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How to write a brief

Friday, November 26th, 2010

A best practice guide to help you produce your brief – a collaborative document from; caf, IPA, ISBA, MCCA & PRCA

This is a very interesting read and a quick reference for anyone who is considering using creative or marketing services. The guide separates the process into a methodical, planned approach and it gives some great analogies to help explain the main points.

1) Where are we now? 2) Where do we want to be? 3) How are we going to get there? 4) What do we need to do? 5) How will we know that we have arrived?

As a professional creative services company and marketing strategists we approach all of our planning in this fashion – its second nature. In marketing terms you’ll also come across a similar model, defined as SOSTAC; Situation analysis, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics, Action and Control. These two models are basically one of the same, which is why we like this guide so much.

The client brief is the most important piece of information issued to a marketing company. It’s from this very briefing document which everything flows – the better the brief, the better and more accurate the results.

If you’re considering approaching an agency then this guide can be used for all types of creative work. It consists of a template to help internal marketing teams or business owners become the best briefing practitioners possible. Read the full guide.

Tags: best practice guide, client brief, creative work, strategy tactics
Posted in Creatives, How To Do... | 3 Comments »

Marketing audits – PESTLE

Saturday, November 6th, 2010

What is a marketing audit?

The first stage of the marketing audit process is the external analysis. It is a systematic approach to create information necessary to an organisation in order to identity the key issues it will need to create a successful marketing strategy.

Marketing, by nature, is an outward looking process and is the interface between a company and the outside world. A marketer must scan the environment, both internally and externally, in order to identify opportunities and threats. The company’s position and resources can then be adjusted based on the outcome of the analysis.

In order to understand the needs of its customers and to keep marketing at the heart of the business, the marketer must analyse the external environment as part of the marketing audit in order to identify future needs and to develop its marketing mix.

Although the external environment consists of a wide variety of factors and influences it is possible to group them under 5 broad headings:

Political/Legal:-
National government, local government, trade associations, the EU, regulatory bodies.

Economic/competitive:-
Market structure, government policy, trading bodies, taxation, interest rates, trading blocs.

Sociocultural:-
Demographics, culture, attitudes, current issues.

Technological – innovation effecting:-
Products, materials/components, processes, distribution, marketing/administration.

Environmental:-
Waste disposal, conservation, natural resources.

When to use PESTLE external analysis?

Use PESTLE environmental analysis to understand the key factors that are likely to drive change in your business environment. The aim is to then establish how these factors affect your industry in general and more importantly your organisation in particular.

What do marketing audits achieve?

Through a comprehensive, systematic and independent examination of your companies external environment you will be able to identify problem areas, future events and trends that may have an effect on your company. You may not have any influence over these events but by understanding the affects they may have on your business you will be able to recommend a plan of action to improve the company’s marketing performance.

Tags: marketing audits, marketing mix, marketing strategy, pestle
Posted in How To Do..., Marketing, Strategic Marketing | No Comments »

SWOT Analysis

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

What is it?
The SWOT analysis model (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) is the most common marketing tool for structuring your marketing audits. The purpose of which is to then provide you with a critical analysis of your marketing strategy.

The strengths and weaknesses focus on the present and past activities, and also on other factors which are internally controlled, such as the 4 P’s, product, price, place, promotion.

The opportunities and threats tend to focus on the present and the future, taking a more strategic view. This results in a forecasted list of the likely externally controlled options that are available to the company.

When to use it?
If strengths and weaknesses represent ‘where we are now’ and opportunities and threats represent ‘where we want (or don’t want) to be’ or ‘where we could be’ then the gap, representing ‘what we have to do to get there’ has to be filled by managerial imagination. This will then be formalised in the body of a marketing plan.

What does it achieve?
The SWOT analysis helps to sort information systematically and to classify it. It however still needs further create interpretation to make sense of it all. It also helps with; • More effective decision making • Improved strategic planning process • Greater understanding of industry trends and performance drivers

Key steps
1. Compile a list of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats; be creative and open minded. 2. Reduce the brainstorming session in step 1 down to a top five to ten ideas for each area of the SWOT analysis. 3. Look at each area in detail and discuss the potential implications they might have on the company. 4. Keep in mind that a SWOT analysis is compiled in order to give you a greater understanding of how your organisation can relate to its external environment. 5. Now look at the internal strengths and weaknesses of the company and see how they relate to the opportunities and threats which are external to the organisation.

Tags: critical analysis, marketing audits, marketing strategy, swot analysis
Posted in How To Do..., Strategic Marketing, knowledge | 1 Comment »

Push, Pull & Profile Strategies

Saturday, May 8th, 2010

What are they?
Push, Pull and Profile are the 3 P’s in an organisations marketing communications strategy.

A Push strategy promotes a product to retailers/distributors in order to force the product down into the distribution channel.

A Pull strategy involves communicating with the end customer or consumer to attract them to the retailer/distributor in order to purchase the product.

The strategy used to satisfy an organisation’s corporate promotional goals are developed through what is referred to as a Profile strategy. This third component of an overall communication strategy is all about satisfying the needs of the stakeholders.

When to use it?
Push Strategy:
The main aim of the Push strategy is to get the product into the hands of buyers with little of no advertising. This strategy involves personal selling to acquire a customer. Trade shows are a good place for many Push marketing strategies as there’re plenty of opportunities to “sell” to interested industry related people these types of events.

Characteristics of push strategies;
• Product categories where there’s low brand loyalty
• Where many acceptable substitutes are available in the market
• Relatively new products are to be launched
• The product purchase is unplanned or on impulse
• The consumer is familiar and has reasonably adequate knowledge about the
product

Pull Strategy
With Pull strategies, marketing efforts are ultimately directed at the consumer or end user and are loaded with a lot of promotional offers to support the campaign such as; contests, coupons, free samples etc. If companies add on advertising into this strategy then the cost of marketing associated with this approach can usually be quite high.

Characteristics of a Pull strategy;
• The product demand as high
• Its possible to differentiate the product on the basis of real or emotional features
• Brand consumers show a high degree of involvement in the product purchase
• There is reasonably high brand loyalty
• Consumers make brand choice decision before they go to the store

Characteristics of Profile strategy is to build awareness, perception, attitudes and reputation using;
• Public relations
• Sponsorship
• Corporate advertising

In some international markets the nature of the market structure that already exists may determine the degree to which push, pull and profile strategies are used. This is likely to mean adopting different strategies for different markets – some are highly fragmented while others are concentrated.

What do these strategies achieve?
A “pull” selling strategy is one that requires high spending on advertising and promotion to build up consumer demand for a product. If the strategy is successful consumers will ask their retailers for the product, the retailers will ask the distributors and the distributors will ask the manufacturers if they can stock their products.

A “push” promotional strategy makes use of a company’s sales force and trade promotion activities to create consumer demand for a product. The producer promotes the product to distributors, the distributor promotes it to retailers, and the retailers promote it to consumers.

Key steps:
• Decide overall marketing objectives
• Create Push/pull strategy (identify marketing communications, channel management
etc)
• Communicate the message to all channel partners
• Evaluate the outputs

Top Tips:
Having just one strategy may not give you as good of a return as wish for. You might need to balance both strategies to create a satisfactory marketing mix that entices customers to buy your products. Some customers react to one type or the other depending on their stage in the decision making process. The bargain hunters might react to the pull marketing tactics while the socially-aware buyers might respond to the push marketing. If you have a product that requires a lot of convincing to buy then mixing the strategies up will help to ensure that consumers can’t resist your offer.

Tags: communications strategy, profile strategy, pull marketing, pull strategy, push strategy
Posted in How To Do..., Strategic Marketing | 1 Comment »

Marketing orientation

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

What is it?
Business orientations are classified into the following groups: Production Orientation, Product Orientation, Sales Orientation, and Marketing Orientation.

Production Orientation – Dominated the business landscapes of the industrial revolution and mid 1900′s; this is where a company is heavily focused on streamlining production processes and concentrating on improvement efficiencies with little focus on anything else. Scenario: We can build a car for you, but it comes in black only.

Product Orientation – An approach to business that centres its activities on continually improving and refining its products. All efforts are put into making the product better. Scenario: We can offer you non-chip paint on your car.

Sales Orientation – Some businesses see their main problem as not selling enough of the product or services which they already have available, hence predominantly focusing on sales and selling techniques. As a result these organisations operate as Sales Oriented companies. A sales orientated business pays little attention to customer needs and wants and is more concerned about selling. Scenario: If you sign up for the car now we’ll throw in a sunroof.

Marketing Orientation – This is a culture rather than an individual process. It’s the norms, mindsets, values and behaviours of employers; alongside the structure, systems and control of the organisation. Marketing oriented businesses define their activities as service activities carried out towards the satisfaction of their customers. In other words they define their operation as a service business with customer service being the most important activity. They are driven by customer needs which are identified in their objectives. Scenario: We’ll make your car in whatever colour you choose.

When to use it?
Use market orientations when you want to understand, anticipate and satisfy your customer needs. You may already be operating somewhere in-between orientations. Companies can be anywhere on the spectrum as well as having different products at different orientations.

What does it achieve?
• A sense of what customers want
• Links customers needs to company capabilities
• Builds relationships
• Creates vision
• Greater internal marketing and communications
• Tracking and information systems for further research and evaluation

Key steps:
• Audit and analyse current orientation
• Decide on strategy
• Implement full marketing mix
• Evaluate and control

Top Tips:
Being marketing orientated is more than just being customer-led. It requires the full support of the organisation in order to be fully implemented in the long term, and may need a complete change in a company’s culture.