Services

Robert Frost said "freedom lies in being bold." We would add that in marketing being bold comes from deep consumer insight. We've always been obsessed with understanding the consumer, finding the meaningful ah-hahs that lead us where the competition isn't. It's not easy to become truly relevant and differentiated. But nothing important is ever easy.

Insight Services

• Quantitative research studies including planning, questionnaire design, vendor selection and coordination and analysis
• Ethnographic studies – shop/ride-alongs, in-home
• Focus groups – in house facilities available

Brand Planning Services

• Competitive analysis/shopping
• Brand essence forums – collaborative agency/client sessions to identify the energizing, underlying brand values
• Gap analysis – closing the divide between real and ideal
• Strategic leadership – developing the clever clever plan
• SBC Brand Mapping – the platform for on-brand, integrated communications
• Identity design – the logo and beyond

When your roots are in retail, you learn how to be good. Fast. We don't believe it takes massive production budgets to create powerful, effective advertising. It just takes consumer-focused, smart ideas. And if you win an EFFIE along the way, so much the better. We offer creative, cost-effective production and distribution for:

• TV & radio
• Geo-targeted online advertising
• Consumer & trade print
• Circulars
• Outdoor/mobile/transit
• Direct (electronic and printed)
• Street teams
• Local store marketing

See our broadcast work

Our interactive model is simple: team the people who know your brand with people immersed in interactive. It's why the web work we're doing for leading companies is so on-brand, creating a seamless on- and off-line experience for consumers. We offer:

• Digital strategy (consumer insights, user flows, information architecture)
• Usability
• Web design/online brand expression
• Rich media/Flash technologies
• Web development
• Database growth and management
• Email marketing
• Custom applications (web, mobile or social networking)
• Market optimization (SEO, web analytics/metrics)
• Online advertising/marketing (SEM, Pay-Per-Click, display advertising)

See our interactive work

The opportunity is exponential, where a relative few influencers can impact countless more (actually we do count them). This emergent world is where brands can become more relevant and personal to digital natives (meaning: youth) and immigrants (meaning: everybody else), leading not just to heightened awareness, but real action. SBC provides:

• Digital fingerprinting to measure online presence & reputation
• Influencer strategies – winning the right bloggers
• Moving dialogue to action (web based)
• Social media optimization (SMO) using Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr
• Online reputation management (ORM)
• Promoting and managing user-generated content
• UDM (University of Digital Marketing) – a consulting service for clients that want more digitally aware associates

Really, PR isn't what it used to be. It's way more effective. Today, we're blending established techniques with social media to generate ROI far above the norm. It's an important way to apply big leverage to a modest budget. Services include:

• Strategic planning – how to own the defining voice
• Product launch support
• Leveraging paid media into value-add
• Special events
• Tradeshow support
• Crisis communications counsel/training
• Online reputation management (ORM)
• Content analysis/perception metrics
• Media training
• Video asset creation

From the agency's earliest days, we've focused on the science of in-store selling. Understanding the traffic patterns. Enriching the brand experience. Cross- and up-selling to build average ticket. Enhancing the effectiveness of in-store associates. Services include:

• Consumer and employee usability research
• Store audits and needs analysis
• Full in-house design services
• Store mock-ups (virtual and physical)
• In-store communications (printed and electronic)
• Large scale specialty installations (stadium, full aisle)
• Packaging and display
• Fulfillment
• Collaboration with store design specialists

In retail, you have to be smart, fast and incessantly focused on ROI. Every media decision is measured by its contribution to footprints and sales … every single day. So naturally, we'll approach your media program with a bias for results, developing predictive modeling tools based on spend levels and a large cross-section of variables. Our strength is in:

• Media strategy and buying audits – aligning results with strategy
• MDI/BDI/new market analysis
• Media coverage evaluation-perception metrics
• Planning and buying in:
  • Network and spot (TV, radio & satellite radio)
  • National and local cable
  • Digital
  • Print (magazine, newspaper, DR)
  • Outdoor, mobile marketing, transit
  • Barter
• Multicultural strategy and execution
• Sponsorships
• Grand opening programming proven through thousands of store openings
• Test markets

Too many ad agencies approach business-to-business marketing just like consumer marketing. Wrong. Sure, it may use similar media vehicles from time to time. But the thinking and discipline is frequently a world apart. That's why SBC has an agency-within-an-agency full of professionals who focus entirely on b2b clients in multiple categories, delivering:

• Brand and sub-brand strategy
• Channel selling strategies
• Sales motivation programs
• Strategic marketing and brand management
• Lead generation and sales productivity programs
• Associate training and programmed learning
• Web site and eBusiness application development
• Customer relationship marketing
• Video asset creation, production and distribution

When we say we're "built from the numbers up," we mean it. We build our strategic approach on real-world impact. It's about modeling, tracking, analyzing, learning and most importantly, adapting as a marketing program unfolds. Our ideal scenario is to:

• Work closely with senior management to understand financial goals
• Establish a predictive ROI modeling tool
• Link with the client marketing and finance group to closely follow sales impact
• Constantly reconcile the results, refining strategies and tactics as programs unfold