Clever marketing tactics? Sure — what’s your strategy?

Clever marketing tactics (HOW you’re going to achieve your goals) can only be effective (and measured) if they’re built upon a defined strategic (WHAT you’re going to do to achieve goals) platform. When this is done well, the sum of all tactics is greater than the whole–and can drive the desired return.

[Hiring an accomplished part-time marketing guy is a good start.]

Sit with anybody who watched the Super Bowl, and you can be sure they’ll comment on what is usually some of the most clever advertising on the globe. This year it was TUBI, the free streaming service out to expand its audience, who got us to go for our remote as they ‘changed the channel’ from my YouTube TV to theirs, which I know I have never done. They created action AND showed us its value by giving us samples of their programming we might never have seen. In my mind it was one of the most effective ads in years, and well worthy of the special CLIO™ Award they received as the best of the Super Bowl ads.

Business owners think: “if only we could be so clever with our marketing.” And the repressed creative within them will come up with a clever slogan, most often ending with “for all your (fill-in-the-blank) needs.”

Right.

Here’s the thing. The most clever tactics in the world are as useless as the bar napkin they’re written on unless they are tied to an actionable and measurable strategy. Their effect is as equally short-lived. Money and ROI: poof!

That’s not how P&G does it. Their brands perform to expectations because all marketing tactics are built on a strategic foundation, step-by-step.

First they decide what they are going to do; they formulate a strategy and define possible strategic communications statement/platforms based upon defined goals. And they execute their first tactic, research.

Only then, and armed with a refined strategy/statement tempered by research or other insights, do they create tactics—the how they’re going to fulfill/payoff the strategy/platform—designed to move the needle on their strategic platform.

And, as tactics are executed, their impact adds up to a brand outcome that’s greater than the sum of its parts.

Get it? Well, you’re way ahead of the curve for most business owners, assuming you can also act strategically. (But to know and not do, is not to know.)

I can tell you this, it’s only with decades of mentoring and partnering with Dave Manley, P&G’s first Brand Manager on the Pringles Brand, with whom I worked on Chinet Disposables, Boston Whaler, LoJack, Bay State Power, and Keurig/Green Mountain brands (to name a few), that I started getting good at the strategic brand marketing process and discipline. And it works.

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“I worked with Tom Lanen for well over 25 years. You don’t work with someone for that long unless they bring you real value. Whether it was a poster series at Boston Whaler, a brochure at LoJack, or research, sales promotion and dealer support at Keurig, he’s always taken the time to understand my needs, and then made it happen, exceeding expectations.”

Dave Manley, Senior VP, Core Systems Innovation (Retired), Green Mountain, Keurig Premium Coffee Systems

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Now hiring Dave, if you can draw him out of beach-side retirement, might be one option. Or you could make a far more moderate—and affordable—investment and hire me. I’ll listen, and then show you the best options to meet your goals. And the means to measure your outcomes.

So what’s your marketing and sales/revenue strategy for the economic period ahead? Here’s one to start: let’s chat on my nickel for few moments. I may be just the resource you need to kick-start some sustained momentum.

Today is good. Tom- | 508 951-0130