Marketing disciplines.

I use the disciplines that will get the job done. To generate immediate sales leads, I'll use direct marketing. To build wide awareness over time, nothing beats advertising. A manufacturer who relies on retail distribution needs sales promotion. Employee communications can use internal mail, email, the Web, video and CD/DVD, live training seminars and motivational meetings of whatever size will meet the objectives.

I believe everyone needs solid identity materials — logo, letterhead, business cards, a basic brochure and probably some presence on the Web. Not every business lends itself to great ultility on the Web, but I do believe it's the Yellow pages of the new millenium. Also, it gives people a way to respond to other promotions by, at a minimum, sending email or even printing out coupons to take into a retail location.

That said, whatever the discipline or the media, here's how I think it makes sense to think about what my pals and I do specifically:

Strategy.

There's marketing strategy, Internet strategy and finally the message strategy. Most of the companies we work with have a general idea of who their customers are and what niche they fill, particularly if they've been around awhile. Our job is pretty much to translate that market information and some business objectives into appropriate communications disciplines and specific media.

I think we're pretty good at Internet strategy as a subset of an overall strategy, and the great thing about the Internet is that some of the methods are still completely free, so everyone can participate.

Finally, a message strategy is critical, if only to make sure everyone on the team agrees on what the basic message is. Depending on a company's need for detail, we can do one strategy for a whole program or a strategy for each deliverable.

Concept.

To be blunt, I like having reached the concept better than I like the actual development process. I'm sure Paul and Ray would agree. That said, a great concept presents one primary benefit in an unexpected way — and is generally not shy. An old boss of mine once said it best: You can't bore people into buying your product.

Execution.

I write the copy, develop the look or the tone, acquire or create the visuals and anything else a creative team would do, Ray is involved, in which case we both do a little of everything.

By training I'm a traditionally-schooled art director who discovered computers in the mid-1980s and never looked back. I run the Adobe design studio CS3 as of summer 2007, which includes Flash. On the audio side, I go back and forth between GargeBand, Amadeus and the SoundStudio beta — am contemplating bringing some video capabilities in-house.

Production.

I produce the print and maintain the sites, with help from prepress folks, printers, software developers and video producers. Ray produces the really great broadcast media.