I’m good at (and experienced in) certain types of work.
But I’m always curious to transfer my skills to suit the challenge and explore new ways of working.
Understanding critical factors
Research and InsightsNot just research for research’s sake. Research that will help identify competitive advantage. Open up problems. Uncover useful perspectives. Find opportunities for growth. And unlock value for marketing efforts.
For research to be useful, it’s got to be provocative. So part of this work will always be packaging it up into an insightful story for stakeholders.
Tools and techniques I use help me to go broad and dive deep:
Desk research
Competitor audit
Related-world brand review
Stakeholder or user interviews
Customer journey mapping
Positioning workshops
Keyword and Google Trends research
*I’ve also used tools such as Global Web Index and SEM Rush so I’m familiar with these platforms.
Making choices
Strategy definitionThis is about making choices that guide a business or brand towards a better future. It’s about understanding the business and consumer problems. Being curious about the context at play. Identifying where we can leverage competitive advantage and create the most value for marketing. Then setting a course for action.
It can be tricky, because inevitably you’re choosing not to do things. And it’s a judgement call, which is subjective.
But a clearly defined strategy brings clarity. Encourages collaboration. And can change the future.
Brand PositioningThrough clarity comes obvious value and easier decision-making. That’s what we’re trying to get to with brand positioning. Clear positioning helps target customers and audiences quickly understand the value a business offers. And from strong positioning, a brand can start to imagine: “How might we consistently reinforce our position in creative and interesting ways?”
It takes a deep understanding of the business, its heritage, the market context, and best-fit customers. And the ability to articulate value in a compelling story. It’s a process of research, workshops, and effective collaboration. So you need the right people in the room, and onboard, to work out strong positioning. Particularly if you’ve got complex or technical products or services.
Proposition DevelopmentA proposition, developed through rigorous research and shared through a strong story, is a powerful thing for any brand or organisation.
Start with the target audience or customer. And look for relationships between what the brand, service or product offers, and the needs and challenges or pain points of audience, are. That’s where the proposition lies: How do we promise to create value or remove pains for the consumer? With a bit of imagination on top of the rigour, that’s where the story begins.
Planning for impact
Comms Planning“Comms Planners help to orchestrate brands in the real world. How, where, with whom and why they appear.” Mark Pollard captures this so perfectly, I won’t attempt to better it.
This is what good comms planning does. And what I can do. It’s about creating lots of little moments that matter across appropriate channels. And throughout the consumer journey.
Making sure moments joined up, creative, unexpected at times, and significant.
Creative Brief WritingIt’s an exciting part of the job. But it’s also challenging. It needs to be clearly defined, robust, guiding and exciting.
Writing a good creative brief takes confidence. Confidence to define the human problems that are really the issue. Confidence to set aside research that won’t make a difference. Confidence to be provocative to get creative and media teams’ juices flowing.
It takes time and effort to create something simple and effective. But the brief marks the beginning of creating those moments that matter.