Ogilvy & Mather Advertising Agency

Strategy formulation process is a vital process in the operations of a company. Nonetheless, this report will focus on identifying key strategic issues facing an advertising agency. It will provide details about the environmental and internal analysis of Ogilvy advertising agency. Furthermore, the report will suggest some strategies that the managers of Ogilvy can implement.

Ogilvy Advertising Agency: An Overview

It was founded by David Ogilvy back in 1948. By then, it had no clients. However, it is currently one of the largest advertising agencies in the world. It has over 40 offices in the United States and approximately 400 offices worldwide located in over 90 countries. However, it has its headquarters in New York.

Ogilvy advertising agency has over 16,000 employees to serve its large number of clients all over the world. These employees have helped build this agency being one of the most recognisable brands in the world. Ogilvy and Mather advertising agency has a good working relationship with its parent company WPP Group.

Over the years, Ogilvy advertising agency has managed to serve many clients from all corners of the world. It mainly focuses on multinational companies. However, the company also offers its services to small but promising enterprises and helps them make their presence acknowledged on the market. Some of the clients of Ogilvy advertising agency include BP, Coca-Cola, BBC, IBM, SmithKline, Novartis, Unilever, Argos, Deloitte & Touche, and MasterCard International.  Also, it has been able to engage in media relations for celebrities such as Brad Pitt, Jamie Fox, Ben Affleck, and Reese Witherspoon. Notably, government bodies have been frequent clients of Ogilvy advertising agency.

Environment Analysis of Ogilvy Advertising Agency

Environmental analysis of Ogilvy advertising agency involves scanning the environment for factors that may affect the company. This is followed by analysing these factors and identifying which factors are most significant to the company. Finally, the company should forecast the effects of these external factors on the operations of the company in the future. This environment analysis mainly focuses on identifying opportunities and threats facing the Ogilvy Advertising Agency.

Advertising agency is faced with different opportunities in the environment in which it operates. The most vital opportunity is the prospect of using online advertising as a new source of income. Most organisations have not yet understood the importance of online advertising. Hence, they are still using old techniques such as the use of fliers to market themselves. Therefore, Ogilvy advertising agency can take advantage of this trend and attract many clients.

Although it will be a difficult task, explaining the use of online advertising to this organisation, it will eventually earn the company good profits. It is important for many companies to have an online presence and, hence, they will need the services of reputable marketing agencies such as Ogilvy advertising agency. Therefore, Ogilvy advertising agency should see this as an opportunity and exploit it.

Ogilvy advertising agency is also faced with the opportunity of adapting new strategies to increase its revenues. The company can adapt new strategies of attracting more clients in order to increase its revenues. Also, it can improve the quality of its services in order to attract more clients.

The opportunity of targeting new enterprises is outstanding. The agency can focus its attention on upcoming enterprises that have a bright future. For example, it can target small enterprises that deal with technology innovations.

The company also has other opportunities that it can take advantage of to increase its competitive advantage. For example, the company can exploit untapped areas such as web marketing. Therefore, it should assist its clients market themselves effectively on the web. The increase of people connected to the Internet is increasing greatly each day. Hence, many businesses would be interested in targeting the techno-savvy people connected to the web.

However, Ogilvy and Mather advertising agency encounters various threats in its operations in the advertising world. Currently, there is an increase of lawsuits facing different marketing agencies in regard to absolute negligence in the preparation of ads. Also, the economy is not that stable as in the past, hence, recession can hit the market. This can have a devastating effect on the operations of Ogilvy as many of their client companies will focus on cutting down their costs. Hence, Ogilvy advertising agency will have few clients.

Also, there is the threat of competition in the industry. Ogilvy advertising agency faces cut-throat competition from other well-established marketing agencies in the world. Some of the competitors of Ogilvy Advertising agency include Omnicon Group, Interpublic group, and Publicis group.

Internal Analysis of Ogilvy Advertising Agency

The internal analysis of this company involves a review of its strengths and weaknesses. The analysis focuses on the factors within the domain of the company. Internal analysis will enable the company to identify its competencies and increase its competitive advantage. Therefore, a detailed internal analysis will improve the operations of the company.

The managers of the company are able to identify its strengths and weaknesses by conducting an effective internal analysis. Ogilvy advertising agency will be in a good position to establish the use of out-dated technology, process efficiencies or powerful machinery.  It can capitalise on its strengths and factor them into the strategy formulation process. Also, the company will be able to eliminate weaknesses and gain competitive advantage. A well-carried out internal analysis and effective implementation of strategies formulated will be reflected on the profitability of the company.

The main strength of Ogilvy advertising agency is its unique style of advertising. The company advertises in a distinctive way as compared to other marketing agencies. It advertises on an all-inclusive platform that targets people from all spheres of life. Its target market is very huge. Hence, it is able to reach many people with just one advert.

The company’s other strengths are its brand equity and creativity. It is one of the largest advertising agencies in the world, and its brand is highly recognisable. Many of clients seek its services because of its recognisable brand.  Also, the creativity of Ogilvy’ employees is a great addition to the core competencies of the agency. They are able to produce catchy and attractive ads for its clients. The ads produced by their staff are certain of attracting the attention of anyone.

Its concept of rural marketing is one of its other strengths. The company focuses on reaching the rural population who have not been targeted by the mainstream marketing agencies yet. This gives it an added advantage as it can earn more revenue from targeting this category of people. Also, it is an integrated solutions provider that provides other services apart from advertising. Ogilvy &Mather company also helps clients in strategy formulation and public relations. For example, its public relations team has assisted many celebrities to create a good public image.

Nevertheless, like other companies Ogilvy and Mather advertising agency has its own weakness. The main weakness of this company is that it uses an old school concept of advertising. Although, this concept is still effective, the target market has changed greatly over the past couple of years. Hence, the company needs to change its way of advertising. It needs to adapt new techniques of advertising to reach more people and meet the ever-increasing needs of its clients.

Key Strategic Issues (KSI) Facing Ogilvy Advertising Agency

Key strategic issues are concerns or expectations of an occurrence in the future that may have a significant impact on the organisation’s strategy. These key strategic issues lead to strategic alignments and actions. Hence, identification of these issues is vital to the success of the Ogilvy Advertising Agency. The first step of this process of identifying KSI is acknowledging that they actually do exist.

These strategic issues usually advance the company to a better place than its initial position. The strategic accomplishments will improve the team and result in an increase of the company’s competitiveness. Importantly, the managers of Ogilvy have to understand the key strategic directives of the company.  Thereafter, they should provide quality team with other employees to set specific goals for the company. The company should realise and understand the notion of key strategic issues. Hence, it should focus more on identifying the issues of evaluating the effectiveness of brand marketing, allowing the creative employees present their work, staff turnover and retention, the role of print in advertising, effective use of social media to get more clients, improving customer service.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Brand Marketing

In the recent years, brand and content marketing has become a leading advertising strategy.  Nonetheless, the main challenge has been in evaluating its effectiveness and selling this idea to the customer. Ogilvy advertising agency needs to master brand marketing to be able to enumerate the increased revenue to its clients. With this type of marketing, this company should focus more on the customer rather than focussing on the client. Ogilvy and Mather advertising agency will have a competitive advantage over other agencies, if it manages turn the art of content marketing into more of a science.  

Allowing the Creative Employees Present Their Work

In Ogilvy advertising agency, different people have their own roles in production of attractive and creative work.  There are professionals in financial management, production and other areas of speciality. Hence, the whole organisation is packed with creative and smart people. Importantly, there are copywriters and art directors who are responsible for production of attractive and artistic work for clients of the company. Actually, they are people who make the agency what it is. Hence, their role should not be underestimated. It is essential to remunerate them handsomely so as to retain their creative minds because they are the most vital asset of the company.

Staff Turnover and Retention

Staff turnover and retention is another key strategic issue facing Ogilvy advertising agency. The recession that happened recently has left a key impact on the workforce of different advertising agencies. During the recession, many agencies reduced the number of their employees through downsizing. Also, other employees decided to change their jobs as they were uncertain about their jobs. This affected the relationship between advertising agencies and their clients negatively. Ogilvy advertising agency was not exempted from this effect that rippled itself through the world of advertising. It had to lay off a good number of employees to minimise its operation costs.  This strained its relationship with major clients who had developed close ties with certain employees. This significantly affected its strategy formulation process.

The Role of Print in Advertising

The Internet and social media have intensely changed the role of print media in the world of advertising. In the past, majority of the agencies focussed on traditional print advertising together with television media. However, this practice has changed with the entry of the Internet in the world of advertising. In the formulation of company’s strategy, the managers of Ogilvy advertising agency should determine the role of print in the advertising world.

However, some people disagree that the use of print in advertising will end completely. They argue that the use of technological devices such as e-readers will increase steadily. Ogilvy advertising agency should try to keep pace with advances in technology to have a competitive advantage over other agencies.

Effective use of Social Media to Get More Clients

The use of the social media in advertising has entirely changed the way advertising agencies do their business. However, it has also brought some challenges such as integrating it into overall advertising campaigns and using it to make more money for their clients. It is extremely difficult to convince new and existing clients to hire social media experts rather than doing the work themselves. Ogilvy advertising agency should have a strategy in place to integrate their traditional campaigns together with social media.

Improving Customer Service

Customer service is vital for any company that wants to retain its clients. Knowing a way

how to serve customers is an essential ingredient to the success of the company. Ogilvy advertising agency should develop strategies that will help it improve the level of customer service and, hence, retain existing clients and attract new ones.

Strategies that Could be Implemented

Ogilvy advertising agency should implement different strategies to solve the key strategic issues and increase its competitive advantage. It should pitch for IT companies that are still at a developing stage. Dealing with these clients will give it an upper edge against other established marketing agencies.

It should also hunt for creative and talented employees that will complement the skills of its existing workforce. In order to increase its revenue, the agency can advertise political campaigns. It can also engage in event management and film production. This will help increase its amount of revenue.

Conclusions

In conclusion, Ogilvy & Mather advertising agency should conduct both internal and environmental analysis to identify factors that may affect the operations of the company. Also, it should identify key strategic issues and implement suggested strategies. This will help the company have a competitive advantage and increase its revenues.

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