Research Shows Where Agencies Are Missing the Mark

By Betty Tuppeny, CEO, Domus, Inc.

With the shift from tried and true traditional marketing tactics to the Wild West of digital communications, marketing decision-makers report a growing list of unmet needs in support of their brands and their businesses. Bearing increasing pressure to demonstrate positive returns and increased profits, marketing decision-makers acknowledge both service gaps and dissatisfaction in the support they are receiving from advertising agencies.

While the conglomerate agencies increase their girth (and their shareholders’ ROI) and the specialty agencies continue to develop more and more pinpointed, niche services to put themselves on the map, we wondered: who is focused on the clients who are getting less and less of what they really need in this ever-changing, challenging business environment?

In conjunction with Kramer Research, Domus, Inc. recently conducted a series of in-depth interviews with marketing decision-makers across a broad range of product categories. Respondents identified three areas of unmet needs:

1. Problem Projects
   Respondents acknowledged having projects that simply aren’t getting done – either because there aren’t enough internal resources (due to downsizing) or because their agency/agencies are focused on other priorities – and that these projects are key to delivering or building their brand’s business.
2. Simplify and Monetize Digital
   Marketing decision-makers wish they had a resource to demonstrate the value of social media and digital marketing – measuring its return on investment along with other key metrics and serving it up in a way that C-level executives can understand and respect.
3. New Revenue Streams
   Respondents are looking for business-building partners to help identify and develop new revenue streams and acknowledge that there is tremendous value in having an outside objective resource to support this task.

These qualitative findings were so compelling that Domus, Inc. has joined with The Harris Poll to conduct original quantitative research to further investigate and validate marketing directors’ wish lists. Results of the inaugural annual Domus Harris Poll Client Needs Annual Study will be published in January 2014. The findings and implications for clients and agencies alike will likely be profound.

Betty Tuppeny is CEO and Co-Founder of the 20-year-old Domus, Inc. She has taught Strategic Positioning and Branding to post-graduate students at NYU and the University of Pennsylvania and serves on a variety of public boards, having studied this specialization at Harvard Business School. For more information on Domus, Inc. – a full service marketing communications firm that is Built for the Client™ – contact Betty Tuppeny at btuppeny@domusinc.com.