Why do some agencies ‘get away’ with sh*t positioning?

“Those guys down the road don’t fit your idea of good positioning and they’re flying. Why’s that Ben?”

It’s a fair question I’ve heard several times when chatting with sceptical agency leaders about niching or specialising.

But before I try to answer it, a gentle reminder…

Positioning is the unique combination of what you do, who you do it for and how you do it, the goal of which is to make your agency distinguishable and identifiable to a prospect.

I often use the words positioning and strategy interchangeably because, in my mind, they are the same. A credible business strategy means you have made explicit choices, not just about what you DO, but also what you DON’T.

A quick look at an agency’s website is enough to judge whether such choices have been made.

Typical symptoms of an 'uncredible' strategy include:

• Dozens of sector ‘specialism’ pages (optimised to within an inch of their life).
• An endless shopping list of services.
• And (often) unsubstantiated claims and clichés masquerading as points of difference; ‘results-focused’, ‘transparent’ and dare I say ‘award-winning’ to name just three.

Yet some agencies do appear to ‘get away’ with this.

So, circling back to the opening question…why? What do they have that perhaps others don’t?

A charismatic, ‘out there’ leader

Can you do brilliant marketing without brilliant positioning? It’s not easy but is possible.

For example, sometimes the agency’s people are THE marketing. Think of the charismatic leader constantly out there banging the agency’s drum - a one-person lead machine. Everywhere you go, online and offline, he or she is there.

But before you go and splurge a load of cash on a personal branding consultant, there’s an important angle to this; you need something interesting to say beyond how great (you think) your agency is; a bold – maybe even polarising - point of view about the industry, how you run your agency or deliver your work, is going to help here.

Of course, not all leaders feel comfortable in the spotlight. But when they do, it can trump the need to narrow their agency's positioning.

An infectious culture

In all likelihood, this is an extension of the above. The confidence of the leader flows through the agency. People (talent and clients) want a bit of it.

This highlights how culture goes way beyond perks and incentives. Ping-pong tables, gym memberships, beer fridges and office dogs might supplement culture. But they don’t create it.

Instead, culture (good or bad) is based on the values and behaviours of its leaders. It is visible in how the business is run and makes people feel as a result.

And if this means an agency can attract (and retain) the best talent, they might also attract the best clients - despite their poor positioning.

The work sells itself

Sometimes the quality of an agency's work is so good that when marketed well, a steady stream of prospects come knocking who want the same. Think high-profile creative campaigns, ads and film, for example, complemented with excellent PR that sees the work (and agency) regularly featured in trade press and, of course, winning awards.

Whilst positioning an agency as the ‘best’ or ‘most creative’ doesn’t pass as a credible strategy, a few get away with it due to the very public recognition their work receives.

A superstar sales function

Few agencies take sales seriously from day one. Instead, they rely on their black book, referrals and oodles of energy and enthusiasm. New business is typically the responsibility of the agency leader, but, because they are also on the shop floor, it is mainly reactive and lower down the priority list.

On the flip side, I’ve seen other agencies adopt an entirely different approach; new business is the number one priority, from day one. A Midlands-based digital agency comes to mind - even when they were relatively small, they invested heavily in building their sales and marketing team. And it’s paid off. In a few short years, they’ve grown to be one of the largest and most respected digital agencies in the UK (and are now expanding overseas).

Their relentless focus on lead generation and conversion has superseded the need to target a discrete audience or refine their service offering. In fact, they’ve done the complete opposite.

Prepared (and able) to swallow the cost of pitching

In line with the above, for some agencies, especially at the larger end of the scale, pitching is so embedded in the culture that the absurdity of it all is rarely questioned. Chucking a ton of free time and thinking at six all-consuming pitches to win one is just the cost of doing business.

If you’re willing to pitch more to win less (in terms of conversion rate) - and have the resource to give every one of them a decent shot - then to hell with niche or specialist positioning.

A systematic referral machine

69% of agencies cite referrals as the most effective way of generating leads. Yet only 49% of agencies have implemented a systematic strategy to increase the number or quality of referrals (Benchpress 2024 ). Bonkers, eh?

The 51% of agencies that do have a system in place may find their ‘catch-all’ positioning does little harm. Although they might find it challenging to describe who they’d like to be referred to when their ideal client profile is as broad as ‘ambitious brands’ or ‘growing SMEs’!

Winning one or two game-changing clients

You might call it luck. I prefer serendipity. But every so often, a big opportunity arrives at the door. Some agencies, for good reason, know it’s just too big. Winning it would eat up too much resource and present too high a risk.

Others see it as the opportunity to take the next run up the growth ladder. They know there will be some smoke and mirrors needed to win it. But, by doing so, it’s the catalyst for further big wins and fast growth.

And also a very good excuse to stick two fingers up to specialist or niche positioning.

Highly deliberate account growth

Is this enough to bypass the rules of strategy in itself? Probably not. More likely this is an extension of the aforementioned fixation on sales. Account managers aren’t tasked with ambiguous upselling goals; instead, they have strategic growth plans. And they are coached on how to identify, nurture and close opportunities.

Furthermore, agency leaders are likely to ignore the advice to narrow their service offering. Instead, they add more and more service lines as clients ask for them. So, with more stuff to sell, they increase the value of each account and become ever more entrenched.

There is an important point to consider here: credibility. When your agency website has a drop-down menu listing thirty services delivered by a team of just ten people, it doesn’t stack up. But for some agencies, the size of their service offering and the size of their team are in tandem, so they care little about criticism of their ‘full-service’ claims .

Some agencies do well despite their poor positioning, not because of it

For every agency possessing one or two of the above traits - to the extent it can create a competitive advantage - there are a hundred agencies that don’t.

So, whilst a minority of agencies can largely ignore the positioning advice spouted by the likes of yours truly, the rest of you need a credible, ‘three-pillar’ business strategy that narrowly defines what you do, who you do it for and how.

And this is where I use the term ‘strategy’ very deliberately.

Because I’m starting to think that positioning (ironically) has a positioning problem. There are now so many advisers banging on about the need to niche or specialise, agency owners are zoning out.

I therefore wonder if you’d take this stuff more seriously if sh*t positioning was, well, repositioned. Maybe it’s time to call out poor positioning for what it might highlight about you and your agency: an acute lack of strategic nous.

Which is somewhat embarrassing if you claim to do ‘strategy’ for your clients.