Frequently asked questions

The selection of questions and answers below covers only the most basic issues involved in selecting a marketing / marketing-communications specialist to work with your company.

Question	Indicative answer
How long has your firm been operating?	ASPAC has operated for over 7 years. The company was initially a collaboration with a management consultancy firm and a strategic planning/performance measurement specialist where the combined knowledge and experience contributed strongly to our current methodologies. The previous business partners exited entirely for personal reasons and remain our business associates.
You seem to specialise in industrial markets. Why is this so?	Actually, we work across a much broader range of categories, because the experience of our management includes significant consumer-products, health and leisure segments. However, we have found that our skills and experience are especially well regarded in industrial, marine and rural sectors where we now derive the bulk of our work.
Does your company name imply "top-end-of-town" positioning and high cost?	Although we certainly do work on major corporate assignments where cost is the least of the client's considerations, much of our work is for small and medium businesses where we charge fees more in line with the latter's perceptions of value. The SME.clients actually gain significant benefits from this approach, because we are able to apply proven professional methodologies at costs way below those charged by the large consulting firms.
Do you have the resources to handle major projects?	We have yet to encounter a project that cannot be broken down into logical and sequential stages. This not only allows best use of our resources, but provides the client with the opportunity to assess the quality of the work and fine-tune the project as it progresses . Another aspect of this is our use of proven associates to provide appropriate additional and targeted resources as required. This achieves far superior results, faster deliveries and actually lower cost than would be incurred if the overhead of permanent staff had to be covered.
Where are you based?	A flippant answer might well be "in cyberspace" and actually, this is not far from the literal truth. Because we embrace state of art communications technology via Satellite and Wireless Broadband, many projects are completed successfully without ever holding personal meetings. Our "development" websites allow us to provide clients with real-time updates of projects. For example, copy, illustrations, logos, page headers, web pages, site navigation menus and print layouts etc may be viewed by the client as soon as we develop them, facilitating immediate review, all in the appropriate project context.
Why do you place so much emphasis on website development?	Although a website is just one of a range of tools, it is the one point where everything about a business must come together into an integrated communication process. We approach website development as marketing and information management specialists so the sites we develop work effectively right across the client's business operations. Everything we do is based upon defined strategies so that all marketing elements become complementary.
Are you just graphic designers under a different banner?	Our fundamental skill-sets certainly include copywriting and art direction. We believe there must be a continuous relationship between the "look and feel" of all marketing elements and the strategic business positioning . Much of our creative work including web development is done "in house" but we also outsource work to affiliated professional studios where appropriate.
How does Search Engine Optimisation affect our website?	Large sums of money are charged for SEO by "specialists." Actually, the components that combine to optimise a website are essentially excellence and structure of the site content, the key words and phrases and how they are used and links into your website from third party sites. We write articles on website and information issues for several international website portals - see HERE for further details.
Can we use our own people in collaboration with you?	In principle, we have no problem with such arrangements. In practice, there must be clear management guidelines and accountability for all parties to avoid problems potentially caused by differences in operational style, resistance to change or conflict of work priorities.
What are the main barriers to working with you?	As long as the relationship is based on honesty and openness, there is little we cannot achieve, relative to the agreed scope-of-work. If something is requested outside our expertise, we will say so, usually also assisting the client to find the relevant resource.

Please CONTACT US for a free initial consultation when specific matters relating to your markets, customers and services may be discussed without further obligation.