Growing up, my dad did most of his own car repairs. He only bought used cars and kept them running. I spent a lot of time in scrap yards and parts shops. I learned that nearly anything could be done with enough know-how and elbow grease. I bought my favourite car ever in the mid-2000s, a beautiful 1996 Mercedes Benz C220 that had one owner, a retired lawyer who was a member of the Toronto Yacht Club. It took weeks to get the cigar smell out. I fixed as much as I could on the car myself. I’d pore through online forums and manuals, buy tools, and watch how-to videos. If it didn’t require a hoist or some specialized device from Mercedes, I’d try to do it myself. I made a lot of mistakes, like scratching up the dash when I replaced the ignition switch. Turns out I needed a specialized tool to remove it, rather than two screwdrivers.
Often I would spend hours trying to fix something, find myself at a dead end, and have to bring my car to the experts. But I loved doing it and I learned a lot about how cars work. Now that I have less time on my hands (and a car that’s full of computers) I spend less time on forums and more time at the mechanic. I still love fixing things, but car technology has surpassed what this amateur can do with YouTube and a decent toolbox. Also, I’ve been lucky enough to find a mechanic that specializes in Volvos and treats me as a lifetime client. Every repair stays fixed, and every session comes with a printout of repairs the car needs, with recommendations on whether it’s worth the cost. I’m certain they’re the reason my car doesn’t feel 20 years old.
What’s the point of this story (other than to brag about my past car repair prowess)? When it comes down to it, anyone can learn to be a good-enough marketer. The internet is full of courses, templates, and how-to guides. The tactics themselves are pretty standard. And this was the case before you could draft up a campaign plan with a few prompts.
Go Banana! doesn’t have any proprietary process or tool that we can patent. This is why we’re pretty liberal in sharing what we’re doing for our clients and why. It isn’t a threat to our business because they are better off investing their time in what they do best rather than marketing. Most of them come to us after running marketing functions themselves and finding that the results aren’t worth the time and money spent. When working with us, our clients can do what they love, instead of fiddling around with website analytics dashboards or trying to find the exact right wording on a blog piece. In this situation, we’re the experts. We do things faster and better because of our decades of experience. We spend hours training on new tools and trends, have wisdom gained from dozens of campaigns, and instincts honed from bad calls. And like my car mechanics, we also take a lifetime approach with our clients.
This is the first value we established at Go Banana!
Grow Together: Our success is tied to the success of our clients and partners. We choose knowledge sharing over gatekeeping, collaboration over competition, and sustainable solutions over quick wins.
When building the policies and processes of Go Banana!, we always start with “What kind of company do we want to work for? What kind of company would we want to work with?” The best workplaces we’ve experienced were the ones where people genuinely cared for one another, where we were all encouraged and supported to do our best work. In those environments, people were more likely to hit personal and team goals, and the company did well. On the flipside, we’ve also both worked in hyper-competitive environments where people treated their coworkers and clients as adversaries. We found that the company’s success was rarely sustainable, and that the day-to-day felt miserable for nearly everyone. At the root of it, we just both happen to be really kind and community-minded folks, so we want a company that reflects who we are.
On a simple level, when our customers win, we win. Their revenues increase, which often results in higher marketing spend. Which means we get to do more of the fun stuff we enjoy. We achieve this by being invested in our customers. Sure, we’ll talk about SEO or branding, but we also often ask them about their sales process, and how messaging is landing with their customers. We take the same analytical lens to their company as to our own and provide help for anything marketing touches.
Our partners got us to where we are today. Either by referring clients or by giving us their time and expertise so that we could avoid some of the common pitfalls of new agencies. We wholeheartedly believe that there’s enough business for all of us, so there’s no need to hoard clients or knowledge. Also, every agency has their own specialties, whether it’s knowledge of certain industries, or the media they work in. We’ve learned that we are not the best at everything, so having great relationships with talented partners helps us make sure our clients are getting the best service.
Taking this back to the car analogy, my dad doesn’t buy used cars anymore. Between the warranty coverage and getting older, it’s just not worth it. He doesn’t change his own oil anymore, because he’d rather pay $60 than crawl under the car.
Whether it’s running a business or owning a car, the way one goes about it boils down to getting the best result for the amount of money and effort spent. At the advice of our partners, we don’t do everything ourselves. We get help for our accounting and sales functions. Can we do that work? Sure. But not to the quality we want. Having a community mindset means understanding that we can all grow together and that we each have something to contribute. No one can do it alone.
Are you looking for a team that understands both design and marketing, and likes to keep things simple?
Go Banana! is a creative agency that blends strategy with creativity to help businesses establish themselves, grow, and make an impact. We dream of making the world a better place, one small business at a time.
Let’s chat about your next project!
