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As I mentioned, the boardroom is not the place for opinions without
solid support. I remember a meeting with an Atlanta based Fortune 500
company that was planning on opening several retail stores in the
Atlanta metro area. After the presentation of my “big idea,” one of the
board members said he had only two concerns -- “we better do this
before the competition finds out about it” and “how are we going to pay
for it.” I explained that aside from the widely-known provider of the
life-sized celebrity puppets to be used in the television commercial,
and a wildly-popular local radio personality whose voice and likeness
[a custom-made puppet -- he had a “face for radio” -- not everyone can
have my rugged, good looks, eh?] would be featured in the work, only
the vendor co-op manager and media sales rep at a local TV station and
those present at the meeting were aware of it. I then handed out my
budget with details on how product vendors would match (co-op) client
funding.
I
had also explained how the demographics and socio-economics of the
talent (including the puppets) was selected to appeal to the company’s
highly defined target audience… how the creative theme was carefully
constructed to sell through specific product and consumer benefits...
how the mission and positioning of the client were incorporated into
the copy-points… and how we had created a unique “brand personality."
The work incorporated our corporate identity design and “page style” to
ensure consistent branding. The challenge was to accomplish this in a
highly-creative, 30-second "donut" TV spot.
The
media strategy was to use television and radio spots, “scotch-truck”
newspaper ads, and a periodic direct mail circular (mini-catalog). We
had arranged for prize drawings (including a scale model mini-racecar),
numerous giveaways, and local radio station remote broadcasts, complete
with live music and celebrities. Everything was carefully planned for relevance to the target market, the company and its products.
When I drove out to the first grand-opening I couldn’t find a
parking space -- cars lined the streets for several blocks and the new
store was packed with excited and more important, paying customers. We
had achieved success within a comparatively tight budget (our
competitive spending research indicated that the competition spent
dramatically more for grand openings) through careful strategic
planning (and I was recognized for being way more than just another
pretty face).
In business school, I was told about a research study on
entrepreneurs. The study found that the vast majority of them put more
planning into their holiday vacations than they did in starting their
new businesses. It is no wonder that, according to the Small Business
Administration, two-thirds of the approx. 700,000 new businesses
started in the U.S. fail within five years.
In starting a new business, a new advertising campaign, or a new
video production (or a vacation -- I sure could use one!); planning is
crucial. Proper planning starts with proper research. I'll talk more
about this in my next blog.