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Introduction to Gerald Linda & Associates

Spring 2012

www.gla-mktg.com

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The Marketer’s Dilemma Strangely, to engage in marketing warfare is to

participate in an invisible battle. We can tell when we are winning or losing

because marketplace behavior will change, but the battleground itself is never seen.

That’s because the fighting takes place inside the heads of customers and prospects.

It’s a struggle of ideas, of how the target audience looks at the market and assesses our offerings vs. those of competitors.

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The Marketer’s Dilemma It follows that the best way to understand the

battleground, and therefore, how to win, is to marshal data about what is going on inside the mind of the customer/prospect.

Companies hire GL&A to help solve their marketer’s dilemma. We substitute facts for guesses. We supplant anecdotes with data. We develop hypotheses based on information. We recommend programs that are more likely to be

successful than those based on intuition alone and SWAG. Some call this research; others think of it as low cost

insurance against making an enterprise threatening mistake.

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GL&A Solves The Marketer’s Dilemma

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Strategy

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What GL&A Does We plan, execute, and analyze marketing research. We identify insights about customers, prospects, brands,

competitors and marketplace behavior. Insights are a function of experience, information and creativity.

We formally develop marketing/communications strategy. We formally write marketing plans. We identify and write Brand Personality statements. We write (and present) agency new business pitches. And we act as marketing director on an interim basis and

plan and execute integrated marketing activities such as PR, advertising, trade shows, website development, etc.

Sometimes we are engaged to perform an agency search.

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We Know The “Marketing Dilemma Business”--Cold Worked in senior positions on major

brands at giant agencies. Started own agency and built it to 23

employees at its peak. And have consulted for 29 agencies and

another 15 PR firms and marketing services organizations.

Conducted agency searches that resulted in four hires.

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How GL&A Helped Agencies Win New Business During my service at Marsteller, I was a

Corporate Senior Vice President and literally went around the country participating in new business pitches. I usually executed some form of research to under-gird

our creative efforts, wrote the strategy and the Brand Personality.

Of course, I pitched all this up. “Gimme the ball!” There are too many examples to cite, but I remember

w/relish winning The Chicago Tribune, Blue Cross & Blue Shield, Perkins Restaurants, and IDS/American Express.

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How GL&A Helped Agencies Win New Business At Kurtzman, Slavin, Linda I wrote all the

new business pitches, strategies, Brand Personalities, etc. We had some great wins: Demert & Dougherty

(All Set hairspray), 1st Source Bank (largest bank in IN), a division of Ameritech, Nordic Track, Pakula Fashion Jewelry.

I codified some of what I learned about new business into a paper (ask for a copy of “Towards an Agency Philosophy of New Business)”.

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How GL&A Helped Agencies Win New Business For Bentley Barnes & Lynne I wrote

and participated in the new business pitch that helped win a $10MM Chicagoland auto dealer group.

For TDH I presented and wrote the pitch and the BP for the pitch that won the MB Financial business. You’ll see my strategy all over

Chicagoland: MB Means Business.9

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Examples of Insights For Northern Industries, a leading manufacturer of solar

and low voltage lighting, I showed them that the replacement market was just as attractive as selling to “new to the category” customers.

For Ambrosi I demonstrated that they could not compete for the major ad budgets of their clients.

For Silliker, a major food quality assurance provider, I showed the major competition will not be other providers of food industry training programs, it will be the industry’s tendency to rely on OJT as the primary source of training for food techs.

For Carnegie Libraries of Pittsburgh the key insight was not that they needed new programs to attract more users, rather what they needed to do was better communicate what they were already doing.

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Examples of Insights For Deque, a technology software developer, I was able to

show them that their website should be designed for marketing and legal executives, the decision makers in the purchase, rather than for IT executives.

For the Field Museum (and The Carnegie Museum of Natural History) I demonstrated that the target audience was not families with children, but rather adults who visited w/o children.

For Rockwell, a manufacturer of phone/computer/software systems in the CRM space, we indicated they had to model the very essence of the CRM systems they were selling!

For Keebler I demonstrated that the radio commercials they were planning on running for Famous Amos cookies were actually offensive to the Black community.

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Examples of Insights SC Johnson might be described as being in the

business of fighting entropy—Mother Nature’s inevitable march towards chaos. Every day dust adheres, stain appears, pets and people

drip and drop, bodies need cleaning and grooming, food is prepared and then stored with an attendant mess, insects insist on sharing our world, etc.

That’s the good news for our products will always be in demand as if ordained by the order of the universe.

Key, however, will be seen as providing relief—albeit temporarily—rather than as being associated negatively with unwelcome chores.

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Examples of Insights Purchasers of pre-owned vehicles do so

primarily to save money and to fill status needs they otherwise would have to forego.

There was ample evidence that pre-owned vehicle buyers are a separate breed of cat. They bought pre-owned in the past, recently did so (or are planning to), and will do so in the future. In fact, pre-owned is their preferred way of buying cars. 13

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Always Ask for the Order How may I be of service to you? How can I

help you accomplish your goals? How may you best help me?

1. Interim Marketing Director Assignments or similar, e.g., interim marketing communications, or advertising director or marketing research director or Director of Account Planning

2. Agency new business aid including account planning

3. Marketing research assignments 4. Etc.

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