Like Apple, we think different.

So here’s the predictable vision/mission stuff:

Vision…

To bring marketing back in the boardroom—where it belongs.

Mission…

To serve a select group of clients with marketing programs that are more strategic, more efficient, and more profitable than those of our competitors—or those our clients could plan and implement themselves.

Vision and mission statements provide direction—but tend to be inner-focused and predictable. Predictable communications are risky, because the marketplace tends to ignore them.

When translated into a powerful, proprietary brand promise, you can achieve a competitive advantage that preempts your competition and propels your business forward.

About you …

As a client, you are willing to translate your mission and vision into a strong brand promise. As a client, you are willing to live that promise. As a client, you will strive for honest conversation and true collaboration. You will couple that with the courage to communicate in a way that is relevant, remembered, and repeated.

If you are seeking a “vendor” or if your corporate culture is content with a drifting ship—we may not be the right firm for you to retain. (Or you may need us more than you know.)

About us…

We are not an agency. We are a creation company. We believe that creativity is the elimination of options—not the creation of more options. (That can lead to paralysis and loss of momentum.)

Our business strategy is based upon combining your insights and ideas with our collective experience. We strive for higher ground, not common ground. Then we move from ideas to action, with a competitive sense of urgency.

Reduce your risk.

We believe the best way to minimize risk is to maximize opportunity—to reach out to the future by charting a new course, rather than perpetuating the past. The core marketing and business beliefs that both anchor and propel us are summarized below:

First, you need a compass.

We believe in “backward thinking”—determining where you want to go and thinking backward from there.

Some companies are very good at this. Some companies are consumed by it. Most companies have defined a destination, but haven’t charted a course to help them get there. Research, planning, and testing help you navigate when the winds and currents of business change—and reduce your risk of getting off course. This is where we like to start with our clients.

Then, you need a propeller.

In marketing, your propeller is your plan, your promise, your positioning, and your communications strategies. But these are only critical stops on the journey, not the destination. Once these are approved, if you provide the trust … we’ll provide the thrust.

Finally, you need a crew.

If you like the idea of contracting your marketing with experts in the field—without the ongoing commitment of adding staff—you can look to Contract Marketing Resources.* We represent a network of independent marketing and communications contractors—modeled after the construction industry—in response to the chaotic conditions of the 21st century.

Your staff or our contractor network? Or some efficient combination? Let’s discuss what we call “team sourcing” and decide together … before the storm hits.

P.S. A nautical theme in Iowa? Why?

There is simply too much clutter and too much risk that your marketing messages will be ignored if you go with predictable concepts and communications. For the best return on investment, you must strive for communications that continuously and consistently support your brand promise—your positioning.

Whether you call it a tagline or a positioning line, a brand promise is best summarized with a few words—shorthand for your promise. Ideally, that tagline is coupled with a visual icon that helps remind people of why your business exists.

A strong brand promise translates your vision and mission in a way clients and customers understand and answers that all-important question, “What's in it for me?” The Contract Marketing Resources brand promise is to help you prioritize your limited marketing resources...and propel your business forward.

Thus, a nautical theme in Iowa, the positioning line Business Propellers^SM, a propeller incorporated into the logo, and this marketing and communications philosophy:

Make waves. Leave a wake.

* Just to be sure we are on the same page, we define selling as "getting rid of what you've got." We define marketing as "finding out what the customer wants and providing it at a profit." We are in the contract marketing business—not the contract selling business.