london in prague: john griffiths planning tools
TRANSCRIPT
Crowdsourcing, insight sourcing and other planning thinking..
John Griffithswww.planningaboveandbeyond.com
Nov 30th
Planning Above and Beyond
A bit about me
www.planningaboveandbeyond.com
www.accountplanning.net
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DevelopmentResearch
TrainingWorkshopFacilitation
CommsPlanning
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Agenda
10.00 a brief introduction to account planning..11.00 insight generation: left brain right brain tool12.30 lunch break13.15 Waggledancers – strategy as collaboration3.00 Cloud of Knowing: Swarming a community of
interpretation
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Planning: a function for adding value
An agency role which is not functionally essential to the making of advertising material
One of the earliest attempts to import the customer perspective
At its most effective the more junior the people doing it (senior expertise is hard to access and expensive
A way of thinking and innovating Anybody can do it – this is not a departmental function
(like creativity?)
You can use planning thinking
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Half truths about planning It’s a job some people do at the agency
True but it’s a way of working – everyone in the agency does this particularly with experience – the planner can’t do it all.
Its about the consumer True but its also about a lot of other things – marketing,
branding, channel planning Its about research
True but it’s about a lot more: any techniques for understanding and evaluating consumers is relevant– there are planners who actually reject research because they say it doesn’t do these things
Its about intellectualising how advertising works True and this can be useful for selling work to clients but ivory
tower planning doesn’t add value and those guys are really a pain in the ..
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History of Account Planning – where it began
In the beginning – Stephen King and Stanley Pollitt
Two schools of planning the marketers the ad tweakers
The two faces of strategy Simplifying Optimising
The impact on research The rise and rise and rise of the focus group
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As it went on
Planning outside of advertising – the new specialists design/direct marketing/ sales
promotion/sponsorship/PR Integrated communications/Media
neutral Planning Communications Planning
Space Race/2020 Jim Taylor
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Planning outside of the UK
Planning has spread worldwide like a virus!!
USA – Jon Steel Truth Lies and advertising
Elena Ionita –Wash and goLeo Burnett Bucharest
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Planners in other areas John Grant New Marketing manifesto, Co-
opportunity Adam Morgan – Eat the big fish, Pirate inside Mark Earls - Herd Planners clientside - Diageo Planners in research – Brainjuicer, Mesh
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And then there’s Russell Davies..
http://russelldavies.typepad.com/planning/2006/11/how_to_be_inter.html
Founder of InterestingThe first planning blogger
Coffee mornings
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Account planning .. what’s the point of it?
Global Curious Eclectic Self organising Counter cultural Generous
Every business needs planning thinking!!
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how each discipline makes its money - IT VARIES
AdvertisingMedia commission
Fees related to media spend
Biggest accounts
Discipline Making money Making profit
DirectMarketing
Construction and operation of bespoke
medium: account handling/targeting
Complex accounts
SalesPromotion
Construction and operation of bespoke
mechanic: account handling
Complex Mechanics(any size)
SponsorshipFee proportionate
to size of sponsorshipBiggest
Accounts
Complexaccounts
Construction and operation of bespoke
medium: account handling/targeting
Web based
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how each discipline adds value – IT VARIES
AdvertisingEffective creative work
that creates massawareness/involvement
Discipline Adding value
DirectMarketing
Effectiveness of targetingand ability to solicit
response and conversion
SalesPromotion
Effectiveness ofmechanic and appeal to the trade and the client
SponsorshipLeveraging higher
awareness at lower costthan advertising
Reducing interaction costsOR Leveraging higher
InvolvementWeb based
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The Integrated Model
1. The brand as promise
3. The brand as experienceddirectly by the consumer
2. The brand as medium
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How the Elements Have Been Used in Isolation
Product led business
Service led business
Media led business
E.g. Ryvita
Eg The Economist
Eg Asda
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Where the Disciplines Add Value
Advertising
Sales PromotionPoint of saleCustomer satisfaction
Direct marketingDatabase marketingCRM loyalty
PRSponsorship
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How the person doing the planning adds value in each area
Psychologist
Private Investigator Accountant
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Listening to customers
An early and core planning role Planners functioned as research buyers They often ran qualitative research
themselves This role is changing as communications
is spreading in all directions
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Markets are conversations
Cluetrain manifesto
Companies and their employees aren’t moving fast enough – So their customers are working around them
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Markets are co-creations
The mind of the market emerges from the interaction of consumers’ and managers’
conscious and unconscious minds
Gerald ZaltmanHow Customers think
The researcher’s job is to facilitate by getting in the way!
conscious conscious
Unconscious Unconscious
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There’s a co-ordination problem
Are the departments talking to each other? Who is setting the agenda? Clue – it’s the
budget controller – may be none of the above
MarketingResearch Customer service
X X
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And a proximity problem
Research used to be carried outbecause companies were so far fromtheir customers
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Customers getting up close..
Now clients can‘t move without meeting customers: on the website, on help lines, writing letters of complaint, starting Facebook fan groups
so does this meanthat research is obsolete or has tobecomesomething else?
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The internet…
Makes research faster Makes research cheaper Destroys the foundations of research
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Lumpy Mass Audiences and the 80/20 Rule – which lumps do you need on your side?
Profitability Weight of usage Frequency of purchase/usage Loyalty to a given brand or subset of brands Propensity to try new products Promotionally responsive Pay attention to advertising Level expertise/knowledge Sociability and connectedness Persuasiveness
Audiences are NOT equal – some 5 timesmore polarised than the rest
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How we describe customers ..
Demographics
Goals
Attitudes Behaviours
The old way The emerging way
Website development requires a customer description based on goals and behaviours
Demographics and attitudes hard to validate online So why use them as a discriminator? Volume of internet marketing means that goals and behaviours will become
normal descriptors for customer segments even offline
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Making up Customer insights
You DON’T need research to get customer insights Brainstorm the insights then use research to
validate them – much quicker, easier and with far more radical results!
Toyshops that kids can play in
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Left Brain Right Brain Exercise
Holistic understanding of the audience how they think about the product Their attitudes to lifeBUT ALSO What they know and think about the company How they spend their leisure time and what
this tells us about them How they process communications How they store communications
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Exercise – Getting into people’s lives
Complete questionnaire If you don’t know the answer then improvise –
you can always check your guess later Left brain right brain exercise On the left hand side put a summary of the
learnings from the audience questionnaire On the right hand side brainstorm what the
brand can do to connect with the customer insights of the left
ACCESS YOUR UNCONSCIOUS ASSUMPTIONS!
Customer insightWhy should they?
left brain right brain exercise
Who are theyWhat do they want?
What is going to Attract their interest?
Questionnaireresults
Think of thingsthe brand could
do for them
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Introducing the waggledancers project
Alternative take on account planning Planners as collaborators and
facilitators Skillset that any company would want to
hirePlanners do
it by themselves.
.NOT
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1st law of planning
We aren’t necessary to the production process
We have to add value over and above
Strategists enable the group to focus its resources more effectively = they make the group more powerful
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Waggle Dance: Angle of Dancing Bee to Vertical
Source: Francis L. W. Ratnieks
Honey Bee Waggle Dance
Dancer (forager)
Dance Followers
(unemployed foragers)Source: Francis L. W. Ratnieks
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3 skills of the strategist
Find where the nectar is
Make others want to find it too
Waggledance well so they can find it for themselves!
LOCATION
MOTIVATION
COMMUNICATION
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Waggledancing is growing out of control!
Planning is now expanding faster than we can measure into agencies round the world and into every type of communications
There are even planning departments clientside – there ought to be a lot more
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6 planning territories
Interaction
ReputationMessaging
Content
Channels/Networks
Audiences
Planning triangles are
SO 20th century..
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Swarm ideas
Build your own peer/respondent network Trading partners – tool for finding partner
brands Brand peleton – tool for generating
propositions Brand screenplays Finding out what the swarm thinks.. And
into the Cloud of Knowing project
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Building your own peer/respondent network
Research communities perhaps the hottest thing in qualitative research now Fusion of qual and quant Always on – can last for a week or a year Interactive for both clients and participants Customers can set the agenda Multimedia Global
Make your own – for free
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Relevant websites
www.ning.com www.webjam.com Or start your own facebook group!
Use for workshops before and after Use to get more out of research groups Use for workgroups
Examples http://www.webjam.com/waggledancers
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Trading partners – brand and media partnerships
More to branded partnerships than 4 week sales promotions!
Brands can exchange Values Content Audiences
And share customer contact points to make an added impact
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Strategic Partnerships – Britney & Madonnashow how it’s done! (in 3 seconds)
Common contact point – MTV Awards
Exchange1. Values2. Content3. Audiences
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Partner Profile Tool Values
Shares WantsContent
Shares Wants
Contact StrategyShares Wants
AudiencesShares Wants
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The positioning enigma
Marketers don’t position brandspeople do!
To position your brand you needto persuade your audience toreposition it
A proposition is shorthand forwhat you say to persuadeyour audience to reposition you
Snooker is no different!
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Category marketing
Requires you to think about how to build the category not just the brand
The stronger the peleton the stronger your brand can be
But you need to position the brand inside the peleton
Its not always about being different – sometimes it is better to be close
Market PositioningPremium /
Luxury
Mid-market / mass- market
Authentic / craft /traditional
Manufactured / modern
Napier
Neal’s Yard
Origins
L’Occitane
Aveda
Tisserand
Duchy Originals
Crabtree & Evelyn
Boots
Body Shop
M&S
White Company
Jo MaloneDaylesford
REN
Molton Brown
Penhaligons
Liz Earle
Lush
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The positioning exercise
1. Choose 2 ‘drivers’ – reasons why customers buy products in your market
2. Plot them on x and y axes3. Then plot where your brand is and also
your key competitors
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Now write your proposition
4. Pick one axis to compete on5. Be the best on that dimension or6. Be better than a competitor strongly
associated with that dimension
position 2
Market PositioningPremium /
Luxury
Mid-market / mass- market
Authentic / craft /traditional
Manufactured / modern
Napier
Neal’s Yard
Origins
L’Occitane
Aveda
Tisserand
Duchy Originals
Crabtree & Evelyn
Boots
Body Shop
M&S
White Company
Jo MaloneDaylesford
REN
Molton Brown
Penhaligons
Liz Earle
Lush
position 1
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Positioning 1 – sample proposition Handmade from traditional Provencal recipes
Positioning 2 – sample proposition Give your skin a holiday in the south of France
The acid test – are you convinced it is strong enough to reposition your brand?
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Positioning Water - exercise How do you make a water stand out?
BrandsSpaEvianVolvicHighland SpringOgoVossVittel
Possible DriversPurityRefreshmentLifestyle
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Brand screenplays
In an age where free content dominates branded behaviour has never been so important
Be interesting! Have a point of view! Tell a story!
Brand narratives is a workshop technique for identifying branded storylines using movie writing techniques
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Narratives versus bunions
We’re not being rational…
Everyone knows stories – level playing field vs marketing and branding
The characters are different from each other
Characters change and develop and make choices
Conflict and opposition is what drives the character
They’re far too rational! There’s no storyline There is no distinction
between the brand, competitors and the category
Characters are supposed to be consistent
There’s never any conflict (unreal or what?)
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Archetyping and branding
Pearson and Mark: Psychotherapy meets branding and advertising development
Archetypes or stereotypes? Insight tool or sales technique?
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Archetypes and narrative Hollywood employs
archetype consultants tocreate ‘successful’storylines usually the epic
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Epic in 120 pages..
Act 1 Act 2 Act 3
120
Page 45 9010 60 753031
The central questionIntroducing the cast
Character has to change
Final challenge
Character commits to new goal
The growth of the main character
Conclusion
The life changing event
Vicki King: How to write a movie in 21 days
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The hero’s journey model
Act 1 Act 2 Act 3
the
cal
l to
adve
ntur
e
Test
s al
lies
and
enem
ies
The
road
bac
k
Climax
Rew
ard
(sei
zing
the
sw
ord)
Ord
eal
Crisis
App
roac
h to
inm
ost ca
ve
the
ord
inar
y w
orld
ref
usal
of th
e ca
ll
men
tor
arrive
s fi
rst th
resh
old
Res
urre
ctio
n R
etur
n w
ith the
elix
ir
Christopher Vogler The writer’s journey
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You can do it in a single scene
Know the character of your protagonist Choose a genre Choose a cast list Make a scene which involves the whole
cast eg the card party in Pride and Prejudice – which of several female characters leaves a lasting impression on Mr Darcy and why?
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Putting it to work
Always allow enough time to ask – what were the keys to the development of the character and how the narrative brought the character to success
And make enough time to brainstorm real life applications
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Brand Narrative Applications
1. Brand development2. Communications development
(particularly through the line)3. Creating branded or company
storylines which play out in national media and become public entertainment
4. Product Innovation
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Other swarm stuff
http://www.brandtags.net/browse.php www.taggalaxy.de www.wefeelfine.org
Sizing the audience: become a Facebook advertiser temporarily
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Cloud of Knowing
Face to face meetingsNext one due in July
Sharing papers
Open source project
http://www.webjam.com/cloud_of_knowing
Remit to consider how online content can beincorporated robustly into market research
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Web contentThe questions we need answers to
SAMPLING
RESEARCH WITHOUT QUESTIONS
PERMISSION
% OF BUSINESS DECISION SUPPORT
REAL TIME
ANONYMITY
REPRESENTATIVENESS
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Cloud of Knowing
The incorporation of web content as part of research
Issues of representativeness Outlier problem – nobody is normal What IS normal on the web? – no
consensus on what is average – qualitative significance
Issues of permission
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Rachel Lawes – sample the culture
Don’t sample the population
Sample the culture
Think how to sample yoghurtness – not a balanced sample of
yoghurt eaters
Dr Rachel Lawes
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There’s a storm brewing in the research industry
Direct access to customers
What is the role of researchers as intermediaries? Recruitment? Interviewing skills? Analysis and
interpretation
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The difference between what the client thought as she leftthe last group and what she thought at the end of the
debrief presentation
A&I: What is it worth?
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time to bring A&I into the open and put it on the outside where clients can see it!
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Its Analysis AND interpretation
What kinds of music do you play here?
Oh We got both kinds.We got Country AND Western
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Technically, two processes
Analysis Interpretation
Through revisiting and applying different filtersAnalysis works to exhaust the meaning
Through working outwards from micro to macroperspectives – interpretation is about finding the storyso as to show the big picture
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Crowd sourcing analysis and interpretation
Because of the power laws amplifying a small network
Significance comes from validation at the interpretation stage – building a single version
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Benefits
1. Speed – simultaneous analysis 2. Culture sampling – broader range of
inputs3. Embraces contrasting perspectives4. Can handle outliers – extreme data
sources5. Provides a way to integrate online data6. Respondents (and marketers) can be
used as co-interpreters
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Analysis exercise: Barracuda swarm!We’re going to swarm a transcription from
many angles in 5 minutes then pull it all together! 10 barracuda teams
B1 significant Quotations - underlines B2 Comparison T with D – likes and
unlikes B3 themes: Roller coaster - sorting B4 Weight watchers – customer
experience - map B5 focus on T’s feelings about herself B6 God – what help is T asking for? B7 Social: shared with other
respondents B8 silences – human aid and
acquaintances who aren’t overweight B9 Culture – obesity discourse B10 Cf T’s photos and hand written
captions with the transcription
Obesity transcription – bulletin board postings on the diet roller coaster by T and D
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How it might look
Instead of linear projects run by teams of 1-2 researchers
Have 1 day of data gathering then 1 day of analysis and interpretation with 5 analysts
Increase speed of project turnaround and increase depth of analysis
Draw together complementary perspectives in analysis
Apply different filters at the interpretation stage
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Practical example of online swarming
Google, Bing, Yahoo cf Google Alert Amazon – sales info, customer reviews, what else
bought Ebay – new and second hand Wikipedia – what does it say and who said it? Flickr photos or YouTube videos – official/unofficial Facebook – official and fan pages Twitter – what are they saying? Blogpulse – blog analysis tool Delicious/Stumble Upon/Digg – tagging (& potential
user analysis) Squidoo – who is behind it
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Summary
Account planning.. I hope you know a bit more about it now!
Now you can generate insights BEFORE doing research I hope you now see the value of strategy but something
that belongs to the group not the individual – collective thinking is more powerful
And you have a online swarming tool using the web to sample the culture
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In Conclusion
What single thing will you do differently to change your working practice?
What are you going to start doing as a result of today?
Is there anything you are going to stop doing as a result of today?
How will you know when that change has made a difference?
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The power of the many..
Is just as relevant to our working processes as it is to external markets
What could you do next to leverage it?www.webjam.com/cloud_of_knowing
www.researchtalk.co.uk/rt/category/series/jgshow/
Cloud of knowing site:
Podcast:
Website: www.planningaboveandbeyond.com