The journey begins: Leveraging generative AI to help distill business issue(s)

Today’s post inaugurates a multi-part unpacking. I want to use this “How Marketing Functions” framework ???? to dissect how you might leverage AI within each of the major steps in Marketing to improve strategies and creativity.

STEP 1: BUSINESS ISSUE(S)

Why does anyone care? i.e. Define the tactical problem, long term challenge, or opportunity which we believe some form of marketing can reasonably and successfully address.

How many times have you dug into a creative assignment to discover the underlying business issue is actually sales logistics, pricing or government relations? In other words, not a potent marketing opportunity?just yet??

This earliest, murkiest stage of marketing is a productive environment for brand-side managers and agency planners to leverage tools like Bing and ChatGPT. Especially if the humans involved are inexperienced or new to the team, sector, or industry. Here, generative AI can play the role of tireless research assistant, inventive librarian or wise MBA instructor. Where the arrival of the Internet and then search removed tremendous barriers, AI-generative text unlocks even more.?

The task is to distill. An MBA instructor might ask,?“Have we identified a problem worth solving?”?And you could, quite literally, use Bing or ChatGPT to pursue that line of inquiry.?

PROMPT to identify a problem:?“You are an MBA instructor. I am your student. You’re going to teach me how to research and write an actionable problem statement. The industry we’re focused in is X. The category is Y. The marketing scenario appears to be [Awareness, Loyalty, etc.]. In as few steps as possible, teach me how to distill and organize a marketing problem statement in the style of an MBA course. Use markup to make it easy to read.”

You might ask your generative tool to provide several different responses so you can collective perspective; then ask it (cut/paste) to contrast and distill a singular response.?

You might compare and contrast responses to the same prompt from different generative tools.?

You might try adjusting single words inside a prompt to see what changes.

Another approach you could try here at the beginning…

PROMPT to identify a problem:?“You are an MBA instructor. I am your student. You’re going to teach me how to conduct a SWOT analysis. The industry we’re focused in is X. The category is Y. I want to understand how the top five competitors, defined by revenue, compare with each other. Use a chart for the SWOT analysis, and markup to make it easy to read.”

Again, mix and repeat across different platforms and with subtle variations in your prompting. I maintain an Evernote file which I copy/paste responses into as I go. Use whatever tools work best for you.?

The habit here feels academic—using the tireless generative engine to hone a line of inquiry in a classroom. But you can do it at 3 a.m. and no one cares!

Once you’ve cleared out a working thesis from the wilderness, you can use the same tools to further refine your thinking and analysis.?

PROMPT to clarify worthiness:?“You are an [MBA instructor, private equity analyst, venture capital banker, etc.]. I am your [student, client, prospect]. I am going to present you with an actionable problem statement and you are going to help me evaluate its worthiness. I need you to be skeptical and poke holes in my thesis, to help me improve the statement. Use markup. Here is the problem statement: [COPY/PASTE].”?

Edit, and regenerate as needed to continue the conversation.?

Then eventually you might try…

PROMPT to frame solutions:?“You are a [CMO, marketing instructor, etc.] and I am your [customer, student, etc.]. We have already clarified an actionable problem statement for a marketing program, and now you are going to help me discern ways to begin framing solutions to the problem. I need [number] of directions to frame solutions. Give me a headline for each direction with three supporting bullet points. Use markup. Here is the problem statement: [COPY/PASTE].” ?????And you’d use the refined statement from your worthiness prompting.

So that’s just one path you could take.?

You might take apart various elements of business school pedagogy and use them within your prompting. For example:

PROMPT: “You and I run a company. We are trying to understand the primary drivers of the return on equity for our business. I need you to teach me how to conduct a DuPont analysis. [And you might include some clues about industry, sector, etc.]”

PROMPT: “You are a [CMO, MBA instructor, CEO] in the [pick one] industry. I need you to teach me how to conduct a marketing investment analysis so we can allocate media investment with greater efficiency.”

PROMPT: “You are a CFO. I am a banking analyst. You are trying to persuade me to invest in your company. First, you are going to diagnose the current liquidity of the companies in [pick one] industry. Please quote other CFOs from public earnings statements to validate your diagnosis.” ?????And you’d use Bing or Bard since they’re connected to the live Internet.

The point is to realize you are now incredibly enabled, and augmented. Your team can leverage its creativity to synthesize and discern useful insights to frame actionable business issues.

We'll continue down the path next week.

Onward!

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