By Darren Gilbert
That business – Cultivate Communications – opened its doors in early 2013. Since then, the specialist brand and corporate communications consultancy has grown to four employees with Cronje as director. It’s been an interesting ride, admits Cronje. “However, from day one, Cultivate has been about doing things intently,” she says. “It’s about planting the seed and watching it grow. It’s about looking at the long-term as opposed to the immediate.”
Of course, if you know Cronje or have every spoken to her before, you’ll understand that starting a thought-led consultancy such as Cultivate was a given. She is passionate about all things strategy. In fact, you could argue that it’s in her very veins. “I have always been a long-term thinker and like to take things in context,” she admits. “Even before I started Cultivate, I was head of strategy at a big agency for a time.”
She spent seven years there, taking on varying strategy roles before she took the leap of faith in starting Cultivate. Fortunately for her, it was a decision well taken. In their two years of operation, business has been booming. In fact, Cronje couldn’t have asked for more. It makes sense though. Here is an agency built on good, strategic thinking, run by someone who is always looking at the big picture. Cultivate is also an agency that listens to the same advice that it hands out.
“You simply can’t sit in isolation and think there is nothing else going on in the world,” explains Cronje. “There has to be context.” The same can be said for the way forward for PR. “Everything is coming together. PR, digital, advertising – they are a lot more integrated,” she adds. That, by virtue, means you need something at the top. And something that makes sense.
For Cronje, that ‘something’ can only be strategy. “I almost don’t understand how you can’t have strategy,” she says. “PR needs to be strategic simply because it doesn’t matter if you are putting out a message or claiming your space, you are doing so in a cluttered and competitive market.” And if you consider that PR is about getting others to tell you story, how to you aim to achieve it without a well thought-out strategy?
The short answer is you won’t. At least not in a way that delivers any worthwhile results. “All clients come to me and they say ‘Here is my business. I want you to do XYZ.’ They want more sales. More clients. And they say, ‘Make it happen.’” But that is easier say than done. “Businesses need to look at themselves and ask why someone would bother buying from them,” says Cronje. They need to figure out why they do what they do.
Again, this comes down to strategic thinking. “You need to explain why you are in business. And then explain why customers should do business with you,” says Cronje. Yes, it is possibly a simplistic way of looking at it. But the best (and most valuable) things are often simple and easy to understand. People are looking for meaning and value. Cultivate aims to help businesses give it to them.
“I ask the question, ‘What is the point?’ a heck of a lot,” says Cronje. “People find that quite funny but it’s important. What is the point of your business? Why are you doing this?” The answers lie in understanding who you are. And that is grounded in good, strategic thinking.
For more information, visit www.cultivatecoms.co.za. Alternatively, connect with them on Facebook or on Twitter.