Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

As a follow-on to my recent post, Why Marketing Gets No Respect, Exhibit 4,458

Aside from the fact that there about a gazillion flim-flammer books telling everyone how easy it is to do yourself…there are many “marketing” companies that are really logo production factories. Sure, professional graphics design is great - and I wouldn’t pick on the factories if they stuck to what they know and do well. I don’t present myself as a graphics expert. I can force Word and Powerpoint to do unnatural acts and I’ve got some artist training, but graphics design is not my forte. (I work with some great design pros.)

Quick example: I ran across this the other day on a marketing firm’s site, “…integrated brand design and marketing company, linking visionary strategic services with market research, publicity, and advertising.” Hmmm…

They have a nice logo, but no information about services, clients, projects, background…or contact information…available or even navigable from the landing page. I can, however, click on “subscribe” for their newsletter. (Why would I want to, when I don’t know anything about them?) I was curious, so I clicked on the button, and…Ohhh, that’s when the navigation shows up. And, they list websites as one of their services. All at a “.ws” (?! What the heck?) site not a “.com” site. (Ouch! I really hope nobody pays them to do Web strategy.) There are a lot more ouchies - to the extent I got embarrassed for them as I clicked around. (No linking as I do try to be kind - and the company may actually be a young sole proprietor just starting out. We all gotta learn.)

Sigh.

A “visionary” and “strategic” marketing firm doesn’t do anybody much good if they can’t do the basics…like communicate.

I may have to change my last name to Dangerfield I’m tellin’ ya…

Related Posts:
The Problem with Marketing Creativity
My Magic Marketing Wand is Broken.
No, I Won’t Write Your Brochure.