How to set up business, advertisement or PR agency

Since the beginning of the agency or business has an influence on its future fortunes, people who are considering setting up a public relations or advertising agency need to make sure that their business has a sound footing. One needs to explore to settle on the particular areas they can do well. One also needs to know which areas have good job offers and how they will be able to win good contracts or jobs in those areas. Knowledge about these should form the basis for setting up a new firm or business.

Acquiring the necessary information for setting up a successful agency should involve activities like market research, writing successful business plans, building good business networks and relationships, and acquiring relevant skills training and experience. In addition, setting up an office, where to site it, choosing a name for the firm and choosing logos and corporate colours are all important considerations. Taking all these important business decisions into consideration should not be done in a vacuum. Each and every step should be informed by findings of a quality market research which may be contracted to a professional market research consultant or consultants.

Reasons for Doing Good Market Research

The market research carried out by a prospective agency owner or by consultants should be aimed at identifying the best strategies for marketing a new firm. It should also be aimed at identifying ‘green areas’ and newly established businesses that may require the services of public relations and advertising agencies, consultancies or professionals. Such new corporations may not have had links with the renowned firms yet and negotiating a business relationship with them may be relatively easier. Marketing research consultants can also be contracted specifically to help identify companies in need of PR or ad agencies.

In doing the research, which may involve surveys among business organisations, one should be interested in knowing which agencies are ranked high by corporations and why. Knowledge and information about the strategies of existing agencies will equip the prospective agency owner with the right information on how to also excel as well as knowing which strategies are considered best practices among service consumers.

Successful PR and ad practice also require the monitoring of new trends in the industry. The market research should therefore also provide information on new trends in advertising and public relations. It will be good to know if more organisations now prefer online advertising to traditional advertising or internet public relations to traditional public relations.

How to Apply Market Research Findings

The findings of the market research should let one know which business areas will be profitable. Applying the market research findings should lead one to focus on specialising in (for example) the telecommunications industry, the oil industry, sales and purchasing companies, political advertising or public relations, or any others that the research may throw up as being very ‘fertile areas.’

Besides deciding on industry specialisation, the research findings should also be applied in deciding the specific areas of specialisation.

Areas of Specialisation in Public Relations

In PR for example, such areas of specialisation may include:

Crisis Management or Communication
Public relations research
Issues Management
Promotions
Protocol Management
Media relations
Launches

Areas of Specialisation in Advertising

For advertising, one may choose to specialise in:

Web or Online advertising
Outdoor advertising
Print advertising
Traditional media advertising
Branding and promotions, among others.

Best Marketing Strategies for Maximum Sales

Difficulties in achieving optimum sales and profits sometimes get managers of corporate organisations and businesses wondering whether they are in the right kind of business. Other people may sometimes think that changing from their current products to new ones may do the trick. They end up introducing a new product into the market, only to realise that the new product even faces a stiffer competition. When this happens, they then get the realisation that changing products is not the key to the competition.

In the dynamics of modern marketing, nothing is new and nothing may be old. There is no product that faces no or limited competition. Staying on top and ahead of other competing brands, therefore, requires innovative marketing strategies and ideas that can help a corporate entity accomplish the mission of meeting the challenges of modern marketing. One sure way of becoming a market leader is by adopting what can be called ‘the continuous marketing cycle approach,’ that involves the combination of different techniques as explained below.

Good Market Research for Best Marketing Ideas

Good market research should be a continuous activity by all companies. Organisations sometimes see the need for doing research on their products only when demand for a product dwindles. Such research activities are often aimed at finding out what may have caused the reduction in the demand for a particular product rather than finding out how to improve upon the presence or sale of a product with the view of ultimately making the commodity a market leader.

When a product plunges in the market, the reasons for the dip can be difficult to find and getting it back on top of the consumers’ list can take more than extra-ordinary efforts. The solution, therefore, is doing a constant market research. The research can always be in the form of consumer surveys that will be finding out from consumers, the strengths and weaknesses of a product and what image the product has among its consumers. The findings of such market research can then constitute good grounds for sales-boosting activities.

Brand Management Ideas

Selling may be difficult but selling a good brand is not. Brand management should therefore be considered as a very important factor for business success. Effective brand management should be aimed at achieving a good brand image and brand personality. Achieving the two, leads to brand recognition, brand recall and brand identity which are the main prerequisites for gaining brand franchise or loyalty among targeted consumers. To achieve brand loyalty for products, corporate organisations should ensure that they place premium on:

• Excellent Corporate Image

• Excellent Customer Relations

• Effective Brand Communication

• Brand Consistency

PR and Advertising Campaigns

Good brand management, supported by well crafted advertising and public relations campaigns can be a good brand communication technique for getting consumers to have a high demand for a product and being ready to pay a competitive price for it. The use of such a marketing strategy is very necessary for value creation, which should be the optimum goal of all business entities competing in the global market place. Organisations should therefore always consider using public relations activities like soirees, launches, media releases, among others, alongside quality advertising, in all brand management and brand communication efforts. This may therefore require recruiting an effective PR and/or Ad agency for the job and here are tips for hiring a good advertising and/or PR agency.