We trace our beginnings back to 1979, when Steve Ball opened Pathfinders Advertising and Marketing Group shop in a one-room office in downtown South Bend.

His plan was to offer comprehensive marketing services that would help support area businesses communicate their mission and reach their goals. Leveraging his prior experience as an advertising manager for a large company, he provided clients with creative sales strategies and procedures, customer service tools and sales literature.

In doing so, Pathfinders quickly earned the reputation of being a reliable resource for all types of businesses and virtually any kind of project.

That reputation helped us grow, as did our ability to deliver far-reaching marketing campaigns — including strategic planning, branding, advertising, public relations, direct marketing and interactive design. As business increased, we finally outgrew our downtown office, and moved to our current location in 1989.

While much has changed since then — publishing technology, the explosion of mass media, the Internet — our mission remains the same: provide opportunities for our clients to sell their products and services.

Today, as we celebrate our 30th anniversary, we continue taking special pride in helping every client reach their business goals. No matter the size of the company, we always measure our success by the results we can achieve together.

As you browse our site, you'll see why we consider ourselves partners with a passion.

Agency's Success Grounded in Development of Client Strategies and Goals

Mishawaka, Ind. — Steve Ball spent the past 30 years working to build a successful advertising and marketing agency, even though he would say he never worked a single day.

"Building this agency has always been fun, and never lost its excitement considering every day continues to be so different from the previous," said Steve Ball, chief executive and founder of Pathfinders Advertising & Marketing Group, Inc. "Fortunately, I've never considered it to be work at all."

Formula for Success
Starting in a one-room downtown South Bend office in December of 1979, Ball has guided Pathfinders through the evolution of the ad agency business, numerous technological advances and new methods for helping his firm's clients. Thirty years later, Ball notes that despite all the changes he's seen and experienced, the reason behind Pathfinders' successful longevity — remaining focused on clients' goals — hasn't changed at all.

From the beginning, Ball emphasized the importance of thinking strategically first, to help clients establish their goals. That, in turn, helps determine the creative direction and specific tactics needed to accomplish the desired end result. Developing communications programs without first knowing or understanding the client's goals, no matter how creative the designs, would not benefit either the client or the agency.

"Good creativity simply can't overcome poor strategy," Ball noted. "We aren't the agency that strives to be creative for the sake of being edgy, but rather to be smart to actually achieve measureable goals and successes."

Pathfinders president, Vicky Holland, also cited the agency's ability to establish long-term client relationships — becoming true marketing partners — as being at the core of the agency's success. In fact, Pathfinders' client relationships have anchored the agency's stability in an otherwise volatile industry, with client relationships that have been holding strong for 10-15 years. Solid client relationships can also be credited for situations where clients who leave one company to join another take Pathfinders along with them.

"We get entrenched with our clients, their business and their industry," Vicky Holland, Pathfinders president explained. "They know we are committed to their success and that we know how to get things done within their systems — sometimes better than they do."

Overcoming Obstacles
Even with solid client relationships, Pathfinders doesn't rest on its laurels. Ball noted that one of the most common misconceptions in the marketing industry is that agencies in larger cities, such as Chicago, are better. Fighting that misconception has meant that Pathfinders has needed and continues to have to prove itself every day in order to show potential and existing clients that it's the right choice for them.

"Our clients soon realize that working with Pathfinders offers them the same high level of industry expertise. In fact, many of our team members hail from some of the top schools in the nation, as well as having previously worked at big city agencies," said Ball. "What clients also get with Pathfinders is a smaller, more dedicated and focused team that doesn't have the big city ego...or price tag."

While competition for clients is always fierce, today's communication technology helps to level the playing field, so agencies can acquire clients anywhere in the country — or the world. That geographic diversity is reflected in Pathfinders' current clientele. In the early years, the agency's client roster consisted of businesses in the immediate area of Ball's office, now located in his hometown of Mishawaka. Today, Pathfinders' lineup of clients spans the U.S., with clients from North Carolina and Virginia to Wisconsin and Texas.

Both Ball and Holland noted that technological advances have accounted for the biggest changes in the advertising business. Years ago, changing an ad meant painstakingly pasting lines of type or new images onto a layout and hand-delivering it to a client. Now, changes are made instantly on advanced graphic design programs and posted to an FTP site for a client's immediate review. Campaign presentations no longer have to be made in person; they can be made electronically with clients located anywhere in the world with all participants viewing the same images on their own computer monitor.

Deliberate Decisions
Ball carefully managed his agency's growth through the years. Being cautious so that Pathfinders didn't grow any faster than the workload his people could handle ensured he always had the resources to meet client deadlines and go beyond their expectations.

After 30 years, Ball still finds every day fulfilling. Ball said the key for him and Pathfinders has been to never stop learning, and to share what you learn to help others.

"Our mission is to provide opportunities for our clients to sell their products and services," stated Ball. "We get to manufacture thoughts and ideas to help clients overcome challenges and take advantage of opportunities, which is a very rewarding way to make a living."