We’ll approach this question using car terms, the “engine” is the brand positioning strategy; in essence, “Who are you?” In other words, end-of-the-day it’s what’s under a car’s hood, and everything that makes it “move” that largely sustains a car’s “market” existence: what makes it move has to be undeniable, and, how it moves a little better than other cars needs to be, ultimately and / or largely, “understood” and recognized. So, we would identify “this” (your engine) that will point us in the direction for future business growth, and the “drivers” (on a yearly basis) that move you (emotionally and physically) as part of the marketing strategy. This means, we also identified the target group(s) and the overriding emotion that “plays well” with our audience and our primary performance descriptors used in the brand positioning strategy.

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We’ll approach this question using car terms, assuming you are familiar (with the above answered questions with a brand positioning strategy) we now consider, the “non-essentials” when speaking from a long-term market sustainability factor. So, these “non-essentials” would be your marketing strategy. In other words, we address the, “What about you?” – we’ve done the “who are you” via the brand positioning strategy. The marketing strategy, in other words, is specific to a moment-in-time. So perhaps, consumers now looking at cars are all about cup holders, but “why?” What is it about cup-holders specifically with our defined audience per our brand positioning strategy: either a subset of this audience or the audience as currently described. What specific benefits (physical and emotional) resonates with this audience, today. And, how can we substantiate these claims? Which attributes can we leverage that suggest our cup-holders with make them feel excited or make our cup-holders more worthy of consideration or thought of as superior to that of our competitors? More so, part of the advertising may include the brand positioning strategy (now referred to as the brand character) to further substantiate your claims. Or, at the very least, it becomes the “look and feel” (to some extent, execution style, imagery, tone, and / or copy etc.).

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In simple terms, your marketing strategy addresses timely consumer needs; whereas, your brand positioning strategy makes an endurable claim on your differences to your likely, broadly defined, prospective consumers. The two strategies are dependent on one another, ultimately, from a short and long-term ROI perspective (see answered questions above for more information specifics). Point being, both strategies need to be cogent and work in-concert for your “competitive” message to get noticed, that is, before it even has a chance to resonate. Overtime, if it gets noticed and resonates, you increase your audience’s impressions of your brand: contributing to your audience’s overall brand knowledge, and, in turn, your brand equity. Brand equity, in short, means increased receptivity to your advertised offerings and their messaging – meaning, more efficient advertising. Bottom line, both strategies working in-concert can move your business more effectively and efficiently towards future growth than not having them – it’s an investment that has a cumulative effect. It can pay for itself over-and-over again.

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A marketing strategy is arrived at the same way as a brand positioning strategy, in terms of doing the research (SWOT / market, competitor, and consumer analyses), yet, focusing the researching intent as outlined / indicated by your “market position,” specifically, the primary benefits (functional then emotional) or focused on your “newly created” category. And, in some cases, we are working with a more narrowly defined audience (within the original descriptors) that will secure a new direction for future business growth. Within these new, more narrowly defined spaces, we can then determine the needs to fulfill and, in turn, the attribute(s) to leverage, and the predefined response(s) that will move us in a positive direction (future business growth). The brand positioning strategy, we now think of as the “brand character” – the “look and feel.”More confused than before (or not)? Either way contact us to discuss. With a few questions, we can start to describe the above in relation to your brand and your industry.

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A marketing objective follows, in this case, the Corporate Objective (how much revenue do we need to make) and, in turn, the Corporate Strategy (what do we need to do, to make this revenue). Thus, the marketing objective receives its inspiration (or, marching orders, if you prefer) from the corporate strategy. A corporate strategy entails one of four choices: divest, innovate, maintain or increase sales, or harvest sales from the “big seller” (product or service). So, in effect, the marketing objective chooses how it will address (typically, maintain or increase sales) said corporate strategy. The first major fork in the road (left or right) is Brand Awareness (Brand Recall or Recognition) versus Brand Image (Attributes, Benefits, Attitude, or reinforcing aspects of Positioning Strategy). So, in short, the marketing objective is a multi-tiered solution, by suggesting a concrete way to meet its objective, passed down from the corporate strategy. So, the marketing objective may be to increase or take market-share, or upsell or increase customer-share. Next, it becomes a matter of addressing the question of brand awareness vs. brand image. And, then, for further analysis, when it comes to the marketing strategy, we review the market overview (SWOT, competitor and consumer analysis) to decide which aspect of Awareness or Image are we leveraging.

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First, what exactly do we mean by marketing plan? A marketing plan in this case is specific to your current year’s corporate (top line) objective: how much revenue (from sales and / or profit margin percentage) do you need or want to make in the next 12 months. This number can be the same as last years. Still, this would not warrant skipping “the plan.” Why? Your “situation” for which to succeed in your category is now different, simply due to market dynamics that ultimately change with time. Specifically, your strengths and weaknesses may be different, and the category in which you compete, as well – trends, economic climate, technology, competitors, consumers, suppliers, partners etc. are changing, as well. Making, new opportunities and threats, both, equally so, a real possibility. Resulting in, a new marketing strategy “rooted in” the new, current context: deciding on the most opportune direction for business growth (in contrast to that of past and new competitors) with the necessary “this year’s” brand image. With that being said, this would also, in turn, lead to another series of objective and strategies that flow from marketing: communication, creative and advertising. These, in effect, would “feedback” to the marketing objective and strategy. In short, a current marketing plan will allow you to ultimately have idea (strategies) and actions (tactics) to effectively reach and “strike a chord” with your target audience. So that, in turn, your top line objective can be more assuredly addressed.

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Yes, it is possible to have multiple campaigns going simultaneously. Let’s say, for example, you wanted to maintain sales (retention strategy), while building awareness with another target audience. In other words, one campaign may not go towards “making money,” whereas another is simply guaranteeing that money with the lowest hanging fruit, so to speak. Then, the following year the ability to move “last year’s audience” into a buying position may be the entire campaign “spend.”

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A creative brief’s purpose, aside from allowing the creative resource to deliver on the strategy, in short increases efficiencies of process. It is a “boiled-down” version of a marketing plan such that the creative can “easily” (in terms) of abbreviated information decipher exactly what and how to start thinking about how to dramatize consumer benefit(s) or make memorable said offering’s attributes. This entails not only coming-up with the idea, but also, deciding on the creative executional style and “appeal” approach. There’s a lot to consider, and think about, in other words, when it ultimately comes-down to making your advertising messaging resonate. What’s the “big idea,” in other words? With that being said, the best creative briefs don’t necessarily result in the best advertising, however, it can be widely accepted that without a creative brief the resulting advertising will be largely ineffectual.

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Well, yes. Yet, this is a trick question. To clarify, a creative brief in essence is a “boiled-down” version of a marketing plan. It’s what is handed-over to the designer to be able to come up with the “big idea” that, more or less, does three things for said advertising tactic: get’s it noticed, get’s a reaction from the said target audience, and, as a result, makes something happen in the marketplace. The “something” can be generally one of two things: a resource or factor to build-on in subsequent campaigns, or result in sales – or, ideally, a little of both. In short, the creative brief is the annotated bridge between strategy and creative implementation (and ultimately tactical action).

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As a result of and solely based on having brand equity, your marketing strategies have more potential upside. This begs the question, what and how is brand equity created? We largely address this question earlier, in this marketing topic’s section, when describing a brand positioning strategy. In brief, though, the brand equity process starts when deciding on your brand positioning strategy: what the brand should “represent,” and, how it should be positioned with respect to your competition. Then, it is a matter of conveying said strategy whether outright, or, it is conveyed (“felt” or “understood”) as part of the overall communication tactic (tone, style, messaging etc.). This means with every purchase, regardless of everything “encountered” up to “purchase-action,” in the consumer’s mind they can, ultimately rely on your brand’s perceived and actual advantages, while, equally so, alleviating their concerns of any disadvantages when purchasing your brand over that of your competitors. Salient Brand equity allows for this “automatic response” to happen: your consumers recognize your brand create a “direct path” to knowing (in some shape or form) your preconceived market position. This “direct path” within your consumer’s memory sustains your brand’s longevity when properly “set-up and managed.” Secondly and inevitably, as your consumer’s usage of your offering “meshes” with what they do and are meant to believe (think, feel, or behave) your brand equity grows along with your marketing’s potential impact. It’s a win-win, in other words, your marketing is working to address short-term needs while sustaining long-term ones, as well. Brand equity can be broadly and, meaningfully, summarized as your brand having an “own able, trustworthy, relevant, [and] distinctive promise to consumers.” (Brand Equity Board)

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A good mix of tactics, in brief, is a tactical mix that addresses the communication’s objective, which, in effect, addresses every other set of objectives and strategies that preceded it. So, with that in mind, how do we determine a good mix to address our communication objective? This is what we really want to know. With this in mind, it is important to know the specific “intent and purpose” of individual tactics, and, ultimately, how the right assemblage of tactics may synergize. Meaning, tactics should be able to leverage, reinforce, and complement one another, to “bring to life” different aspects of a creative strategy, more so, than another tactic. In doing so, the “sought-after” consumer reactions can be more “complete”. In other words, each tactic-type is perceived differently than another, and, hence, is “attended to” or not, at all, largely based on a consumer’s perceptions and biases of said tactic’s generally accepted “protocol” (acceptable “behavior”). Tactics, as a general rule of thumb, fall into one of three stages in terms of optimizing their “intent and purpose”: cognitive, affective, and behavioral. In knowing the communication objective, one can then know the stage or stages to address, and, in turn, the optimal / right mix of tactics that would most effectively and efficiently work within these stages. Tactics, not deemed suitable for said objectives or stages, have been known to work “outside” of their usual “working environment.” And, while doing so may work, generally the effect is limited at best. Meaning that, another tactic focused on the same objective generally needs to be employed to reinforce tactics that are not ideally suited for a particular role. Point being, it’s more efficient to choose the right mix of tactics, based on pairing a tactic’s suitability with said objective. To do otherwise, while more costly and not always effective, may be due to reasons that are only obvious when viewed from that company’s particular situation and / or needs.

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