THE COMMUNICATION STRATEGY – ALL TOO COMMON ERRORS!

Virtually every week we receive Creative Briefs from marketers seeking input to make them more productive. We focus our attention on the Communication Strategy, which is the heart of the Creative Brief. It provides the “strategic” direction to guide agency creative development. And, every week we find the same types of errors that undermine sound, single-minded strategic direction.

 

The Communication Strategy – A Refresher

The Communication Strategy consists of the following 5 elements:

1.     Communication Behavior Objective - This is what the communication needs to accomplish. It is a specific customer “behavior” needed to achieve the brand’s Marketing Objectives (overarching behavior objectives) and, in turn, realize the Business Objectives of sales, market share and profit. The Communication Behavior Objective must be SMART: Specific (as in penetration, switching, etc.); Measureable (use numbers that can be measured with marketing research); Achievable (as in “realistic”); Relevant (ties to the Marketing Objectives and, in turn, to the Business Objectives); and, finally, Time-bound (achieved in a specific timeframe).

 

2.     Target Customer - This gets at who we must convince or win-over to achieve the brand’s Marketing and, ultimately, Business Objectives. This is the target for the Communication Behavior Objective. We define the target going well beyond a media target, often referred to as the “target audience.” Instead, the Target Customer is much more. It is our positioning target, as articulated in the Brand Positioning Strategy Statement, or a subset of it.

 

3.     Customer Insight - The Customer Insight is a deep-seeded need or value that the “Brand” can exploit. It identifies an overlooked, untapped or poorly satisfied need. It will also lead to the pay-off, which is the Key Thought. The Key Thought seeds the attitude or belief that is needed to drive the customer behavior to achieve the Customer Behavior Objective. The Customer Insight must be both “legitimate” and “productive.” By “legitimate” we mean it falls into one of three areas: 1) perceived or real weakness that the brand can exploit; 2) attitudinal barrier to overcome regarding your brand that if you were to remove it then it would lead to (faster) growth; and 3) untapped compelling belief that you can own through commitment and persistence. By “productive” we mean that the insight needs to be able to be paid-off by the Key Thought and achieve the Communication Behavior Objective. It is imperative that the Customer Insight be legitimate and productive.

 

4.     Key Thought (Benefit/Belief) - This is the belief or benefit that will lead the Target Customer to take the behavior specified in the Customer Behavior Objective. It cannot be generic. It must suggest either something that is better in degree, or in kind of benefit. It must lead to driving preference for your brand. It should be persuasive if it flows from a legitimate Customer Insight.

 

5.     Reasons-to-Believe - This is the support for the Key Thought. Its purpose is to help make the Key Thought believable to the Target Customer. If you have more than one benefit articulated in the Key Thought then you need to have support for each. The Reasons-to-Believe must link to the Key Thoughts.

 

All Too Common Errors and Rx (Prescription) for Remedy

1.     Not knowing/providing direction regarding behaviors you want to achieve - This is so very important to do correctly since it identifies the task of the communications, and making it (and marketing) accountable for results. What is it that you need for the communications to accomplish? Get competitive users to switch to purchasing, or prescribing, your brand? What? If the Communication Behavior Objective is “adoption” (which is defined as using or doing something they have not done before) then the communications will need to convince the Target Customer why it is important to use or do it. On the other hand, if the Communication Behavior Objective is to get the Target Customer to switch then the communications will need to convince him that your brand is a better choice.

 

The most frequent error that needs to be addressed when developing the Communication Behavior Objective is the sin of omission, not having a “behavior” objective. More than 90% of the CBs we review do NOT have a behavior objective! This is totally unacceptable and must stop!! We need to hold ourselves and our agencies accountable for creating impact in the marketplace. Define the impact you need to make by including a SMART Communications Behavior Objective.

 

Another error, a sin of commission, is stating a media, promotion or some other marketing mix element objective instead of a Communication Behavior Objective. For example, “awareness” is not a Communication Behavior Objective. It is a Media or “feet on the street” objective. If your media is $10-million and the budget is cut to $5-million can we expect to achieve the same level of (top-of-mind) awareness? Of course not. If the company cuts sales force personnel might we expect the same level of awareness among HCPs? Not likely. Also, the creative personnel cannot develop communications to an “awareness” level. Nor is “trial” or “sampling” a Communication Behavior Objective. These are Promotion Objectives. It is important to get this correct since the messaging, more specifically the Belief/Benefit, must work to achieve the appropriate Communication Behavior Objective.

 

A third error, again a sin of commission, is choosing an inappropriate strategic objective (e.g., adoption versus switching). The only way marketers can get this correctly is doing the math and determining what behavior objective will have the greatest impact on sales growth.

 

Rx Communication Behavior Objective

·        Ensure you include a Communication Behavior Objective.

·        Get it right.

·        Make it SMART.

 

2.     Targeting the world to make forecast – Simon Sinek has it right. He says in his book, Start With Why, “the goal is not to do business with everyone who needs what you have. The goal is to do business with everyone who believes what you believe.” This is the way to build a loyal customer base and, with it, richer margins. Yet marketers, typically at the urging of their senior managers (who should know better), broaden their target to include not just the world, but the known universe. The result is a dilution of messaging and resources. This impedes the effectiveness of the message and, in turn, conversion rates. Among the consequences are retarding the Growth Acceleration Rate (GAR), sapping of morale and interest in the Brand (particularly launch Brands) and resulting opportunity losses.

 

Moreover, in defining the target broadly (and/or incompletely), we do not provide agency creative personnel what they need to understand and effectively connect with the Target Customer. It is not enough to define the target as “moms 20 – 34-years of age with children 2 – 9-years of age,” “Internists treating diabetics,” or “Orthopedic surgeons.” This tells the creative personnel little to nothing about the target; nor does it demonstrate sufficient understanding to unearth “legitimate and productive” customer insights.

 

We need to define the Target Customer with, at minimum, the following 4 elements:

-         Demographics

-         Psychographics

-         Patient-Condition” (for pharmaceutical and medical device products), “Lifestage” or “Occasion” (for consumer products)

-         Current Usage (name brands they are using) and Dissatisfactions (stated, latent or those you can insinuate given the performance of your brand)

 

Using all four elements provides a clearer and more complete picture, and demonstrates understanding, of the Target Customer. This does not narrow the target any more than presenting the details of your curriculum vitae narrows you. It makes the Target Customer more accessible.

 

Rx Target-Customer

·        Segment potential customers and choose your Target-Customer wisely based upon those who believe what you believe (The Brand Idea).

·        Provide a more complete Target-Customer profile using all 4 elements to aid in understanding the Target-Customer, and discovering “legitimate and productive” customer insights and strategically compelling messaging.

 

3.     No Insights or Unsights versus “Legitimate and Productive” Insights – We’re referring to strategic versus executional insights. These are insights that lead to your strategic messaging and achievement of the Communication Behavior Objective. It must be both “legitimate” and “productive.” By “legitimate” we mean it falls into one of three previously mentioned areas: 1) perceived or real weakness that the Brand can exploit; 2) attitudinal barrier to overcome regarding your Brand that if you were to remove it then it would lead to (faster) growth; and 3) untapped compelling belief that you can own through commitment and persistence. By “productive” we mean that the insight needs to be able to be paid-off by the Key Thought and achieve the Communication Behavior Objective. It is imperative that the Customer Insight be both legitimate and productive.

 

We state the Customer Insight in four parts: 1) basis for the insight (one of the three areas mentioned in the aforementioned paragraph); 2) the insight itself as it would be expressed by the Target Customer (we write it in italics and bracket it with quotes); 3) the Key Thought, which is the pay-off; and, finally 4) the Reality, the support and proof of the productivity of the Key Thought (Reasons-to-Believe, which are discussed later in this article).

 

The most common errors to be addressed when discovering and articulating the Customer Insight are: a) the insight is not “legitimate” as defined by falling into one of the three key areas mentioned above; b) the insight is not stated using all four parts – basis for the insight, insight in customer language, the pay-off (expressed as the Key Thought) and the Reality or support for the Key Thought; c) the customer insight is not “productive”; and d) it doesn’t tie back to the Communication Behavior Objective and/or forward to the Key Thought.

 

Rx Customer Insights

·        Do not use facts or accepted customer beliefs as these are unsights.

·        Instead, discover legitimate insights by digging deep in each of the key three areas.

·        State the insight using all four parts.

·        Check to ensure it is productive in leading to a compelling Key Thought that will enable your Brand to achieve its Communication Behavior Objective.

 

4.     Generic/Non-Compelling Messaging - All too often there is no Key Thought but, instead, merely a benefit that is generic, puffery or unrelated to the needs of the Target Customer. All marketers must ask themselves whether the Key Thought will drive the intended customer behavior. If not, you must pass on it and search for something that is more meaningful. That search should begin with a thorough understanding of the Target Customer and the discovery of a “legitimate and productive” Customer Insight, which have already been covered.

 

Another error is choosing “thoughts,” as in more than one (more often, many more) versus “thought.” The use of multiple thoughts (benefits) for the Key Thought undermines our ability to develop communications that compel Target Customer behavior. This is prevalent in the pharmaceutical and medical device fields. Their research shows maximum customer uptake on somewhere between 4 – 6 messages (or benefits). This is insane. In trying to communicate so many things the Target Customer remembers, or is moved by, little. The creative output generates far less impact than the research indicates. There is little likelihood that multiple thoughts can be translated into a single-minded campaign idea that will compel Target Customer to the behavior objective. What sounds good in theory does not work in practice where it really counts, the marketplace.

 

Also, the more messages contained within the Key Thought the more confusing it is to Target Customers. They will have great difficulty in distinguishing your Brand from those of competitors.

 

Rx Key Thought

·        Make it a Key Thought, not thoughts.

·        Avoid generic benefits.

·        Ensure that it flows from a “legitimate” customer insight and is “productive” in that it will drive preference for your Brand, leading to the achievement of the Communication Behavior Objective.

 

5.     The Reason-to-Believe is neither support nor competitive – In virtually all cases the Reason-to-Believe needs to be an incontrovertible fact or an endorsement from a recognized authority. It cannot be more benefit messages. Marketers will often stash messages that they were not able to get into the Key Thought in the Reason-To-Believe section of the Com Strategy. If the statement is not a piece of evidence (as in being able to stand in a court of law) or support to believe the Key Thought then it is not a Reason-to-Believe.

 

The best Reasons-to-Believe are those that when presented to customers allow them to immediately identify the benefit. They don’t require explanation. Also, the RTB, like a benefit, needs to be meaningfully differentiated from the competition. In many instances, pharmaceutical products will offer-up clinical studies that merely indicate that the product works but does not assist in stimulating customer preference for the product.

 

Often the only RTBs the marketer will consider are those that product research and development personnel provide to them. However, we marketers (and creative personnel) can help create marketing RTBs that make the Brand more competitive. For example, Jeep created the Trail Rated system, which serves as support for consumers to believe that Jeep vehicles perform best.

 

Make sure your Reasons-To-Believe are bringing something to the party. What worked in the past for you, or another brand, may no longer be competitive. For example, when Crest Toothpaste received the first ADA endorsement, which was a major breakthrough at the time, they were able to triple their market share. However, if a toothpaste were to get the ADA endorsement in today’s age it is highly unlikely to fuel incremental growth because the ADA endorsement is commonplace and has become a cost of entry.

 

Finally, all Reasons-to-Believe need to link with the Key Thought. If not, then they are superfluous. They will not only not help plead your case but can impede it.

 

Rx Reason-To-Believe

·        Make certain that your Reasons-to-Believe add compelling support to the Key Thought.

·        Ditch generic Reasons-to-Believe or those that are cost of entry.

·        If your Reason-to-Believe looks like a benefit statement, strike it or put it into the Key Thought.

·         If it does not link to the Key Thought get rid of it.

·        Look beyond what product research and development provide to create your own Reason-to-Believe for the Brand.

 

Let’s ensure our Communication Strategy is technically sound to ensure strategically sound, single-minded direction to agency personnel. This will go a long way to improving the likelihood of developing creative that will lead to leadership advertising. You can do it! You need to do it if you’re going to make a difference in growing your Brand.

 

If we can be of assistance to you in this quest in any way please don’t hesitate to hit reply and get back to us.

 

Best wishes in making your marketing communications matter more,

 

Richard Czerniawski

 

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