CHECKLIST FOR MAKING YOUR MARKETING STRATEGIES MATTER MORE

Our marketing strategies do two things of critical importance. First, they direct brand development—our aims. Second, they serve as a filter to help ensure that everything we do for the brand is consistent with a given strategy.

However, most strategies are poorly written, and that’s because they’re poorly thought-out. So, our aims can be inappropriate or, most typically, not sufficiently productive in leading to a competitive advantage. Execution, regardless of how good it might be, cannot bail out a poorly thought-out strategy.

Writing, or whatever form we articulate the strategy, is a window to our thinking. What can we do to check our strategic thinking—the direction we provide and the filter we’ll use to assess our work?

We created and used the “5Cs checklist” to review strategy and check out our thinking. Here’s a video I experimented with many months ago introducing and explaining each of the 5Cs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aaelb26Ovyg&t=39s

(By the way, I’ve since added a 6^th C, which I call “Correct.” It’s a check to ensure we enter the correct information in the right strategy element. For example, stating a customer’s needs does not belong in Target Customer “Demographics” nor “Psychographics.” Instead, it explains “Current Usage and Dissatisfactions,” which we state as a dissatisfaction.) 

We’ve used the 5Cs checklist for years, and many of our clients have adopted it and reported success using it. We have reaped benefits from using it, leading to providing better strategic direction to win in the marketplace.

Make your marketing matter more: Try the 5Cs checklist yourself to experience how it can help you make your strategies more productive and your marketing matter more.

Found this post informative or thought-provoking? Follow me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/richarddczerniawski/ as I share my perspectives from 50 years of successful worldwide brand marketing experience each week.

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Make your marketing matter even more: Read my most recent book, AVOIDING CRITICAL MARKETING ERRORS: How to Go from Dumb to Smart Marketing. Learn more here: http://bdn-intl.com/avoiding-critical-marketing-errors.

Thanks for your interest.

Peace and best wishes in making your marketing matter (even) more,