According to Ivan Moroke, CEO of TBWA\Tbwa\Hunt\Lascaris, there’s a simple formula for a winning marketing strategy, and it starts with the 5Ws.
Follow these five steps, ask the right questions, and you’re guaranteed to grab the attention of your customers.
1. Who
Who are you communicating to?
To understand your customer and what is important to them, ask (and answer) the following questions:
- What is important to them?
- What rules do they engage on?
- What rules are particular to the category you operate in?
- What are the demographics of your customer base?
- What is their income level?
- What is their mindset? This includes values, passion points and common touch points.
2. Why
Why do you want to communicate with these people?
This might sound obvious, but you need to evaluate the lifecycle of your company and a sales cycle.
- Is the message a call to action?
- Is it to simply generate awareness of the product or service?
- What are your current business objectives?
If people are aware of your brand, the message is about converting that awareness to sales, which is very different from introducing a product. Never communicate simply for the sake of communicating. You need to have something to say, and to know what you want to say, you need an ultimate objective.
3. What
What is the message you want to communicate?
Think carefully about what your brand stands for, and then develop the message and decide which platforms you will use to communicate that message.
4. & 5. Where & When
How will the message be communicated?
Where and when work together because they are both about positioning. For example, if you are selling fast food, your where is at the food court of a busy mall and your when is during lunchtime. When and where you communicate your message is as important as what that message is. No one cares about umbrellas in the middle of a drought.
FOLLOWING The golden rule
What do you want to say about your product and who do you want to say it to?
If you can answer those two questions and qualify why they should buy your product, you are half way towards developing a successful marketing campaign.
