How many times have you lost a pitch on grounds of chemistry? It’s an issue that is so endemic in the industry that PRCA vice-chairman Richard Houghton has made it the theme of his blog: A close second.

Do you think the same happens in other professional services industries such as accounting, legal or management consultancy? I don’t think so.

My current pet theory is that the industry’s lack of formal methods – crucially planning and measurement techniques – and its inability to map metrics into a domain that is relevant to business, which means clients are left to differentiate agencies on the basis of intangible variables such as chemistry.

It’s bloody frustrating. But it’s changing. Processes and methods such as those described in reports and papers from Daryl Wilcox Publishing and econsultancy are enabling consultancies to develop formal techniques to plan, implement and measure in financial terms that a marketing director and board can understand.

There are some really innovation projects going on around the industry on the development of formal methods by people such as Ged Carroll (reputation), Tim Hoang (SEO and keyword planning), Phil Sheldrake (analytics), Andrew Smith (SEO and planning) and Will McInnes (measurement).

Inevitably I’ve missed out lots of people at the vanguard of the industry, people that are getting on with the job of recalibrating and redefining their businesses, or starting over from scratch.

We’re investing heavily and learning from colleagues in other marketing disciplines within Loewy. I’d love to talk anyone that wants to listen about the investments that we are making and the formal techniques and tools that we are developing.

Tags: formalmethods, planning, PR