Key personnel & their roles in the MKH/Prestige relationship.
MKH employs hundreds of people but the roles & departments within MKH cover the same basic job functions as most other full service agencies, each performing various advertising functions such as;
- Marketing
- Communications
- Promotions services (planning, creating and producing the advertising)
- Research and media selection
- Non-advertising services such as strategic marketing planning, sales promotions, direct marketing and interactive capabilities, package design and public relations is also offered.
Agency Departments and their functions.
Agency Functions Continued
In addition to these core functions, there are 'service' functions, such as Administration, Traffic and Production, which 'enable' the others departments to function.
The operational process used to develop campaigns by the agency and the client
The typical team where the communications are first developed and discussed includes:
- The marketing, brand, communications manager or project leader
- The account manager
- The copywriter.
- The art director
- The technical person (interactive only)
At various stages in the communications development process & depending on the campaign, other people from MKH join the team such as media planners, research people, creative supervisors, account planners, and communications production people who all contribute to different parts of the campaign.
MKH uses two processes when putting together a campaign:
- The creative process, in which the words and pictures which will go to make up the campaign are developed
- The media process decides which media 'vehicles', which will 'carry' the advertising message to the consumer are selected.
Both processes involve extensive research in order to make decisions and to check that what has been developed will work. MKH customise their services with respect to both the service options and tailor their services to the needs of Prestige, applying their knowledge and creativity to each of our briefs.
The campaign begins with a brief and a briefing. The brief is the written communication that the creative team uses to begin the production of ideas for advertising campaigns. The briefing is the discussion and direction that occur around the brief. The success or failure of a campaign depends on the quality of the brief given to the agency & should contain all the information necessary for the agency to determine what is required so that a plan can be mapped out with full insights of the situation which in turn should lead to innovation, better productivity and results.
Creative Development
- The creative development process is the way in which ideas for the campaign are built by the creative department.
- Qualititive Research is carried out (usually gathered directly from respondents by means of questionnaires, focus groups and interviews) to investigate the target market for the campaign, and to test ideas directly with consumers to see what they think once they have been developed.
The Account Planning function in the agency is also involved in the creative development process.
Media Process
- The media process forms the other half of the workflow that goes through the agency.
- Work from a brief given by the Account Management and media department detailing the campaign's requirements.
- Quanititive Research (size of audiences, or their composition, or their consumption of media, and is often gathered by the agency 'second-hand', from external research providers) enables the media department to select the advertising media needed for a campaign on the basis of creative potential & audience delivery.
Process to Campaign
How methods of communication & technology are used to maintain the client/agency relationship
Honesty and trust are important in every client agency relationship & Prestige have built good relationships over the years with the account personnel within MKH. Good relationships and regular communication ensure that everyone is working towards a common goal & the best solution. Our good working relationship also mean that problems are easier to overcome & mistakes occur less often.
Good coordination between MKH and Prestige is essential to our relationship as the interaction between MKH and Prestige is continual:
Prestige;
Commission the assignment to the agency
Negotiates the terms
Provides the necessary information for the account management group
Executes the acceptance of the plans and materials.
Prestige are in daily contact with MKH to ensure that communication channels are kept open, usually via email or phone. Meetings are held once a month to discuss ongoing advertising requirements, our satisfaction with the agency, any organisational developments & to listen to new ideas. We also attend any MKH corporate hospitality events.
Prestige ensure that MKH are part of the company’s team & provide them with sales bulletins, internal newsletters and key correspondence. Our MKH Account Manager also attends relevant marketing and sales meetings, sales and product training to keep them current about Prestige services, distributors, competitors and markets in order that MKH maintain a thorough understanding of the Prestige Marketplace.
Meetings are also held periodically with our account executive and MKH management to review progress, achievements and problems where discussions are held as to how the relationship and the work can be improved. At least annually, they show us some of the best work they’ve done for other clients so that we can establish that ours is up to standard.
Recommendations for improving the client relationship Improvements
Conclusion
Prestige will continue to work with MKH and will strive to develop a better understanding of the advertising process, by becoming more involved with and utlising more of MKH’s services. Communication will be more regular in future and Prestige more accurate in our briefs and decisive in approving work that is pitched.
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