Planning: forewarned is forearmed

It’s a battleground out there. A daily fight to keep business not just going, but good, succeeding as others fail, maximising profits whilst satisfying customers who are better informed and more demanding than ever.

And that’s why we need intelligent, flexible planning at the start of any project that we undertake. Planning is often misunderstood or seen as over-scientification. Really, it’s just about setting out and pre-understanding as much as possible, in terms of what we want to do, and the objectives that have been set, to give us the weapons to make sure that we stand the best possible chance of attaining them. It’s a safe bet that if you don’t plan your battles against a correctly identified target, then you’ll end up fighting the wrong fight. So really, the planner’s job is to build the scaffolding around the shape of the tasks we face, so that we can build what we design and easily access what we desire.

That way, we’re forewarned about circumstances, whether company, market or customer defined, whilst developing strategy and tools to minimise the threats that may come our way and so maximising our chances of success.

In practice, it hasn’t really ever been any different. Things happen faster now, for sure, but making the pace, keeping the lead, winning out over the competition, is as old as the hills.

Sun Tzu emphasized the importance of positioning in military strategy in The Art of War. The decision to position an army (your brand, service or product) must be based on both objective conditions in the physical environment (the market) and the subjective beliefs of other, competitive actors in that environment (the competition). He thought that strategy was not planning in the sense of working through an established list, but rather that it requires quick and appropriate responses to changing conditions (consumer expectations). Planning works in a controlled environment; but in a changing environment, competing plans collide, creating unexpected situations, hence modern commercial planners need to learn continuously through actual results and ‘loop and learn’ research techniques.

“He who knows things, and in fighting puts his knowledge into practice, will win his battles. He who knows them not, nor practices them, will surely be defeated”: Sun Tzu looked at planning – the same way that we do now – between 544-496 BC, so despite advancing technology, much has stayed the same. Know what your objective is: know who your enemy is (competition) know how you have to lead (staff) and how to keep the plan robust if the circumstances change (customers).

Today, 2600 years later, we live in a data-rich world, where most things can be discovered either at the click of a mouse or via published and certified research. Specific, custom-built research techniques have come on a lot too, with the advent of web-based and computer-aided quantitative questionnaires and a new sophistication in qualitative research developed through a deeper understanding of marketing psychology, sometimes down to the neural level.

So, data, data everywhere, but it doesn’t help you think – unless you know what you are looking for and how the results can help you in targeting, proposition development, brand positioning that cuts it amongst the competition, the development of brand architecture and associated Vision and Values. Add in a need to create dialogue and real relationships with customers, track them and their propensities within your sphere of influence, retain them and make them advocates for whatever you are selling to them, and you can begin to see how the addition of some solid marketing planning can not only add value, but be the only solid foundation amid the shifting sands of daily commerce, competitive pressure and fickle consumers – a territorial map that sets out the ground you are trying to take and what tactics you will use to achieve it.

And you will need to know this information, whether you are specifying an international, high-profile campaign with a specialist hotel marketing agency such as LAW, or are just looking for a simple new web site design in a different business sector.

Here at LAW, we won’t engage in the battle or start the journey unless we know where we’re going and why. This isn’t because we’re sticklers for process, but because were spending other peoples’ money and, rightfully, they expect a return from a diligent and careful approach.

Forewarned: the process

First, we get to know you properly, your brand, aims, ambitions, Vision, Values and financial expectations in terms of ROI – and If some of these are unknowns, we’ll work with you to map them out.

Once we know what we’re expected to do and what it is that you’re anticipating in return for your marketing investment, we’ll work together on a tight brief that identifies the key issues and helps everyone at our end – and in your organisation – to focus fully on the task at hand.

We will then apply the planning framework that we have created with you to scaffold every area of the project that we are responsible for.

Forearmed: the ammunition

At LAW Creative planning encompasses all of these areas.

• Brand positioning, Brand/product/sub-brand architecture
• Competitive analysis to find clear blue water if possible
• Analysis of published data to understand target typologies and identify demographic, psychographic and geographic propensities
• Construct meaningful and content-rich research proposals and recommendations to precisely match your selected targeting criteria to your objectives
• Use this research to develop a compelling and competitive proposition for the brand/product/service that delivers a clear understanding and benefit to the target
• Apply all of the above to the development of whatever marketing channel can be best and most cost-effectively applied, from traditional media channels, through to all other customer touch-points with consistency, in a fully integrated manner right through to website development and construction
• Analyse results in terms of the objectives, be that direct ROI or improved brand comprehension and awareness, or any stop in between
• Work on building customer respect for the brand/product/service, to the point of their advocacy, through the application of sophisticated CRM techniques, (fully woven into our offer as a Digital marketing agency) including the use of Email Campaign software, such as the LAW AMP platform, which you can read about elsewhere on this site
• Building and evolving the Vision and Values that support the brand throughout your organisation to modify staff behaviours to be fully supportive internally: the organisation speaking with one voice
• Track cumulative findings as campaigns and activities roll out or are refreshed, and modify our approach flexibly so that our planning is always relevant to changing circumstances.

And more!

So, what you don’t need is an integrated marketing campaign or a new website or a video. What you do need, is to know what you need and when you need it. And that’s exactly what planning helps you to do.

Mike Tyson famously said “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.”

With a clear, comprehensive, flexible and clearly articulated plan, your brand and business will withstand whatever blows it has to take. Even from Iron Mike!