Treating clients as partners leads to success

KSM Marketing has reached the milestone of 40 years in business locally and has been responsible for numerous success stories in the business world, thanks to its dedication to respect and trust over the decades.

“Businesses will reach out to a marketing agency because they need something to be fixed, but a lot of times they don’t know what it is,” said KSM president and owner Cindy Smith.

KSM was founded in 1985 as Louie Lewis Designs by the late Lewis Kalmbach and was later renamed Kalmbach Advertising. Smith joined the agency in 1995 as media director. “Shortly after I came on board, we opened a satellite office in San Francisco, and so I started managing this one in Shreveport in Highland. I was vice president by 1997, and then by 2002, with a partner, Andy Meadows, we purchased Kalmbach Advertising, and then it became Kalmbach, Smith and Meadows,” she said.

So what is KSM’s function? “We’re a service-oriented business. We don’t sell wickets,” she said with a laugh. “We’re in the business to help people really, honestly, reach their pinnacle. The difference is the people who understand the process.

“A lot of agencies in the market — and there are only a few that have been around that are still in business — you can tell when agencies work a lot of times. They can be identified in their clients’ work with their style or color palette or that sort of thing. That has always been what separates us. It’s not what we do; it’s how we serve. You really can’t tell who our clients are because it’s about them, as it should be. It’s about their brand and how their brand reaches the market.”

One of Smith’s focuses has been to adapt to meet a client’s unique needs. “We don’t have a process that we go through. We adapt to meet their needs, kind of meeting them and their customers where they are. Sometimes, especially in this day and age, they want the quick fix; they want the ‘packaged meal,’ and I think that has helped in our longevity, is that we don’t do that. We don’t have a contract. We don’t, really, have a package. We meet, talk with the client, really get to know their business, their operations, to try to help them figure out what they need to do to leverage in the market.”

Part of Smith’s success as the head of KSM Marketing is her ability to see things from both a business and a marketing perspective. She and her husband, William, co-own two Honey Baked Ham franchises in Shreveport and College Station, Texas.

KSM president and CEO Cindy Smith

“It gives me a different perspective,” she said. “I get to sit on the other side of that as a business owner because a marketing agency is usually dealing with the principal owner of the business.

Many times, looking from the marketing arm of things, I can bring to the table business operational knowledge.”

KSM’s approach to its mission is defined by its slogan, “Different By Design.” “We are different by design on purpose,” Smith said.

“The agency adapts to the need. This is all about those individual clients and meeting them where they are.”

Marketing is more than mere advertising. “Marketing is kind of that bigger, broader, long-term strategy that’s more all-encompassing of business operations, their missions, their goals, their services and products to the end user. ‘Different By Design’ is basically just that. We’re learning their business so that we can help them determine how to market it.

“Advertising is the more narrow component, or the vessel, I guess, for that journey of their service or product to the end user.”

What does KSM do differently from other agencies? “I still have clients that I started with — that’s 30 years ago! That doesn’t happen in this industry very often. What we do differently is probably a true partnership with our clients,” Smith said.

“We always tell them, ‘We’re going to be your partner in this. You know your business better than anybody, and so we need to learn it. And once we learn it and we can align with who you are, then we can make you “different by design” because we have the expertise on the marketing side.’ And when we partner those things, it is a beautiful thing.”

She cited a couple of examples. McCary’s Jewelers has been in business for 84 years and has been KSM’s client for nearly 20 years. “I’ve been able to work with them without a contract, with a handshake, with agreements, with a plan in place, and they have expanded to a stand-alone location for the first time in their history.”

2Johns started their business with KSM 16 years ago. “We sat at a fold-out table on a concrete floor in that establishment before it began, and they hired us at that table, and we’ve grown with them. And within their first 10 years, they’ve undergone physical expansions and been recognized by publications such as Wine Spectator.

“You don’t get to hold onto clients that long in this business. That’s why I tell you it’s a partnership.”

Andy Meadows, the late Lewis Kalmbach (agency founder) and Cindy Smith celebrate the agency’s acquisition by Meadows and Smith in 2002.

Smith is quick to point out that KSM’s success is due in no small part to its staff. “Everybody who works for me holds college degrees. They have hours of certifications and trainings and talent that help clients with their market presence and their mind share.”

KSM also strives to keep up with the times through flexibility and a willingness to adapt to market and technological changes. “If you’re not willing to change with the technology, to learn what the advancements offer, you really can’t be a marketing agency because you have to stay on it and ahead of it.”

Forty years later, KSM Marketing is still going strong, thanks to its client-centric approach. “Truly, I think what separates us is not what we do; it’s how we do it and who we are,” Smith said.