Marketing Mintue with Jennifer – Building to a Campaign

June 6, 2009 – 2:15 pm – No Comment

There are a lot of things that have to be done in preparation for a full blown marketing communications campaign.

The first step is usually always planning.

This is often done by the account planning department of a marketing firm, but can also be contracted out to other firms or departments. Account planning is a process where the researchers or planners go and conduct research and gather information relevant to a client’s product, service, brand, and potential consumers.

Things that go on during the account planning phase include a situation analysis which includes background information of the organization and structure with both inside and outside perspectives. This is typically put into SWOT form; a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats chart.

When starting the company analysis section of planning, sales and profits are always a good place to start. Internal information that can help include: What is the company’s mission? What is the company’s culture like, are they laid back or conservative? How much risk is the company willing to take on? How profitable has the company been? You also look at external information like: What has been the sales trend in the industry over the past several years? What is the general economic climate? Are there any social, cultural, or political conditions detrimental to the future of the company?

The consumer analysis is also a huge part of the situation analysis. When doing a consumer analysis, tools like VALS, Simmons, and the Lifestyles Market Analyst are good tools to use, however these books and databases are fee based.

The reason to do account planning during the creative strategy development is to get the customers’ points of view.

When starting a campaign with account planning you should take the following things into consideration:

1. Prepare an outline of the research plan

2. Do the background analysis starting with the company and consumer analyses first, then deal with the market, product, and competition

3. Information should be insightful, not just descriptive

4. If you decide to do a SWOT analysis, brand audit, or if you choose to center on problems and opportunities, you should look at the serious problems in the breakdown and relate them to the problems and opportunities. They will provide what you need to set objectives later.

5. Survey research is a fine way to evaluate the degree to which a finding is present in the general population, but the results may only be as good as the sample you take the information from.

6. You can also do one on one research or focus groups to get information about a potential consumer, but these results can’t be translated to the entire population like a sample can be.

7. When you’re looking at your company’s trends, it can be pretty helpful to also look at the generic sales or industry sales trends.

There is a lot more information regarding the first step in advertising campaigns. If you’d like more information, leave a comment below or send an email.