Marketing explained by a pink pony

Pink ponies: A case study

Challenge

Make sure you fully understand your challenge and task at hand. What are you trying to achieve and why? If you are planning a campaign that doesn't have a set of objectives or an end result, then what are you working towards?

Research

All too often campaigns are run on the sample size of "one", this might be the CMO, CEO or agency. Make sure you do the necessary research to truly understand your customer and the market. Assumptions are probably the biggest reason for campaigns failing.

Big idea

You need a big idea or concept that can become your "golden thread" throughout the campaign. Every campaign should have some sort of overarching theme or positioning based on the research conducted. The insights gathered will help determine what theme is right for your campaign.

Messaging

There should always be a solid communication strategy; this will help guide the messaging and the positioning of your campaign. You need to speak the same language that your customer speaks and it should resonate with them. In many cases you might find that you have more than one target audience, how do you customize your messaging so that it is relevant to everyone?

Influence

What influences your customer and how can you use this influence to support your campaign?

We have seen this trend in the Twitter space, but make sure you do your homework and confirm that the "influencers" you select actually have an influence on your target audience.

Phases

Consider the different phases of your campaign. Based on your objectives you should be able to determine whether there should be some sort of teaser phase, then a large launch phase and then a maintenance phase. Campaigns often just launch without considering the pre and post phases.

Integration

Your campaign should be integrated across all channels, what your customer experiences at one touch point should be the same at the next. No campaign can live in isolation; there is no longer a distinct line between the different media platforms.

Engagement

How are you going to promote engagement with your customers? This goes back to brands chasing likes on Facebook instead of focusing on engagement rates. It is becoming extremely challenging to cut through the clutter and connect with customers. Make sure you have a strong engagement strategy.

CRM

Once you have managed to acquire new customers, what are you going to do to keep them? CRM and database management is probably one of the most common basics of marketing that is omitted. Single view of customers will become your brand's most powerful asset.

Going that step further

How do you differentiate your campaign from what your competitors are doing? You are going to have to innovate and do something different and unexpected.

Results

This is definitely the one element of every campaign that is either purposefully ignored or insufficiently planned up front. Make sure you have specific targets and goals at the beginning of the campaign. This will be the only way you'll know whether you succeeded or not.

So let's take these learnings from Chelsea Bedan's?birthday party and make sure every campaign ticks these basics of marketing. I must admit though, I was quite disappointed when I realized the pony wasn't pink.