Strategic Design | marketing & branding thoughts by Nick Rice

How do you gauge whether your in-house or external communications/design agency is working as well as they should be?

Here are a few questions to get you started:

• Is there alignment between your internal brand promise and your customer's perception? If not, who is responsible? How will you fix it?
  
• How well do they listen before offering a solution?
• Can they speak your business language?
• When is the last time they impressed you with a new idea?
• Are they really part of your team or just a vendor?
• Is the in-house team better than the outside agencies? Why not? They should have the advantage (hint: and it's not because they're "free" or the quickest).
• How does the quality of your deliverables compare to your competition?
• Can they effectively give your pitch to someone without you?
• Do they work on your projects as business people or as artists?
• Is there a long term career path for your in-house creative team?
• Can they truly understand the root cause of your business problems?
• Are you getting the most out of your current retainer? How would you know if you're not?