Gumas Advertising
How to Build Your Company Through Strategic Marketing
Strategic Planning and Unconventional Advertising Are Keys for Growing Companies to Make the Most of Their Marketing Dollar
By Rebecca Barnes
Take a good close look at your company, just like a prospective customer would. This may be the best way to begin an effective marketing and advertising plan. According to John Gumas, President of Gumas Advertising, a strategic marketing and advertising agency based in San Francisco, the first step in working with builders and architects interested in getting the word out about their business is to find out what that word needs to be.
Gumas typically begins by conducting a marketing communications audit. This entails an in-depth analysis of the marketplace, the competition and the messages already being sent by competitive companies, as well as interviews with a company's customers, team members and management. Surprisingly, this often reveals a lack of focus, even among company management.
The Team at Gumas Advertising: delivering high-powered results for over 20 years. (Photo by Bruce Schneider)
"If management is not focused, there's no way their marketing will be focused," Gumas says. The communications audit becomes a key first step in focusing a company in order to create effective marketing plans. "We help clients understand who they truly are, and the essence of their brand," Gumas says.
HOW DO YOU DEVELOP A STRONG STRATEGY?
From the initial audit, Gumas says his company works with clients to develop strategic marketing and advertising plans designed to generate not just results, but the right kind of results. "Where most companies fall short in advertising and marketing is when 10 people are rowing in different directions at different times," he says. Any effective marketing and advertising must be strategic. We define strategy as an understanding of how you position yourself in the market, how you differentiate yourself from your competitors and knowing what your customers really want so that they can make a connection with you. Helping clients make more money by becoming a recognized brand that customers want to do business with doesn't happen by accident. Gumas says the strategic design of a realistic marketing plan is key.
Gumas has helped SummerHill Homes become one of the most successful independent builders in the industry. (Courtesy of Gumas Advertising)
In this way, effective marketing doesn't have to be a matter of a bigger budget. Even smaller or newer companies can get in the game with much bigger competition. "Our typical clients are companies that are being outspent by larger competitors and can't afford to take chances," Gumas says. By developing a complete advertising strategy based largely on the Gumas agency's 22-plus years of experience, the marketing guesswork is eliminated. Not only does that sort of planning save money, it maximizes results.
Gumas combines conventional advertising, such as print, signage, television and radio, with unconventional or guerrilla advertising, such as unique Web and online strategies, hard-hitting promotions or educational publicity. They also streamline various pieces of a company's overall marketing and advertising plan so that everything moves the company in one direction in order to create a synergic effect.
Web and online strategies have become a large part of Gumas' client successes. (Courtesy of Gumas Advertising)
GUERILLA MARKETING
Unconventional advertising, including new technology via the Internet, provides an opportunity for companies to market themselves cost-effectively. The Web offers instant interactivity with customers and it offers companies a chance to tell their story at a very low cost. Companies can use a website to tell potential customers a compelling story and convince them to do business with them. They can use e-mail to keep their name in front of potential customers without the postage and printing costs of a direct mail piece. Web and e-mail strategies can be very powerful if they are planned and executed properly, but if you don't do them correctly, they can easily backfire on you.
Gumas says it's important for companies to understand the nuances of Web marketing and advertising - specifically the strength this type of media carries in educating and interacting with customers. "It's about creating conversations that offer your prospect the value that they want," he says.
A builder could offer a monthly e-mail newsletter on how to care for your home, for example. An architect may send out a regular tips e-mail. These Web-based strategies are low-cost ideas that build brand recognition. Further, this unconventional strategy works in tandem with traditional advertising methods.
The unique talents of Gumas have been enjoyed by many companies outside of the building industry. (Courtesy of Gumas Advertising)
(Courtesy of Gumas Advertising)
(Courtesy of Gumas Advertising)
PLANNING
By combining unconventional advertising with conventional methods, clients are given a cost-effective means to support traditional advertising. That's all part of the plan. And Gumas stresses the importance of planning well.
"It's amazing how many companies in this industry start building their [marketing and advertising] house without an architectural plan in place," he says. You would never start building a new home without an architectural plan, so why would a company embark on a marketing campaign without a specific marketing plan and set objectives?
John Gumas, President, founded Gumas Advertising in 1984 with a single concept: to help companies effectively compete against larger competitors. (Photo by Bruce Schneider)
Gumas started his company because he saw a need for an advertising agency that would help companies without a plan - start-ups and growing companies - to get to the next level. Competing dollar for dollar with larger companies would be futile, Gumas says. That's why planning and implementing unconventional tactics is so important.
"Marketing is an ongoing process of building a company systematically," Gumas says. While not all companies understand marketing, they all understand when business starts doing better, he says. "A client can hire a graphic design agency to make something look pretty for them, or they can hire a strategic marketing and advertising agency to help them grow their business. There's a big difference."
Gumas provides a complete array of marketing services, both traditional and non-traditional, allowing each client to generate the greatest results possible for their marketing budgets. (Photo by Bruce Schneider)
TRACKING ADVERTISING DOLLARS
Tracking that growth is also important. Companies should ask about the ROI for various advertising and marketing efforts. Gumas offers clients a sophisticated and proprietary tracking tool called Media Manager, which tracks every response a client receives from advertising.
"We can tell them what time of day a response came in," Gumas says of the refined system. The program often can provide names and contact information from interested buyers as well.
"The value to our clients is they know what's going on," Gumas says. That's important. Companies should assess what is working in marketing and advertising in order to build on success and to eliminate ineffective strategies. "You also need to know how it worked," Gumas says. This helps a company learn and improve over time. It builds on success.
"We just love seeing our clients be successful," Gumas says. "When they're successful, we're successful. When they grow, we grow. And since we're still going strong after 22 years, we must be doing something right."
Gumas Advertising is located at 99 Shotwell Street in San Francisco, CA 94103. Call (415) 621-7575 or visit gumas.com for more information.
January 2007 Builder Architect Edition Issue