About Us

Steve Klein founded Marketing Breakthroughs (MB) in August of 1995. It was his dream to build a high-performance marketing company whose only goal was to help mid-sized owner managed clients grow and prosper.

Over the past 14 years, we've served over 150 clients in almost every major industry in Canada, including professional firms, property managers, real estate brokerages, service operations, HVAC dealers, high tech firms, software companies, specialty retailers, automobile dealers, manufacturers, distributors, media companies, colleges, universities, non-profit organizations, professional associations, business improvement associations and municipal governments.

Our current client list includes over 40 mid-sized owner-managed companies and professional firms, located primarily on the Ottawa Valley, Eastern Ontario, and the GTA.

A Cutting Edge Marketing and Advertising Firm

The ultimate success of any marketing endeavour lies within the positioning of the business and its products and services, how effectively this positioning is communicated to its target market(s), and how the business' products and services differ from competing offerings in the market. Marketing is essentially a game of differentiation and positioning.

In our case, MB is first and foremost a fundamentals-driven marketing and advertising firm. Our CEO and Creative Director is a professional trained marketing and advertising specialist with more than 25 years of experience in the marketing of owner-managed businesses. Our 12 member professional staff offers clients over 50 years of additional experience in this field.

Not a traditional advertising agency or design company, MB features a cutting edge, hybrid solution that encompasses both traditional as well as web-based strategies and tactics. During the past two years, we have doubled in size because we delivers the very latest in web marketing, web copywriting, search engine optimization, social media marketing and streaming video services, while still delivering conventional services such as marketing planning, branding, radio, TV and print production.  

The secret to this cutting edge approach is our investment in Professional Development. Every member of our professional staff has made a significant commitment to improving their knowledge and expertise on a daily and weekly basis. Each has a written PD plan which involves reading books, magazines, social media and blogs on the internet, attending webinars, seminars and conferences, participating in bi-weekly workshops in our office, taking courses online and at local universities and colleges, and writing for our blog The Daily Breakthrough.

The Daily Breakthrough is the largest blog of its kind in Canada - since January 1, 2009, our staff has written over 140 posts and over 50,000 words to this online publication.

Offering a Completely Integrated, "One Stop" Solution

MB offers mid-sized owner-managed clients a completely integrated, "one-stop" solution not found in Ottawa or anywhere else Canada.  In every sense, we have developed into a fully integrated marketing, branding, advertising and communications company. Much of our work is devoted to helping clients execute the marketing plans and creative projects that we design on their behalf. During the past 14 years, MB has designed more than 300 marketing plans and calendars for clients. We are known especially for our convenient and time efficient planning process; also for our ability to produce and then implement highly imaginative, yet very practical, results-based game plans.

When you partner with us, you've put one of the top mid-sized marketing firms in Canada on your team. Our company develops long-term partnerships with mid-sized owner-managed clients who are looking for more revenues, more customers, growth and expansion. Typically, these partnerships grow and prosper over time as our clients grow and prosper.

Many of our clients rely upon us to be their "in-house" marketing and advertising group - a role that we take great pride in. The MB "VP Marketing" solution is unique in Canada and ideally suited to the client who does not have the time, expertise, or internal staff resources required to achieve their growth objectives.

MB offers the broadest range of services of any marketing or ad agency in the country. We offer over 50 different marketing, advertising, branding, media relations and event planning services that clients can access on an "as needed" basis. Each marketing plan and advertising campaign that we design for clients is tailor-made for their unique situation, timetable, and budget.

Building Compelling Messaging that Attracts Customers

At MB, we approach marketing and advertising following the teachings of David Ogilvy, Jack Trout, Al Ries, Seth Godin and Jay Conrad Levinson. We believe in clearly identifying how an organization should differentiate itself from competitors; we view a market as a "cluttered series of puzzles" where market position has to defined or "mapped" by carefully listing and then analyzing key features and benefits (especially benefits) as they would be perceived and considered important in the minds of prospective customers.

Many of our clients think of us first as marketing strategists whose special expertise lies in helping them attract new clients and write more business. We believe that marketing is essentially a game of differentiation and messaging that involves first building niches and
then building top-of-mind awareness by matching a client's unique offerings with unfulfilled customer needs.

When clients engage us to prepare marketing or advertising plans, we start by clearly identifying and then prioritizing what we call "the benefits menu" a clear and concise list of benefits associated with a particular organization, product or service. We study the most important benefits and how prospective customers will make decisions based on seeing or hearing these benefits displayed in advertising.

At MB, we build consensus. We add focus. We improve our clients' business models. We help clients beat the competition. We find opportunities to help clients stand out and attract new business.

Doing Things Smarter, Faster, Better

MB passionately believes in common sense marketing and advertising - doing things differently (smarter, faster, better, and more cost effectively) than the competition. Because of this approach, and the many challenges posed by our clients, we have developed a comprehensive "one stop solution" and the broadest range of planning and creative capabilities of any advertising agency or marketing company in Canada.

At Marketing Breakthroughs, clients expect a custom solution that is designed with only their success in mind. They also expect us to think and act outside the box, and where needed, to propose unconventional solutions that may not have been tried before in their industry.

Delivering Excellent Value and Consistently Excellent Results

MB is a "doing" company. We have five project managers and co-ordinators who execute marketing plans and advertising calendars and make things happen for clients. We are totally driven to delivering excellent value and consistently excellent results, on time and on budget.

As illustrated in the client testimonials posted on our website, the greatest strength of our firm is our ability to "make a difference" for clients. The secret behind this track record is sound strategy, painstaking attention to project planning and execution detail, outstanding staff and teamwork, and most importantly, an imaginative selection of advertising tactics and messaging strategies designed to reach the most prospects in the most cost-effective way possible.

Going the Extra Mile and Making a Difference for Clients

The essence of Marketing Breakthroughs is going the extra mile for clients and making it easy to do business with us. Our staff has been handpicked with this in mind. The value
system in our company reflects our mission to be an extraordinary firm in every respect.

We treat clients the way we would like to be treated, and like their money was our own. We are always on call day or night to respond to every client need and problem, no matter how difficult. Our clients value their relationships with us and we look for every opportunity to give back and contribute to their well-being. We know that achieving extraordinary success for our clients means that we have accomplished our goal: to deliver the results clients are looking for and make an extraordinary difference in their businesses.

At MB, it's the positive vibe and "can do" attitude that sets us apart. We understand owner-managers and what they are looking for in a partner like us.

Quality in Everything We Do

Quality at Marketing Breakthroughs is of paramount importance. Clients expect us to set an example in everything we do, from answering the phone to delivering proofs on time.
Quality begins with our people; we believe in the importance of making commitments to our staff and follow a traditional employment model not common in our industry. We therefore avoid itinerant relationships with home-based "freelancers."

Each staff member at MB has all been recruited with the special needs and values of our owner-managed clients in mind. They have been auditioned, tested, and carefully screened to ensure that their skills are best in class and their values and motivations match our internal culture. All of our staff has significant previous industry experience and extensive training at the post-secondary level. Each is a highly capable professional is his or her own right.

Our employees' professional expertise and our internal documentation and scheduling system ensure the highest quality control over the work we produce. The centerpiece of our business model is the "ISO Style" 150+ page Process Handbook which we use to manage all aspects of our business.

MB has partnered with Function Point (www.functionpoint.com) and uses this software to manage and schedule the over 200 projects normally active in our office. Function Point is widely regarded as the world's best PM and Scheduling software for creative companies. We are the only creative house in Ottawa to use Function Point.

We follow an extensive peer review process and a final review by our Creative Director or Director of Client Services to verify the caliber of each project we produce for a client.

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