Jeff and I spent a lot of time deciding on what to call our new services and consulting practice. We finally settled on “in-side” because it seems to best reflect what we’re trying to do.

It’s very important for us to get inside, really inside, the client’s business. I’ve spent most of my career inside the corporate world, and Jeff’s been just the opposite, an independent contractor. However, we’ve both experienced the same problems when marketing programs go bad:

• The programs are good in theory, but don’t work in the real world;
• The programs don’t mesh with the character and values of the company;
• No buy-in from key internal people, and
• Not enough time spent defining budgets, goals, and metrics.

To do things right, we want to spend as much time as possible inside the client’s office, to learn the business, and build relationships with the staff, become part of the team. We believe that’s the best way to help clients market. We’ll have to invest some extra time, but it’s worth it if it gets results.

We need to get inside the mind of the client’s customer. Tall order. Understanding customers has never been more difficult. A lot of it is generational. Baby Boomers have some fairly well defined values and behaviors upon which most marketing communicaton is based. However, younger people moving into positions of authority in the corporate world are much different. These differences have huge implications for what and how a company communicates.

Finally, the word “inside” reminds us that customers need an inside look at the client. When a customer gets past the hype and the one-way communication and starts to see the client as a group of people offering something of real value … good things happen. Marketing used to be “LOOK AT ME!”. More and more, it’s becoming “LOOK AT US!”