Richard Murray: Marketing renaissance

The whole concept of marketing has been completely redefined over the course of the last century. Originally, it was the activity of an entrepreneur – someone who saw a commercial opportunity and pursued it with an unrelenting drive and passion.

However, today the term marketing has sadly become shorthand for a fairly standard process, or discipline. Independence, imagination and intuition seem to have been replaced by things like merger, maintenance and methodology.

That said, I wonder if we may be on the cusp of a widespread revival of entrepreneurial marketing? I raise the question as there seems to be a burgeoning body of disenchanted clients deciding to “go it alone”. This no longer means handing back the keys to the company Renault (remember the ad?), calling themselves an independent consultant, and charging exorbitant daily rates. It is simply about seeing an untapped product opportunity and seizing it. The evidence is everywhere.

Ruby Hammer and Millie Kendall abandoned hugely successful careers to launch their own brand of cosmetics. Drinks brand Innocent is the brainchild of three businessmen who gave up jobs in advertising and the city to mix fruit juices. Dave Phelan and Pat Rigney walked away from UDV to create Irish spirits business Roaringwater Bay, maker of Boru vodka. And Lorraine and Michael Brehme, together with their last £50, established Clipper Teas, which I gather now outsells Twinings in many outlets.

Apart from the pleasure of seeing people succeed, entrepreneurial brands are raising the stakes for the consumer. Dyson has revolutionised cleaning in a way Hoover simply could not. And you can thank Julian Metcalf’s Pret A Manger for the improved quality of your sandwiches at Tesco, along with Ben and Jerry’s for its new standards in ice-cream.

But it runs much deeper. Entrepreneurial teams such as Fresh and Wild, Planet Organic and Here have pioneered the whole organic retail revolution. Left to the major multiples, I doubt so much would have happened so soon: it would have caused too much financial and logistical disruption. Similarly, BA would have had no incentive to launch an economy airline – the now to be sold off Go – were it not for the crusade of Stelios Haji-Loannou at EasyJet.

The resurgence of the entrepreneur could be great news for design businesses because, certainly in my experience, they have the potential to make model clients. It is no coincidence that several of the above examples are increasingly cited as either good or interesting approaches to design or branding in client discussions. By definition they are much more visionary than your typical institutionalised marketer and have a greater willingness to reject formulas and embrace risk-taking. When it is your own company you perhaps begin to realise that the low-risk strategies, while good for a steady career, tend to yield low levels of commercial reward. While entrepreneurial brand owners don’t have the largest of budgets, they allow them to be used in a much more effective manner. While perhaps not as lucrative as working for big brand clients, the experience of working with entrepreneurial clients is very enriching.

Typically, these marketers don’t have the time to get into the bad habit of viewing design as a drawn-out process of incremental modifications. The urgent need for speed-to-market means they are more inclined to be led by gut-feel.

Furthermore, the absence of reporting chains mean you deal with the decision-maker, so removing the “I’ll get back to you” tendency. By virtue of going it alone, they have taken the biggest risk of all, so they are bound to be more pliant when it comes to making decisions on design.

Without doubt the greatest thing about entrepreneurial marketers is that they attach a real value to the design product. When design effectively becomes an extension of the individual, it takes on a far greater significance. The creation of a new identity ceases to be a frivolous activity that justifies lunches in the West End and plumps up a CV.

I found myself in a meeting last week with one such client. She noted, with due irony, that the businesses who tend to espouse “passion”, “dedication” and “integrity” (usually in their mission statements) are those least likely to deliver on the promise.

With that thought in mind, I’d like to raise a glass of Boru vodka, mixed with some Innocent juice, to toast the return of the marketing entrepreneur.