We’ve seen it in many industries for years, White Labeling, or Private Labeling, of goods and services in order to offer something that is not easily manufactured or produced without significant costs.  For instance, auto manufacturers will design cars that you will see produced under multiple alternative brands, each one with its own spin on the original (usually upgraded or downgraded for different market segments).  So what does this mean to an agency?  Let’s discuss five reasons an agency should be considering white labeling services to augment or enhance its service offering, especially in today’s environment.

1. Focus on Customer Relationships – One of the highest priorities, if not the highest, of an agency is to cultivate the client relationship.  Without it the relationship falls apart.  Nothing takes more time away from the client than an agency staff mired in production, or figuring out how to do something new. They forget to listen, interact, and spend time with the client.  The next thing out of the client’s mouth is “We’re switching agencies.”
2. Productivity without Increasing Overhead – Efficiency is a huge focus for an agency.  Produce more with less and increase profits, go over on hours or realize poor productivity and profits disappear.  White labeling services will shift the burden to the company providing the white label service and allow the agency to accurately and easily measure ROI.
3. Diversificationof Products and Services – Let’s face it, outside of brand stewardship (creative and strategy), an agency can’t, and shouldn’t, do everything in-house. From video and webdev production, email marketing to search marketing, a white label solution can remove the cost of entry barrier to adding crucial services your clients need and expect.
4. Fixing Costs to Ensure Profitability – In an agency world there is always a battle to manage cost overruns, balance resources, and increase profitability.  White labeling a service offering can keep the agency in control of brand integrity while fixing costs with each project or campaign. Result – increased and predictable cash flow.
5. Scalable Resources means Bigger Opportunities – The ability to respond to larger opportunities is often limited by an agency’s own internal resources.  Using a white label service offering creates a quickly scalable, on-demand team making it feasible to expand and contract as the work flows.

An agency’s primary focus is to create value for clients by connecting people to brands.   What an agency doesn’t want to do is get so mired in the production details that they lose the ability to achieve this mission.  This doesn’t mean that an agency shouldn’t work hard on internal efficiencies, but it does mean that they need to be smart about how they get the work done.   This type of out-of-the-box strategy builds longevity through unpredictable times.

This blog post was written by Jason Nuss and originally printed in Media Inc. magazine’s Issue Two 2009.