I'm really, really proud of the Fox Marketing Group business model. I love what it is and what it is not. Yet ultimately I didn't really design it -- you did.

We handle advertising, but we're not an ad agency. We do graphic design, but we're not a design shop. We direct internet marketing, but we're not a web firm. We work with media companies, but we're not media salesmen. We handle printing and signage projects, but we're not a print shop or a sign shop. The list goes on.

What the business is not frees us up to do things in a dramatically different way. A way that suits our customer, the business owner, in ways they've never seen.

All those other things are selling something to the business owner. No matter how good or consultative or thoughtful they are, they still answer to someone else besides the business owner. They answer to their own boss, and try to beat their own quota.

I get the privilege of being at the owner's side. I get to think like an owner, yet bring to the table some skills and ideas the owner doesn't have. If someone has to sell to win, they can't really align themselves with the owner. I do, and I love it!

Take some solid research, for example, like the fact that the number one factor in a customer's judgment of a business is the restrooms (especially among female customers.) If I sold advertising or printing, I wouldn't know that information and wouldn't care! In fact, the truth might actually get in my way -- the owner might decide (correctly) that the investment in their shopping environment is more important right now than the investment in whatever I happen to be selling.

But since I'm on the owner's side, we can make facilities part of the overall marketing plan.

I'm free to act like I own the business myself, instead of figuring out ways to merely sell to it. And that makes all the difference.

Labels: customer centered, customer service, design, differentiation, management, marketing, planning, research, signage, strategy