The Marketing Bureau

It’s a worrying reality that Marketing Communications is seen by too many businesses as little more than a big black hole into which hard earned revenue is poured. It is seen as a hit & miss affair that is costly, difficult to plan, offers a bewildering array of media options and, well, frankly, that mostly doesn’t work. It needn't be like that.

However, the reality need not be as scary that. As with most business concepts, effective marketing communications can be optimised (maximum returns, minimum risk) through the adoption of simple, prudent planning processes.

So if you are one of those who find marketing communications more of a challenge than it should or needs to be, the following step-by-step guide offers you an opportunity to change all that.

Step 1 Determine problems or opportunities

A marcoms programme is something that is designed to either exploit an opportunity or solve a problem. Begin your journey by being crystal clear on what problem or opportunity you are seeking to address.

Step 2 Determine the objectives

An objective is not something that you are going to “do”. It is something you are planning to “accomplish”. Determine what accomplishments will enable you to solve the problem or exploit the opportunity.

Step 3 Select the target audience

I once had a client in the Pizza Delivery business. He argued vigorously that his target market was “pretty much everyone really – everyone eats pizza”. Apart from that being untrue, it lacked critical specificity – amongst those who do eat pizza, some eat it more frequently than others, some are more price sensitive than others, some are more likely to opt for home delivery than others – be clear about who your target market is or you will end up saying the wrong things to the wrong people.

Step 4 Select the marketing communications mix

Advertising? Literature? Sales promotion? Social Media? Trade Shows? Personal Selling? Something else?

The options are pretty straightforward but selecting the right “mix” requires careful thought about the nature of your product or service, the problem or opportunity you are working with, what you know of the purchasing and consumption preferences of your specific target audience etc. Product sampling is often effective for food & beverage products but will be a tough one to implement for a fan belt!

Step 5 Select the Message Strategy

This is a key step (and a tough one) as this is where you have to decide and craft precisely what it is you want to say to your target audience – your proposition. Here is where you must effectively articulate a benefit which will accrue to the customer if they purchase your product or service. (And this is where may too many advertisers yell ‘Please choose me – I am cheaper” Don’t fall into that trap – every sector can accommodate a lowest price operator but all of those slots are well & truly occupied – you must do much better than that).

A powerful rule of thumb at this stage is to understand that you must be seeking to make a single minded proposition come alive in a compelling way. If you can’t achieve that (or your specialist providers can’t achieve that) then don’t expect your audience to even see your campaign, let alone respond to it.

Step 6 Select the message delivery system or media

From a 60” television slot to a letterbox drop and a zillion things in between – your channel choices (or media options) are many & varied. However, if you are clear about the answers to the five steps above, these choices will become easier. Add to that a simple analysis of the economics of your proposed campaign and the choices will begin to make themselves.

Step 7 Determine a budget

Using the data gathered as a part of addressing Step 6, prepare a budget that details the income & expenditure that you are planning for from the campaign. This is not a difficult thing to do – you are not going to spend $1 million on a campaign that delivers $100,000 in incremental sales. Get the idea? And by the way, the more campaigns you do, the better quality the data will be when you come to plan future campaigns.

Step 8 Implement the strategy

Go do it.

Step 9 Evaluate the results

Always evaluate the results as comprehensively as you can. How many people saw the campaign?, how many people requested more information?, how many people asked for a proposal? how many people purchased the product?, what was the average sale value, what were the geographic elements (greater growth in the South Island than the North Island?), what was seasonality?(more people purchased in the summer than in the winter?) etc. etc.

Armed with this information, you will begin to learn more and more about the dynamics of your market and be much better placed to plan effective (and profitable) future campaigns.

Finally, never, ever, skip this planning process – if you just wing it because you think this stuff is just too hard or too time consuming or too something else, the risks of failure increase exponentially. Put in the hard yards, take control of your marketing communications planning and you will quickly see that marcoms expenditure is really an investment that produces a return (not a cost – or black hole!)