Tag Archives: marketing strategy
Bad Brand Strategy Spoils Creative
We view brand strategy as the guidance system of the brand. When smartly researched and articulated, it can transform companies. It’s also the key reason creative work, from social media and web site development to advertising and web marketing goes haywire. Give creative teams garbage, they’ll give it right back to you in crazy ways you never dreamed of.
Here are the elements of a smart strategy:
1. A worthy objective. Ideally it’s attached to a metric. For example: increase sales 20% for BillyBob’s Bar Stools.
2. A clear definition of a single marketing problem that’s standing between your product, and achieving the objective. For example, Billy Bob’s Bar Stools are more expensive than the competition, and Bar Owners won’t to pay the difference.
3. Definition of your target audience. Be as specific as possible: For example, upscale bar owners and restaurant owners that serve microbrews.
4. A single sentence that states your argument. For example, Marketing will convince Bar Owners that Billy Bob’s Bar Stools are a better investment, because they last twice as long as the competition.
5. A convincing and true claim that supports your marketing promise. Billy Bob’s Bar Stools last longer, because they’re manufactured from construction grade steel.Finally, what does your brand sound like? Does Billy Bob sound like a private club, a college bar, or a neighborhood watering hole.
6. Strategy shouldn’t sound sexy, or like advertising. The goal is to present a clear argument for building your brand. As John Lyons said in his book, <i>Guts</i>, Strategy is a well thought out plan to murder the competition.”
With smart strategy, everybody’s happy. Creatives get the input they need. And you, as a marketing manager, will have a benchmark evaluating your agency’s work.
Ad strategy with Sun Tzu, Shaq and Phil Jackson
We love using war and sports metaphors in marketing. “Hey, Ted, let’s
blow away the competition next quarter.” Sure, and on the weekends
he’ll organize an Amish terrorist cell to take over an Arby’s.
Everyone wants to “beat” the competition. That’s human nature. But
is it wise? And how will you do it? And can you do it without
splattering your budget all over the wall.
Possibly the greatest warrior in history based his strategies on
avoiding conflict. Sun Tzu (ca. 500 BCE) was no wuss, but he considered
war to be wasteful of the empire’s human, cultural and physical
resources. World leaders have been slow to catch on, but Phil Jackson,
who led the Laker’s to three consecutive championships, certainly
hasn’t.
One of Sun Tzu’s central precepts was that the army with the
greatest force at the critical point would win. That point for Phil
Jackson is an 18-inch in diameter hoop, 10 feet off the ground, known
as the basket. Based on this fact alone, Back when the Lakers had Shaq, Sun Tzu would have predicted
the Lakers victory before the season began. At
7’1″ and 315 pounds, Shaq is an unmovable object that is closer to the
basket than anyone on the floor. Jackson knows that nobody can stop
Shaq, and as long as the rest of the team understands the strategy, the
Lakers win. When they don’t, they lose.
You need a strategy. A simple one. And everyone in your company has
to understand it. One that clearly defines the area where you can bring
an overwhelming force to bear. In other words, pass the ball to Shaq.