Emma Diacono | Marketing from the outside-in

What exactly is perception management?

Perceptions are your stakeholders' way of seeing, understanding or interpreting your brand, your product or service, your message, your reputation. Stakeholder perceptions need to be continually managed through proactive and sensitive communications, active listening, continued engagement and real genuine relationships.

In traditional Marketing and PR practice, insufficient attention is given to the view from the external environment. PR and Communications campaigns often address the needs of the enterprise through inside-out one-way messaging initiatives. In reality, the success of any type of marketing is determined by the message perceived by the intended audience.

To be truly effective, messages must consider the needs of the stakeholder. They must be directed towards helping to shape or change perceptions. Whatever the medium, it is essential to look at things with an 'outside-in' perspective. That is the only way marketing can work!

And corporate concierge?

Corporate concierge is a termed we coined to simply mean that we will take on any task that is not core to your business. Just as a personal concierge would be your personal time provider, businesses also at times need extra support for a specific project or certain on-going business requirements. Our Corporate Concierge service is basically a project management service aimed at helping organisations manage their 'to do' list, coordinate corporate activities, or plan and manage a 'one of a kind' event.

Over the years, any activity - be it an event, annual reports that needed compiling, AGMs or an important company visit that needed to be organised, and so on always fell on our plate, probably due to the fact that we simply roll-up our sleeves and get things done, professionally! We therefore turned this into a service in itself and today take on a number of tasks that clients need to get done but either don't have the skills or the available resource in-house, or simply would rather 'pass on the headache'.

 What makes Emma Diacono Ltd different from all the other marketing agencies out there?

First and foremost we are not a marketing and advertising agency. We provide Perception Management and Corporate Concierge Services, allowing companies access to a flexible and experienced marketing team without the cost of taking on such a team on a full-time basis. We specialise in strategic marketing, planning and implementation of integrated marketing and communications strategy, including social media. We typically would then be the ones to liaise with advertising and design agencies on behalf of our clients.

If I had to try and put a finger on what makes us different, I would not say it's because we are marketing gurus, but we take great pride in offering a stellar service. It's our approach towards work and the relationships we build with our clients that to date has really made a difference.

How did you get into the marketing industry?

I graduated and specialised in management and not a specific stream of marketing, however my view of business is that you are only as strong as your clients make you. That is, you may have a brilliant set-up and a fantastically robust product, but unless the market out there perceives a need for your product and service, and actually buys it, your business is in trouble! I have always naturally gravitated towards marketing and am a firm believer and advocate that marketing in some way or form should form part of or be addressed in each and every department and not simply the 'marketing department'.

When did you start out on your own?

I set up Emma Diacono Ltd in 2009.

How as the company grown since then?

It is no secret that the economic climate over last few years has been tough.  However we have worked hard and the team has grown, as have the number of clients we handle.

What are the highs and lows of working in the marketing industry?

For me marketing is one of the most exciting industries to be in. Audiences are constantly changing both in their behavioural patterns, as well as in their preferences on how to engage with a brand. Marketing tools are constantly changing; there is always something new to keep up with. While you could see this as a challenge, in my opinion it is what keeps things interesting.

On the downside, I believe that in Malta we still tend to pocket-hole marketing as synonymous with advertising. Many companies also tend to separate different aspects of marketing. For example, they would treat advertising, PR and online and social media as separate entities whereas really and truly these all need to sing off the same hymn book and all work together towards a single goal. Companies also tend to confuse what we do with the services provided by an advertising agency. We are not an agency but act as an integral extension to our clients' team - we are typically the ones that then deal with our client's respective advertising agency as I mentioned earlier.

There is also the sensitivity needed to manage the client, especially when as marketers it is our duty to present things from the outside-in which is not necessarily the same view as the business owners may have. There is also personal taste and preference in terms of the way things should look and so on. Although this can be a real challenge, it is one of the things that I enjoy the most!

Marketing budgets are usually the first to be slashed when the economy slows down. How have you managed to remain competitive?

Yes, marketing budgets are typically one of the first to be cut. However this does not mean that marketing stops 100%. It is typically traditional advertising budgets that are mostly affected. In our experience it has all been about tweaking marketing plans to fit the business goals and resources available.

Our focus over the last couple of years has been on building a solid reputation as a company; becoming reliable and trusted partners and establishing ourselves as a core part of our client's team and business. So far, although there has been tighter budgets all round, none of our clients have 'stopped marketing'!

How do you see the company five years from now?

I see our team growing slightly larger however I say slightly as our service is not about quantity but quality, and I would not want the personal touch to disappear from what we do. I would not be surprised if the tools we would be using in five years would be totally different to those we use today, as technology will continue to present us with new challenges and new ways to get our message across. Essentially, however, we will be doing the same thing - advising our clients on the best way to get their message across effectively in order to meet their business objectives, and providing them with a no-frills efficient service to allow them to concentrate on their core business.

Do you have any new projects in the pipeline?

We are actually in the midst of launching a new concept - a service that will extend our corporate concierge service to individuals under a new brand - The Occasion Café.

We organise numerous events and initiatives for our corporate clients. We have the set-up and the network in place to deliver fantastic events, as well as the experience to make sure that these are delivered to a 'T'. The Occasion Café will extend the service to individuals who would like to organise an event and either don't have the time to get it off the ground, do not know where to start from or who to contact, or simply want a to be able to sit back and enjoy their event. Just because the occasion is not a corporate one, it does not mean that it does not have to be professionally put together.