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The Economic States of America
The way I see it, there are four economies in the United States. Among these different economies I can choose to conduct business. I am lucky that my agency has a choice. Generally speaking, most businesses don’t. The four economies have different cultural expectations and in some cases define financial class distinction. Let’s call them: Mega, Macro, Most, Mini. These names have the benefit of iteration but also they won’t be confused with market-cap terms. As an agency owner, I must decide what economy I wish to focus my sales efforts. They each require different sales tools, different types of creative teams, and generally just a different style of doing business.
Did you know that Fortune #1000 brings in nearly $1.9 billion in revenue? In the Mega Economy, executives want vision that will change the world. I’ve discovered the politics here are often a challenge to master for all the layers of executives and management. Even when we land the Mega gig, it feels like winning the lottery for a few minutes, but new agendas appear quickly. Entire departments disappear without a trace. We compete longterm through relationship marketing and by sharing our passion for the creative work. But it can cost us plenty to land these gigs. My competitors will spend gobs of money with a team and just create shit, and then there are tickets to games and shows, happy hour hosts, tables at functions, the summer golf tourney, and so forth.
The Macro Economy encompasses most of what would be considered the Mid and Small-Cap organizations. We built our customer base within the Macro Economy. Even Micro-cap is $50-300 million in revenue. You know all those businesses that you never heard of that build framing tools for the specialty food cart industry that have 100s of employees out on the turnpike? That’s the Macro Economy. Interestingly, I find that the Macro executives often come from the culture of larger, Mega Economy businesses and have similar expectations though not always the budgets to back these expectations.
The “Most” Economy because most businesses in the US are small businesses. My agency is a small business in the Most Economy. Most of the businesses in our neighborhood (historic St. Johns in NoPo) are small businesses. These can be defined by number of employees. Up to 100 employees means small business. I love to help small businesses, but it can be a challenge in that the amount of explanation required to help the principals can be daunting. We prefer to work with marketing professionals and this fact alone often bumps us into the Macro Economy pool.
The good thing about Most businesses is that they are serious about business, compared to the Mini Economy which is chockablock with visionaries of unfunded passion projects. The heart of the mini business perhaps is the flea market world, which can be amazing. This is where the small collector thrives and where the ebay entrepreneur was born.
Image Notes: Illustration courtesy of Erin Koehler. When I can’t find an image to snap or a stock photo that works, Erin can always sketch in real time. She’s also responsible for the illustrations on Mary Anne’s blog posts.