Many individuals have difficulty bringing their ideas to market and creating a new venture. Yet entrepreneurship and the actual entrepreneurial decision have resulted in several million new businesses being started throughout the world. Indeed millions of ventures are formed despite recession, inflation, high interest rates, lack of infrastructure, economic uncertainty and a high probability of failure. Each of these ventures is formed through a very personal human process. (Entrepreneurship 4th Ed., Hisrich Peters)
The decision to leave a career or lifestyle to form a new enterprise is not an easy one. I had been in corporate Marketing for close to 20 years when I made a personal decision to become an entrepreneur. An ex-boyfriend brought me the opportunity to leave full-time employment and launch Pilot Consulting, a Marketing Consultancy service. (Always a good reason to keep one�s ex�s close!) Ex was an advertising guy, then the country�s only back-to-back Clio (the Oscars of advertising) awardee who had also recently formed his own agency.
When meeting new clients for the first time, Ex would instinctively know when they and their products were not ready to reap the benefits of advertising. Yet he could not stop them from doing so, as that would mean shooting his own foot, media revenues being the main income stream of an agency. It was during this moral dilemma when Ex conceived a consultancy service that will help companies and brands properly launch themselves into the market, and consequently, bring them to the point of readiness to advertise. The retainer fees that would be charged during this consultancy period would be deducted from future media commissions.
The new service concept was a hit and we found ourselves busy in our first year of business. Differentiation was what the initial business concept strove to do at its inception and differentiation is how we have built the company steadily and strongly for the past 12 years. The name Pilot Consulting came as well from that differentiation. While other Marketing companies foster supplier-client relationships, Pilot strives to sit in the cockpit with their clients. In a supplier-client relationship, a supplier�s possible solutions are normally limited only by a client�s brief, and his perception of his business problems. By sitting in the cockpit with them, Pilot sees everything they see, and as such are in a unique position to dispense better advise, and help clients develop a good flight plan.
Over the years, we have worked with many, many Brands and we have had the privilege to work with a few Great brands. We noticed that Great brands have certain characteristics that are common to them. Great brands (1) can demand premium pricing, (2) they thrive in economic downturns, (3) they attract great employees, and (4) are not easily copied by competitors. Great brands are strong, consistent (Brandwashed!), relevant and differentiated. Not easily copied, differentiated, therefore UNIQUE. And when the word Unique is mentioned, I think about Deoxyribonucleic Acid or DNA, the stuff that makes us all unique. Every brand has its own DNA. And it is the job of Marketing people to find that DNA.
How? We believe that every good Marketing Campaign starts with a clear understanding of �What�s in it for the customer?� We believe that Research is such an important resource because it tells us exactly, what spaces our competitors occupy in the minds of our consumers, and what spaces remain unserved or underserved, where opportunity for differentiation and potential DNA lives.
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