BRAND PLAN:Objectives, Need, Source of volume, Media strategy, Management strategy

<< BRAND PLANNING PROCESS:Driver for change (continued), Brand analysis

Brand Management (MKT624)

Lesson 45

BRAND PLAN

Introduction

In this lecture we move on to the third important part that is the actual brand plan based on our

strategy. It is the document that we must prepare as an end result of the market and brand

analysis.

The Brand Plan

We have had a good understanding of brand strategy and the elements of brand planning.

The extensive effort of defining the market, analyzing it, and brand planning process must get a

way of expression in the document called "the brand plan". We may say that the whole effort is

undertaken to prepare this document that records in a structured way planning for the brand.

Since the brand plan is your strategic framework, you must understand the difference between a

strategy and tactics.

· A strategy is a long term document that sets a course of action for the foreseeable

future. It is a game plan that defines the means to achieve the real objective.

· Tactics is execution. It is all about how you achieve your sales results this year or

carry out your campaign etc.

For example, if you think that advertising kicked off by you is found to be boring and hence not

very engaging, you may change the ad as a tactic. Your strategy still remains the same.

Every business large or small, consumer or industrial - should have a written strategy,

because it brings the whole marketing program into a sharp focus. The focus enables us to

maintain all the vital links and consistencies between different parts of the strategy.

Make no mistake that the whole strategy is concerned about your brand. Therefore, it cannot

have parts which do not fit into each other. They must fit like the cogs in a wheel.

If your strategy is well-conceived, well structured and well-written, and your market definition

just average, the chances are you will not have to change it every now and then. The elements

of a well-constructed, well-written, and well-conceived strategy or a brand plan start appearing

on the following page. You may consider all or most of them as part of the template that you

use for strategic brand planning. Depending on the nature of the product and the market, you

certainly will need to make a few adjustments, but the essence of the document remains the

same.

Objectives

Objectives are number-based. You mention sales figures, revenues, market share, and rate of

growth as you envisage for the number of years the plan period consists of.

Do not talk about numbers that are not achievable. Your figures should show an increase and

growth on all fronts every year. The strategic objectives should fit the following criteria:

· They should be very clear to anyone reading the strategy or the brand plan.

· They should be measurable at the end of a certain period to the agreement of all.

· They should be achievable.

The objectives reflect your vision to get where you want to get at a future date, taking care of

your growth gap. Prepare different tables for sales figures, revenues, and market share etc

relating the plan period. The numbers will immediately tell anyone where the company wants

to reach by the end of the plan period.

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Need

The most important thing that you can do here is to state very clearly and factually the need

your brand or business is going to fulfill. You must state why it exists? A genuine need

becomes "reason for being" of the brand.

If you cannot state the need clearly in just a few lines, perhaps it is not there. If so, your product

will fail. Give the need important dimensions. State how serious is it? How unfilled is it? How

long you think is it going to exist?

Serious answers to these questions will bring your thinking into an honest perspective. If you

are not convinced by the answers, you either may abandon the plan or make major shifts in the

strategic thinking. The more clearly you can state the needs, the more precisely you will fill

them.

Source of volume

This section outlines where the volume will come from. This takes into account the segmental

size and potential. Any business wanting to grow can grow only through two multiple ways:

· By adding new users

· By getting users to use more

As an example, you may state emphatically that the source of primary volume will come from

children of 6-15 years of age. The secondary volume will come from teens. Make an absolute

decision how your business can best grow. Your thinking about this is going to affect any

further thinking. What you state here has already been translated in numbers as your objectives.

Target audience

The more precise you can be here, the better it is. You must state who you are marketing for?

State every thing you know about the target, who they are, why they buy and use, how they

make their decisions, and where they buy and get their information etc?

Complete knowledge of the segment you are targeting is a prerequisite to any further plans.

This section is a reflection of your brand-based customer model. Talk about all the suggested

factors, but be precise.

With these four elements of objectives, need, source of volume, and target audience, you have

set the direction for achievable and measurable results desired from a specific target.

You now must outline the strategies responsible for achieving these results. And, these are the

strategies that form an important part of the brand plan.

Basic marketing strategy

State the most fundamental framework of your basic marketing thrust. Limit yourself to just a

few lines (3 most probably). If you cannot state your strategy in three lines, you do not have

one. The following examples of a razor blade system, a dress shirt, and a juice explain this

point.

· The basic strategy is to introduce a dramatically improved lubricating strip to give the

best possible smooth shave at the lowest possible cost.

· The strategic thrust is toward introduction of the best tailored dress shirt of high quality

fabric comparable with any imported brand, at a premium price.

· The basic marketing strategy is to introduce a juice with the minimal traces of sourness

at a competitive price.

These are the statements of strategy. In support of these, you may like to mention the key

success factors, one by one just to ensure linkages of all strategic requirements. You will not

like to have a strategy linked with a factor absolutely beyond your control.

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Positioning strategy

This is a statement of how you wish your product will be perceived by the target audience. You

have to make sure that whatever you want occurred in your consumer's mind has to be

consistent with your objectives. You mention your positioning statement in the following

manner:

· The dress shirt seeks to be perceived as the most contemporary, best crafted shirt on the

local market by a local manufacturer.

· The juice seeks to be perceived by the target market as the best quality, best packaged,

and least sour juice in the category.

After having stated what the brand seeks to be perceived, you as managers have to work

accordingly and very consistently.

Associated sub-strategies

You are going to have a strategy for every facet of your business. All the strategies may not be

required in every business, but these generally are the ones you work with.

By the same token, if there are some that you think should be added, do add those as long as

they are consistent with the objectives.

Product strategy

You talk about the strategically fundamental elements of the product. Apart from the primary

function of the product, you must mention all the promises it is going to deliver.

The set of promises then should be translated into a contract that you think is consistent with

your model and market definition.

You must talk about how often the product should be improved and in what direction content,

package, size, or what?

For a new product, you must mention guidelines where concentration is to be given for

improvements.

Packaging strategy

This section should cover the functional aspect, the delivery system, and the graphics. It

definitely is the domain of personality, identity, and imagery. Brand persona plays an important

role here. It is explained with the help of the following example:

If the target market is teenage girls, the package should be designed to fit a teenage hand. The

colors should be appealing to the target and totality of graphics should create an impression of

something soft, inviting, and caring.

When you pay attention to this aspect, you will find a lot of inconsistencies in many brands. Do

not forget to support in a written manner all actions that you want taken. This amounts to

explaining reasons, why you are doing what you are doing? By giving explanations you will

realize how consistent or inconsistent you are in your effort.

Pricing strategy

Is your pricing based on cost, competition, overall market, or to produce an image? Whatever it

is, it has to be consistent with brand's positioning. Support the basis of your pricing decision

market-based or cost-based? Also, state very precisely in a few lines the principles about when

to change the price?

Distribution strategy

What is the best place for your consumers to find your product and how will you get it there is

going to be the basis of your strategy? State that in a few lines. If there is a part that deals with

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making it cost-effective, do mention that. Cost-effectiveness, however, should not compromise

availability.

The communication strategies

Starting with coining the name to communicating it with benefits so that positioning takes hold,

you formulate all the relevant strategies.

Naming strategy

State what the name should connote. What are the strategic elements behind that function,

image, or overall positioning, or what?

A statement of this strategy is going to be helpful for a new as well as an existing brand in

terms of variations, extensions, and improvements.

Copy strategy

An extremely important and interesting for brand managers, this strategy should be stated in a

little detail. You have to remember four things:

First, state the benefit promised to the consumer. Again, this takes you into the realm of

promises. You may also like to state this on the package in an attractive way for consumer

education and a claim that you deliver the promises.

Second, you must state the support for believing that the promise is true. Who knows when you

reach this point you yourself may get into a doubt about your ability to deliver the promise!

Third, state the emotional benefit to the promise. This takes you back into the concept of brand

value pyramid. You will know how far up the pyramid your brand really can go.

Fourth and lastly, you must decide the tone of advertising and the personality or character you

wish the brand to have.

Media strategy

This states, how you will reach your target consumers with the message. You should be very

careful given the diversity and fragmentation of today's media especially, in terms of TV

channels.

State things in broad terms and make plans separately. This takes you back into budget

allocations.

Sales promotion strategy

Consumer Promotion: State your objective very clearly in the following terms:

· Are you after trial, re-purchase, loading, increased usage?

· Which sizes are best-promoted? How frequently?

· Will you promote everywhere or regionally?

· Will you schedule for seasonality or holidays?

Trade Promotion

· What is your expectation from trade to help you realize your objectives?

· What kind of deals and incentives you are willing to offer to trade?

Translate all that into numbers and see if those fit into budgetary allocations?

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Merchandising strategy

This deals with how you wish to see your brand at the retail level? What section and where on

the shelf? This defines the area of interaction with sales people who are going to help you

achieve this objective. This is a matter to be discussed at the brand-level cross-functional

committee. Knowing the objective, you state the strategy.

The resource strategies

These strategies deal with different kinds of resources that you need to implement your

strategies. These strategies also flow out of brand vision, its positioning and management

commitment. You, as brand managers, may not make decisions to deploy the requisite

resources, but you nonetheless should be clear about the strategic importance of such resources.

State everything as part of your strategy and present the draft plan to top management for their

consideration.

Management strategy

What human resources are going to be involved in the whole effort? How are they going to be

helpful in letting the company achieve its objectives? How will they be guided, motivated, and

compensated? State all the factors briefly as part of your strategy.

You have an opportunity to explicitly state the importance of the functioning of various

committees we have been talking about as internal marketing effort and also for measuring

brand performance.

You may also recall the incentives that we discussed for those with good performance. Good

performance is related to brand performance. The whole exercise falls within the areas of cross-

functional committees.

Sales strategy

State the importance of making sure that our distribution strategy works well and our sales are

registered according to the plan. Any requirements of additional staff or changes have got to be

taken into a strategic account. State all the factors as part of the strategy.

External resource strategy

State as part of the strategy the kind of resources to be employed here.

· Market research

· Event management experts

· Other sales promotion experts

Testing strategy

You mention, as your strategy, what kind of testing mechanisms are sound?

· Market research

· Ad research

· Test markets etc.

Conclusion

Not every plan is going to have all these sections. But, the principles are the same. So, some

may have additional sections, the need for which is to be ascertained by the brand management

people.

Knowing your circumstances and the market situation, you must decide which aspects of the

overall brand management process need more attention than others. With the understanding of

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all fundamentals, you now should be the best guide to determine that. Offer value to the

consumer, create it for the brand, and make the business profitable!

Good luck!

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