Account planning is still a mystery to many agencies and clients. Its most common definition is that it is a process that puts the consumer at the center of the creative process. Still, we often think of planning as market research applied to an advertising problem. But it is much more than that.
When practiced at its best, planning is a strategic blueprint for attacking the market.
Any serious marketer--either on the client or the agency side--knows that reaching people today is not just about advertising. Yet, we still tend to think about our work in the context of creating and distributing ads. We need to demolish that mindset, and adapt a mindset that asks, "What do I need to do to attack the market?"
People are surrounded by messages and message channels. They ignore many of them not just because they find them annoying, but because they need to limit chaos in their lives. The truth is that people are actually voracious consumers of messages. They have learned--partly through modern experience but even more so by centuries of evolution--how to manage an onslaught of stimuli that enter the brain through the senses.
Forget about clutter
We often hear that there is too much clutter in the ad world and that the challenge is stand out from it. That's a limited view of the real problem.. In fact, when you hear an ad professional prattle on about the need to "cut through the clutter," you should promptly stop listening to anything else that individual has to say. Essentially, that person is saying to you, "People ignore 98 percent of the ad messages they encounter, but we're so good at what we do that you should invest your hard earned marketing dollars in our highly creative and media strategies."
Nonsense. They're thinking too conventionally. Take your money to the casino--you'll do better.
Here is the dirty little secret: clutter is reality. Embrace it, then dominate it by making it irrelevant.
The only way to dominate it is to attack. Now, this does not mean that you create messages and distribution strategies that scream at people, though sometimes (rarely, I might add) that may be exactly what works. Instead, you look at the market--and the people inside that market who you are trying to reach--and you determine what the market is surrendering to you.
The value of planners
This is a complex process, full of a vast range of variables and very few constants. That's where a well trained account planner--and an agency that knows how to use the planning discipline--provides remarkable value. An insightful planner will know what to look for in a given situation. For example, suppose a client competes in a category dominated by one or two big players who have the trust of the consumer, but whose product appeals may reveal softness in any particular area.
With that insight, the planner might see an opportunity for her client, who may have a product with some very specific, "hard" strengths. Our firm recently found this for a packaged goods client in the organic category who regularly competed against an industry giant. The giant owned "trust," but our research showed our client could stake a solid claim to owning "purity."
The path was clear: attack the market with a specific, consistent claim. So far, it's working very well for this client.
The market always surrenders something to you. Find what it is, and attack it. Planning points the way--and the creativity will follow.
