| We’re only 12 weeks from the end of 2024 and many teams are knee-deep into their marketing planning for 2025.
Done well, planning can unearth insight, clarify intent, and sets us up for success in-market.
Conversely, it can be a pedestrian and superficial process, resulting in little or no value-add.
If you’re going to invest the time and effort, you want a return. Not just for your company, but also your own sanity.
Based on my experiences working in and with brands, here are 11 thoughts on how not to do it.
Do the opposite – and you’ll be OK.
1 – Don’t involve others
The brand plan should be developed in secret. Allowing sales and category colleagues to get involved in the process will only complicates things and risks pitting purist marketing theory against commercial realities.
2 – Assume everything has stayed the same
Make more of your limited time by ditching the situation analysis and assume that the marketplace will be the same in future as it was before. Take last year’s plan and update the dates. Or conversely…
3 – Assume everything will change
The only constant is change, as they say. So it follows that you should redesign and relaunch everything. Radical new and disruptive innovation should be prioritized over any defense of the core business.
4 – Ignore inconvenient truths
We already know what we want to do, so any facts that risk challenging the rationale for our agreed strategy should be disregarded (or preferably, never sought out in the first place).
5 – Be vague about what problem(s) you need to solve
To get everyone to agree on the plan – and avoid making tradeoffs – be as generic as possible in defining goals. Especially when you have multiple stakeholders involved, it is important to provide each with a welcoming home for their pet project or ideas.
6 – Only reveal your plan to your boss/sponsor once it’s finished
Some marketers like to have a frank conversation with their stakeholders at key points in the process to get input and alignment. But – this is not exciting. You get more of a thrill by unveiling the plan at the end of the process and can enjoy the ‘cut and thrust’ of dealing with criticisms when deadlines are tighter.
7 – Jump straight to activity
Inspired by my daughter’s favorite maths hack (“1, 2, miss a few, 99, 100”), you should avoid the painful thinking bit (context, goals, strategy etc) and get to designing the marketing activity as quickly as possible. Being creative is much more fun and less mentally taxing. And a bonus, by avoiding the tedious thinking bit, you have absolute freedom to justify whatever marketing activity you like.
8 – Avoid setting any metrics
Metrics are a trap – do not listen to anyone that disagrees. Setting metrics enables you to see if something has worked or not, and to optimize things in the future. Such scrutiny can be uncomfortable. Metrics also encourage realism in plans which could undermine a marketer with a dream to sell.
9 – Try to do everything
The goal of marketing planning is to end up with an impressive activity plan – this must include as many different colour blobs as possible. A jam-packed chart will demonstrate to sales colleagues and customers the heavy weight nature of brand support. It does not matter if nothing is fully funded, the objective is lots of blobs.
10 – Ignore the plan once done
Like performance appraisals, marketing planning is an annual process where the objective is simply to get through it with the least pain and controversy. Once the obligatory powerpoint deck has been presented, this can be safely filed away on a shared drive. Next forget about the plan, and revert to what you were doing before.
11 – If the context changes, doggedly execute the original plan
Changing course is a sign of weakness. As the year progresses and even if your competitive situation or other external influences change in a material way, you must not risk losing face by adapting your plan accordingly. Do not flinch! |
