Communication, creative and media strategies should not be treated independently
Editor’s note: This is the last in a series of articles on the Theory of Everything as applied to marketing. Read part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4.
Going back to our mythical burger joint, we saw that smoothies and green salads were our most profitable items, accounting for almost $34 million of our $65 million in profits and with margins of 50 percent and 35 percent, respectively. And we saw that double burgers were our third product, with $11 million in profits.
We also saw that the main target for smoothies and salads were women 25+, while the double burgers main consumers were men 25+, and we are ready for our creative integration.
Next step, we look at both products and target CPMs.
For double burgers we might find:
So we see that TV to reach men is too expensive, but the Web and OOH seem to be able to get the job done far more efficiently than, say, TV and search. Radio can swing either way, so that if there is money left over after achieving good reach on Web and OOH, we might consider radio.
For salads and smoothies, we might find:
Now television is a real possibility, though the Web, OOH and radio still win.
Naturally, some disclaimers:
- The same sales points might not apply to your burger joint.
- Your consumers might value sales points differently.
- And you need to do some real honest-to-goodness research to find out what the sales points are and their relative value.
Moving forward, we now have a channel mix and can work on achieving a creative mix.
So for men we are going to concentrate on:
We see that a combined 70 percent of the selling focus for men is low price and build-your-own options. If we could squeeze in the freshness of the food, we’d have 85 percent of the selling value.
While for women, we will stress:
Women are a bit more complex, with low calories being the most important selling point, though not by much, and the friendly atmosphere for their kids tying the ability to design their own salad. So we need to put in all three. However, should we be able to drop in the low price, wed cover 95 percent of the sales points, so wed have an unbeatable creative mix.
Creative Messaging and TOE
The Theory of Everything (TOE) leads us into a completely different thinking line: Media and message are no longer separate pieces. The creative message will change with the channel considered, and vice versa: Consider channels only when we have the right message for them.
Moving forward, we set up a worksheet that outlines our channel mix, its priorities and possible creative directions. For the sake of expediency, we will assume that the usual steps were taken to develop the creative messaging:
- Some form of quantitative research (e.g., online surveys)
- Or some form of syndicated research (e.g., Simmons)
- Several campaign lines developed
The creative messaging grid looks like this:
As an additional note: These are simplistic concepts meant to illustrate how messaging can vary from channel to channel and target to target.
Other Marketing Disciplines
Again for the sake of expediency I haven’t gone into promotional and shopper marketing activities, all of which are tremendously important.
All of them can be approached within the same TOE framework.
Budgeting
Finally, we lay out the budget. Originally, we had stipulated a 10 percent of sales for a budget of $20 million that, again for the sake of time, we’ll use only in advertising. In real life, this 10 percent would have to cover advertising, promotions and other deals.
Women, who represent 55 percent of the profits of the company, get roughly $11 million; men get $6 million; and the rest keep $2.8 million.
A budgeting worksheet might look like this:
The media planner would analyze channel by channel to determine the minimum budget needed to achieve R/F objectives and build the budget one channel at a time.
In the words of Roger Godbeer, worldwide media director at Colgate: “and when the money runs out, it runs out,” meaning the next channel doesn’t get funded.
One Conclusion
TOE is not a speedy or simple process. It requires a lot of analysis, research and calculations. In my experience, it takes the better part of two to three weeks to go through the entire process. Subsequent years are easier, of course, as the heavy lifting is already done. On the other hand, if you are the director of marketing or CMO of a company, your mortgage payments, your kids’ dentist, your car, your vacation, they all come from that company. It stands to reason that you would want to invest some time, at least once a year, to make sure that the company’s marketing and advertising plans are well-written.
The Fear of Being Right
One of the things I found early on in my career is that people have a fear of being right, if being right also means being different. And I saw this applied time and again:
The associate media director at Colgate Mexico once told me, with a straight face, that my analysis for putting Wildroot (a hair gel) in pulp magazines was 100 percent accurate, but that, because they had money, they would rather buy television. This was in spite of television being five or six times costlier on a CPM basis for the target. Mercifully, he was fired that week.
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- The director of marketing of SCJ in Mexico once told me, again with a straight face, that my analysis for cable for Glade was 100 percent accurate but that he was not going to approve cable “because he didn’t like cable.” Thankfully, he was shifted to director of sales.
- The head of advertising of one of the MBA programs at FIU once told me – and again, all of these people say these things with a straight face – that in spite of their previous year’s media mix not working at all, my analysis and proposal were “too scary” and that they would rather continue doing what they did last year, even with being conscious that it did not work.
So early on I also learned that if you do your analysis:
You know (to a working degree of certainty) where your sales are coming from:
- Who is buying your product (and where, when, for how much)
- How to reach these consumers properly
- What message to use
You should just do it.
Related content:
Engage Customers With An Aligned Media Strategy
How to Use Product Targeting to Determine the Right Channel Mix
