Each week on “5 Minutes With,” our hosts talk to experts in the marketing industry. Today, Mike White spoke with Christian Jennings from wmHarper, a full-service brand strategy and advertising firm born out of the realization that companies don’t understand the term brand.
Company: wmHarper
Website Address: www.wmharper.com
Interviewee: Christian Jennings
What is wmHarper?
We are an advertising agency centered around brand strategy. We got started because we noticed that there was a big lack of companies that really understood brand. I think digital has kind of created fragmentation of people stepping away from brand and we want to help the companies that we’re working with bring it all back to brand.
From your experience, what is the most important marketing KPI or key performance indicator to monitor?
Awareness is a huge one. I think a lot of brands and a lot of companies forget that awareness is the key to getting clients or customers to even pay attention to your brand. You need to consider your brand awareness no matter what. You should always be a key piece of what it is possible clients are trying to do.
What is the difficulty in measuring awareness?
Every one of our clients has a business goal whether it be tied to a percentage increase in sales or new clients, even down to clients who’s big KPI is a number of tests ordered for example. We keep everything very much centered on the strategy that we have brought to that table. That strategy is meant to benefit the business as a whole, not just brand and marketing.
Why is it important for a company to hire an outside advertising agency or executive to help with their campaigns?
I think that’s one of the biggest important pieces. We even hire consultants to come in and help with our own brand. You get so connected to your brand you can lose sight of things. So bringing in that outside resource allows us to come up with a fresh perspective and really focus on what’s best. I also noticed that it really helps getting leadership teams on board.