Where is your agency in the agency supermarket?

Many agencies forget about a critical element of brand positioning when it comes to their own brand.

Just what kind of agency are they positioning?

This important gap results in agencies missing out on business opportunities daily.

In classic brand positioning work, the two core elements are captured by defining “the type of product or service” being positioned and “what makes the product or service special”?

We call the type of product or service the brand’s “frame of reference”. It’s a point of commonality, identifying which group of products or services the brand should be compared to. To illustrate that notion, let’s use granola as an example. Where would you find granola in a supermarket?

In the cereal aisle, of course. While granola can serve a multitude of other purposes from being a baking ingredient to a snack to a dessert topping, its primary usage is as cereal. And therefore, you will find it in the cereal section.

This definition is critical. It helps consumers find a product and helps them compare that product to other similar products.

And just as important as this frame of reference notion is to a consumer product, I believe it may be even more important to agencies. Clients and prospects typically have very, very low unaided awareness of agency brands. When they search for agencies to consider, they generally start by defining the “type” of agency they need – what we call frame of reference.

There are a number of commonly accepted frames of reference for different types of agencies. Examples include:

• Creative agency
• Media Agency
• PR agency
• Full-service advertising agency
• Digital marketing agency
• Shopper agency
• Brand design agency
• Social agency
• Influencer agency
• Etc.

Remember, this is not the part of the agency’s positioning that makes it distinctive and special. Rather, it is the point of commonality that helps prospects find the agency.

Some agencies are really clear about their frame of reference:

• New Engen is a digital marketing agency
• Porter Novelli is a communications and public relations firm
• Curiosity is a full service creative agency
• Horizon is a media agency

Others, not so much. They don’t clearly identify on their home page – or elsewhere – what type of agency they are.

And some are downright silly. Have you ever heard of a “transformation design agency”? We had not either, until some friends chose that term to describe their retail shopper agency.

Try this test: choose an agency (almost any agency!) and go to their website. Does the agency clearly identify on the homepage, above the fold, its frame of reference? My guess is that if you randomly try five agencies, only one or two will have a clearly identified frame of reference. That is a shame, for the agency and its prospects.

When positioning your agency to be distinctive and stand out, be sure to also clearly identify the type of agency. You want your agency compared to other agencies and you want to choose what you are compared to!

About Author

Robin Boehler, founder, and partner at Mercer Island Group has led consulting teams on behalf of clients as diverse as Discover Financial Services, Viator, Sevrpro, Ulta Beauty, UScellular, Seabourn, Kaiser Permanente, Stop & Shop, Qualcomm, Giant Food, Brooks Running, and numerous others. She is an industry leader, captivating speaker and strategist that is often called upon to speak on a variety of marketing services and agency topics.