I just heard from an associate that one of our design competitors have gone bust. I’m not naming them, this is not a gloating piece – in the recession, this kind of thing can happen to anyone. After all, for smaller companies, all it takes is one large client to stop paying, or change their focus and we’re all paddling the wrong way up the creek.
I feel strongly for all companies who have suffered in their businesses, MDs, business owners and the self employed all go into business with one thing in mind - to do their best, to make money doing something that they have a skill at. The problem comes when they have to sell and set a price for that skill, and this is where I make my point. So often companies undervalue their work. Especially in the creative world, designers and marketers are all scrabbling for work that they often take part in free pitches or try and undercut the next company on a quote.
The problem with that is two fold:
1. You will never, ever be the cheapest. There will always be someone prepared to do a project at half the price – a freelancer with no overheads, or a printer doing a lost leader. Fighting on price is not a good business plan in my opinion.
2. You undervalue what you do well. At wow! our biggest strength is our ideas, our approach and our project management. We don’t just make something look nice and leave it at that. We look to get a client better results.
I don’t believe that every project that a client wants doing is right for us – we can’t add value to something that is just functional, not if we are compared to a freelancer who might charge £25. To the clients that need that kind of thing I tell them honestly. It makes life a lot easier for us all. However, if a client needs something that gets results or needs to run smoothly, or to take the hassle out of it – that’s where we step up to the mark – that’s where we can really make a difference, and that is where we add value.
No matter how tempting it is to cut costs to get the work, have belief in your convictions – you are only putting off the inevitable if you get into a price war (or you’ve got to have a strong bank balance to see you through). If we are going down in this recession, if that’s the outcome of our fight then I’d rather go down with my head hold high, fighting for what we believe in and giving clients work that makes a difference to them, than to be scrapping for the leftovers.
My final plea…
If you are a marketing person who’s been asked to cut your budgets and pull in tight, but aren’t happy with what you are producing, I beg of you to ask yourself what is the true aim for each piece of work that you are producing. If it is a functional piece – then buy on price, get the best bargain that you can. However if you need a piece of work that needs to produce more, go further or get you results – then buy cost efficiently – the cost is related directly to the results that you get. Buy quality to get quantity.
A great post that links to this theory of mine is from Seth Godin, called ‘The Return of Design’.
If you want to make a positive stand against the recession – sign up to our Revolution Against Recession.
To the guys that ran the company I refer to at the beginning – don’t give up. It’s a sign of the times. Hang on in there and keep on trucking. I look forward to more creative tussles in the future!
