Solis Advertising and Public Relations: Delivering Strategic Marketing Insight.

• Position: Brief Article

A Risky Business: Agency Selection

So you're a corporate executive or the owner of a burgeoning business.

Your company has worked long and hard to develop a great product or specialized service. You determine it's time to share it with the public.

How will you reach them?

If you're thinking about hiring an advertising agency to market your product or service, be sure to do your homework. Agency selection can be risky business.

Just ask Frank Solis, president and CEO of Solis Advertising and Public Relations. Solis created the agency to implement comprehensive marketing strategies for companies locally and nationally. Over the past 14 years, he has heard from clients who failed to make the right choice.

"I'm amazed at the agency horror stories that some clients have shared with me over the years," Solis says. "But all too often, clients bring it on themselves because they fail to ask the hard questions." Questions, Solis says, as elementary as the amount of time and resources an agency will devote to a campaign, the audiences it will target, and the marketing strategies and tactics it will use.

"Prior to signing an agency, ask representatives to assess your product's overall brand positioning within the target segment and how they can enhance it," Solis says. "If they're good, they will demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of the market and offer insight that no one in your firm has thought of before."

Avoiding Mistakes in A Marketing Campaign

While businesses need to consider an agency's experience throughout the selection process, business managers also need to come to terms with their company's own market position. Shrinking market share, low awareness levels and reduced product demand are realities that can't be corrected overnight.

These situations require a strategic focus that includes tactical, tangible elements carried out over time.

"Strategic marketing develops a relationship with the consumer," Solis says. "Only by reaching out on many different levels-through advertising, strong collateral and public relations-can an audience develop an affinity for the product."

Strategic marketing also demands a budget commensurate with a campaign's scope.

"The public is bombarded with so many messages that an ad or collateral piece can be easily lost in the shuffle,"...