NORTHERN PLANNER

There's a useful quote from Byron Sharp, "The task for marketing is to reduce the window between someone seeing an ad and deciding to buy".

There's much debate about the Ehrenberg Bass stuff, usually by folks with a particular agenda. Lots of folks trying to make things more complicated than they need to be.

But, like most things, the more complex things are made, the more likely they'll go wrong.

This single quote cuts through lots of rubbish on both the side of the brand babblers and the sales promotion merchants. Both are right, both are wrong.

There is no point having incredible distinctive brand communications if there isn't some stuff that nudges people to buy, or at least build some relevance to how, when and where it's bought or consumed.

Just as incentivising people to purchase doesn't mean they'll buy next time of their own accord.

Just as creativity isn't the only thing that builds so called salience and distinctiveness. Donal Trump gets America noticed more these days, not sure that's a good thing. You have to get noticed for the right stuff.

Basically, the more the brand comes to mind in more buying or consuming situations, the bigger it is and the more people buy it. It is that simple.

My advice? Strategy is is this simple and this hard:

1. Get the brands reason for being known about by as many people as possible, build consistent triggers the brand can own….every piece of communication should be building this
2. Get known in as many category entry points as possible. Deal with the obvious first….The Old Spice re-launch that pushed the envelope with 'The Man your Man Could Smell Like' dealt with fragrance first, as that's probably the main discriminator for men's shower gels. Just as the brilliant UK Honda work deal in the obvious, it's just it was brilliant- Cog was about the fact we don't want cars to break down, Hate Something Change Something was about the fact some people want diesel engines. The rest is creative magic.
3. Make sure you're front of mind in consumption situations, buying situations and other related situations. If you can, link them together…look for weaknesses in the purchase journey, focus on that. This one is critical. TV is still the most efficient way to reach the biggest audience and get the best result, but most TV is still watched in the evening. Don't add another channel, or 'non-tv' execution to the mix just to extend reach, when most products are bought during the day, and a huge amount are consumed at this time, get people thinking about your brand when they're most likely to buy it!

Anyway……..