Small Business Marketing Consultant and Branding Specialist

Marketing 101 and beyond

NEW BUSINESS: Clark Marketing Group looking to take businesses to the head of their classes.

BY PAM EGGEMEIER
Journal-Standard Reporter

FREEPORT - Listening to marketing consultant Kevin M. Clark, you detect not only a businessman but an educator.

So it isn't surprising to discover Clark has written marketing and general business books, put together educational audio series and always is in demand as a keynote speaker at business workshops.

Clark is like the college professor who challenges his students to think outside the box. He realizes his professional bottom line is to help businesses grow. But being able to share his passion for finding creative business solutions with others and watching them make the grade has an intrinsic value that goes far beyond the client's consulting bill.

"I'm licensed as a practitioner in transportation law," Clark said, "but my true love and expertise is in marketing."

Not that he hasn't been successful in other areas.

Originally from Idaho, Clark's first professional venture was a market consulting business in his home state. Realizing opportunities were limited in such a sparsely populated area, Clark sold his business and moved to the suburban Chicago area.

He set up shop in the suburbs and was working as a consultant when his career took an unexpected turn.

"I put an ad in a trade publication and Larry Asche responded," he said. "In late 1984, I started as a marketing and management consultant with Asche Transportation Services."

Asche's revenues were less than $1 million at that time but something about the small refrigerated trucking company grabbed Clark's attention and in 1987, he became a partner and principal shareholder of the Shannon company with Larry and Diane Asche.

"The Asches are good, hard-working, honest people," Clark said. "They had a good little business going and I thought I could complement what they were doing."

The business kept growing, as did the personal accolades for the Asche partners. In 1993, Clark received the prestigious Entrepreneur of the Year award, then sponsored by business heavyweights Ernst & Young LLP, Inc. Magazine and Merrill Lynch.

In 1994, the Asche partners took the company public and acquired several businesses which together boasted revenues of $113 million in 1998.

"I had a great opportunity to help facilitate the growth of the company," Clark said. "It was a very intense, dynamic environment preparing to go public."

In 1994, Clark and the Asches put the icing on the cake when they were elected to the Entrepreneurship Hall of fame.

In 1994 and 1995, Clark was invited to be one of four keynote speakers at workshops titled "Deciding to Go Public." He did that for two years and aIso serves as a national category judge for the National Entrepreneur of the Year selection process.

Now Clark's career is coming full circle and his one true business love has called him back. Clark now is operating his new consulting business, Clark Marketing Group, from his Freeport home. He still maintains a significant stock position in Asche and will remain on the company's board of directors.

"I'm very entrepreneurial by nature," he said. "When we went public, we all signed a five-year management contract which expires Dec. 31. It's a good natural breaking point. I wanted that dynamic environment of helping other companies increase their sales and profits."

A different approach

Clark offers a virtually risk-tree marketing proposition - he guarantees his approach will work or he doesn't get paid. That means he is very selective about who he works with.

"I have two main criteria for choosing who I work with," he said. "They must have a vision and they must be committed to grow the business. I must be convinced they will make the effort to implement my strategies."

So what makes him so confident in his strategies?

That's where thinking outside the box plays a key role. His approach is eclectic in nature.

"Businesses tend to operate in the same way as the others in that niche," he said. "I try to shatter that frame of reference and bring in new techniques. My ideas are cross-pollinated from all sectors. I expose them to new ways and thoughts."

Another important part of his philosophy is the realization businesses may not always see things they are too close to.

"I identify what's special or unique about them. I help them uncover their hidden marketing assets and turn them into dramatically increased sales and profitability. When you shop, you're not buying just an item or service, you're buying a particular result. When you get a haircut, you have a very specific result in mind."

Part of creating a business' identity with the public involves branding. Clark soon will release an audio series on that topic.

"People are branded, product names are branded, entertainers are branded. That's how you create an identity for people or a business. Loyalty should be created through branding."

As often is the case with educators, it was time for Clark to grab paper and pen to supply a visual learning aid for his next philosophical concept.

His drawing demonstrated marketing pillars, which by the way, look like the Parthenon when completed. A little bonus for Hellenic history buffs.

"Marketing pillars refer to a diverse base of marketing," he said. "Too many businesses are based on one pillar or approach, making a business fragile. The more pillars there are, the stronger a business is."

Clark's services run the gamut, both in who he serves and how he serves them.

"I probably do more work with small- and medium-sized businesses," he said. "But that's because they have a greater need. I believe I have something to offer a large business, but they usually have their own marketing resources."

One area Clark Marketing Group specializes in is Web-based services.

"Statistics tell us that 94 percent of web sites don't make money," he said. "I tailor Web sites to a business's marketing strategy so it can turn profits and become a legitimate arm of a company."

Remembering the basics

Something Clark also emphasizes in educational settings and in his daily work is the importance of understanding and utilizing the three main methods of bringing growth to a business.

The first is increasing your number of customers or clients.

"Most business owners focus their time, attention and marketing dollars on this strategy and never really understand it is the most difficult and costly way to expand sales and profits," Clark said.

The second method is increasing your average transaction value. This means getting customers to increase the amount they spend or increase the amount of profit each sale produces.

Increasing the frequency of purchases is the final method.

"Your objective should be to get them to come back more often to buy more products and services from you," Clark said. "A common mistake companies make is that they don't realize that the cost of acquiring a new customer is substantially higher than the cost of selling a current customer or client more and selling to them more often."

Seem like a lot of free information? Not if the professor has you beginning to think outside the box.

Clark can be contacted at 297-1297 or at his soon-to-be finished Web site at www.GetProfitable.com.