Also in this series:

• Favourite Slide #1: The Hedgehog
• Favourite Slide #2: Six Buying Roles
• Favourite Slide #3: Creative Development
• Favourite lide #4: Values
• Favourite Slide #5: Message Development
• Favourite Slide #6: Competition
• Favourite Slide #7: Positioning
• Favourite Slide #8: The Sales Funnel
• Favourite Slide #9: Integrated Communication
• Favourite Slide #10: The Creative Brief

Favourite Slide #10: The Creative Brief

In Jon Steel’s best–selling book, Truth, Lies and Advertising: The Art of Account Planning, he refers to the role of the advertising strategic planner — someone that has the ability to translate and interpret for three different alien species: the client, the consumer and the creatives.

Many a client has told me the creative process is foreign to them, and they don’t really understand how ‘creative people’ do what they do. By the same token, many creatives, to their detriment, fail to understand the consumer and prefer to operate in an artistic vacuum. And if some clients pitched their wares directly to the consumer, well they’d lose interest pretty quickly.

So it follows that the job of the advertising strategist, my job, is to get all three aliens speaking the same language. But you don’t actually need me to do that. That’s why the creative brief was developed. There are lots of templates you can work with, but (care of Jon Steel) here’s the simplest and easiest to complete. Regardless of whether you are a client, creative or consumer, it’s guaranteed to get you on the same page.

Why are we doing this?

A question for the client to explain the current state of their business, their offering and all relevant context. I’d recommend you use my hedgehog concept slide, values slide and any number of SWOT tools to help you complete this question.

What is the message?

Once an agency or creative team has the context, the agency and client can together determine what the key messages will be. Ideally, the messaging will be based on a legitimate consumer need and differentiate from the competition. I recommend you consider my message development and positioning slides in answering this question.

Who are we talking to?

This is a question primarily for, but not limited to, the client. Often an agency or strategist can reinterpret the client offering and open up an entirely new audience. Mostly, however, this is about the client defining who they intend to target. Don’t forget to consider my buying roles slide.

What do we know about them?

Again the client will likely have insight on this question, but the agency should conduct independent research on the audience(s) in order to form a detailed profile on them — and completely understand their nuances and needs. Think about where, if at all, your target audiences sit in the sales funnel.

How is the best way to send the message?

This is the fun part… the late nights and head-scratching an agency goes through in formulating their strategic and creative solution… the anticipation a client has before the creative presentation… the satisfaction of both agency and client when the sales start flowing. For insight into what goes on behind the scenes, I suggest you read my creative development, competition and integrated communication slides.

Nigel Malone is a freelance brand strategist and writer, with particular expertise in the fields of tourism, finance, technology, sustainability and social change. Connect with him on Linkedin http://au.linkedin.com/in/nigelmalone

Also in this series:

• Favourite Slide #1: The Hedgehog
• Favourite Slide #2: Six Buying Roles
• Favourite Slide #3: Creative Development
• Favourite Slide #4: Values
• Favourite Slide #5: Message Development
• Favourite Slide #6: Competition
• Favourite Slide #7: Positioning
• Favourite Slide #8: The Sales Funnel
• Favourite Slide #9: Integrated Communication
• Favourite Slide #10: The Creative Brief

Favourite Slides #9: Integrated Communication

‘Integrated’ has been a buzz word in agency land for more than a decade, and is still the catch-cry for many a creative shop and marketing department.

It all started with the rise of the internet and the downturn in dominance of traditional advertising media such as print and television. Combined with this, consumers were becoming less trusting of traditional advertising. Agencies and advertisers began to look for new ways to influence the consumer. Their methods ranged from the ridiculous to the subliminal and included PR, experiential and the social media we are so familiar with today.

In an attempt to regain their relevance, advertising agencies packaged up their approach to this new media-neutral landscape as ‘integrated communication’ and sold it to advertisers as the next big thing.

Despite such a long time in the sun, very few agencies or marketing departments have mastered the art of integrated communications — in theory or practice.

Some believe it is simply utilising all the different channels of communication available. To an extent this is true, but at its heart, integrated communication hinges on a single, pivotal creative proposition. This ‘big idea’, as some like to call, is then applied to a spectrum of ‘marketing drivers’ that ensure engagement with the consumer on every possible level in the sales process.

Activation Drivers

These are methods to accelerate or close the sale, especially with someone who might be sitting on the fence and need a small push to get them over the line.

Awareness Drivers

In favourite slide #8 I discussed the importance of filling the sales funnel with as many prospects as possible, usually done with the most mainstream media available and highlighting the ‘brand’ story.

Buzz Drivers

This is about creating hype around your offering in non-traditional advertising media, often more trusted by the consumer for its apparent neutrality.

Emotional Drivers

Being seen as a good corporate citizen is a given today and a means to attract consumers that align with your ‘cause’ and or organisational values (favourite slide #4).

Experience Drivers

These are means to allow your potential consumers to try, test drive, taste, or free trial your offering before they buy. It’s critical in getting them to prefer your product over the competition.

Product Drivers

These are about telling the product story in all its glory and fine detail, and much more ‘retail’-focused than the ‘brand’ story told by awareness drivers.

I like the integrated model because it’s not just for multinational advertisers — the model is equally scalable for a small or startup company. Simply focus on the big idea, the core message you wish to convey, and ensure it drives every piece of communication/engagement with your potential customer.

Done well, the end result is a consistent, efficient and powerful method of communication.

Nigel Malone is a freelance brand strategist and writer, with particular expertise in the fields of tourism, finance, technology, sustainability and social change. Connect with him on Linkedin http://au.linkedin.com/in/nigelmalone

Also in this series:

• Favourite Slide #1: The Hedgehog
• Favourite Slide #2: Six Buying Roles
• Favourite Slide #3: Creative Development
• Favourite Slide #4: Values
• Favourite Slide #5: Message Development
• Favourite Slide #6: Competition
• Favourite Slide #7: Positioning
• Favourite Slide #8: The Sales Funnel
• Favourite Slide #9: Integrated Communication
• Favourite Slide #10: The Creative Brief

Favourite Slide #8: The Sales Funnel

Anyone in sales will tell you it’s a process — and they are dead right. But what is that process? Enter the Sales Funnel, another of my favourite slides.

The Sales Funnel breaks down the sales ‘process’ — each step integral in getting the consumer over the line. The more conscious you are of these steps, the more chance you have of creating a sale. If you neglect a step, you’ll get a disruption of flow, or worse still, only a trickle of sales.

Awareness

The funnel at its widest point is where you need the biggest number of prospects, so cast your net as wide as possible dependent on your target audience. All the awareness in the world, however, doesn’t mean anyone will be interested in buying your product.

Interest

Will you get to second base? Sure you’ve got the consumers’ attention, quite likely only for a few seconds, but do they see any value in what you have to offer? You can guess, or you can base it on a tangible, no–obligation commitment from your prospect — to visit your store, sign–up online for a free trial, try those shoes on for size or fill out a coupon for more info. Any of these can be deemed as ‘interest’.

Desire (preference)

Consumers don’t operate in a vacuum — you have competition. It is at this point that consumers make their decision as to who has the superior product, service or brand — you or your competition. Some marketers call this achieving ‘preference’ with the consumer.

Action (intention)

The consumer has identified a need. They have been made aware of your solution to fulfil that need. They have shown interest in your product and recognise its’ value. The have also looked at your competitors and actually prefer your product over theirs. The decision-making process is complete and they have an intention to purchase your product.

I spent many years working on a large tourism marketing account. At the outset of the relationship, significant research was undertaken, specifically around the sales funnel and where consumers sat with regard to preference (Desire) and intention (Action). It was found the destination held a special place in the heart and minds of Australians. Awareness and interest was high. Compared to other Australian locations, it was also highly preferred as a holiday destination to visit at some point in their lives.

Therein lay the problem. It was thought of as ‘a must-see destination before I die’. A long–term, not a short–term, intention. One that was often put–off for another time.

Only by a close examination of the sales funnel, and where consumers were getting stuck, were we able to identify successful marketing strategies to unblock the funnel and get visitation flowing.

Nigel Malone is a freelance brand strategist and writer, with particular expertise in the fields of tourism, finance, technology, sustainability and social change. Connect with him on Linkedin http://au.linkedin.com/in/nigelmalone

Also in this series:

• Favourite Slide #1: The Hedgehog
• Favourite Slide #2: Six Buying Roles
• Favourite Slide #3: Creative Development
• Favourite Slide #4: Values
• Favourite Slide #5: Message Development
• Favourite Slide #6: Competition
• Favourite Slide #7: Positioning
• Favourite Slide #8: The Sales Funnel
• Favourite Slide #9: Integrated Communication
• Favourite Slide #10: The Creative Brief

Favourite Slide #7: Positioning

This slide comes courtesy of the genius of Gerald Nanninga. Gerald is a retail guru with the best blog planninga-from-nanninga.blogspot.com on strategic planning I’ve ever read. He literally has an analogy for everything, but in this particular slide, I draw directly on his wisdom regarding ‘positioning’.

What is positioning?

A position explains why your business has a right to exist in the marketplace and why a certain customer segment would prefer it. It is the place where your business is genuinely successful. It may be based on price, service, quality, durability, convenience, variety, taste or status. The point is that trying to be all things to all people at all times will fail.

Alexander Chernev, a Professor at the Kellogg School of Management, recently proved this with an experiment detailed in the November 2008 edition of Kellogg Insight.

Chernev surveyed consumers about everyday items like laundry detergent and toothpaste. Some of the products stressed excellence in a single attribute, while others claimed to excel at multiple attributes. For example, there could be one toothpaste brand emphasising just whitening, while another brand claimed expertise at whitening, cavity prevention and fresh breath.

What Chernev discovered was that products specialising in a single attribute were perceived by consumers to be superior in that attribute relative to a multi-attribute product making the same claim. In other words, even if I tell you that the teeth cleaning powers in my multi-attribute brand are as strong as the brand that only claims whitening, consumers won’t believe you. They’ll think the specialist is better at whitening.

Are you in position?

So let’s put your positioning strategy to the test. If you don’t already have one you may wish to use Proctor and Gamble’s positioning statement template:

“For [your audience] [your product name] is a [category name] which provides [main benefit] unlike [primary competitor] which provides [competitor’s main benefit]”

Now put it to the acid test…

1) Is the position Desirable?

Do people want what you are trying to sell? Sure, people desire cars, but if you pick a position of selling cars so cheap that they are unreliable and unsafe, you have chosen an undesirable position.

2) Is the position Sizeable?

To make a profit, you need enough sales to cover all your costs plus a little more. You may have found a position that several people find very desirable, but is there enough of them?

3) Is the position Ownable?

Highly desirable positions are often already taken. Being known for “selling everyday essentials at the lowest prices” is a great position, however K-Mart already owns the position, and will not give it up without a fight.

4) Is the position Preferable?

Why should a customer prefer your position versus what the competition is offering? Decisions are not made in a vacuum. People need to like your position more than the competition, otherwise you’re in trouble.

5) Is the position Achievable?

A position looks great on paper, but can you pull it off in reality? It’s okay to aim high with your positioning goals, but don’t aim for the impossible.

6) Is the position Believable?

Even if you could make the best quality sports car and sell it as the lowest priced vehicle on the market, customers might have trouble believing your claim. Is your position too good to be true?

7) Is the position Understandable?

If you cannot explain your position in just a few words, then the customer will give up on trying to understand it. All successful positions share the idea of simplicity.

Is the position Profitable?

Pick a position that will provide a financial return on investment. Ask yourself how much are people willing to pay for what you have to offer?

If you are thinking you may have to go back to the drawing board on your positioning statement, Gerald has a few points to keep in mind.

• First, don’t pick a position that is already owned by someone else. Choose something else.
• Second, clearly communicate that position to the customer, so that they will associate your brand with that attribute.

Third, don’t get greedy and try to make too many claims of superiority. The more attributes you claim to own, the less likely customers will believe that you own any of them. A simple, narrow position almost always wins out over claims that “I can do it all.”

Nigel Malone is a freelance brand strategist and writer, with particular expertise in the fields of tourism, finance, technology, sustainability and social change. Connect with him on Linkedin http://au.linkedin.com/in/nigelmalone

• Favourite Slide #1: The Hedgehog
• Favourite Slide #2: Six Buying Roles
• Favourite Slide #3: Creative Development
• Favourite Slide #4: Values
• Favourite Slide #5: Message Development
• Favourite Slide #6: Competition
• Favourite Slide #7: Positioning
• Favourite Slide #8: The Sales Funnel
• Favourite Slide #9: Integrated Communication
• Favourite Slide #10: The Creative Brief

Favourite Slide #6: Competition

In some organisations, keeping an eye on the competition is a daily event. But it is surprising how many startups and even established brands act like they operate in a vacuum.

I have several slides on competitive behaviour and positioning that I discuss with my clients. However, on occasion, I start with a story about one of the greatest examples of strategic planning and execution ever displayed — in terms of outwitting the competition.

Aside from the battlefield, there is no more competitive environment than the sporting field. And of those fields, the boxing ring is the one where the consequences of a winning or losing strategy are most harshly felt.

In 1967, Muhammad Ali had been suspended from boxing for three-and-a-half years for his refusal to enter the army. After two comeback fights, he took on Joe Frazier for the heavyweight championship and was beaten, resigning him to lowly contender fights for several years before he would get another shot at the title.

George Foreman, on the other hand, was on the rise, having won a gold medal at the 1968 Olympics and then seizing the championship from Frazier in grand fashion. When boxing promoter Don King finally brought the two together in 1974 in Zaire — in what became known as the “Rumble in the Jungle’ — George Foreman’s raw power, greater height and reach made him the overwhelming favourite against the aging Muhammad Ali.

Ali started the fight with an unexpected strategy. He began attacking Foreman by leading with right hand. ‘Leading with the right’ was considered a rookie error due to the fact it left the fighter unprotected. At the same time it was a tactic that Foreman would never have considered or prepared for, and he suffered several solid hits in this fashion from Ali. They weren’t knock–outs, but it embarrassed and unsettled Foreman. His ego dented, Foreman mounted an aggressive, high–energy counter-attack, which played straight into the hands of Ali’s strategy.

Ali was famed for his speed and ability to ‘dance’ around his opponents in the ring. Foreman, on the other hand, was a massive fighter with tremendous punching power, but less mobile. Foreman was ready for Ali’s ‘dancing’. He had trained long and hard to cut him off in the ring, so he could easily finish him with his powerful punches. Ali had other plans.

Instead of ‘dancing’ as everyone expected, Ali immediately started leaning on the ropes and letting Foreman attack him, but constantly clinching and grappling with Foreman to deflect and diffuse his punches. All the while Ali verbally taunted Foreman, inviting him to hit him harder and faster. An enraged Foreman did exactly that. Ali continued this tactic round after round, sticking to the ropes and absorbing Foreman’s punches, conserving his own energy, while Foreman rapidly burnt his. By the eighth round, Foreman was exhausted and Ali easily dispatched him to the canvas. Ali’s now famous ‘rope–a–dope’ strategy entered into legend.

I’m not a fan of fighting, but am a huge fan of Ali’s strategic planning. Against all the odds and a younger, stronger Foreman, he won the World Heavyweight Championship simply by out–thinking the competition. That, for me, is why he was the ‘greatest’.

For business, the analogy is simple. An underdog, startup or new entrant to the market must study their competitor’s every move. Don’t imagine they won’t retaliate to your advances, but as Ali showed, if you are ready, you can flip it into a huge advantage. Equally, from a marketer’s perspective, doing the completely ‘unexpected’, as Ali did, can pack a tremendous punch.

Nigel Malone is a freelance brand strategist and writer, with particular expertise in the fields of tourism, finance, technology, sustainability and social change. Connect with him on Linkedin http://au.linkedin.com/in/nigelmalone

Also in this series:

• Favourite Slide #1: The Hedgehog
• Favourite Slide #2: Six Buying Roles
• Favourite Slide #3: Creative Development
• Favourite Slide #4: Values
• Favourite Slide #5: Message Development
• Favourite Slide #6: Competition
• Favourite Slide #7: Positioning
• Favourite Slide #8: The Sales Funnel
• Favourite Slide #9: Integrated Communication
• Favourite Slide #10: The Creative Brief

Favourite Slides #5: Message development

As a strategist and writer working with startups or businesses finding their feet, the conversation often turns to the client saying, “I really want to have one sentence that sums up who we are and what we do…” Also known as the ‘elevator pitch’, this succinct and compelling summary of ‘what you do’ appears to be a rare commodity.

The client closely follows this with “… but I am not a writer… that’s why we need you”, and looks at me as if I possess some magic writing potion. Given the written language is core to western culture, it is puzzling how writing is often feared more than a night out in Transylvania. It needn’t be.

There’s one particular writing tool I share with all my clients to help them overcome any fears they may have about writing. It works equally well for the elevator pitch, as it does a speech, paragraph or page of text. It can dramatically help the persuasiveness of your communication.

The tool is called “Knowing, Feeling, Doing” and it came to me via Sam H. Ham, Professor of Environmental Communication and International Conservation at the University of Idaho. Ham’s research taught me that effective communication is not about organising facts for maximum recall, it is about ‘meaning–making’.

Here’s how it works: every communication or message you wish to create should have three essential components. They can be used in any order or permutation, as long as you address each one. Start by addressing each one individually and then mesh them together.

Knowing – what we want our audience to know or learn
Feeling – what do we want our audience to feel
Doing ­– what do we want our audience to do, your call to action

For example, James Tuckerman steps into an elevator at Sydney Technology Park and recognises an old school friend (and potential prospect)…

“So what are you doing with yourself these days James?” says the old friend.

James replies…

[Knowing]  “Well my passion lies in innovation and entrepreneurship.
At the moment I am building a community of proactive business builders – called Anthill.”

[Feeling]    “We keep our audience feeling informed, ahead of the curve, entertained and connected to their peers.”

[Doing]      “Hop online and take a look: anthillonline.com.”

Note: If James knew he was talking to a potential advertiser, he may have added something about the community being ‘quantified and qualified’, as this would be something an advertiser should know about Anthill.

So perhaps it’s up to James to tell us how we went with the first draft on his elevator pitch… but as a structural tool, the knowing, feeling, doing approach ensures you have all the right ingredients to play with in crafting your message. Once you have these in place, it’s a bit like polishing a rough diamond, or as Hemingway said “writing is re–writing” — keep crafting it until it’s perfect.

Nigel Malone is a freelance brand strategist and writer, with particular expertise in the fields of tourism, finance, technology, sustainability and social change. Connect with him on Linkedinhttp://au.linkedin.com/in/nigelmalone

Also in this series:

• Favourite Slide #1: The Hedgehog
• Favourite Slide #2: Six Buying Roles
• Favourite Slide #3: Creative Development
• Favourite Slide #4: Values
• Favourite Slide #5: Message Development
• Favourite Slide #6: Competition
• Favourite Slide #7: Positioning
• Favourite Slide #8: The Sales Funnel
• Favourite Slide #9: Integrated Communication
• Favourite Slide #10: The Creative Brief

Favourite Slide #4: Values

A prime objective of any brand strategy is to establish a tone for every communication an organisation makes.

Having worked both client and agency-side, I have seen a lot of branding models. Some are more innovative than others, but most are cut from the same cloth: a series of functional benefits that satisfy emotional needs and a set of values that distil down into a singular brand essence — often a single word or short phrase.

I like the simplicity of this approach for the brand strategist making the pitch to the client, but sadly for the individuals that have to bring the brand to life, internally and externally, it’s rarely upheld or adopted because it is too restrictive or one-dimensional.

What has worked really well for me (in conjunction with another favourite slide, the hedgehog) is concentrating purely on the values.

Richard Barrett, a Fellow of the World Business Academy, former Values Coordinator at the World Bank and author of ‘Liberating the Corporate Soul’ has developed a series of Cultural Transformation Tools®, one of which focuses on values. It’s become invaluable to me in defining the desired culture of an organisation, and setting the tone for all communication.

Take Barrett’s simple three-page values survey [PDF] and ensure you read the questions carefully. They specifically ask you to describe your personal values, the current values of your organisation and the desired values of your organisation. By mapping the results — yours and of those within your organisation — you can determine:

• the shift in values your culture needs to make (if any) to go from its current state to its desired state
• the values of existing employees, and how well they fit with the desired company values
• the different vision each employee has for the company, and their strong suits in helping to achieve it
• whether a potential employee’s values fit with those needed to take the culture to its desired state, or actually reinforce existing or negative values

Richard Barrett goes as far as to suggest that if an employee’s values match that of the desired culture they should be promoted, if they are a close fit they should be educated, and if they are not even close they should be fired! If you find this fascinating, it’s just the tip of Barrett’s thinking on values.

In my role of business and brand strategist, I’ve found that it is the desired organisational values and the personal values of the CEO that usually matter the most, mainly because they are the key decision-maker. From these it is possible to define the complete DNA of the desired culture, in a form far more useful for creatives and marketers to base their expressions of the brand than a single-word brand essence created in isolation by an agency strategist.

Again, as is the case with all of my slides, it is not the be-all-to-end-all — simply another means to identify pivotal areas of business that may make or break it.

Survey yourself and your organisation, compare the results and see how revealing it really is.

Nigel Malone is a freelance brand strategist and writer, with particular expertise in the fields of tourism, finance, technology, sustainability and social change. Find out more at www.icycalm.biz

Also in this series:

• Favourite Slide #1: The Hedgehog
• Favourite Slide #2: Six Buying Roles
• Favourite Slide #3: Creative Development
• Favourite Slide #4: Values
• Favourite Slide #5: Message Development
• Favourite Slide #6: Competition
• Favourite Slide #7: Positioning
• Favourite Slide #8: The Sales Funnel
• Favourite Slide #9: Integrated Communication
• Favourite Slide #10: The Creative Brief

Favourite Slide #3: Creative Development

It’s hard to imagine how all those amazing Disney films, not to mention the theme parks, were the brain–child of a single man. How could a single person be responsible for all of that? Well the truth is there wasn’t just one Walt Disney. There were three.

“There were actually three different Walts: the dreamer, the realist, and the spoiler. You never knew which one was coming into your meeting.”
– Disney Animator

Walt Disney’s simple, yet incredibly successful, strategy for creative development was founded on an ability to assume three different roles — dreamer, realist and critic — each of which involved a particular type of thinking and action.

Disney the Dreamer could visualise extraordinary scenarios, for new business projects as well as animated films. In Dreamer mode, Disney had the ability to immerse himself in his imagination, to the exclusion of everything else.

“What I see way off is too nebulous to describe. But it looks big and glittering. That’s what I like about this business, the certainty that there is always something bigger and more exciting just around the bend; and the uncertainty of everything else.”
– Walt Disney

Disney wasn’t just a creative thinker. He made things happen. Disney the Realist had a phenomenal ability to motivate and co-ordinate teams of diverse workers to bring his dreams to life. He brought the necessary perspiration to the Dreamer’s imagination.

“Our success was built by hard work and enthusiasm, integrity of purpose, a devotion to our medium, confidence in its future and, above all, by a steady day-by-day growth in which we all simply studied our trade and learned.”
– Walt Disney

Disney the Critic subjected every piece of work to rigorous scrutiny.

“Every foot of rough animation was projected on the screen for analysis, and every foot was drawn and redrawn until we could say, ‘This is the best we can do.’ We had become perfectionists…”
– Walt Disney

The key point here for entrepreneurs, inventors, innovators and anyone in the business of being creative is that it’s not just about the roles themselves — it’s when to play them or, more importantly, when not to play them.

Many a great creative (dreamer) has had his or her ideas shot down before they had a chance to fly by allowing the critic to enter the room/mind too early.

Equally as frustrating is the dreamer who doesn’t know when to call in the realist and ends up with a lot of unrealised ideas.

As Robert B. Dilts describes in Strategies of Genius: Volume 1, creativity as a total process involves the coordination of these three sub-processes. Striking the right balance between dreamer, realist and critic was Disney’s real skill.

Dilts goes on to recommend to anyone wanting to adopt Disney’s creative strategy that they set up three physically separate areas or rooms — one for each role — and initially spend some time in each room, getting the feel for that particular role. That is, spend time in the Dreamer Room and become used to how it feels to dream up creative ideas so you can recall that feeling each time you’re in that room or playing that role, in effect strengthening the character and integrity of that role. Repeat this process for the Realist and Critic Room.

In reality, it is not necessary to have three real rooms. Just be able to isolate the type of thinking associated with that role.

Lastly, remember it’s not a linear process. Rather, it is iterative and cyclical, as you should aim to consult each role independently and continually, ever-enhancing the idea until the critic finally becomes silent and you have arrived at the perfect idea.

Nigel Malone is a freelance brand strategist and writer, with particular expertise in the fields of tourism, finance, technology, sustainability and social change. Find out more at www.icycalm.biz

Also in this series:

• Favourite Slide #1: The Hedgehog
• Favourite Slide #2: Six Buying Roles
• Favourite Slide #3: Creative Development
• Favourite Slide #4: Values
• Favourite Slide #5: Message Development
• Favourite Slide #6: Competition
• Favourite Slide #7: Positioning
• Favourite Slide #8: The Sales Funnel
• Favourite Slide #9: Integrated Communication
• Favourite Slide #10: The Creative Brief

Favourite Slide #2: Six Buying Roles

Given the tremendous adult and child obesity issue facing the western world and the flow–on effects of type-2 diabetes, heart disease and other complications crippling and clogging the arteries of our hospital and health services (not to mention the tax burden we all bear because of it), I find it sickening that government still lets fast–food manufacturers target their marketing directly at children.

Of course, companies such as McDonald’s deny that the free-giveaway of toys with children’s meals has any effect on what they claim is entirely a parent’s decision as to whether their children eat McDonald’s or not. If what they say is true, clearly the management or marketers of these companies’ have never heard of Wind and Webster’s ‘Six buying roles’ model.

Developed initially in the 1970s, this slide was designed to explain the many buying roles within a large organisation, but is equally applicable to a family unit facing the challenge of deciding upon what to eat for dinner.

Wind and Webster’s ‘Six buying roles’ model

Take a look at the above slide and let’s walk through the respective buying roles.

1. Initiator
First identifies the need to buy a particular product or service to solve an organisational problem. In our family’s case, nutrition is a long-established need identified by their homosapien forefathers simply for survival.

2. Influencer
Their views influence the buying centre’s buyers and deciders. This is where the children come into play, and place huge pressure on their parents, through the desire to secure a toy and to gain acceptance and equality with their peers. After all, the child that cannot go to a McDonald’s birthday party equates to a leper in adult life. So yes it is the parent’s ultimate decision, but some children have greater influence than some of the longest-serving lobbyists in Washington. Of course, I am assuming in this family the mother or father is not an influencer too, but that’s the beauty of this model — often one individual can play multiple roles.

3. Decider
Ultimately approves all or any part of the entire buying decision, whether to buy, what to buy, how to buy and where to buy. In our case, the first parent to succumb to the child’s pressure.

4. Buyer
Holds the formal authority to select the supplier and to arrange terms of condition. The parent that pays for the meal.

5. User
Consumes or uses the product or service. Generally the whole family.

6. Gatekeeper
Controls information or access (or both) to decision-makers and influencers. This is where the government comes into action, or at present provides a lack of action. Equally responsible is the Advertising Federations that take the government’s self-regulation requirement and conveniently allow fast–food marketing to continue.

This example aside, Wind and Webster’s model provides an extremely useful tool in figuring out who you are really selling to, as it’s not always or only the person making the decision or paying the bill.

Nigel Malone is a freelance brand strategist and writer, with particular expertise in the fields of tourism, finance, technology, sustainability and social change. Find out more at www.icycalm.biz

In this series he shares the contents of these slides, which are drawn from a cross-section of sources, including the great business, brand and military planners of all time.

Also in this series:

• Favourite Slide #1: The Hedgehog
• Favourite Slide #2: Six Buying Roles
• Favourite Slide #3: Creative Development
• Favourite Slide #4: Values
• Favourite Slide #5: Message Development
• Favourite Slide #6: Competition
• Favourite Slide #7: Positioning
• Favourite Slide #8: The Sales Funnel
• Favourite Slide #9: Integrated Communication
• Favourite Slide #10: The Creative Brief

Favourite slide #1: The Hedgehog

One of my favourite keynote slides in strategic planning is the ‘hedgehog concept’ slide, and I’ve got a gentleman by the name of Jim Collins to thank for it. It’s generally the first slide I focus on with any company, but especially so with startups or businesses going through significant change.

There’s a plethora on information online about Jim and his thinking, but the ‘hedgehog concept’ is one of his gems. It’s really about determining business focus. Rather than being a ‘fox’ that is always on the lookout for everything and anything in terms of prey, Jim’s view is that it’s far better to keep it simple and be great at one big thing — much like the hedgehog, that when under threat rolls itself into a tight impenetrable ball.

Whether you like the analogy or not, it’s amazing how many companies that don’t have a simple, coherent strategic concept that they pursue with relentless consistency. Jim should know. His book, GOOD TO GREAT: Why Some Companies Make the Leap … And Others Don’t, attained long-running positions on the New York Times and Wall Street Journal best seller lists.

So how do you find your ‘hedgehog concept’? Get your three circles right.

1. What are you really passionate about?
Nothing great can be accomplished without passion, so it’s important you limit your primary arenas of activity to those for which you have great passion. Be it education, sailing or strategy.

2. What can you be the best in the world at?
“Best in the world” might be local or highly-focused, e.g. “best in the world at breaking the cycle of homelessness in Australia” or “best in the world at providing financial services to people in Darwin,” it nonetheless captures what you can do better than any other institution on the planet.

3. What best drives your economic or resource engine?
If you are a for-profit business, identify your one economic denominator that has the most significant impact on your economics. If you are a social sector organisation, how do you best improve your total resource engine, so that you can spend less time worrying about money and more time fulfilling your mission?

While most of my work is concerned with branding and marketing strategy, for me they are both a subset of business strategy, and that’s why I find the hedgehog invaluable. Not only does it help me identify the focus of the business, it more often than not helps the business itself find their focus.

Nigel Malone is a freelance brand strategist and writer, with particular expertise in the fields of tourism, finance, technology, sustainability and social change. Find out more at www.icycalm.biz