About Us
“I wised up, quit working for ad agencies and I started my own thing!”
Welcome to Potter Marketing & Branding!
Jack Potter launched his graphic design studio in Costa Mesa, California in about January of 1971. Starting with $500 in the bank and his wife 8 months pregnant with their first child, Jack quit his “safe job” as an Art Director at a very well-known advertising agency and launched out on his own. Sheer guts comes to mind. Perhaps it was foolish. Maybe it was not the best time, but…he doubled his income in the next month, quadrupled it in month two, and he hasn’t looked back since.
Bright & Shiny Design began as a “Design Boutique”, working “freelance” directly for ad agencies. Jack and his then partner Harry, classmates from Laguna Beach High School in S. California, decided to go into business for themselves. They were often brought in to solve particularly difficult creative assignments for medium and large advertising agencies in Los Angeles and Orange County, California. Both were graphic designers and they both specialized in corporate logos and branding.
After about a year, Jack and Harry split amicably and Jack got very busy and began to grow his design firm. While continuing to work for different ad agencies, Jack began taking on Business to Business clients as well. Jack said, “I like working directly with entrepreneurs and the top-tier marketing people much better than working through ad agency middlemen and their red tape.”
One day, out-of-the-blue, an ongoing client, Jack of Host International, phoned our Founder and asked with some urgency, “Is your business an accredited Advertising Agency?” Our Jack replied, “no…not really.” The other Jack said, “Well we just fired our “big” Ad Agency of Record for lack of results, great expense, poor service, and a bad attitude. “We like working with you, he said, and we want you to be our Ad Agency, so… go get your business accredited.” Carpe diem applied here!
I’d like to say it was great planning on my part but it really wasn’t. What it was, I believe, was “world-class design” and “stellar customer service” that created this opportunity. So as a result, based upon our client’s demand, we became a full-service Marketing & Advertising Agency. Again, our Jack didn’t look back because he wasn’t going that way.
Jack Potter, Founder & Creative Director, standing proudly in front of his 1990s Award Winner’s Wall.
Jack renamed his agency in the 1980s to J. Brooks Potter Marketing, to reflect its fuller-service capabilities and then he updated it once again in 2006 to Potter Marketing & Branding to emphasize its bigger branding expertise. His agency has won over 30 national, regional and local awards for creativity and excellence along the way. More importantly, than all the awards are our clients’ successes, check out the REVIEWS tab above to see why clients keep coming back and telling their friends.
Potter Marketing & Branding has worked with and successfully raised revenues for over 250 companies in fields including high-tech electronics, software, engineering, manufacturing, electronic testing, business-to-business, business-to-consumer, the professional service sectors, and many more. Check out all 25 industry types in our INDUSTRIES section above.
Potter Marketing & Branding has grown over our 50+ years based on our clients’ results. Most importantly, we pride ourselves on retaining lasting client relationships with clearly traceable increases in our clients’ growth.
The PM&B Staff includes individuals with experience in a wide variety of accounts. Their multifaceted talents allow us to offer our clients the same high-caliber marketing and graphic design results that are typically associated with the larger agencies and without the usual, very high price tag. Click on Staff Bios just below to see for yourself.
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