven rewards diligence and waits for no one.