disruptive companies: mwi
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from time to time, shmula interviews companies that are disruptive-but-value-adding, either in their approach to business, their revenue model, or in their technology. to read about the companies featured on shmula, please go to the company interview page.
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on today’s segment of disruptive companies, we’re speaking with joshua steimle, the founder and ceo of mwi. we’re going to learn about how a full-service marketing, branding, seo, and web development firm manages to stir things up and add value. welcome, josh.
1) please provide a short bio on yourself
My name is Joshua Steimle, and I’m the founder of MWI, a Salt Lake City based firm specializing in brand management, web development, and search engine optimization, amongst other things. I’ve been running the firm for six years. We have clients of all shapes and sizes including garage technology ventures – guy kawasaki’s company, 3Com, Altiris, Brighton Ski Resort, Bank of American Fork, FranklinCovey, Johnson Mill Bed & Breakfast, and USDTV. My interests include technology in general, design, marketing, advertising, entrepreneurship, skateboarding, reading, writing, and art. I’ve got a masters of information systems management from Brigham Young University. I’ve got a blog at donloper.com if you want to know more.
2) what is the business problem or opportunity that mwi is addressing?
MWI provides services that help businesses that need to make more money or save money by increasing sales or cutting costs.
3) how does mwi address the business problem?
We do this by crafting customized solutions using cutting-edge web technologies as well as traditional marketing expertise. We can optimize a client’s website so they get more traffic and more sales, whether or not they actually sell anything online. We can also produce radio and TV commercials, magazine ads, billboards, direct mail, and manage the media buying thereof. We build websites with content management systems, do market research, design retail spaces, and create marketing and educational DVDs.
4) in terms of selection, price, and flexibility, how does mwi compare to other companies in it’s space? — i.e., who should a client go with mwi rather than someone else?
If you wanted to label us, you could call us a full-service advertising agency, but unlike most advertising agencies we have a strong background in web development and we like to think of ourselves as a bit more cutting-edge than most agencies that are run by older folk who do things the same way they were done in the 80’s and 90’s. We see ourselves as being more lean and results-oriented. We try to lock our clients into continuing to use us by providing services they can’t afford not to have, rather than through creatively worded service agreements or long-term retainers that are often a sinecure for the agency. We are definitely not an inexpensive firm, and our services and pricing aren’t a fit for everyone. We routinely refer clients to other firms if we feel they can get what they need for a lower cost somewhere else. But for companies that are looking to whoop up on their competitors and are serious about it (meaning they have a realistic budget) we believe we’re a great fit and better than many agencies in that we’ll get the job done right, we’ll get it done quickly, and compared to many agencies we’re quite cost-effective.
5) anything else you’d like to share?
We work best with companies that come to us with objectives and then let us do our job. Some clients come to us and we find out that what they really want is a creative or technical team they can manage themselves. That’s not where we do our best work. We do our best when a client says “I’m entering such and such market and I need to have revenues to such and such point by such and such date” or “We need to recruit 200 students online for our university each year.” The clients give us objectives, and we work with them to create strategies and then we execute those strategies.
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