Within the Studio 619 discovery process, the business review provides an information decision-making base for the subsequent marketing plan and the rationale for all strategic marketing decisions within the plan. Most important, it provides us with a consumer and customer orientation to your marketing communications.
The business review is fundamental to the success of your marketing plan. Good data, organized in a meaningful and disciplined manner, will provide us tremendous insights to your target customers and their purchase behavior.
After identifying the challenge, we initiate the "Research Phase." Depending on the nature of the clients' product or service, research can be anything from competitive analysis to the full package of research and analytical services that Studio 619 offers.
It is very difficult to develop a marketing plan without first consolidating and summarizing the objective material developed in the business review. The business review is a reference to be utilized throughout the year. It is meant to be exhaustive in the amount of data it presents and analyzes. However, in order to write a marketing plan, the marketer needs to solidify specific company and product category challenges. The major conclusions from the business review should be polarized into problems that need to be solved and into opportunities that can be exploited. The result should end with a marketing strategy statement.
A marketing strategy statement is a broad directional statement indicating how the marketing objectives will be achieved. It provides the method for accomplishing the objectives. While marketing objectives are specific, quantifiable, and measurable, marketing strategies are descriptive.
It is possible to employ a methodology similar to disciplined marketing planning when you are managing internet media projects such as implementation of a new site or enhancements to an existing site. This framework helps keep target markets, marketing objectives, and communications messages in focus and enables your organization to manage its internet media projects efficiently and effectively.
The planning process puts the strategy into action. In this phase, we assign a project manager, identify key team members that can bring vision and deliver results.
Although the strategy statement may say everything your company wants said, it is not distinctive, attention-getting, and memorable. Strategy statements are merely outlines, platforms for in-house discussions and agreement, not messages that will persuade a customer to buy or believe in something.
The creative side of a message strategy involves figuring out what to say and how to say it. We refer to this as designing the message. There is no one right way to create an ad, a website or other marketing material; there are many ways, and the art of message design involves knowing which strategy will create an impression with the most relevance, originality, and impact.
Behind every good advertisement, website or other informational material is a creative concept, a "Big Idea" that makes the message distinctive, attention-getting, and memorable. Usually a big idea is simple and, after it has been developed, seems to be the "obvious" solution. You know a successful Big Idea when you find yourself saying "I wish I thought of that."
At Studio 619 the design concepts are developed by a copywriter / art director team. These two people work together to generate as many ideas as they can, hoping that one of them will turn out to be the Big Idea. Both people are good at thinking in words and pictures, so they work as a team rather than individual specialists.
The concept may come to mind as a visual, a phrase, or a thought that uses both visual and verbal expression. If it begins as a phrase, the next step is to try to visualize what the concept looks like. If it begins as an image, the next step is to try and come up with words that express what the visual is saying. The ideal concept is expressed simultaneously through both visual and verbal elements. Words and pictures reinforce one another.
The construction of software applications, websites or an advertising campaign is an exciting time, during which the production team brings the project to life. If the activities preceding construction have been conducted effectively, construction will be a harmonious, industrious time during which production staff members steadily add functionality to the system. During construction, the successful project team becomes increasingly vigilant about finding ways to make the project simpler and to control changes to it. Progress will be highly visible as the project manager monitors key progress indicators, including milestones, defects, risk list, and the project itself.
Immediately following the construction phase, we evaluate plans and tools before broad scale execution. This is what we define as our testing phase. As marketing is deemed to be as much art as science, there is much chance for failure. Accordingly, there will be no guarantee of success when you use new plans and plan elements, when going against new target markets and new strategy approaches, or when implementing new tactical tools.
Enhancing the success of these new marketing approaches requires marketing research and testing (R&T). Both testing and research are a means of staying ahead of the competition and avoiding costly errors. What follows is just the rudiments on this topic. Because researching and testing are challenging and complex disciplines, we would recommend you seek professional assistance to help with their implementation.
When it comes time to execute the launch, we feel confident that all measures were taken in determining the success before it even happens. A truly integrated marketing plan is greater than the sum of its parts, as the effect of each element is enhanced by the impact of the other elements. It is attention to detail in every aspect of implementation that helps assure the synergistic effect of all the marketing plan activities will take place.
A marketing plan, unless and until it is effectively executed, is nothing but a comprehensive list of good intentions. All of the work and resources that went into the business review, identification of problems and opportunities, and development of the plan itself are a substantial investment. The return on that investment (ROI) and accurate evaluation of the plan's activities for use in future planning can be realized only if you follow through with thorough execution of all the plan elements.
We understand the lead time necessary for everyone who needs to participate in each executional element. Understand completely and in detail what each department, vendor, etc., needs in order to execute the element(s) of the plan for which they are responsible and the time they will require.
The Evaluation Process entails monitoring the patterns and effectiveness of the project. Primarily, Studio 619 looks for Key Performance Indicators (KPI) that may shed light on the success of the campaign.
After completing your marketing plan, you need to evaluate the results. An evaluation methodology should be established to assess the success of the marketing plan itself and to ensure ongoing evaluation of the marketing plan executions. In addition to providing a database from which to make strategic decisions for the next years plan, this information also provides invaluable feedback from which to make modification during the execution of this years plan.
By preparing your marketing plan via the disciplined marketing planning methodology, you will be able to thoroughly evaluate your plan to determine what was and was not successful and to incorporate your learning into the marketing background section for the preparation of next years plan.
Primary research is implemented both before and after the execution of the plan of activities. Most pre- and post- execution research involves awareness, attitude, and behavior tracking studies. These studies can measure the movement of awareness, attitude and behavior both before and after the marketing plan was executed and measure movement of specific plan executions, such as promotions, campaigns, and merchandising programs.
While increased sales are a very valuable indicator of the success of a marketing execution, it is not the only one. Many times, though sales remain relatively flat, there is a significant movement in awareness and attitudes. These shifts signal the probability of future increases in sales. As has been proven time and time again, with increase in awareness there is a good probability that there will be an increased level of desired responses, such as more purchases.
Once we've identified the core statistical data and Key Performance indicators, we document our findings in a comprehensive report. Along with core data, Studio 619 offers a list of recommendations for campaign modifications.