The Rise of Consultancy Firms There are some interesting forces at work in the marketing arena these days. Consulting organizations that had been making their money primarily from management, technology, and strategic consulting have been taking business away from agencies in such a way that agencies are left scratching their heads. It's not such a huge feat for agencies to understand why and how these consultancies are stealing business right out from under their noses. Consultancies are making huge investments in developing marketing capabilities. Once a client has committed to a consultancy for strategy or IT work, it is very easy for that consultancy to upsell marketing services, particularly as those services pertain to online marketing, media, and overall marketing strategy.
Consultancies also tend to take a holistic approach to marketing.
Clearly, they aim to fully understand a client's business model before they make any marketing recommendations. I doubt it, but I do think that agencies need to make some adjustments to the way they do business in this day and age. I had so many questions, in fact, that I felt uneasy about putting together a media plan. Rather than spin my own wheels doing work that would need to be revised later, I asked the account folks to set up a meeting with the new client in order to go over the business model. The client meeting was a tremendous eye opener for me.