Have you built a better mousetrap? Then the world is supposed to beat a path to your door, right? But on the way, the world will probably be distracted by a gaggle of competitors, each also claiming to have an even better mousetrap. It is possible that some special interest group -- say, the Rodent Coalition -- will be standing alongside the newly-beaten path handing your potential customers flyers that portray your company as cruel and unfair. It's even possible that the state legislature might be considering new regulations that could tax your trap into a price range even the most mouse-ridden customer couldn't afford.

Persuading people to buy a product, or making them feel good about a company, or causing them to support an issue is tough. It requires experts, and unless your company is very large -- employing hundreds or thousands -- it is likely that your budget won't support the full-time staff needed to do the job.

Enter the marketers. They can do the job for you. But as you ask around, you find marketing firms, advertising agencies, public relations experts and promotion people. Some of them are one-person shops. Some call themselves full-service. Some are too new to be listed in the telephone directory. Some have embossed logos and high-rent addresses. Some even claim to have some knowledge of the mousetrap industry.

How do you winnow these into an interviewable group? How do you know which of these disciplines will meet your needs? How can tell you tell what a company will do, or can do?

In Southwest Florida, the choices are great and the specialties many.

Who's Who And What's What

"Marketing as a concept is the umbrella that includes both public relations and advertising," says Amy Gravina of Gravina Smith & Associates. "Advertising agencies generally sell products through paid means. Public relations firms help establish, maintain and enhance the lines of communication between an organization and its public through non-paid means." Her company specializes in public relations, and she lists media coverage, direct mail, newsletters, speakers bureaus as the sort of non-paid means PR people use.

Teri Hansen of Priority Marketing of Southwest Florida Inc. agrees. "It's the biggest misunderstanding," she says referring to the confusion about marketing, advertising and public relations agencies' respective duties. "There are seven things that are recognized marketing functions." They include public relations, sales, communications, advertising and promotion, among others. "So all the pieces are quite broad and comprehensive."

Some agencies categorize themselves as full-service agencies, meaning they can do all the functions under the marketing umbrella. It is a daunting task to fund and maintain a full-service agency, according to Christopher Spiro of Spiro & Waites Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations. "We have 23 on staff," he says. His agency has a full media department with media buying specialists, a full PR department, an art department, creative people, production people and interactive media people. "You can't dabble in it," Spiro says. "The stakes are too high." His client list includes companies from tourism, retailing and building.

Image Marketing Associates, Inc. is a long-time presence in Southwest Florida and beyond. "We are a full-service company," says Darlene Cecil, its president. "It is not easy to be a full-service company, with 10 to 12 people." She cites fixed costs as the element making full-service a difficult badge to wear. "We are still in an economy driven by the [tourist] season, so if you hire 10 to 12 people, you have to be able to keep them busy year round." One way she hedges the work load peaks and valleys is with clients from outside the area. "We work with Peoples Bank of California," she says. "They have 30 branches in Florida, so we work with them throughout the year."

It is not likely that a single staffer can be found who easily straddles the two distinct disciplines of advertising and public relations. Gravina explains, "Full-service companies are relatively few, because public relations and advertising are such different approaches." Full-service firms have to offer high-quality services in both of these areas. What sometimes happens, according to Gravina, is an advertising agency offers public relations services as an afterthought, because clients request it. "That's dangerous because they [clients] really aren't receiving the high quality work that they need."

Gravina says that most of her company's clients have a full-service agency as well as Gravina Smith. "We call on them just to do the advertising things," she says, "and we do everything else to market the company."

The More Marketers, The Merrier

The number of marketing agencies in Southwest Florida is not quite keeping pace with population growth. The Advertising Federation of Southwest Florida, the group that brings us the annual Addy awards, has 220 members now, according to Mike Brennan, past treasurer of the group and partner at Spiro Waites. This number has increased from 170 in 1986, an average annual increase of about 3 percent. This is about half the region's average population growth.

The public relations side is faring a little better, according to Tina Haisman, local president of Florida Public Relations Association and public relations coordinator of the Lee County Electric Cooperative. She reports that FPRA is growing every year "by leaps and bounds." There are 70 members, but only about 15 of them are employed by agencies. There rest work in public relations or related capacities for corporations, governments, not-for-profits and private companies.

"I think the number of PR firms is growing," Haisman says, "and there is still a great need for more." She says, "There is definitely more room."

Gravina agrees. "I do not believe there has been a tremendous growth." She finds more demand for services than there are agencies to fulfill the need. "It's great for the future of public relations as an industry in this market," she says. "With the growth of real estate companies, health care practices and other industries that rely heavily on PR, there is more of a need." Gravina cautions that it sometimes may be tempting for an agency to overbook itself. "You can't take on more than you can handle."

But, she concedes, "It's exciting for those who wish to establish new firms."

Spiro sees an elevation in the quality of the firms that are doing marketing work. "The cream has risen. We have separated the men from the boys." Referring to small shops with limited resources, he says, "Now, you can't say 'I own a Macintosh computer' and be in the business. The stakes are too high, the clients' budgets are too high."

Image's Cecil sees this kind of growth as a real advantage for people using local firms. "With more agencies in the market -- and there is enough business for them -- with solid reputable agencies working here, we can keep more businesses in Southwest Florida," she says. "They [clients] will go to Atlanta, or New York City, but they get someone who is farther away, with more expenses, who don't know the community.

"And," she warns, "you have a tendency to be less important when you are 500 or 1000 miles away."

Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind?

Anytime a business is faced with a choice, it is faced with a risk. Choosing a firm to represent your company to the public, to its customers and to other constituencies, if done wrong, won't just be an immediate waste of resources, but can create identity problems for a long period of time. Priority Marketing's Hansen sees most clients use four criteria.

"One is on reputation or referral," she says. "If they see success, they will gravitate to that company, or to a referral from someone they respect.

"The second is price." Hansen emphasizes that although many agencies would prefer to be assessed on work alone, price issues are significant. "This is the reality: You have service providers of all levels like anything else."

Third, Hansen recommends that you evaluate the agency's ability to handle your work. Do they have enough people with the right expertise in the right areas? She says the gamut runs from the single person consultant to the big agency that might have 15 to 20 people. "There are some clients that are comfortable with one person, for a single project," she says, "There are companies that won't work with a single person. They want to know there is more behind it."

Fourth is what Hansen calls the personal match. "There has to be a comfortable rapport," she says. There is the matching of personalities with the company and the client. Every agency has a different personality." Every client does, too.

Maybe, after examination, a single agency is not what a business needs. Perhaps a couple of firms, each with different specialties, would serve best. Cecil says her Image Marketing, a full-service firm, often works with Gravina Smith, a public relations firm.

Or, on the other end of the spectrum, maybe an agency is not what's needed at all. "Many firms, rather than hiring a full-service firm, should consider working with a freelance writer," says Gravina. "If a company is fairly small -- like a custom home builder -- it's another option they should consider."

Demand for this region's marketing companies is clearly high. There are full-service firms, and specialty firms. There are big firms with stability, capability and overhead. There are small firms with talent and an answering machine. Marketing firms can either perform a function with which a business chooses not to burden its own payroll, or offer a fresh look at communicating more mature ideas and product information.

But the demand is high for one reason: marketing firms help businesses reach their goals, even if those goals include proving they have built a better mousetrap.

Life in the Small Shop

It's hard to imagine a more likely person to make it in a small communications shop than Mark May. For the first five years of the last decade he was the creative director of Gulf Shore Life, the premier, high-dollar lifestyle magazine peppered with dipped in slick ads. After winning dozens of awards, he left to open his first small shop. Two years later, top-of the-line developer Watermark Communities Inc. drew him back into a corporate fold.

Two more years passed, and he went back to the street to control his own destiny. Today, his venture, M & M Communications, is prospering. May just bought an office condo in Naples.

He is sanguine about his work history. "It was good experience," he says. "Various types of subjects."

"I am full-service to piece meal," he explains of M & M Communications. For him, full-service means developing a campaign's concept, executing it and placing it in the media. "Or it could be just a brochure, depending on the clients."

For both him and his clients, May says that being a small shop is both liberating and limiting. "The advantage is that I don't have more than one client in each type of business." He explains that there are only so many strong ideas within each client group, and "that's what you want to focus upon."

There are disadvantages, he says. "Volume. You can only take on so much." May has only about six projects on the board at the same time. This service level is why he feels his clients eschew other shops in favor of M & M. "A lot of clients come to me because they went with [one of] the big ones, and they were just a small or medium client."

When clients call May, they can be assured of his complete attention. "This is a service industry," he explains.