I don’t know what gets you up in the morning, but what gets us up in the morning
is honoring the worth of our people. You know, this business is all about the people.
They’re the people that make the product, that deliver the creative thinking, and
deliver the passion every day that makes this business so fun to be a part of and
to work in. When you bring the right people together and you let them share their
talents, what they really bring is creative thinking to business.
That’s a core tenet in our company. It’s been there since 1985. It’s as relevant
then as it is today. Because I think, sometimes, in the business world we live in,
we get caught up in just doing the same things and obviously if you do the same
things, you get the same results. But I’ve found if you can put the right people
around the table, then you can come up with the right solutions and you can bring
creativity to your business that will move your business forward.
The way we see the world is very simple: we’re all human beings. We all have talents.
We have the talent to communicate in different ways and we have the talent to absorb
communications in different ways. And what I’ve found is if we can build relationships—relationships
with you as a client or relationships with your audience and be able to communicate
your message—we can be very effective in the marketplace.
We’ve never been a company who’s looked for the biggest brand or the biggest budget
or the biggest company, for a matter of fact. We’ve worked with some of those and
we’ve been very effective for a lot of those companies. We’re looking for people
who really appreciate creative thinking. Who have the confidence to be able to sit
across the table and to share their ideas as we share our ideas with you. Because
we know, if we do that together, we’re going to come up with bigger ideas for your
business. Because at the end of the day, you never know where inspiration is going
to come from.
The Marlin Network is about our business while our affiliates are about your business.
At the Marlin Network we spend our time dealing with things like having the right
health insurance program, having the right facilities, the right resources, the
right new technologies—all the things that could give our business the cutting edge
in the marketplace. It’s those things that, you know, nobody ever really wants to
do and think about, but have to be done, while our affiliates’ job is to devote
100% of their creativity, their energies, and their innovations to your business
every day.
Each of our affiliates take an intuitive approach to the marketplace. As you can
well expect, they all of their own personalities and it comes to life in their own
respective facilities that they run their businesses out of. But one of the things
that’s in common with all of them is they’re all trying to ascertain “what are your
desired results?” And how to best measure those results to give you the best return
on your business.
The cornerstone to our business approach is really built around five key things.
We’re looking for insights. In the world we live in today, there’s a lot of information
out there, but it’s pulling that information together—whether it’s viral or whether
it’s custom research—and be able to determine what’s that information really telling
me about my business or about my brand. So we can build strategies that can drive
your business forward but out of those strategies really needs to be birthed, the
big idea. The big idea that everybody can rally around. You need to take that and
be able to communicate in a way that will intercept your audience where they want
to be intercepted at. We call that touch point planning. And then we look at “how
do we measure those results?” Because we want your dollars to be spent effectively.
Each of our affiliates have the capabilities of helping you navigate through the
interactive landscape, to be able to expand your business in the food marketplace,
to be able to place a new item on a menu, and to be able to find new market segments
that maybe you’ve never thought about before. At the same time taking your brand
and growing in exposure both from the consumer world or the business world to meet
your particular needs and desires in the market.
Our job at the network is to build a creative environment that allows our people
to build and share their creative gifts with you. And I’ll make you simple promise:
You let us share our gifts with you, we promise never to do lousy work.
We don’t believe the full potential of a brand or product is truly realized until
the final point of consumption. Actually, that’s the core of how we approach things
at Marlin Network: consumption-based marketing.
See, we all interact with brands every day. Sometimes we have an emotional connection
with a brand, meaning we’re inspired by it, desire it or simply want to experience
it. Sometimes we have a virtual connection with a brand. Something we’ve heard about,
people talk about or just something we’ve found on the internet. And then there’s
the literal consumption of a brand. That can be eating something, drinking something
or wearing something.
When you’re focused on this consumption-based marketing, it’s important to get everyone
aligned. Everyone needs to agree on what your brand owns in the marketplace. Why
do people consume your brand? We believe when you get that alignment, from senior
management to finance and marketing to sales, you have the ability to reach your
brand’s full potential. That will ensure your dollars are spent efficiently, your
business goals are met and your brand maintains its relevance among those who consume
it.
At Marlin Network, we don’t just develop ideas, push them out into the market and
hope people choose them. We’re concerned with why they choose your brand and products
and, more importantly, why they will continue to choose them.
VP Business Development 
