Comms planning is a key component for any marketing strategy and can be broken into 3 core components:
- Identify key problems or constraints – what is the challenge?
- Providing executional clarity – how do we solve this challenge?
- Evaluation and adjustment – how do we know we are getting it right? How do we make it better next time? How do we ensure the plan is working holistically?
Market Analysis
Identifying the problem is half the solution. While the methodology varies depending on the nature of the project and tools available, we interrogate as many sources of data as possible and look to define what differences make a difference.
This component of communication planning deals with market analysis questions such as: how are customer journeys different? Are there different types of consumers? When do people buy? Why do they buy? Who do we compete with for sales? Do we compete with categories we had not considered? Should we focus on building brand memory or creating opportunities for behavioural nudges?
Comms planning
With a clearer picture of the situation, the second area of communication planning deals with executing smarter. By understanding the constraints of the situation we operate in, comms planning looks for creative ways to overcome those limitations and maximize output within the set challenges.
The type of questions we answer here are: how can I best target a specific audience? What market can I expand to next? What role(s) do different media play for my brand/sales strategy? How can I change this perception of my brand? How can I trigger customers to…?
Strategy
The third area of comms planning is to provide strategic rigour to the approach and implementation of ideas. Whether the output be frameworks, roles for media, audience definition, or ecosystem design – the key delivery is to create a structured understanding of your problem or idea. Having a clearer picture of the situation and gaining clarity on what the solution should look like enables better integration of work across channels, messaging, and audiences, and lets us evaluate if our plan is on the right track.
Behave’s intersection of internal expertise, tools, data access and infrastructure, and media competency leaves us well suited to respond across these needs.
For more information about our communication planning approach and how we can help your business, please email enquiries@behave.co.uk.