Boutique approach pays off for Brand Marque

AUTHOR: Lachlan Colquhoun   DATE: 12.04.06   ISSUE 1, 2006

Cordingley, 35, who completed her MBA in 2003, is one of two principals of the Sydney-based agency which was founded in 2004 and this year ranked at number 29 on the annual BRW magazine Upstarts list of new, fast growing businesses.

Brand Marque, which Cordingley founded with long-time mentor and now colleague Peter Morris, saw its revenues jump by 50 percent over the last year – a success she says has come out of a different approach to client relationships.

Brand Marque's approach is to work with a smaller number of clients and give them more dedicated service.

Photo: Jennifer Cordingley

“Clients tend to meet the principal of the agency only at the pitch and they never see them again until the Christmas Party. We were both through with being in that environment where 50 percent of your time is spent on the departmental war of attrition, and 50 percent is spent working with clients who would dearly love to be working with you 100 percent.

“We felt there was an opportunity to create a smaller specialist consultancy, spend less time on bureaucracy and more time on client facing interaction and communication – and so far our clients are very happy with it because it gives them personalised service and quick turnaround.

“Also we didn’t want it to be all about us. We hire senior, experienced people for every role, even the ones that are traditionally filled by juniors. We tell our clients that we don’t expect them to train our staff.”

Another part of the Brand Marque strategy was to combine advertising and public relations, a move which – while common in the UK and the US is not practised often in Australia.

“Our clients have to look after both advertising and PR but Australian agencies tend not to do it very well,” says Cordingley.

"Those who do tend to do it as a bolt on, and the approach is to own two independent firms and then tell them they are sister firms and just watch them squabble over how much budget they can attract.

"But when 99 percent of a budget is coming out of advertising the PR person is often fairly marginalised and an afterthought, so we wanted to integrate advertising and PR at the brand strategy level right through to the implementation level," said Cordingley.

The AGSM education was an important part of building my career.

Brand Marque’s approach is to work with a smaller number of clients and give them more dedicated service. So far, the client list includes AMP’s shopping centre division, Panasonic and Angus & Coote. The company has grown to a current headcount of 10 people.While many people who start-up and operate their own businesses describe the experience as stressful and time-consuming, Cordingley says she is enjoying Brand Marque not only because it is creative, but because it allows her to control her work-life balance with a new family.

“I tell people that I am no more busy than I let myself be,” she says. “I find it very exciting because you aren’t part of a big machine on a client service level, and you have an opportunity to create a unique culture which is oriented around high performance.”

The AGSM education, says Cordingley was an important part of building her career to a point where she felt confident to embark on her own business.

The link between strategy and implementation, which is one of the most important things she took from AGSM, is reflected in Brand Marque’s company strapline “from strategy to the street.”

“The MBA has been helpful on a few fronts. Firstly, it is part of our service offering to provide marketing strategy and help with implementation and the MBA certainly helped with that," she says.

“Secondly, understanding general management means that I have a deeper understanding of my client’s business than some of my competitors, particularly the client’s competitive environments and operational priorities. And, thirdly, it helps me run our business efficiently and effectively.”

“The education you get doesn’t necessarily teach you to be an accountant or a HR expert or a change management guru, but it does teach you to be aware that there is a whole lot more to management than running on your instincts, so that base certainly instils confidence.”