MASTERY MARKETING TOOL

Strategy is...Key terms come from the definition.

Now-state — defines the state of now.

Goal — desired future, formulated into written form

under SMART criteria.

Available resources — time, money, etc.

Strategy itself — route to the goal. (Let’s say any

route is a strategy. Some are just very very bad.)

The essence of planning is defining the right goals

and finding the most effective ways to achieve them.

SMART goalsSMART criteria is an excellent tool to turn your

wishes and desires into goals.

There are thousands of interpretations of what

SMART stands for. “S” usually goes for “Specific” but

could also mean “Simple”, “Sustainable”,

“Significant” or even “Stretching”.

Here is the original definition from the first known

use of the term that occurs (God bless Wikipedia) in

the November 1981 issue of Management Review by

George T. Doran.

Communication processPlanning is essential. Just keep in mind it’s not a

plan you need, it's results.

So, strategy should be implemented in a list of

specific action steps.

Actions have to be executed. Place your ads, launch

the campaign. Whatever.

Here comes the interesting part. Evalute the results.

Did your actions bring you closer to your goal? What

was good? What went wrong?

Do you still have money and believe in a bright

future? Go for another round.

Planning cyclePlanning and Communication cycles look very much

alike. The only part that is missing is what happens

between "How could we get there?" and "Are we

getting there?".

These are the five main questions of strategy you

should ask yourself repeatedly until you will get a

clear vision of the now-state, barriers, business

opportunities, wise goals and a reasonable plan to

achieve it.

InciteWork

Marketing has different ways to impact on company

goals. Communications are always about

communicating. This isinseparably connected with

the concept of receptor — target audience associated

with desirable business results.

So, communication strategy is a strategy of

changing the perception of the audience through

communicating in a way that will lead it to a new

behavior favorable to the company

Cascade Goals

The first question of strategy is “What for”, meaning

“what do we want to achieve”. Evaluate goals.

Redefine them if necessary. Get as close to the

business as possible.

Then “How”. Connect your goals with actions

through the system of embedded objectives.

Business goals. How will you accomplish them?

Business strategy. Where will profit come from?

Marketing goals. How? Marketing strategy.

Necessities. Opportunities. Who will be your profit

source? How do we need to change their behavior?

Communication goals. How? What, where and

when?

Profit SourcesDefine the audience you will target and the action

shift connected to it that will influence company

profit growth (which is usually the overall goal).

Sell more by attracting more consumers, meaning

generate a first trial: by communicating either

competitive advantages of your product or category

benefits.

Sell more to every consumer: increase purchase

value (more per purchase or more expensive

product), make people come back (build loyalty) and

increase consumption (increase volume or frequency

by, let's say, providing new occasions).

Need-To-Purchase

The idea is that every purchase starts with a human

need and the need-to-purchase process goes

through an evaluation of available solutions.

The formula for increasing the profit (sell more) now

sounds like “more needs, more people, feel more

often, consider us and choose us, spending more”.

“More needs” is something new. It’s about

associating the product with attributes of new

categories. E.g. Snickers as a chocolate competes on

something-sweet-need level but as a brand plays on

hunger (snacks) territory.

BrandDynamics Pyramid

This tool shows how many consumers have a

relationship with the brand at five key stages. From

weak relationship and low share of category

expenditure to strong relationship and high share.

From simple awareness of Presence level (Do I know

it?) through personal Relevance (Does it offer me

something?) and good enough Performance (Can it

deliver?), to the proportion recognising a clear

competitive Advantage (Does it offer something

better than others?) and finally those who are

closely Bonded with the brand (Nothing else beats

it).

Consumer SplitThis is a powerful segmentation tool that divides the

target audience by its consumer behavior.

Rows represent three levels of relationship with a

brand: loyal consumers (our brand is the #1 choice),

switchers (buy us sometimes) and non-buyers (don’t

buy us).

Columns stand for consumption habits: heavy and

light category users.

The volume and impact of every consumer type on

the brand profit can be revealed by a corresponding

research.

Purchase FunnelThe purchase funnel describes the consumer's path

leading to a purchase.

The most important point of the tool is

consideration. To get onto a consideration list we

need to create an awareness of our product and

make sure the audience is familiar with our

brand/product promise.

Consumer Decision JourneyThis is an analysis of the new way people buy

things.

The first new point of change is the evaluation stage

which has a crucial influence in some categories, for

instance researching the Internet for consumer

feedback before buying something expensive.

The second new point is the post-purchase

experience that could lead to loyalty as well as

influencing the research stage of other consumers.

There are also a decision trigger on the point of

purchase and an interest trigger when entering the

loyalty loop.

Communication ChannelsThere are four main channelsthat form a person's

opinion of a product or a company. These channels

differ according to personal perception and

influences.

Advertising — everything that is recognized as an

advertisement.

Information — mass media messages that are not

recognized as advertising.

Feedback — other people's opinions on products or

companies.

Experience — a personal experience of a product or

communication.

Brand is...There are three aspects of every brand: a brand

image that exists in a person’s mind, an average

brand image shared by a target group and a brand

model created by marketing experts. The branding

process consists of two parts:

1. Creating a brand model attractive to the audience

that will lead to a sale.

2. Regular communications targeted to eliminate the

gap between the brand image in the audience's

perception and the desired model.

Brand is a natural term meaning it really exists no

matter what you call it.

Brand CoreBrand Core is one of the tools designed to describe

the brand model.

The essence of the brand lies in the intersection of

three factors — audience (represented by audience

insight), product (represented by brand equities) and

business vision (meaning desired future of the

brand).

Look into Audience Insights and Brand Equities for

more details.

Brand Equity Sandglass

Brand Equity Sandglass is another way to describe

the brand model.

Like all models it says that brand promise lies at the

point where brand essence meets target insights.

Look into Brand Equity Pyramid and Consumer

Pyramid for details

Consumer Pyramid

Consumer Pyramid describes the consumer part of

Brand Essence.

It starts with a description of the target consumer

(prime prospect). Then it tells us about occasions of

brand/product usage and the needs that refer to

them. That leads to the consumer insight which

serves as a base for the brand statement.

Benefit LadderThis tool describes different levels of product

benefits.

At the first level you are writing down product

attributes. At the second level you turn attributes

into benefits, e.g. a new formula of toothpaste

(attribute) improves its whitening effect (benefit). At

the third level, product benefits transform into

consumer benefits, e.g. your teeth will get whiter.

And at the fourth level it goes up to emotional

benefit — a feeling caused by consumer benefits,

e.g. a white smile will give you confidence and make

you attractive to the opposite sex.

Insight is...Be aware of two common mistakes — confusing an

insight either with an obvious truth like “all women

love chocolate”, or with a personal observation not

shared by anyone else.

The right insight has to be hidden and once revealed

should cause the “Aha!” feeling mulitplied by the

“It’s me” realization. Its role is to win customers’

attention and, most importantly, open the way to

change their behavior in order to break the barrier

or achieve our goal.

Insight ProcessInsight starts with an observation: either in data or

in real life. But the result of research is not a real

insight. Understand your consumers’ behavior and

motivation. Answer the “Why”. Reframe your vision

to get the big picture.

Evaluate your insight. There are three levels of

insights KPIs (according to InSites Consulting):

relevance (indentification, frequency, endurance,

recognition, thought of before), differentiation

(solution awareness, likelihood of solution finding)

and actionability (clarity, importance of resolving,

context fit, target group fit, brand fit).

Insight TypesThis matrix represents the multitude of different

types of insight that exist.

Actually, the author of the tool, Simon Law, says he

is not really sure if he agrees with the concept of

insight types overall. Therefore this list may not

even be exhaustive and definitely contains some

areas that don’t make for particularly good types of

insight. Despite that fact, it could be a good start for

understanding the nature of insight, or as a map for

digging further into the subject.

Brand Equity PyramidBrand Equity Pyramid describes the product part of

the Brand Core.

It starts with product attributes and transforms it

into brand benefits with the Benefit Ladder tool.

Then itdescribes the personality of the brand based

on the Censydiam or Archetypes model. Then it goes

to the upper level and describes values the brand

stands for or would like to be associated with based

on its attributes (reasons to believe) and benefits it

provides.

Brand Resonance ModelTo build a strong brand you must shape how

customers think and feel about your product.

Within the pyramid model, four key levels are

highlighted that you can work through to create a

successful brand.

These are identity, meaning, response and

relationships. Your objectives on each level should

be: ensure broad awareness, define points of parity

and difference, provide positive, accessible reactions

and build intense, active loyalty.

Google “Heineken resonance model” to get an

example.

Consumer-Brand Relationship ModelConsumer needs are complex and multi-layered. All

layers of brand image must be managed so they are

consistent.

Functional needs: taste, prices/rates, pack size,

format, service touch-points, etc. Identity needs:

peer group identification, social level, lifestyle.

Emotive needs: feelings consumers are looking for,

what it says about me and my personality.

Symbolism: brand-personality — fun-loving, serious,

etc. Social values: family, older, female, etc. Product

features: sweet, rich, premium, compact, easy to

use.

Maslow's PyramidMaslow's theory suggests that the most basic level of

needs must be met before the individual strongly

desires the secondary or higher level needs.

Instead of stating that the person focuses on one

specific need at any given time, Maslow stated that

one specific need "dominates" the human organism.

Interesting fact: while the pyramid has become the

de facto way to represent the hierarchy, Maslow

himself never used a pyramid to describe these

levels in any of his writings on the subject.

ERG TheoryWhen people have what they need to survive, they

move on to making friends and finding mates. When

they’re satisfied with their relationships, they focus

on doing things they enjoy and improving their skills

in things that interest them. First existence, then

relatedness, then growth.

The ERG theory explains the general priorities of

human desires, but not the methods people use to

satisfy them. For that, look at Core Human Drives.

Core Human DrivesThe drive to acquire is the desire to obtain or collect

physical objects, as well as immaterial qualities like

status, power, and influence. The drive to bond is

the desire to feel valued and loved by forming

relationships with others, either platonic or

romantic. The drive to learn is the desire to satisfy

curiosity. The drive to defend is the desire to protect

ourselves, our loved ones, and our property. The

drive to feel is the desire for new sensory stimulus,

intense emotional experience, pleasure, excitement,

entertainment, and anticipation.

Censydiam ModelCensydiam is a “human compas” that guides you

around the world of human motivations. There are

eight motivations aligned in a circle, driven by two

dimensions — personal and social.

This tool could be used to redefine the category

based on the needs that your product fulfills, to

create the positioning to establish a much deeper

connection with your consumers, to manage a

brand portfolio by motivational segmentation or to

stay ahead of the competition and find new

opportunities for growth.

Learn more at www.censydiam.com

Brand ArchetypesThis tool helps you to describe the personality of

your brand based on the human archetypes model.

The theory is based on four major human drives

positioned along two axes: Belonging/People versus

Independence/Self-Actualization, and

Stability/Control versus Risk/Mastery. Each of the

12 archetypes could be described by its core desire,

goal, fear, strategy and gift.

Read “The hero and the outlaw” by Margaret Mark

and Carol S. Pearson and also examine Carl Jung's

original work on human archetypes.

LovemarksLovemarks is a marketing concept suggested by

Kevin Roberts, CEO of the advertising agency

Saatchi&Saatchi.

The idea is that some brands connect with

consumers in a way that is of a different quality to

other brands. People just love them.

According to Roberts’ concept there are three key

ingredients to create lovemarks: mystery (great

stories: past, present and future, taps into dreams,

myths and icons; inspiration), sensuality (sound,

sight, smell, touch, taste), intimacy (commitment,

empathy, passion).

Belief MapIn order to change people’s behavior you need to

change their beliefs first.

Belief map is establishing the connection between

consumers' beliefs and actions, current and desired

Get-To-By BriefGet-To-By is a simple but powerful communication

brief. “Get”, “To” and “RTB” describe background

information and findings. “By” is the most

important. It’s the essence of strategic work, a final

hypothesis formulated as a clear single-minded

statement that should do all the work.

Every brief is a kind of balance between describing

everything you have to say and keeping just the

most important.It should be quite open for a creative

team to do a good job but also quite close to stay on

the right path.

Target GroupsA simple but important point: there are actually

several types of target audience.

Consumer pool is all potential consumers. But you

can’t talk with everyone.

Target audience is media target — the audience you

targeted in your media coverage, which is usually

wider than the brand core.

Brand core is the audience you describe in your

creative brief and address your message to. It's not

all of your consumers but it’s the group that others

are inspired by.

Attention FunnelThis tool is more known as AIDA. As it has been

around a long time, it has undeservedly lost some

respect.

AIDA is perfect for evaluating your execution.

Whatever you do, you should check whether it

attracts attention (will your banner be visible on the

page). Will it cause interest? Because attention

alone is not enough. It's a pity, but today there is a

lot of creativity that works just on these two levels.

The most important objective to achieve is to create

desire which leads to further action: not just

obligitary purchase but also digging for information,

etc.

Feedback FormThe right feedback is one of the most important

things in the creative process. Evaluating creativity

is hard enough by itself. What makes it even harder

is when the wrong feedback hurts and demotivates

creatives.

The formula for the right feedback is avoiding

personal judgment and staying objective. This form

with four simple questions will help with that.

Brand Health PyramidAt any one time, every person could be linked to one

level of relationship with a brand: awareness,

familiarity, preference or best choice.

The important thing is conversion between the

levels. Low awareness means no-one knows your

brand. A low conversion rate to familiarity tells us

people have heard about you but don't really know

what you have promised them. A low conversion

rate to preference means that what you are saying is

not interesting to your audience. A low conversion

rate to loyalty means you don't provide an extra

reason to stick with you.

5W Framework5Ws Frameworks is useful to describe your

consumer. It’s also good to start thinking about

segmentation first of all.

The Who — consumer insights.

The What — brand, product and portfolio strategy.

The When — occasions-based marketing.

The Where — market opportunity landscape,

locations of purchase and use.

The Why and The Why Not — drivers and barriers to

consumer choice.

Campaign LogicEvery campaign has pretty much the same logic:

announcement, platform and echo. There are five

main questions:

Announcement

1. Cheap and wide coverage.

2. High conversion rate to the platform.

Platform

3. Right message and experience that will influence

on consumer behaviour.

Echo

4. Loud echo. Think twice!

5. (usually most neglected) High conversion rate

from echo back to the platform.

Purchase JourneyPurchase Journey will help you to evaluate

consumer path to make sure every person step on it

will get to the purhcase.

Start with awareness of need and think in terms of

audience actions and decision points. “A person

want to drink. What opportunities he has? What will

he do? Will search for alternatives? Go direct to a

shop? How will he choose a shop? How will he

choose the drink?” — stay close to something like

that.

Try different routes. Find out every place where your

consumers fall off and come up with the right way to

correct it.

Brand PlatformsPlatform is the long-term fundament for all your

communication activities. There are three types of

platforms and you will usually use all of them.

Communication platform is the essence of your

long-term communication strategy. It’s about your

message and big idea.

Media platform is a set of tools to accumulate your

audience. Website, social media page, email base —

everything owned and on-going.

Service platform is communications beyond

advertising: social listening, call-center, online

support, etc.

Innovation Adoption ProcessDiffusion of innovations is a theory that seeks to

explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and

technology spread through cultures.

Diffusion of innovations is a type of decision-

making. It occurs through a 5-step process:

awareness, interest, evaluation, trial, and adoption.

With successive groups of consumers adopting the

new technology (shown in red), its market share

(grey) will eventually reach the saturation level.

Read “Diffusion of innovations” on Wikipedia for

more.

The Brand-ABLE FrameworkThe Brand-ABLE Framework is a tool to evaluate

your communications either on execution level or

just all together.

Attention — What do you do to garner attention? Is

your campaign visible?

Benefit — What’s the benefit for to the consumer? Is

the take out clear?

Link — Does what you are doing links to the brand

on idea and visual level?

Equity — How do you build equity in your brand so

that it endures?

Brand KeyThe “Brand-Key” model – originally created for

Unilever’s brand-planning – now universally used in

academicpractice. It’s different from other brand

frameworks by three main points:

Root strengths — the basic attributes we want to

build on and be known for.

Competitive environment — competitive

environment. :)

Discriminator — the single (or a maximum of 3)

compelling reasons for the target customer to

choose us over the competition.

S.T.E.P.P.S.S.T.E.P.P.S. are the six keys to made ideas and

products more contagious.

Social currency — we share things that make us

look good. Does talking about your idea make people

look good?

Triggers — top of mind, tip of tongue. Consider the

context and reminders.

Emotion — when we care, we share.

Public — built to show, built to grow. Can people see

when others are using your idea or product?

Practical value — news you can use.

Stories — information travels under the guise of idle

chatter.

Content Strategy FrameworkStart with branded content strategy by finding your

territory and core message. Think about values you

will deliver to the target audience through the

content.

Define content creation strategy: choose how will

you create content and fill in hygiene (always-on

‘pull’ content), hub (regularly scheduled ‘push’

content) and hero (large-scale, tent-pole events or

‘go big’ moments) content types in the framework.

Describe your distribution strategy: where you will

store the content, how you will deliver it and how

will activate.