A Few Words on our Philosophy
At KRT, we've never been the mad bombers of marketing.
We're practical, down-to-earth people who know you spend a lot of money on advertising and promotion -- and we know they better produce a lot more money in return.
Our philosophy is simple: work hard and work smart and keep checking the work to make sure it's working.
1. We believe in research.
Before we write any ads, we look inside your customers' heads. To be effective, we have to find out what your customers are thinking. At KRT, we use a variety of research methodologies, from qualitative focus groups to quantitative pre- and post-tests of communications and persuasion.
We also look inside your heads. To be effective, we have to find out what you are thinking. We have to know your business goals, ambitions, problems and philosophies. So our people ask your people a lot of questions. They dig and they probe. And, believe it or not, they listen.
In short, before we write any advertising for you, we know everything an ad agency can possibly know about your business. To be effective, we have to.
2. We believe in tight strategies.
At KRT, we've created a detailed strategic document to guide us in the development of all advertising plans and creative work. The document helps us review the market situation, provide a competitive analysis and understand your target audience, its needs, as well as its state-of-mind. And it reviews your products, their features, and their benefits.
Then the document identifies the single selling proposition that will lead to success.
By the way, we never develop a strategy by ourselves. Every strategy is the product of teamwork. We sit down with your team to grapple with every nuance of the strategy. It's all done well before we go off to write great advertising and place effective ads.
3. We believe in brilliant creative.
All our advertising must be based on strategy, but strategy isn't enough. Your customers don't give a fig for strategies, and they won't buy your products just because we sing the strategy statement in a jingle.
Every day, Americans are bombarded with jillions of ads and commercials. No wonder they've lost interest in ads. They zap the boring ones and they forget most of what they see or hear. Just as bad, your advertising not only competes for attention with your direct competitors, it's up against every other ad in the magazine, every other commercial on the air.
If it's going to win your customer's attention, and dollars, our creative work must be more charming, beguiling, witty, emotional or just plain interesting than the other guys'.
So our creative work better be every bit as good as your product, as good as the marketing plans, as good as the packaging, as good as the distribution, and as good as the strategy. In fact, it better be better.
4. We believe in follow-through.
As we said above, we're practical, down-to-earth people. At KRT we think it's vital to have big ideas, but big ideas are not nearly enough. We have to follow-through on all the dirty, messy, sweat-stained details that can make or break a program.
We have to get things done on time. We have to get a budget approved before we spend your money. We have to stay within the budget. We have to make sure materials get to the publications with the right mechanical specs. We have to make sure the online ads have the right tracking URLs. We have to make sure branding and legal clearances are straight.
We have to make sure all the record-keeping is done, the bills are accurate, the invoices clear.
We have to make sure your salespeople know about the advertising, so they can support it and make use of it in their calls. We have to make sure the trade is excited about what you're doing, so they'll stock up.
And even after you approve the copy, we have to keep working. At KRT, we never stop looking for something more we can do, some new rabbit we can pull out of the hat, to make sure the big idea is a big success.
5. We believe the client is sometimes right.
Clients sign the checks. That makes you the most important people in our lives.
Our job is to make your job easier. We may argue, disagree, even stomp our tiny feet over a line of copy or an illustration. But we never forget that we work for you. You're the ones with your bottoms -- and bottom lines -- at stake every time we run an ad.
So we do things your way. If you want invoices in a certain format, no problem. If you want a meeting next Sunday night in Tucson, no problem. If you want to change something at the last minute, no problem. If you call Friday at 5:00 and want a new campaign by Monday morning, no problem. (Well, that'll be a problem, but we'll try.)
In summary, yes, we do have a philosophy at KRT. Our philosophy is to roll up our sleeves and get the job done.