Developing a brand plan
Key action points
The fastest moving companies today plan on a continuous basisrather than on an annual one, and use business scorecards to map theirperformance in each area of the action plan from total business to individualperformance level.
Key elements of a brand plan would include:
- Brand vision (long term)
- Brand mission (mid term)
- market definition
- situation analysis
- market size and forecasts
- market dynamics and trends
- market structure and share of trade at supplier, intermediary, and end customer level segmentation
- brandscape (own and competitor brand architectures and performance, brand definitions, comparative brand strategies, brand competencies)
- market attraction vs. brand competency chart
- alternative scenarios for the next 2-5 years
- key programs and their goals
- brand objectives
- change analysis (what will have to be done differently)
- brand action plan
- component plans (new brand development, new product development, customer relationship management, channel plan etc.)
Resources
Here are a list of resources you may find useful if you wish tocarry out this task. Mud Valley will always be pleased to co-ordinate theactivity for you, if you so wish - or you can contact these agencies direct.
- Bain & Co is a management consultancy that has a special focus on branding: http://www.bain.com/bainweb/default.asp
- Chartered Institute of Marketing : http://www.cim.co.uk/
- Corporate Strategy Board researches and consults on the process of business strategy: http://www.corporatestrategyboard.com/CSB/1,1447,,00.asp
- Marketing UK is a UK-based marketing portal: http://www.marketinguk.co.uk/
- Malcolm McDonald who is a Professor at Cranfield University, specialises in marketing planning and offers planning software: http://www.meansbusiness.com/Sales-and-Marketing-Books/Marketing-Plans-That-Work.htm
- McKinsey provides you with access to their McKinsey Quarterly and other strategic materials: http://www.mckinsey.com/
- World Advertising Research Center has materials on the main advertising planning activities, with papers drawn from advertising-related conferences around the world: http://www.warc.com
In more detail……………
- Brand planning
Key issues for brand planninginclude:
-
- how to make it a continuous, rather than an annual process
- how to involve everyone in the development of the plan
- how to implement the plan
- how to communicate performance against the plan
Making it continuous
The classic scenario for anybrand plan is that it rapidly becomes out of date in fast moving markets.
Most companies recognise thatthey should be planning on a continuous basis, some actually do. In order toachieve this you have to:
-
- build a climate of ongoing change – companies that fail to do this tend to generate the BOHICA (bend over, here it comes again!) reflex
- free up management time for strategy discussions – most managers have a preference for discussing tactics over strategy. Fast moving companies have to free up their time and bias them towards strategic planning, usually by building regular strategy planning days into their diaries
- have processes that deliver timely information, including the reporting of weak opportunity/threat signals – plans need to change either when they are not working, or when the brand environment changes. In both cases, knowledge/insight flows are needed to support this
- develop procedures for rapid breakthrough planning – as new situations arise, they need to be quickly assessed and reacted to, probably within at least a 6 month time frame. Providing managers with strategic consultancy tools, so as to effectively turn them into brand consultants, is a powerful way of doing this
- have standard formats for communicating brand plans and changes – this is where business scorecards are very effective
- have strong implementation processes – activities have to be de-resourced as well as resourced, and reward and recognition schemes must be adapted
Involving everyone in theplanning
One of the main reasons whybrand plans fail is that only a clique of people were involved in generatingthem in the first place. Involvement motivates commitment. In the electronicage, there are some excellent tools which can quickly impart and solicitinformation across even the largest companies.
How to implement andcommunicate the plan
Business scorecards work on theprinciple of “what gets measured gets done”. They are often also supported byperformance assessment procedures, and reward and recognition plans. If peopleknow and understand the plan, can see it is being used to run the business, andare rewarded according to the results, things are likely to happen.
- The brand plan
The brand vision
The brand vision is usually ahigh aspiration/stretch statement about where the managers want the brand toend up. They usually involve taking over the world, or at least a decent sizechunk of it (“We are not in yoghurts, but in the human health and happinessbusiness”).
The brand mission
Mission statements classicallyshould be the 4Ms:
-
- meaningful (credible)
- motivating
- measureable
- memorable
When did you last remember yourmission statement? One of the great mission statements of all time was “Get theCat”, when Komatsu targeted the company on beating Caterpillar in the heavyearth-moving market.
Market definition
It is possible to define amarket in any way at all. The trick is to keep the definition constant untilyou deliberately decide to change it.
The GE rule is that when youreach 40% market share, you need to redefine your market so that you now onlyhave 10% - a recipe for aggressive market share growth.
Situation analysis
-
- market size and forecasts
- market dynamics and trends
- market structure and share of trade at supplier, intermediary, and end customer level segmentation
- brandscape (own and competitor brand architectures and performance, brand definitions, comparative brand strategies, brand competencies)
- market attraction vs. brand competency chart
The first three are probablyrelatively self-explanatory and commonly used.
End-customer segmentation:this should be defined in terms of demographics, behavior, situation andneeds/values.
The brandscape:is developed to understand in depth the role of each competing brand. Thismight well culminate in a “conversion chart” which depicts each brand’scustomer base by segment, and the extent to which their customers arecommitted, satisfied or vulnerable.
Market attraction vs.competency chart: this is the classic McKinseyporfolio planning chart which shows the attraction of each market segment toyour brand and your brand power within each segment, with the size of eachbubble depicting the size of each opportunity in sales, profits or lifetimevalue.
Alternative scenarios
Most markets will not beoperating in quite the same way in 2 years’ time, especially with the growth ofe-marketplaces and Internet-based competition. Scenario planning can helpidentify potential futures that will at least test your current market model.
Key programs and their goals
What activities are you bettingthe success of the brand on this year, and how will you know if they aresuccessful?
Increasingly, brands requirefocused larger-scale investments to maintain and build their competitiveposition. Picking out two or three critical programs tells the rest of theorganisation where the focus is.
Brand objectives and changeanalysis
Objectives should bemeasurable. The reason for the change analysis is to highlight what has to bedone differently.
Brand action plan and componentplans
The action plan provides thedetailed activities that need to take place. The component plans provide moredetailed information on specific areas within the brand plan, such as the newproduct development program, the contribution of e-CRM activities or theadvertising plan.
