How "no-frills" marketing and creative agencies can make small businesses more competitive

The reason for this is that we tend to rely on cues or heuristics to assess things that we are unfamiliar with. In behavioural science, this phenomenon is referred to as the halo effect - a bias whereby we use one attribute to judge several other (often more abstract) attributes of a person, product or company. For example, many supermarkets stock house brand products that are typically cheaper than the other brands we encounter.

Many of us, who have not purchased and tried these house brand products, will assume that their lower costs and often generic packaging can be correlated with quality. The truth is that packaging and pricing is, in many instances, not an indicator of quality. Many of the supermarkets' house brand products are manufactured by the very same factories that manufacture the more sought after brands' products.

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Being the director of a small creative and branding agency, I know just how challenging it is for small businesses to build market credibility. Small businesses are usually left to lurk in the shadows of their respective industry behemoths. Even though small businesses often have products and services that are on par with, if not better than, those of larger companies – they do not have the means to professionally brand, market and position themselves. Their budgets and expertise simply incapacitate them from creating the flashy advertisements, brand collateral and packaging that are appealing to consumers. They therefore tend to settle for amateurish and mediocre efforts while their larger competitors get to enjoy the professional services of consultants and agencies.

There is an opportunity for “no-frills” marketing and creative agencies to level the playing field for small businesses. Such agencies make their services more accessible to businesses, with budget constraints, by lowering their fees through the elimination of unnecessary expense-generating activities and items. For instance, lower service fees can be accomplished by doing briefings electronically (e.g. over Skype) instead of in person. The use of electronic channels also allows for “no-frills” agencies to base their operations in smaller offices, as they do not need to accommodate clients for meetings, thus reducing their overheads. It is most important that these agencies only minimise and cut the costs that do not compromise the quality of their core services. Perhaps this can be a call for government to support no-frills agencies that can aid entrepreneurs in promoting their businesses.

With access to affordable and professional marketing and creative services, small businesses are better equipped to increase their market share by attracting targeted consumers more effectively. After all, these businesses and their products need to look good in order to be perceived as good.