Diving right in isn't always the best strategy. Photo / Getty Images
Diving right in isn't always the best strategy. Photo / Getty Images
OPINION:
In this groundhog day existence, it's easy to lose track of time with every day blending into each other and Christmas now only weeks away. I don't know about you, but this year certainly has had its challenges. Many businesses are beginning to draw a line through 2021 andshifting focus to 2022 – a new year, fresh with promise and a 90 per cent vaccination rate allowing us to get back to a largely normal life.
Before we leap into 2022 and charge on with doing what we've always done, I'm a big believer in taking a break to stop and reconsider all the options. Rather than just diving in and "doing", it's essential to step back and focus on some timeless marketing principles to get the basics sorted first. The biggest mistake you can make is repeating old errors in an urgent rush to get moving again.
The backbone of any marketing plan shouldn't be a tactical or experimental approach but sound old fashioned marketing principles that are reviewed annually. Stripping everything back and reconsidering where you are in the market and where you can play to win is a necessary discipline.
It's easy for us to become comfortable with our position and approach. We work and live in our businesses and industries every day and can unintentionally become a bit myopic. So stepping back and relooking at everything fresh can be an enlightening experience.
It can be valuable to get someone else to do this for you. If you have a trusted agency partner, it's an excellent opportunity to align on the year ahead. However, getting another perspective from a client or a new team member will also help bring a freshness of thought and new insights to consider. Depending on the size of your business I'd recommend speaking to a minimum of six people, three staff and three customers. Ask them about the company, the competitors and the customers' perspectives. Get their view on the strengths and weaknesses, what offers and promises competitors are making, and what problems or needs customers are looking to have addressed.
Combine this with some category and competition desk research and an audit of your marketing capabilities, and this should give you some vital insights about what's driving your customers and the category. The objective here is to develop clarity and understanding across each of these three groups. From this research, you should be able to identify some new insights that will form the basis for you to position the business and create a strong value proposition.
To create a strong proposition, you need to draw deep insights from the research. An insight unlocks a new way of looking at a situation and helps you gain a deep understanding of someone or something. To uncover compelling insights, you need to understand what's going on for your customers, what's changed or stayed the same in how they live, what drives them, their motivations, needs, fears and pain points. It's not enough to just collect the data in the research phase; you have to take the time to think about what beliefs are driving the behaviour. This is where the insights are hiding.
YoungShand managing director Duncan Shand. Photo / Supplied
Then look at how your competitors are presenting themselves. What are they talking about, and what promises are they making through their advertising and website? This should help you understand how they're positioning themselves. Lastly, review and assess your products or services. Are you clear about and communicating your unique key benefits?
Once you've done this work, you should be able to uncover a great proposition. A genuinely great proposition will be different from your competitors, address a core customer need, and build on your unique benefits. Then you're on to a winner. The better the proposition, the less promotion you'll need, as every dollar you spend will be more efficient.
"The better the proposition, the less promotion you'll need."
Be Ambitious
The last part of refreshing your strategic marketing plan is having a clear ambition and ensuring it's relevant. Have a big audacious goal to focus on, recognising this is likely to evolve. Many businesses fail to become what they are capable of because of the lack of a strong vision or failure to develop it as they grow. Whether you want to call it a BHAG (big hairy audacious goal - Jim Collins) or simply set a five or 10-year vision, it's crucial to set inspiring, aspirational goals for you and the team and keep reassessing them over time.
If you've got a big goal in place already, then review it to understand if you're on track. If not, think big. Once you have a clear vision, break it down into bite-sized chunks across the year. Clarifying and revalidating it will help you set the direction of your near-term targets.
Then, with your targets set for the year, your research should help provide clear guidance on the activity required to achieve your plan. The challenge is always to ensure you don't get over-excited and try to do too much. Focusing on two to three significant projects per quarter and doing them well is generally more than enough.
None of this needs to be particularly technical or complicated. What it takes is time - time to think, talk, listen, and then work out how it all fits together. Setting a successful marketing strategy is a little like completing a puzzle. There may be many potential combinations that are nearly right - but there's generally one combination that's just right.
