NORTHERN PLANNER

 (this is a Howies picture)

I don't believe in having didactic rules and proprieraty process for going about strategy – it's quite simple, yet quite hard……….

Understand the business issue and our role in solving it

What do we know about the audience/culture/market that will help us?

What is the core thought?

Why is that right?

Where should this happen?

How do we evaluate success? (this bit gets missed a fair bit)

That said, I do have some sort of approach that has emerged, when I say it, people seem to nod their head. Probably because I'm quoting others.

I wrote this for something or other:

Behind every business problem is a very human behavioural problem you need to change. The art of strategy is making people care enough to behave differently

When they don't want to be sold to anymore, if they ever did, we need to start with what they're interested in and work back from there. Real problems and tensions in real lives

So we should stop thinking of them as consumers and start thinking of them as actors and fellow protagonists in our ideas and content, because that’s the key to engaging with the few to create cultural noise with the many

Which is critical because the many – light buyers – are the key to brand growth and they simply don't care

Therefore simply outspending the competition, or expecting people to pay attention,  is not just a failure of imagination and a willingness to understand what motivates people, it is also commercial suicide

Bbecause in world where people have better things to do, the enemy isn't the rest of the category – it's indifference

I think those are kind of the core principles. Not earth shattering, but at least, if you ever have the misfortune to work with me, you know what you'll be getting.