Cobbler’s Children Syndrome

A Question About Your Agency

How certain are you that your agency thinks outside the box when working to solve the business challenges you have?

How unique is your agency and are they really best equipped to meet your business needs?

And do they apply the same standards to their own agency that they impress upon you to employ?

All reasonable questions to ask your self when your evaluating your current firm or when you’re looking at new agencies to bring on board.

Our Survey on Agency Positioning

Our team at RSW/AgencySearch just completed a survey on agency positioning (of their own firm) and the use of AI to help optimize their websites searchability in this new AI-mediated search world.

While the

vast majority of agencies (78%) feel that most agencies do the same thing – and aren’t well differentiated, the vast majority of marketing agencies surveyed (85%)believed that their agency was unique and well-differentiated.

I get it…there’s probably some social psych theory that can explain this all away, but really…do we want to bring an agency on board that thinks they’re wholy different from other firmst when in reality, they aren’t?

What Makes Us Different

At RSW/US, our sister firm, we work with close to 50 agencies across the U.S. (of all types and sizes) and really get to know the agency world much moreso than other agency search firms.  We can tell when an agency is blowing smoke, thinks better of themselves, talks about things that they think makes them a better potential partner, when in reality any agency can make the same claim.

What’s concerning about agencies’ belief about their uniqueness is the majority of agencies crafted their agency’s brand positioning by talking to themselves…building the positioning with the team inside, instead of doing like they would do with you…bringing in outside resources to help them look at their world via a differtent lense.

You Don’t Need An Inward Looking Agency

85% of agencies ssaid they “Did it all on our own with agency employees”.  It’s kind of like you trying to explore new and different marketing tactics or straegies when all you know is what you’ve done.

So what does this mean for you and your business?

Next time you look for an agency, know what to look for and what to ask.  If the answer to the question (that we ask in all our RFPs) “Why are you a best fit for our company/brand?” is a generic response that the agency thinks is unique…you might consider running from that agency.

Not only is it important that an agency put the though into you and your business when answering that question, but it’s important that what you get in your reponse is meaningful, unique, compelling, and tailored to you.

Know Where To Go

If you need any help formulating the right kind of questions to ask or if you’re in need of a new marketing agency and you are concerned that you might not be asking the right questions to vet the firms you’re looking at, drop us a line (mark@rswus.com).