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 goals
SMART 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 process
Planning 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 cycle
Planning 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 Sources
Define 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 Split
This 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 Funnel
The 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 Journey
This 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 Channels
There 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 Core
Brand 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 Ladder
This 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 Process
Insight 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 Types
This 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 Pyramid
Brand 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 Model
To 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 Model
Consumer 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 Pyramid
Maslow'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 Theory
When 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 Drives
The 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 Model
Censydiam 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 Archetypes
This 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.
Lovemarks
Lovemarks 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 Map
In 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 Brief
Get-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 Groups
A 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 Funnel
This 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 Form
The 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 Pyramid
At 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 Framework
5Ws 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 Logic
Every 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 Journey
Purchase 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 Platforms
Platform 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 Process
Diffusion 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 Framework
The 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 Key
The “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 Framework
Start 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.