Emma Clarke is a well-known name in the New Zealand marketing industry, and rightly so with more than 15 years of experience.
She spent the first eight years of her career overseas working for multinational companies as a marketer. The she returned home spending the last seven years as a marketing consultant, managing teams of creative specialist’s developing marketing and communication plans for businesses in New Zealand.
She recently added a new title to her name, founder and marketing strategy director of The Selective. Emma launched the marketing company in August last year in reaction to a dramatic shift in customer demand.
The Selective is a new take on the traditional marketing model, which conventionally requires clients to pay for the ‘’full service’’ including marketing, communications and creative expertise which she says can often be costly.
Clients of The Selective can use its creative experts when and how they want reducing cost and inefficiencies. This model opens up top quality marketing to SME, who were normally locked out of these services because of the high cost. Or it can offer an extra set of hands to large well established marketing companies when they have taken on a big job.
The Selective is comprised of a group of creative experts Emma hand picked and invited to be onboard. Each team members is a top player in their own field including photography, copy writing, public relations, website design, graphic design, social media and more.
So when a client needs someone to design a website, logo or newsletter they can go direct to Emma and she’ll put them in direct connect with a expert on The Selective.
Over the last few years I’ve noticed more and more prospective clients want really specific services. So instead of saying we need to do some marketing, which is what they used to say, they’re now saying we want someone to build a website, handle our social media, or create a logo. I launched The Selective because I saw there was a specific need from the SME space, but also from larger companies.
Good, we’re beginning to gain momentum and are getting some good feedback. But like all new businesses starting up presents its challenges. I’ve been out selling, cold calling and meeting people to get our name out there.
We provide clients with direct access to top marketing and creative talent. We work on a job by job basis so there is no on going commitment required from clients.
Because each of the suppliers is independent we don’t have the same overheads that large agencies have, so there are financial benefits to the clients and suppliers.
We’re not a full service model like other agencies so clients can pick and choose their services plus they can work direct with the creative supplier, no middle man.
I think for a long time the marketing and creative service industry in New Zealand haven’t been meeting the needs of SMEs. There are a large proportion of small businesses in New Zealand and the old fashioned model has really been screaming out for a reinvention.
If an organisation came to me wanting to do marketing for the first time I’d be drilling into them what there business objectives are and what they want to achieve.
If there objective is to compete, for example they may have a new competitor and they’ve taken there market share, then there objective is to try and win that market share back. So there are certain types of marketing we can do to achieve that.
It all comes down to business objectives and every business is going to have a different one. Ultimately marketing is about understanding why people buy things and influencing the purchasing decision process.
Whatever objectives you have heavily influence what marketing methods you should take. If you don’t know what your objective is how can you measure progress and how do you know when you’ve achieved your goals?
I think both; it’s made it easier and harder. Social media and internet tools available now make it a hell of a lot easier to measure what’s working and what’s not working in your marketing strategy.
Plus it’s certainly more cost effective compared to other methods. But I think it’s harder because you have to be really consistent with your messages and tone of voice. You have to monitor everything you are doing on line and you have to check it on a daily basis; I think that’s where companies fall over.
Businesses often start a Facebook page, they chuck up a few things then they just forget about. This leaves it open for people to freely and publicly comment about them and that’s where they get into trouble.
I think although it is a really cost effective way to get your message and your brand out there, if you do it well, it can be really damaging too.
I think you’ve got to monitor your online presence; there are ways and companies who can monitor who is talking about your business and what they are saying.
You need to respond to negative comments quickly and efficiently to clear up the mess before it snowballs and gets out of control. People often make the mistake of ignoring comments but that is the last thing they should do.
Finally if you are in the wrong, just say sorry.
It is competitive, I think a lot of marketing companies try to specialise in one industry to try and compete. Companies also try to compete on price, the New Zealand market is very heavily price driven.
But in the creative services industry you get what you pay for, so it can be worth investing in. I think the way you stay ahead of the game is by constantly reinventing the business model based on the customers needs.
Firstly having the best creative specialists on our team who are leading in their industry and making sure they fit our clients’ demands. Secondly we are constantly evolving to address are customers needs and we never loose sight of the purpose of our core business.
Always do your research, ask people if they would buy your product or service and what they’d pay for, and then listen to their feedback.
A lot of entrepreneurs have great idea, and they invest all their money into product development. But then they have nothing left to pay for market research or advertising, so they’ve got this great product but no one knows about. I see a lot of new businesses fall over because they don’t invest in marketing.
My immediate goal is to grow the number of creative specialists on the team. The short to medium term goal is to move into the Australian market.
A lot of New Zealand companies are breaking into the Australian market and they want to use a local marketing company to help them do it.
