5 Years of Strategy… Own One Thing

Inception

From day zero I saw pepper’s point of difference as delivering “better strategy”.  So much so that I first hoped to name my new agency Stratergis.  When I tried to register the name, I was told by the Registrar of Companies that it was already taken.  Putting my understanding of cognitive dissonance theory to full use, once I could not have the name I rationalised that the name was too serious any way and that it did not really match me.  With a name like Stratergis I would have to have to wear a jacket or at least a tie.  And I prefer jeans and t-shirts.  And I would need a personal office with a door.  So I came to the conclusion that the Company Registrar did me a favour.

Pepper was much closer to who I am.  Someone more comfortable in a rum shop than at the Hyatt.  Someone who has always tried to understand what’s relevant to the folks on the ground.  In any case, the strategy part didn’t go away.  People sometimes refer to us a plus pepper.  They think the 4 quadrant matrix that’s part of our logo is a plus sign.  One of my mentors, Chris Vuyk, introduced me to this tool.  Basically, in the context of an advertising agency, it’s used to map where various competitors are positioned in the minds of customers.   It’s used to figure out where to position your brand.  Chris and I did that for Stag in the mid’ eighties and we clobbered Carib.

Fast forward to 2005 when I started pepper.  And,  the matrix was the only mandatory I gave Marlon Darbeau, the designer of the pepper logo.  For me strategy trumps everything.  The truth is though that T&T marketers focus more on tactics that on strategy.  And they equate marketing with advertising.  They want advertising and they want it fast.  We do not always spend enough time figuring out to what end the tactics are aimed.  And that for me has been the biggest disappointment of pepper’s first 5 years.  You see I had been fortunate to work with brands that had already spent years defining and refining their positioning.  Brands like KFC , Pizza Hut, Coca Cola and Heineken.  They all had white papers that spelt out what the brand stood for, its conceptual target, brand promise, brand personality and other layers that made it clear what the brand was and what it was NOT.  Great brands own one thing.  And they deliver that one thing at every customer touch point.

Strategy well executed

And better strategy continues to be pepper’s core product.  “Strategy well executed” is an expression of what pepper aspires to be.  A marketing communications firm that translates strategy into traditional and new media communications that drive awareness, wins hearts and minds and ultimately the cash register rings.  And we know that we are one of the few full service agencies with a digital side.   Our full service includes the online and mobile space.  When Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business invited us to pitch for their re-branding against much bigger agencies, our first task was to understand the strategy they had defined.  They wanted to be the Rolex of business schools.  And we like working with clients who know what they want to be.  Apart from helping them design a new logo and motto, we have supported all of the their traditional advertising efforts and led the development of their digital strategy.   And are now helping them execute it through Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and online ads.

Pepper has invested heavily in learning the New Media.  We’ve done some heavy reading and attended webinars and conferences.  We have come to the conclusion that there is no quick pill you can take to learn digital and mobile.  We have to “do the work” as Pat Bishop would say to the Despers or Exodus players.  Our pepper blog does not have a big audience as yet.  And we persevere.  Now we have 5 people on the team blogging regularly.  That’s how we learn.  By doing.

Strategy turns into Results

And can we execute?  To paraphrase Drucker “everything (strategy) must degenerate into work (tactics), if anything is to happen.”  Yes we understand this.  That’s why we spend so much time thinking through a client’s media schedule before we recommend it.  Or spend hours figuring out and meeting with the best suppliers for our clients’ events.  When one of our ads appear in the papers for the first time, we search the papers to see how “it has come out”.  We want to see if we are living up to our promise of “strategy well executed.”  And over the past 5 years we have not done too badly for brands like Berger, TRINRE, Ansa Mcal, Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business, Flow, Hilton, Ansa Merchant Bank, TTMF, Grace Foods, Hadco (and a whole bunch of great brands), CDA, HDC, AA Laquis, Superpharm, Corona, IBL, Neal and Massy, Roytec and Petrotrin.

What makes all of this possible?  A solid bunch of reliable external partners who provide all sorts of services and put up with our crazy deadlines.  We’ve also had a  strong committed internal team.  pepper people know what “own one thing” means.  They also know what vanilla means and that vanilla is outlawed at pepper.  Pepper would not have made it to 5 without Mike (who has been on board almost from day 1), Jo, Gillian, Liliana, Eric, Stefan, Damien, Niquelle (who just moved to St Lucia), Bjorn, Pat, Aisha and Junior (who is a just come) and a few others who spent some time with us.  To all of them I say thanks for making pepper a cool place to be.

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