The birth of a grand strategist

1

1. Peter Fisk, Marketing genius,, 2006, Page 23

Unless you are prepared to give up somethingvaluable you will never be able to truly change at all,because you will be forever in the control of thingsyou can’t give up.“ “

Andy law

© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz

One can’t be practically rightif one is conceptually wrong

In the times of Twitter phobia, YouTube craze, Farm Ville quest

on Facebook, Blogging adventures, 3D digital environments,

Mobile purchases, iPhone apps, Flickr effects, Google

integration, Wiki wonders, Second World possibilities, Podcast

revival, Verizon Twitter and Facebook cable, Sidewiki’s threats,

iPlayer’s experience, Digital data systems, Amazon’s

commerce, iTunes distribution and so on... you would expecting

me to talk digital, as I believe this is the new Mantra nowadays.

One way or another we all are trying to own digital – as if digital

is not a language but a territory.

Please note that I won’t certainly be talking ‘cool’ as above

because if I were to do that then I would be making you aware

of the stuff you already know too much, or you will know too

much about by the time you prepare your next ‘trend


presentation’. Instead what I want to discuss in the next few

chapters are the concepts which direct our actions, as I cannot

imagine an action that can be conceptually incorrect and

practically sustainable.

This journey is to learn about and understand models and ideas

that are great enough to trigger our thinking, and may help

us to imagine what is possible with what we have.

This effort has been exerted in an attempt to understand the

grand concepts of planning and how it can help to strengthen

the future for brands, people and communication companies.

CONTENTS CHART

© Intellectual Rights Reserved - Waqar Riaz 2009


CHAPTER ONE PLANNING IN GENERAL

ORIGINAL

(Honda book of dreams)

© All Rights Reserved Waqar RiazImages courtesy of Google Images available at ; http://www.google.co.uk/images?sa=3&q=pears+soap accessed on 12-11-2009

THINKING

(Charles Darwin) (Einstein) (Aristotle)

© All Rights Reserved Waqar RiazImages courtesy of Google Images available at ; http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&ei=WTkZS8PvB8-njAem76z7Aw&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=einstein&spell=1&start=0accessed on 12-11-2009


ORIGINAL

© All Rights Reserved Waqar RiazImages courtesy of Google Images available at ; http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&sa=1&q=innocent+smoothies&meta=&aq=1&oq=innocent+&start=0 accessed on 12-11-2009

IDEAS

© All Rights Reserved Waqar RiazImages courtesy of Google Images available at ; http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&sa=1&q=google+logo&meta=&aq=f&oq=&start=0 accessed on 12-11-2009

One thing only I know, and that is I know nothing.

Socrates

2, 3

2 Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, January 1953, Page 63 Image courtesy of Google Images, available at http://www.entelechy-magazine.com/images/socrates.gif - searched on 21st October 2009


PLANNING

IS

PROACTIVE

NOT

REACTIVE

Ask an expert to define a planner’s role and the chances are that you will get a very

vague answer. At least, this was true in my case. I was fortunate enough to meet some of

the gurus of my field. Unfortunately, none of them ever gave a clear definition of what a

planner was actually supposed to do. Hmm… Well, you can’t define a planner, can you?

That’s the best answer I got anyway.

However, I strongly believe that there has got to be a definition for the subject – everyone

else has one for theirs. It’s time to challenge all those no-definitions “definition” of planners,

and maybe learn something useful on the way. Let's start this discussion by giving planner a

defined role. But, where to begin?

First of all, planners are not just in advertising. In fact, advertising stole planning from the

pre-existing services i.e. military, architecture etc.

Let’s look into the finest details of the subject and understand what planning does.

Planning in any industry or sector, prepares the businesses for forecast potential risk factors

and then recommends solutions to counter them whilst developing new areas for them

e.g. A new sector, service, category or goal.

I think we are getting somewhere defining planners and planning… Do you think I would

be wrong to say that…


…a planner is a person who projects histhoughts forward in time and space to influenceevents before they occur rather than merelyresponding to events as they occur?


Great planning

Images courtesy of Google Images available at ; http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&sa=1&q=egypt+history&meta=&aq=f&oq=&start=0 accessed on 14-11-2009

4 Yahoo answers - available at http://www.geocities.com/athens/academy/7357/unaslayout_n.gif - searched on 26th October 20095 Image courtesy of Google Images, available at http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_year_was_the_first_pyramid_built - searched on 26th October 2009

Though it was built in around 2630 B.C.E., Wecan still learn some valuable lessons ofplanning from the great pyramid of Djoser.4

Think big, give some space to your mind and put that seven

points communications brief aside for a little while. Once you

have done that, try appreciating the science and art of

pyramids. Indeed, it was a mind of a planner who thought

well about everything and its placement, who exactly knew

what would appeal to the masses and who could add lasting

beauty to clay and sand for generations to come.


You could ask what architectural planning has in common with communications planning. I would say everything – The job of

planning is to design solutions for potential problems and then add sense to them by making them relate to human nature. It’s

not all science, but a balance combination of sense and creativity. The architect of the pyramid of Djoser could have made a

simple massive hall which would have perfectly served the purpose to the given task i.e. “bury the dead king”. However, the

genius thought of turning it into a brand known as...

6 SOURCED FROM WIKIPEDIA, available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_of_Djoser - searched on 26th October 2009

which made Djoser different, but the whole experience it offers . Building a rectangular structure is not a very difficult task , but

mastering it with the enclosure wall, the great trench, the roofed colonnade entrance, the south court, the south tomb, the step

pyramid, the burial chamber, the north chamber, the serdab court and the heb-sed court is something not every rectangular

shaped building can have. Adding all those details made it into something which holds value and recognition after all these

years.

‘The pyramid of Djoser.’

It was not just the idea

6


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Saqqara_Pyramid_Djoser.jpg

7

7 SOURCED FROM WIKIPEDIA, available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imhotep - searched on 26th October 2009

PLANNING IS A STATE OF MIND NOT MERELY

A DISCIPLINE Imhotep (the man who built the pyramid of Djoser), the first architect,

engineer, physician in history known by name, didn’t just spend his time

understanding and finding out facts on different kinds of burial chambers

for the kings all over the world. He may well have done, but one thing for

sure is that he didn’t just finish working at that point. The point at which

planning is today is not just being creative with what we have, but totally

forgetting what we know and making things different from what we

already have.7


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d2/Imhotep.JPG

Military planning

Images courtesy of Google Images available at ; http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&sa=1&q=military+planning&meta=&aq=f&oq=&start=0 accessed on 14-11-2009

who routinely face situations or problems where they

have to decide which actions to take. I hope to learn

how usefully they implement planning to grow their

collective successes. In a literal sense, military leaders

inescapably make all decisions in advance of taking

action. Therefore, military planning as discussed here

refers to situations where there is sufficient time to

employ a decision making process.

8 Source - Paul K. Van Riper, PLANNING FOR AND APPLYING MILITARY FORCE: AN EXAMINATION OF TERMS, March 2006 – Page 2

8

9 SOURCED FROM GOOGLE IMAGES http://www.ecse.rpi.edu/~cvrl/EBO/ebo_files/image001.gif - searched on 268h October 2009

(EFFECTS BASED MILITARY PLANNING)

Let’s now look at planning from a ratherdifferent perspective, let’s now lookfrom the eyes of great military leaders


10 Carl Von Clausewitz, On War, Michael Howard and Peter Paret, eds. And trans., Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1976, p. 579.

(Carl von Clausewitz)

When it comes to discussing strategic planning in the military and its grand

concepts there could be no one better than Clausewitz to quote. Prussian

military thinker Carl von Clausewitz is widely acknowledged as the most

important of the major strategic theorists. Despite the fact that he's been dead

for over a century and a half, he remains the most frequently cited, the most

controversial, and in many respects the most modern.

In his classic ‘On War’, he wrote, “No one starts a war—or rather, no one in his

senses ought to do so without first being clear in his mind what he intends to

achieve by that war and how he intends to conduct it.”

He was the man behind the thinking and theory of concepts such as ends, the

means model, and selected terms to support more detailed and explicit

planning. That is, he recognized how the methods or ways, and means are

employed is important. Thus, the current ends, ways, and means paradigm. In

trying to understand where to focus the available means, he created concepts

such as centre of gravity and decisive points.

10


11 John M. Collins, Military Strategy: Principles, Practices, and Historical Perspectives, Washington, DC: Brassey’s, 2002, p. 3..12 JWT Planning Cycle – JWT Planning Guide available at http://www.slideshare.net/williamtheliar/jwt-planning-guide accessed on 29th October 2009

Several contemporary scholars of strategy broadened the basic Clausewitzian ends-means concept. For example John

Collins (a military writer), described ends, ways, and means based on the names Rudyard Kipling provided his “six honest

serving men.” Collins set them forth this way:

• “What” and “Why” correspond to perceived requirements (ends),

• “How, When and Where” indicate optional courses of action (ways),

• “Who” concerns available forces and resources (means).

If we look at the diagram above which shows the planning cycle Stephen King at JWT created in 1969, then we further

realise that the points he touched upon were already in discussion at a much greater level way before his time.

(JWT Planning cycle)

11


In its true sense, planning is not a domain like marketing, finance or even physics for that matter – instead, it’s something universal,

applicable to all fields and categories (Figure 1). A good lawyer is the one who plans his case effectively, does research thoroughly

and then finally has the courage to work his magic in the court room, based on facts and findings. and the story won’t be much

different for a military general , a good financial officer or a chief executive of some fortune 500. “Planning is the origin of success ”.

MILITARY

LAW

Figure 1 - Universal Model of Planning © Waqar Riaz


CHAPTER TWO BRANDS AND PLANNING

14 Adam McQueen, The King of Sunlight, 2004, Page 52

Okay, too much business. Let’s talk some learni

The Story of William Lever

Images scanned from The King of Sunlight, accessed on 14-11-2009

William Hesketh Lever

13 Adam McQueen, The King of Sunlight, 2004, Page 118 Line 11

The man who makesno mistakes usuallymakes nothing.

(William Hesketh Lever)

13


We now know for certain that planning is a fundamental

element in making solutions for any given potential problem.

We have also identified that in the past, people have used

planning in many different ways. Now let’s get back on track –

back to the subject of communications. Let's try to understand

planning from the perspectives of people as great as William

Lever and of brands as unique as Lever brothers . If we try to

understand how usefully they implemented planning in the

early days then it may help in understanding the real meaning

of the subject.

© All Rights Reserved Waqar RiazImages courtesy of Google Images available at ; http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&sa=1&q=sunlight+soap&meta=&aq=0&oq=sunlight+s&start=0 accessed on 15-11-2009

15 Adam McQueen, The King of Sunlight, 2004, Page 16, 17, 18

Eight year old William (top, sitting on the right) poses with his brother, James Darcy, and their

oldest sister, Elizabeth Emma, in 1859.

Did you know that William Lever, the founder of Lever Brothers (now

Unilever) and one of the most successful and wealthy men in history,

came from poor beginnings?

It's true. He was born on 19 September 1851 in Bolton, a town

described seven years earlier as one of the worst in Britain by no less

of an authority than Friedrich Engels. William joined his father’s

grocery business at the age of sixteen, starting right at the bottom,

as an apprentice. He was put in charge of preparing sugar and

soap. Both of the products arrived as foot-long, solid bars, which had

to be sliced into manageable quantities and individually wrapped in

greaseproof paper. You can imagine the tediousness involved in the

process. However, William, the ever improver, couldn’t stop thinking

that there had to be a better way. Soon William was moved to

another department where his talents were put to greater use as he

looked after the company’s accounts. 15


15 Images and text Adam McQueen, The King of Sunlight, 2004, Page 16, 17, 18

The company’s account system was a mess – much of this

was due to the old way of working. However, William saw

potential problems that this system could create in the

future and that this very system could become a threat to

the company’s growth. He put his mind to creating an

alternative, more efficient, robust and effective method of

book-keeping. Creating the system was one part of what

he did and selling the idea to his conservative father was

another. William used all his strategic sense and before

attempting to sell the idea to his father, he worked on

winning the trust of his fellow clerks. Eventually, the success

15

William’s Bolton House (Left). William’s open air Port Sunlight bedroom (Right).

of his modernised system granted the son new respect and

an increased voice in the company.


16 Adam McQueen, The King of Sunlight, 2004, Page 27, 29, 31

By the age of 23 William was married to Elizabeth and had

transformed his father’s company. However, he claimed

that he hadn't done anything revolutionary. In his 1915

‘Secrets of my success’ speech, he mentioned, “There is a

general impression that in making money you have to do

16

something wonderful, but believe me, there is much more

money made in doing something better than ever it was

done before than in doing something new – far more.”


16 Adam McQueen, The King of Sunlight, 2004, Page 27, 29, 31Images courtesy of Google Images, available at http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&sa=1&q=sunlight+soap&meta=&aq=0&oq=sunlight+s&start=0 accessed on 17-11-2009

He always remembered this self-created golden rule (which

we discussed on the previous page) which he kept with him

during his 1884 cruise. Even on a leisure tour, Lever was thinking

of business ideas, remembering how successful ‘Lever Pure

Honey’ was (their own patented product) – which made them

loads more money than a normal honey could. I imagine Lever

standing on the deck of his ship and asking himself – What’s

Next, William? And it was one of those moments when he

thought of the killer idea – why not make a branded washing

soap? Clearly, there was a need in the market as washing

clothes wasn’t as easy as it is now - It was a long, laborious task

for women. And William exactly knew how to make the

process easier, quicker and more enjoyable.

Sunlight was born and Lever Brothers took off.16


Do you know what soap is made of? Me neither and frankly

speaking nor did William Lever . When he founded his

fortune on it, he claimed to be, “as ignorant of soap-making

as baby in arms”. What William was doing was nothing

normal. He was actually thinking of manufacturing his own

soap and then patenting it with a brand called “Sunlight

Self-Washer”. He took his stance against all odds and he

began to turn his dream into a reality. He knew his audience

would want his product and so he leased a soap works in

17 Adam McQueen, The King of Sunlight, 2004,

17

Warrington and started to produce his own brand of soap,

the ‘Sunlight Self-Washer’.


Gone were the days of the foot-long soap bar. Sunlight (William’s biggest

Invention) was cut at source and each tablet was wrapped individually in

bright, colourful packaging.


William was a unique man. There was no part of the business that he wasn’t

directly involved, even advertising – especially ‘Advertising’. He specifically told

his staff to let children inspect the brightly coloured Sunlight Boxes as they would

then insist their parents to buy the product. Things as small as closing the house

gate after a sales pitch were part of William’s staff syllabus.

He created cookery books, direct marketing material, story books for children

and so on. He was the first man to think of railways as a medium for advertising in

his age and entered into a £50 contract with London and North-Western Railway

company as part of Sunlight’s first advertising campaign. He then personally

selected the spots where the ads should be displayed and he even wrote the

slogan himself. It read, ‘Sunlight Self-Washer: See how this becomes the house’.17



17

In doing what he did, William actually solved all the

communications problems many companies still struggle

with.

He didn’t go to a media house to buy a big ad space; he

didn’t even visit an ad agency for creative inspiration. He

simply did what we all forget to do today – he followed the

audience. Very soon people across the UK loved Sunlight

and by the end of 1888, just after two years of the product

launch, they were producing 14,000 tons a week. Sunlight

boxes soon started to advertise a common phrase ‘has the

largest sale of any soap in the world’.


Lever brothers was now a business generating £50,000 profit a year.

This made Lever more conscious of what he was doing, He started to think that he

had the same works, the same soap boiler, the same manager and the same staff.

The question he asked himself was ‘whose is that money?’ In answering his own

question he totally changed the concept of how businesses would run by building

a town for his employees and named it as ‘Port Sunlight’.

Much of the architectural credit of ‘Port Sunlight’ goes to William Lever as he paid

attention to detail with the look and feel of the town and its social values. He

introduced the concept of large houses for communities with gardens, he built

cafés, gyms, pubs and restaurants within the town, and school for the children of

his staff.

18 Text and Images Adam McQueen, The King of Sunlight, 2004,

18

(Port Sunlight)


This may not be the right place to highlight William’s every success and achievement. However, by the time Lever died in 1925, the

company had evolved from one brand to several, it had 187,000 shareholders, and 85,000 staff ‘living and working in almost every

country in the world’. Lever Brothers issued capital was some £57,000 million and 18,000 of his staff were co-partners.


18


William Hesketh LeverThe key to William Lever’s success was his unique approach to

things in general. He always tried making sense of the processes

and their surroundings. Be it a sales boy selling soap to a lady at

her doorstep, a retailer taking stock for the local market, the

mayor of Bolton representing his people, a wholesaler opening

his doors to the international market or an employer living in ‘Port

Sunlight’, William was focused and useful for everyone around

him.

In his 1915, Secrets of my Success speech, William said, “I started

locally and when I got it established there and making money, I

ventured forth to Liverpool and Manchester. Established there

and making money I ventured as far north as Newcastle and as

far south as Plymouth with the intervening country more or less

opened. Established there and making money I opened up in

London, Scotland and elsewhere, and covered the United

Kingdom.” This was the strategy William used for his impressive

success.

He involved planning in every stage of his selling channels. He

used strategic techniques for every single business process he

went through. Whether it was launching a new system for

managing the company accounts, growing a happy door-to-

door customer base, selling his products by the power of a brand

called ‘Sunlight’, or leading Lever Brothers successfully from

challenging times, he never stopped adding creativity to the

subject. Maybe Lever wanted us to know something. Maybe he

was trying to tell us to think rich and instead of creating

integrated systems, to become integrated individuals.19


© All Rights Reserved Waqar RiazImages courtesy of Google Images available at ; http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&sa=1&q=william+lever&meta=&aq=f&oq=&start=0 accessed on 20-11-2009


20 Fig 2 © Waqar Riaz 2009

The times of Lever were simple and focused. Every system was totally integrated.

Thanks to Lever’s command everyone was working for the people, without creating unnecessary additions in the process of

manufacturing the product to selling it to the end user (Fig 2). The benefits of the services and products were communicated

exactly when, where and how people required. The thinking was totally integrated and everyone involved in the process, knew

exactly what the business was doing.


PEOPLE (CUSTOMERS/BUYERS)

MANUFACTURER DISTRIBUTOR RETAILER

OC M U N I C AM T I O N S

(Fig 2)


1935 – LUX Ad (Ain’t the William Way)

21 Image courtesy of Google Images, available at http://www.adclassix.com/images/35luxsoap.jpg , accessed on 8-11-2009

1932 – Sunlight Soap Ad 1932 – LUX Ad

Just five years after the death of William Lever, Lever

brothers became Unilever as a result of an international

merger. Whilst the merger brought benefits for both

parties, it also had negative implementations. The biggest

of all was ‘disintegration’- not so much in the way things

worked, but in the thinking of the business.

Then started the war of share, one way or another

everyone wanted to own the end user. However, in doing

so they totally misunderstood the William’s secret; it wasn’t

about owning the audience in different domains, instead

understanding their life in general and addressing their

different needs by introducing products, services and

useful interactive communications. Nobody understood. It

wasn’t about segmenting people as if they were a species

from another planet; rather, considering yourself as part of

their community and addressing the needs of your

community.



However, instead of continuing with integration what we got

was ‘champions of consumers’. I hate that word -

‘consumers’. Anyway, no matter what you were selling,

these were the guys you had to go through (Fig3). Because

apparently they knew everything about the customers. They

created a universe which was more like this;

The Manufacturer is on planet Zoron, the Customer is on

Planet Delta, and these geniuses know the secret portal that

the seller (Manufacturer/Retailer/Distributor) can take to get

closer to the buyer and eventually make a happy sale. What

22 Fig 3 © Waqar Riaz 2009

(Fig 3)

Think...

a strange concept – I wonder where this portal was when

William was selling millions of tons of soap without consulting

these consumer-geniuses?



The

poin

t is..

.Planning has no limits

CHAPTER THREE COMMUNICATIONS AND PLANNING


want to be looked back on asbeing very innovative, verytrusted and ethical andultimately making a bigdifference in the world.”

“Obviously everybody wants to be successful, but I

Sergey Brin

© All Rights Reserved Waqar RiazPeter Fisk, marketing Genius, Inspiration Google, 2004


“In a world filled withdespair, we must stilldare to dream, and ina world filled withdistrust, we must stilldare to believe.”

Michael Jackson

© All Rights Reserved Waqar RiazImage scanned from the book, Micheal Jackson – Life of a legend, accessed on 8-11-2009

Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.

“Some people want it tohappen, some wish it wouldhappen, others make ithappen.”

Michael Jordan

© All Rights Reserved Waqar RiazImage courtesy of Google Images, available at; http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&sa=1&q=micheal+jordan&meta=&aq=f&oq=&start=0 accessed on 13-11-2009


“It is not the strongest of the species that survives,

nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one

that is the most adaptable to

change.”Charles Darwin

© All Rights Reserved Waqar RiazImage courtesy of Google Images, available at; http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&sa=1&q=charles+darwin&meta=&aq=f&oq=&start=0 accessed on 13-11-2009



Ahhhhh.... It has been a longand intensive journey. Though,I hope that it was enjoyableand worth experiencing – westarted from understandingthe grand definition ofplanning and how in differentfields and times people haveused it. Then we fastforwarded to the times of‘Sunlight’ and learnt thatplanning is not just aboutfinding the targetaudience and effectivelycommunicating to them, butdesigning the whole businessaround people. On our way,we analysed Planning fromdifferent perspectives andpoints of views. However, I amglad that there was one thingcommon in all ourendeavours: Sense andCreativity.

Let’s stay loyal to our subjectand jump straight into the1960’s. Oh yes, the time whenStephen King and StanleyPollitt had their ‘Planning-Wars’. The time, because ofwhich I am able to write andyou are able to read all this.Let’s discuss those preciousmoments when Planning wassticking its neck out in theCommunications industry, ‘byname’. Let’s make anattempt to understand allthose intelligent conceptsKing and Pollitt introducedand if we are lucky enough tocover them, then we’ll try tounderstand the currentdisintegration and the mythsof specialisation in thesubject. Let’s learn the‘relevant’ and delete the‘stupid’ (from our memories).

PLANNING IS

NOT ABOUT

ANSWERING

WHAT’S

RIGHT OR

WRONG, BUT

WHAT’S

RELEVANT


The mantra every marketer was singing.

I am afraid, but in order to understand King’s and Pollitt’s

effort we have to go a little back in time – as the

development of planning department is directly linked with

the evolution of brands.

Before the Fifties or even the Forties, ‘Marketing’ as a

department had no existence as far as companies were

involved. However, when companies started to realise the

importance of brands and sensed the increased control of

advertising agencies on their businesses, they immediately

thought of a counter strategy which was to open a

marketing department within their corporations. Thus, the

marketing department was born in companies as a

‘second wife, married to the husband (Client) of

23 Henrik Habberstad, The Anatomy of Account Planning, accessed on 10th November 2009

advertising’. The second possible reason could be too

much specialisation in the communications discipline. It

also made it difficult for the brands to decide between

right and wrong communications partners because

everybody was saying the same thing – ‘I am the

consumer-genius you need’. Therefore, brands needed a

neutral voice within the company (FIG 4, 5).23


‘It’s all in the brand, brand, brand’.


The example of the birth of marketing department scares me

a lot and forces me to think. The specialisation/disintegration

in the Advertising / Communications business forced clients

into having a marketing department, so maybe the same

thing could happen to planning. In recent years we have

added too much irrelevant material to the subject. There’s

just too much disintegration in planning – We have taken ‘P’

‘L’ ‘A’ ‘N’ ‘N’ ‘I’ ‘N’ ‘G’ out of planning and started to call it

whatever we like it to be. And still we complain, why don’t the

clients trust us?

The other reason that made King and Pollitt introduce

Brand

Research

ATL

BTL

MEDIA

Brand

Research

ATL

BTL

MEDIA

MARKETING DEPARTMENT

(Fig 4) (Fig 5)

planning as a department is obvious: the disintegration within

the advertising industry started to take media away from the

large advertising agencies and other jobs e.g. production

and printing. In order to recover from this situation, a common

bridge was needed immediately to help integrate the

systems and make things make sense for everyone i.e.

agency and client.


William Hesketh LeverBefore we advance with our discussion, we must understand

that the birth of planning in advertising doesn’t, by any

means, mean that advertising before Planning was not

planned. Good advertising has always been planned and

campaigns have always been post-rationalized. People like

James Webb Young, Claude Hopkins, Rosser Reeves, David

Ogilvy and Bill Bernbach were all superb planners. What was

new was the existence in an agency of a separate

department whose primary responsibility was to plan

advertising strategy and evaluate campaigns in

accordance with this.

The revolutionary Volkswagen ‘Think small’ campaign by Bill

24

24 Henrik Habberstad, The Anatomy of Account Planning, accessed on 10th November 2009, Page 425 Images courtesy of Google Images, available at http://mootee.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/01/11/1113.jpg, accessed on 10th November 2009

Bernbach is a good example to consider. The campaign

was delivered before the times of Planning. Yet it had all the

ingredients of planning that any brand could ever have. It

helped the company to develop a philosophy around the

brand and business whilst achieving all the business

objectives, both in terms of volume and value.



The agencies were the J Walter Thompson (now JWT) London

Office, and the new, very small agency Boase Massimi Pollitt (BMP),

now BMP DDB, also in London. It is also worth mentioning that the

two dominant personalities involved were JWT’s Stephen King and

the late Stanley Pollitt of BMP. Apart from a shared emphasis on the

consumer, the approach of these two agencies was very different,

representing two distinct ideologies. However, both were useful and

have had a profound influence on subsequent advertising

practice. Inevitably, there has been some dispute about which

came first, and which was the better.

Officially, the origin of account planning occurred at about thesame time (in the mid to late 1960s) in two of the leading Britishadvertising agencies, and was in each case the product of asingle, dominant thinker.

26 Henrik Habberstad, The Anatomy of Account Planning, accessed on 10th November 2009, Page 524 Images courtesy of Google Images, available at http://mootee.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/01/11/1113.jpg, accessed on 10th November 2009

26



The Thompson T Plan (today widely known as ‘The Planning

Cycle’ and recently strengthened by ‘The New JWT

Planning Model’ by Guy Murphy, Worldwide Planning

Director, JWT) was developed in early/mid 1960s. However,

in 1968 the agency realised the potential of The Thompson

T Plan working, and thus decided that the approach should

be integrated in agency thinking which gave a reason for

the birth of a new department (which was later named as

Account Planning). The reason for setting up Account

planning and the responsibilities of an Account planner, as

defined by Stephen King, were (FIG 6).


Okay – now briefly, let’s look at thedevelopment of account planning in JWT andBMP.


Account planning

Implications for the Agency Account Planner Responsibilities

Integrate Campaign and Media Objectives

Develop specialist skills in research and planning

Link technical planning and its information sources

Set objectives for creatives, media buying and scheduling, merchandising and help develop objectives into action

Plan commission and plan advertising research

Plan advertising experiments

Evaluate advertising and experiments

Present work to account groups and clients

FIG 6 – JWT ACCOUNT PLANNING

27 Extract from Stephen King’s Internally Circulated Document, 1968



Ultimately, this system became the reason for a new kind of working andteam setup. JWT created an integrated, new, three person team for eachof its accounts (fig 7).

Guy Murphy, Worldwide Planning Director at JWT, defines JWT

planning by quoting Stephen King “strategic imagination on

the grand scale”. By definition, this sounds impressive and

highly appealing. However, it seems as though this ideology

has been somewhat compromised in the formation of this

team structure, which has been in practice at JWT since 1968.

We suddenly realise that the job of a planner at JWT, who in

theory works as a grand business consultant for the client and

agency, is actually working as a logical connection between

creativity and sales.



However, this doesn’t mean at all that JWT didn’t benefit by the

introduction of this discipline. Of course, there are plenty of

campaigns where planning played a very significant and

important role and actually made things happen for both the

client and the agency. But unfortunately, the influence of

planning has never on anything beyond campaigns

Nevertheless, I wondered why the role of a planner has always

been limited to a communications problem solver? What

Stephen King introduced was a business consultant, a grand

strategist; someone with the ability to take a holistic view of

every single business process and then design solutions around

success. Someone who could see all the potential problems

and address them before they occurred, rather than simply

responding to problems as they occur.

As an industry, we are not currently encouraging the kind of

thinking that we need – every single brief has a very dominant

‘what’s the problem?’ part. Why are we always addressing

problems and why can’t we stop being so negative? I wonder

when will we start thinking of brand opportunities instead of

brand problems?

(Example of JWT Creative Brief)



There’s the potential ofwriting a complete book allabout the magic of Kingand the superiority of JWT,but I guess that’s not thepoint of this primer. So let’slook at the other side ofplanning – Pollitt’s way,which took place at a verysmall agency, BMP (nowDDB).

28 Henrik Habberstad, The Anatomy of Account Planning, accessed on 10th November 2009, Page 7

From 1965, Stanley Pollitt, then at Interpublic Group agency

Pritchard Wood & Partners in London, drew similar conclusions to his

contemporaries and friends at JWT. His legacy to the advertising

industry would be a new agency structure revolving around a set of

principles which also attracted the title ‘account planning’.

Pollitt’s ideas blossomed when, in 1968, he helped set up Boase

Massimi Pollitt and established what he called a ‘consumer

alliance’, openly adopting the phrase from JWT. The new account

planning department at BMP was quite different from that at the

London office of JWT. BMP was a tiny agency with no international

connections at that stage, but it was soon to develop a reputation

for good creative work, thanks to the efforts of the young and very

talented John Webster. The aim of BMP was to show that its

advertising was both accountable and effective. Martin Boase was

once quoted as saying that he did not accept that there had to be

a choice between strategically relevant and creatively original

advertising. This remains something of a mantra at BMP DDB.

Planners at BMP mainly got involved in the following principles:

- Advertising research, and often fieldwork.

- Working with creative teams and researching rough creative

ideas.

- Using consumer research to clarify the issues and enrich the

advertising development process.28



(Example of BMP DDB Creative Brief)

FIG 8 – NEW BMP TEAM STRUCTURE


To better understand the relationship between planning and communications, let’s study some brandcommunications. We’ll look at examples where agencies and brands used planning (intentionally orunintentionally) and benefited from it.

To conclude, BMP and JWT both realised the importance of planning in the advertising process and introduceda new department into their agencies. However, the role played by planners at BMP was more focused on thedevelopment of ‘creatives’ while JWT encouraged its planners to look at the bigger picture ‘The GrandConcepts’.

© All Rights Reserved Waqar RiazImage courtesy of Google Images, available at; http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&sa=1&q=charles+darwin&meta=&aq=f&oq=&start=0 accessed on 13-11-2009


It all started with “1984”, the

groundbreaking Super Bowl

commercial that introduced

the Macintosh and is still

talked about two and half

decades later. Director Ridley

Scott paid homage to

George Orwell’s classic tale

by creating a vision of a bleak

conformist world, in which a

lone heroine rebels against

the automatons by throwing

a hammer. The ad only ran

once, but it helped change

the world of computers, and

of advertising.

Big brother voice-over:

For today we celebrate thefirst glorious anniversary ofthe information purificationdirectives.

We have created, for the firsttime, in all history, a gardenof pure ideology, where eachworker may bloom securefrom the pests ofcontradictory and confusiontruths.

Our unification of thought ismore powerful a weapon thanany fleet or army on Earth.

We are one people.With one will.One resolve. One cause.

Our enemies shall talkthemselves to death. And wewill bury them with their ownconfusion.

We shall prevail.

Announcer voice-over:

On January 24th

Apple Computer willintroduce Macintosh.

And you’ll notice why 1984won’t be like “1984”.




William Hesketh LeverMacintosh, welcomed

people to a new age of

computers.

It first happened a little over two decades ago, on a Sunday afternoon

in January of 1984. no one expected it, which was part of what made it

so powerful. As millions of people sat before their television sets,

watching a football game and shifting their attention to snacks and

conversations when the commercials came on, something round

about the third quarter – a kind of tremor. But it was above ground and

right on the TV screen, in the form of a woman charging full speed,

wielding a hammer and preparing to fly. Once she did that a lot was

shattered the way people thought about big business and

entrepreneurial brands, the way people thought about computers,

and most of all the way people thought about a company named

Apple.

29 Robert Schnakenberg, Apple Computer, Inc.: 1984 campaign, Encyclopaedia of major marketing campaigns, Volume 1 200030 Warren Berger, Disruption Stories, 2004, Page 16

Long the pacesetter in the business machine sector, IBM had become the

company for Apple to beat. Before IBM entered the personal computer

market in 1982, Apple had more than 40 percent of the sales. By 1983 IBM

had gained first place, capturing 36 percent of the market, while Apple's

share had fallen to 25 percent. Industry analysts were not sure how Apple's

Macintosh would fare against IBM. The Macintosh could not run programs

written for IBM personal computers, and most new programs on the market

adhered to the standards set by IBM.

The Macintosh would be a test of Apple's ability to compete head-on with

IBM while remaining true to its own design criteria. The new product would

sell only if Apple could convince users that IBM compatibility was not all that

important when a big enough company was behind the computer. 29

30


William Hesketh LeverCommissioned to provide the advertising strategy for the Macintosh

launch was advertising agency Chiat/Day. The creative team

assembled in the ad shop's San Francisco office consisted of executive

vice president and creative director Lee Clow, vice president and

associate creative director Steve Hayden (who wrote the final spot),

vice president and associate creative director Brent Thomas (who

served as art director), and producer Richard O'Neill. These people

worked for more than a year—"65-hour weeks, without vacation,"

according to account director Paul Conhune—to produce what would

become one of the most talked-about spots in the history of

advertising. The spot, entitled "1984," began a six-day ran in January

1984 that concluded with its final airing during ABC's telecast of Super

Bowl XVIII. In foisting the elaborate "1984" on an unsuspecting public,

Apple was actually following a time-honoured rule of advertising—grab

the consumer's attention. The company was aware that whenever a

new product is introduced the first thing its maker must do is make

people aware of it and its brand name. The Apple ad did so in a

fashion quite innovative for its time.

Also part of the marketing strategy for the Macintosh was a partnership

with Microsoft, the Richmond, Washington-based personal computer

software company. On the same day Apple unveiled the computer,

Microsoft introduced five new programs for the Mac in ads in the Wall

Street Journal. "Apple's new baby has our best features," read the

copy. "It's called Macintosh. And it has our brains and a lot of our

personality." The one-time-only ad was created by Microsoft's ad

© All Rights Reserved Waqar RiazImage courtesy of Google Images, available at; http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&sa=1&q=mac+mouse&meta=&aq=f&oq=&start=0 accessed on 13-11-2009

31 Robert Schnakenberg, Apple Computer, Inc.: 1984 campaign, Encyclopaedia of major marketing campaigns, Volume 1 2000

31

agency, Keye/Donna/Pearlstein (KDP), which worked in tandem with

Chiat/Day on the project. The ads went on to describe the five new

programs that Microsoft planned to release for the Macintosh over the

first few months of 1984.

As a result of “1984”, early sales of the Macintosh were brisk. Industry

sources estimated that in the first six hours on the product's launch day

200,000 consumers visited the country's 1,500 Apple dealers. The dealers

Thirdly, the communication strategy for the new Macintosh, which

insured the presentation of the machine as different as the company

representing it and as innovative as the product itself. From the

selection of media channels to the inspiration of creative theme from

controversial novelist George Orwell, it was made sure that nothing

looked, sounded or felt like anything people had experienced before.

The most fascinating thing of the story of “1984” is the consistency in the

overall transaction of Macintosh for the Apple Business i.e. from the

making of the product to its actual sale. Of course,

the credit of Macintosh success goes to many minds,

however, if I have to select the ‘Grand Strategist’

among those, then that would be, without a doubt,

the inventor, the strategist, the thinker, Steve Jobs.

Jobs didn’t just think of the product proposition to be

the machine ‘For the rest of Us’, but also carefully

built the brand world around the idea. As a Grand

Strategist, Steve Jobs made sure that everything went according to the

product idea, his focus was on building a long-term personality for the

Apple, by delivering consistent, innovative solutions for people in need,

than merely executing what technology was offering at that time.

The point which differentiated Macintosh from the rest of the

competition was its ability to have a balance combination of logic

and creativity. Without a doubt, Steve Jobs realised that it was

possible to defy convention and put forth a completely original

vision, and to create the machine that was designed to adapt to

the user (instead of the other way around).

reported selling $3.5 million worth of Macs and

accepted cash deposits for another $1 million. In the

first two months of the new computer's availability,

an additional $8 million in deposits was taken.

Fast forward to 2009, and you can’t name a single

thing used in “1984” that didn’t have the rules of

planning embedded in it.

First of all, the product was designed with the user and their needs in

mind. Thanks to Steve Jobs, intensive planning work took place in

actually creating and designing the machine. It featured a fast

processor powered by a Motorola 68,000 chip and had 128,000

characters of memory. No computer jargon was needed to operate the

machine. To carry out a particular function, the user simply moved a

pointer, or mouse, to a symbol on the screen and pushed a button. The

screen could also be broken up into windows, thus allowing several

functions to be handled at the same time.

Secondly, the penetration strategy adopted by the product. A smart

move of including Microsoft as a technology partner, which insured the

superiority of the machine, both in its looks and working.



The point is...Businesses and Brands need deeper logic and morecreativity to succeed amidst complexity.



Peter Fisk, in his book Marketing Genius wrote, ‘the blurring of

boundaries, of virtual and real worlds, and fusion of previously

unrelated industries, is a daunting challenge but also a

fantastic opportunity’.

With a doubt, the modernisation within the technology

discipline introduced countless opportunities to the business

world. Today, it’s possible for any brand to work with or against

any other. It’s no more about finding what the technology has

done, instead it’s about realising the potential it has for us. It’s

an open book, easily accessible to those who have the

dreams, brains, confidence and persistence to benefit from it.

Very similar to this was the realisation of Larry Page and Sergey

Brin back in 1995, when they created Google in their Stanford

University bedroom. What Google did was not a one off magic

performance, but a simply a case of focusing the business

around people, and not the other way around.

Within five years, Google had started to deal with 100 million

internet searches every day, and made Brin and Page multi-

billionaires in less than a decade. Similar to this is what Steve

Jobs did for the Apple brand. For Google their vision is simple, ‘

to be the perfect search engine’ or, ‘one that understands

exactly what you mean and gives you back exactly what you

want’.

In Google doing what it does, it truly understands the following;

• Customers: "They only want what they want."

• Advertisers: "They want low cost and low risk."

• Media/Publishers: "They need to engage customers and they

want to do so at a low cost and with low risk.

In a traditional world, for each to get what it wants, someone

has to sacrifice. If a publisher wants to make more money, an

advertiser has to pay more. If an advertiser wants lower risk and

still get out in front of customers, the customers may not get

what they want.

However, this is where Google differentiates itself from the rest

of the world, by coming up with a ‘Grand Solution’, something

which only the brains of Page and Brin could realise. In the

case of Google, the searcher types in a query; advertisers, in

advance, bid on a click because they assume a click

translates to interest; and, with each click, publishers

presumably make money. This model of working is something

all three want i.e. (People, Advertiser, Publisher): Something is

exchanged at a price that's market-determined.

© All Rights Reserved Waqar RiazImage courtesy of Google Images, available at; http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&sa=1&q=google+logo&meta=&aq=f&oq=&start=0 on 28-11-2009


In reality, Google’s (search) model of working is extremely

simple (FIG 9). Google as a brand understands the value of

keeping the audience ‘on your side’. In all its operations what

Google sells ultimately is, ‘You’. You, ‘the audience’ that every

brand and publisher is looking for and Google makes it sure that

everybody gets what they really want. In simple words, Google

is the web’s library: archival, organized and oriented around

research.

Now you must be thinking, what on earth this all has to do with

Communications Planning? But if you look deeper, you will find

Google as the champion of planning. As planners we stand for

‘champions of people’, we celebrate the fact that it’s the end

user whose voice is heard and listened, at all levels in designing

a business proposition.

In whatever Google does, it’s always the ‘searcher’ who is given

utmost priority. Whether it’s an advertiser using Google

AdWords to promote its products and services on the web with

targeted advertising, or a website manager taking advantage

of the Google AdSense programme to deliver ads relevant to

the content of his website, the whole Google system works

around customer democracy. Google search rankings are

determined by the most popular sites amongst global internet

users, assisted by those sites that encourage more open

networking, linking one to another.

It’s no accident that Google’s New York office has more

humans than servers. This conviction in the power of people is

also truly reflected in how Google creates awareness for its

brand. Until recently, no one had experienced a traditional

piece of advertising from Google.

DIGITAL/ONLINE RESOURCES OF THE

WORLDGOOGLEUSER RECEIVING RELEVANT CONTENT

PUBLISHER ADVERTISER

FIG 9 – Google Search Model of Working


William Hesketh LeverIn terms of its value, Google stands at number one in the world,

above Coca Cola, Microsoft and many others who spend

millions of advertising dollars in creating their brand value. But

for Google, the case is different. Anyone who uses Google

products automatically becomes its advocate. And if my

memory serves me correctly, then it wasn’t very different when

Google revolutionised the e-mail world with the launch of

Gmail.

Okay, so how do you launch a global communications

campaign for a global brand, that caters to all cultures and

markets, whilst using the power of single idea and then

broadcast it to millions of people – with just one condition , that

you don’t have any advertising budget? It sounds

ridiculous, I know – tell it to an advertising agency and they will

think you are crazy, and would like to stay as far from you as

possible.

But then try asking Google, and they might tell you how

successfully they did it when they thought of promoting Gmail.

The month was August, the date was 28th and the year was

2007. This was the day when Google broadcasted their Behind

the Scenes video on YouTube, which to date has received

5,634,302 views – not really a bad reach for an advertising piece

that lasts for two minutes and nineteen seconds. The video was

created by Gmail lovers from all around the world based on a

simple communications idea, ‘Help us imagine how an email

message travels around the world’. The execution platform was

© All Rights Reserved Waqar RiazImage courtesy of Google Images, available at; http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&sa=1&q=top+10+brands&meta=&aq=f&oq=&start=0 on 28-11-2009




even simpler, ‘Take a look at the collaborative video we started, and

then film what happens next. We'll rotate a selection of the clips we

receive on this page, and add the best ones to the video. The final

video will be featured on the Gmail homepage and seen by users

worldwide’. And there it was – all the world out with their video

cameras and letter ‘M’. Hats off to the thinking of Gmail Labs.

If we look at this activity from an advertising effectiveness point of view,

then we come across some amazing results. Thousands of blogs across

the world wide web, started to talk about Gmail’s clever stunt – it

reached a worldwide audience of millions, and represented the

multicultural, global outlook of the brand in its communications. All this

at apparently zero media, production and advertising budget.

It is indeed a very innovative case study, but also a bit scary at the

same time. If advertisers are able to produce such effective

communications on their own and then have the ability to execute

them successfully, then I wonder what need for an advertising/media

partner will they have in the future?

So, what was actually that thing which made people so interested in

doing what they did for Gmail? In my opinion a good product is a

‘product’ of focused thinking. Thinking, that is planned and actually

brings benefit to the people, is more effective for any business, than

selling people dreams and hopes, without a tangible benefit. Google

doesn’t sell dreams – it simply brings utility to all of us. And that’s why we

believe that whatever it does, it’s doing for our benefit.

The product ‘Gmail’ has been bombarded with utility, whilst using a

very commercially viable model – which again satisfies the three point

criteria that we discussed for Google Search earlier i.e.

• Customers: They only want what they want.

• Advertisers: They want low cost and low risk.

• Media/Publishers: They need to engage customers and they want to

do so at a low cost and with low risk.

The advertising within emails is targeted and focused, and there won’t

be any advertising displayed that is not relevant to the email text.

© All Rights Reserved Waqar RiazImage accessed through taking screenshot of personal email account – accessed on 22-11-2009


Communications, on the other hand, is the end result of brand thinking,

and there’s no way on earth that can make that end result relevant to

what people are looking for, unless the business isn’t designed to work

in the way that people think.

I will discuss this point in detail in the later chapters. Nevertheless, the

challenge for the future brand planners is not fixing the creative brief.

Rather, it’s thinking of ways to increase the utility of a brand. This opens

a whole new paradigm for all of us because when we as brand

partners start thinking neutrally towards brands then the situations will

also demand to enhance our knowledge beyond traditional

approaches of working relationships. From supply-chain issues to retail

innovation, from financial strategies to product innovation, we must

prepare ourselves to deal with everything and anything. As strategists,

we should only have one objective – to make successful brands by

integrating our thinking across all processes, markets and channels of

business.

Google doesn’t say how many Gmail users there are, but comScore

estimates unique monthly visitors. According to the latest stats, the

number of people visiting Gmail grew 43 percent in 2008 to 29.6 million.

As Planners, it’s important for us to understand that we are moving

away from an era of monitoring to an age of engagement. If we don’t

realise this and start showing it in what we do, then soon brands might

not have any need for us as we now know that some brands are

actually very good in planning total solutions for their businesses.

Without a doubt, every planner must indulge in learning how to analyse

data about brands, the ways to use research usefully and how to bring

human insight into the communications process. However, if one stops

here, then everyone’s in trouble, because as a Grand Strategist, our job

is not to just create useful digital strategies, guide the creatives and

agency in developing television commercials, or introduce a cool way

to communicate over the mobile; most importantly it is to guide the

total brand experience that an audience gets from a company.

32 TechCrucnh, available at; http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/14/gmail-grew-43-percent-last-year-aol-mail-and-hotmail-need-to-start-worrying/, accessed on 20-11-2009

32


Brand Planning (digital,

traditional, direct or whatever)

should enhance your offering

appropriately, and not simply

be there as unnecessary

glitter.THE

POIN

T IS.

..


CHAPTER FOUR A PLANNING CASE & OTHERS

William Hesketh LeverEverybody is different, and that’s what keeps us all competitive

towards each other. It’s due to this difference, that we are able to

prove things right or wrong, better or worse. Similarly, different

groups and agencies have different points of view on different

topics. In the case of planning, this manifests itself in different

ways.

We studied the concepts of planning and its models.Now it’s time

for some great planning stories. Tales about the use of planning

amongst various communication agencies. The idea for the next

few pages is simple, ‘integrate what’s disconnected’.

Kevin Roberts, Worldwide CEO, Saatchi & Saatchi once said, ‘You

only get something new when you do something different’. So

true, almost. The thing is we don’t always need new. In

33 Image available at http://ohheyandreeuh.tumblr.com, accessed on 20th November 2009

fact, we need old things more– things which have sustained

evolution whilst enhancing utility, usability and value. For example,

laptops are big and net books are handy. They both belong to the

computer family. 2G is good, but 3G iPhones are perfect. Once

again, they share the same family (Apple).

There are thousands of examples of brands and products out there,

which are successful – not because they keep doing new things,

but because they never stop evolving their thinking.

The next few pages will help us understand how planning in

advertising is considered in JWT (in detail) and in some other

advertising agencies (briefly). We will then examine the definition

that they apply to it, and how they implement it.



ACCOUNT PLANNING



At JWT, Planning is not just limited to analysing focus groups,

writing creative briefs or studying research reports. They often try

to jump out from their traditional boundaries, to explore the

benefits that Planning as a subject can offer.

In 2007, when Guy Murphy, joined JWT as a Worldwide Planning

Director, planning at JWT went through a huge change. In

principle, for the first time in industry, JWT introduced a central

approach to planning, with the launch of JWT planning blog. The

blog serves as a central point for all planning communications,

which then helps planners to think at a much broader level.

According to Guy Murphy, the purpose of the blog is, ‘to provide

a greater sense of community and learning amongst our Planners.

It will contain a mixture of news, comment and opinion from me

about JWT Planning’.

At JWT, Planning has truly evolved with a global outlook in mind

which seems an appropriate step for a giant like JWT to take.

Stephen King’s ideas on planning are still very much alive. The

focus on theory and knowledge sharing is extremely critical at JWT

for the grooming of its planners. With these thoughts in mind, JWT

further launched the Stephen King Library, which is an online

portal for all the best practices, brand books, planning case

studies, planning models, pitch presentations, planning theories

and much more from accross the JWT world.



34 Steohen King, JWT Planning Guide, 1974, page 18

34


ARE WE GETTING THERE? Does the advertising achieve its

objectives and is the result effective? If an area test, which area

did it better?

In theory, the areas, Stephen King explained for the development

of planning thoughts, seems to be very effective, and we will

further explain it why?

The point which excites me about this process is that its not a

method, but a series of questions, which allows you to think

beyond limitations. The other interesting element is the

combination of logic and imagination – every question

encourages the person on task, to think both logically; using data

research etc. and also to think creatively; imagining the possible

myths the brand can have, to offer something new, interesting

and rewarding.

The approach is more like the one used by the philosophers,

scientists and mathematicians. Have you ever questioned how

Einstein came up with E=MC . I am certain that it was definitely

not a magical predetermined step-by-step logical method which

he used to came up with that, as if this were to be true, then

certainly he won’t be needing all the time he used, or someone

else would have done it, using that same step-by-step method.

In my opinion, most scientists, mathematicians, architects and

physicians, have certain feelings in advance about how things

work, or how they should work. That’s the area where they use

2

In recent chapters we have touched upon the area regarding the

team structure at JWT with Account Planner in mind i.e. Account

Director, Account Planner and Creative Head. We have also

discussed that how carefully JWT’s Planning thinking is web around

‘T’ Plan or Planning cycle, which helps JWT to materialises its

thinking around five key Questions. In explaining the role each

question plays, Stephen King, writes in one of his essays, ‘one way

to provide disciplines and controls for our advertising planning is to

establish a regular sequence of work and thought’. In principle,

JWT Planning revolves around five thoughts, which form the basis

for any further planning action;

WHERE ARE WE? Where does our brand stand now (compared to

competitors) in the market and in people’s minds? If a new brand,

where do the competitors or substitutes stand? Where have we

come from? In what direction are we going?

WHY ARE WE THERE? What factors have contributed to our

brand’s strengths and weaknesses?

WHERE COULD WE BE? Realistically, what could be the position of

our brand in the future? Is it a new position or maintaining our

present position?

HOW COULD WE GET THERE? What changes to what elements in

the marketing mix could achieve it? What role and objectives for

advertising? What campaigns could achieve the advertising

objectives?


creativity. However, they always tend to, when presenting the results of creativity, to neaten what actually happened and to suggest that it

has been a sensible, logical, step-by-step process – because that seems a more responsible and professional way of working.

In analysing the key questions coined by Stephen King, the chart below (FIG 8) clearly shows the benefits this combination of creativity and

logic brings to the advertising process.

FIG 8 – Benefits of the Planning Cycle

Planning Cycle

Feedback

Continuous Cycle

FeedbackCreatively Free ComprehensiveDisciplined

Clear Roles for Research

A True Marketing Mix (Medium Free)


In order to better understand the five

commandments, it’s worth further exploring

the king’s questions. This time, we will look at

each question from the eyes of Stephen.

FIG 9 – Planning Cycle – Process Explained

Planning Cycle

Where are we?

Let’s investigate the thoughts he had in

mind for this process – the thoughts which

removed the barriers between creativity

and logic and opened a new era of

advertising.

Buying Patterns: Who buys the product type? Howoften? What sort of buying decision (compulsive V.Impulsive V. Routine)? Who influences buying? How andwhere bought?

Using Patterns: what are buyers’ / users’ needs wants,desires in product type? What motivates them to buy /use? What makes them discriminate between brands?What sort of language do they use about the producttype? What are the substitutes for the product type?What system of behaviour does the product type fit into(e.g. Washing powders into a clothes cleaning system)?

Background: Information as acontext in which to look atbrand’s competitive situation

Market Size & Nature: How big? Growing how fast?Containing how many brands? What sort ofmanufacturers? How profitable? Rate of technologicalChange/ External Issues (e.g. Legal, consumerist)?

Using Patterns: Who uses the product type? How? Forwhat purposes? How often? Relationship betweenbuyer and user (e.g. Giver/receiver, server/eater)?

Company Position: What are companies strengths inproduction/Services, Finance, R & D, Marketing?Weaknesses? Policies, hopes fears, aspirations?Constrictions (e.g. For individual brands in a multi-brandcompany)? Company style, personality? How do all thesecompare with key competitors?

Comparative Map: Against the background,check how the brand stands; in relation toselected competitors and substitutes

The Competition: Who really is the competition? Has itchanged? Is it major brands, private label, substitutes,social change, apathy? Who are the key competitorsfor the purpose of this analysis?

Marketing activities: Breakdown of marketingexpenditure? Sales force, size, character, methods?Advertising expenditure, media mix, creative content?Packaging structure, style, naming policy and practice?Direct V. Indirect contribution of advertising? Promotions,expenditure and type? How do our activities differ fromkey competitors?

Brand’s Market Position: Sales? Share? Distribution, typeand level? Prices, pricing policy? Number of rangevariants, line extensions? Regional variations?

Product: What does the product do? What is it madeof? What services it offers? Laboratory analysis v.Competitors?

Buyers’ / Users’ responses: How do people respond to our brand? Sensually –what do they notice about our brand, when buying, using, serving? Rationally– what do they beleive about our brand, its purpose, performance, contents?Emotionally – what do they feel towards our brand, its style and personality?How do all these responses differ from responses of competitive brands?

Market Size and nature: Shop Audit, consumer panel,published statistics, company reports.

Using patterns: ad hoc surveys, consumer diaries

Answering the Questions: the questions have to beconsidered in relation to key competitors, whether hardinformation is available or not

Research: The nature of contribution of research isdictated by the questions themselves. For instance;

Buying Patterns: Consumer panels, ad hoc surveys,observation research

Motivations: Large scale attitude research, plus smallscale qualitative research

Buyers/Users:: who buys, uses, knows about our brand?How do they differ from buyers / users of other brands?How often, how, where, under whose influence do theybuy our brand differently from other brands?

Buyers’ / Users’ responses:

Sensual: product tests (blind and named)Rational: Structured attitude researchEmotional: large and small scale attitude

and motivation research, brandpersonality research


Planning Cycle

Why are we there?

Influencers: Which of the factors – either

under the business’s control or not – have

led to our brand’s and competitor’s

positions? Which are the most important

factors? How have they inter-related?

How has the balance between them

changed over time?

Answering the questions: There are two ways of

tackling the questions on the left and analysing the

most important factors affecting the brand’s current

position.

Possible causes:

-Products / services: formulation or

performance

-Packaging / design: structure, sizes, style

- naming: type, style

-Advertising: amount, media mix, content

-Distribution and display: amount, type, style

- Pricing

- Promotions: amount, type, style

- word of mouth: retailers or consumers

-Maker’s / providers policies or reputation:

real, assumed, influence of other brands

- history: past reputation (e.g. Orientation as

me-too brand)

-Competitors: activity or inactivity

- attitudes: gap between reputation and

reality

-Other associations: times, places,

surroundings, accomplishments

- Any combination of the above

Examination of trend data:

-What factors appear to have moved parallel with

success and failure?

- did our increase in market share coincide with the

change in our brand’s formulation or price?

- Is there a relationship between share of advertising

and share of market?

-Does the belief in one particular attribute of the

brand seem to go up and down in line with brand

share?

-What seem to have been the results over time of

specific marketing experiments?

Internal analysis of current data:

-What specific beliefs about our brand do the most

committed users or the most generally favourable

people have which the other do not?

- Do people who buy it at less price buy less

frequently than those who buy it at cut price?

- Are our current sales related to distribution levels?

- What do people think are the most important

factors that affect their buying?


Planning Cycle

Where could we be?

This stage requires the first important act ofimagination. It starts with all the facts and the analysisof causes. It ends with a first statement of a proposedstrategy for the brand and a new or modified brandpositioning. But it’s not a deductive process. Thestrategy does not spring logically and inevitably formthe data. No analysis will directly reveal opportunities.

Key questions:

The basic question is: where could the brand be inrelation to its key competitors in the future? In exactlythose terms that were analysed at the Where arewe? Stage. The word “could” implies not only Wherewould it be desirable and profitable to be? But alsowhere is it realistic to expect to be? And when?

This gives birth to three main terms in which theanswer should be found:

Position in Market:

Where could our brand be in the market? Marketleader? Second brand? What share? In a differentsector? Opening up a new sector? More profitable?Less reliant on price cuts and promotions?

Buyers / Users: could it get existing users to use more?How much more? New users into the product field?How many? Hold onto existing users? Draw peopleaway from specific brands? Regain former users? Getpeople to use for a new purpose? Could people beattracted who are currently unaware of or indifferentto the brand? Which people?

Responses: where could the brand be repositioned inrelation to competitors? What difference in theresponses to the brand could we get? What mightpeople notice in the brand different from now? Whatnew beliefs might the hold about it? What newfeelings might they have towards it?

Role of Research:

Research is used in two entirely different ways at thisstage.

Research as Stimulus:

Any reasonable rich and detailedaudience/customer/buyer/user research (such as thequantitative research used up to this point) can be ameans of setting up a train of thought. It is mainly amatter of the frame of mind with which oneapproaches it – ideally with openness, curiosity andoptimism.

Research as hypothetico-deductive process::

This process evaluates the hypothesis of the brandstrategy against the research already done. Is thereanything in the previous research – buying patterns,brand loyalties, product experience, for instance –which invalidates the hypothesis? If, say, all theprevious research shows that no brand in the markethas ever had more than 10% of its users as solus users,then a brand strategy based on getting 60% of ourbrand’s users to use no other is very unlikely to bevalid.


Planning Cycle

How could we get there?

This stage involves the main part of the creative workin an agency and most of the detailed planning. It isa continuous process of development, learning andadjustment. It gradually takes rough ideas to finishedform. There are four main elements in it.

1. Assessment of the means of achieving theobjectives: the basic question at this stage asks whatchanges are needed in the various stimuli under thebusiness’s control in order to get the proposed newresponses from the proposed target group?The changes could be in:Product – formulation, size, added features orservicesDesign – Structure, size or stylePriceDistribution and display – methods, type, style,amountAdvertising – expenditure, media, creative treatmentPromotions – expenditure, type, style

2. Deciding the role of advertisingand the creative strategy:

Direct Role: in the newcircumstances, at what stage inthe thinking about/ choosing/deciding/ buying/ using spectrumis advertising intended to have adirect effect? And how importantis this effect in relation to theindirect effect?

Indirect Role: which responses tothe brand from which peopleshould be changed in what wayby advertising in order tocontribute to the total brandstrategy.

3. Developing campaigns:The end product of this stage isadvertisements and media plans;this is where specific campaignsbegin to emerge.

Creative: it’s the true creativeprocess of starting with a definedchallenge: developing theories,ideas, hypothesis; taking them toexperiment form; judging themagainst known data; trying toinvalidate then by testing;modifying the ideas, and onthrough the cycle again.

Media: The media selection(inter-media) decision is in factpart of the whole campaignplanning process, and is affectedby three main factors;

- Creative/Media relationships- Coverage- Cost, size, length v. frequency

4. FeedbackThroughout this process ofcreative development there iscontinual modification, based oncommon sense, judgement andresearch. In principal there aretwo sorts of feedback;- Modifying the objectives, ifnecessary.- Aiming to invalidate the latestexperimental work against theobjectivesThe attempt to invalidate comesfrom both judgement and fromresearch.

Judgement: this mainly comesfrom;

- Account group as a whole.- People outside the project

group, who still haveknowledge of the brand andits objectives; most valuably,review boards.

Research: this is also used inmainly two ways;

- To stimulate ideas, particularlythrough creative people takingpart in or observing groupdiscussions among membersof the target group.

- To cast doubt on or invalidatean advertising idea.


Planning Cycle

Are we getting there?

The final stage in planning is really an extension of the

feedback process, which provides new information

for the cycle to begin all over again.

As campaigns are taken to a finished stage, with

detailed material produced and media schedules

built, there is a review of whether the advertising is

helping to achieve the brand’s objectives, before it

appears.

Then over a longer period, there is measurement of

how the marketing mix as a whole is performing, in

the market place.

1. Pre-Exposure:

In trying to answer “Are we getting there?” before the

campaign appears, what we would ideally like is to

measure accurately whether it will succeed in

achieving the objectives we have set for it.

Unfortunately, there are several reasons why this will

never be possible.

What we can do instead, is expose members of the

target group (in inevitably artificial circumstances) to

advertisements, and make the best judgements that

we can of the way in which they respond to them.

Research Questions:

- As a result of seeing these advertisements, did the

target group notice what we wanted them to notice

about the brand?

- Do they now believe what we wanted them to

believe?

- Do they feel towards the brand what we wanted them

to feel?

1. Post-Exposure:

After the campaign is exposed to public, what we

need is data directly comparable to that used in

answering the first question – Where are we? That is, a

new comparative map of the position of all brands in

the market and in people’s minds

Research Questions:

-Have the people that we specified changed their

responses to the brand as we hoped they would?

- If they have, has this resulted in the changes in

behaviour aimed at in the marketing plan?

- If the responses have changed but the behaviour has

not, are our brand and advertising strategies wrong?

- If the responses have not changed, is it because the

objectives were too ambitious?

- Or is it because the advertising is ineffective?

- Have we allowed long enough?

-If the advertising seems to have worked, precisely how

has it worked?

- What is the model of the process in the market?

- How does it relate to the role we set for advertising?

I think that it would be wise for me to stop here for the purpose of

highlighting some of the critical roles of a Grand Strategist.

Stephen King has already clearly explained and established the

important the role of a planner, and how it should be considered.

Stephen King thinking across the JWT network is something which

hasn’t truly been implemented. However, the focus of JWT on

planning and the value that it has given to subject since 1969

remains unchanged .

As time passes, it brings new challenges and evolution in

approaches. This occurred at JWT earlier this year when its London

office launched the new JWT Planning Model. Keeping in mind

the importance of Global ideas, channel opportunities and local

implementations.

In principle, the new JWT Planning Model is a simplified version of

King’s thinking. However, at the same time, the model emphasises

a lot on the importance of creative thinking in strategic processes.

The aim of the model is to bring back JWT’s leadership positioning

in brand building. Guy Murphy puts it, ‘We must regain our

leadership position in brand thinking and brand building’.

The highlights of the model are its focus on big thinking, ideas that

can inspire execution in many channels and provide coherence

to all the communications and markets, brand ideas versus

campaign ideas, and stimulus versus Response.

To me, the most interesting bit of the new planning model is its

linking with the creative development process. As it uses the

‘scorecard’ system to validate its ideas. The scorecard system was

launched in 2005, to help create better creative output, by

judging the initial creative work against a series of statements

ranging from one to ten. The system was developed in

accordance with JWT’s ‘Time is the New Currency’ philosophy

and positions JWT as agency which creates ideas that people

want to spend time with.

Image courtesy of Google Images, available at; http://www.google.co.uk/imghp?hl= on 28-11-2009



JWT Planning

James Webb Young – 5 step

process

Idea Card

Discoveries

FIG 10 – Planning at JWT© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz

Despite of JWT’s efforts to make planning central to how they approach their business, sadly, it’s still very much fragmented. There are countless

tools, methods and approaches used by JWT planners across the world – there are more than 30 different formats just for their creative brief only.

We can still see JWT struggling with planning and its grand implementations. In explaining how JWT goes about its planning, Guy Murphy adds;

‘No clear or consistent answer to that at the moment.

Answers vary by country, office, and account. Worst case, we go about our Planning in the way our specific Client goes about their Planning.

Some will remember Thompson Way and Thompson Total Branding. Truly excellent systems of Planning for but now sporadically used.

So we have a fragmented and splintered answer’.

Despite the fact that how many tools, methods, approaches JWT uses for its planning worldwide (Fig 10), one thing is still very much there, and that

is its determination and passion for giving the true meaning to planning, as defined by King. I believe the ‘New JWT Planning Model’ will bring the

missing integration into the thinking. However, it’s a different story, whether the value of share price, financial pressures or senior level

management lets it do that or not.


Image courtesy of Google Images, available at; http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=bbh&gbv=2&aq=f&oq= accessed on 28-11-2009



Of course, being one of the pioneers of Account Planning, JWT has a strong and long association with planning. However, at the same time, it

doesn’t necessarily means that this is the only way of how planners work, across the industry. Every agency has developed a slightly different

definition of planning to those of Stephen King and Stanley Pollitt.

For example, though at Bartle Bogle Hegarty, Planners work in a similar fashion to those at JWT. However, for BBH the skill set a planner should have is

apparently more like this:

BBH

BBH Planner

FIG 11 – Planners at BBH

Research:

Appreciating the

pros and cons of

research as a tool

Drive:

Continually leading

the debate

Strategic vision:

Appreciating the

central attributes,

definitions and

behaviour of client

brands, helping the

account team

understand them and

aiding the formation of

brand strategy.

Knowledge:

Understanding the

layout of the market, a

brand’s (and its

competitors’) position

within it and the state

of distribution and

trade relations. The

account team must be

made aware of any

information which

could improve

performance.

Relationship

management:

Generating confidence in

colleagues and keeping

the account team

motivated.

Creative vision:

Improving the likelihood of producing high-

quality advertising by focusing the account

team’s thinking so that it is relevant and

useful to the creatives. Planners must be

creative catalysts.

Communication:

Conveying ideas clearly,

constructing reasoned and

well-supported arguments

and listening to others.

36 Figure 11, The Anatomy of Account Planning, Henrik Habberstad, Page 29



Another interesting element of Planning at BBH, is its integration into the complete agency system. For example, the UK chairman of BHH, Jim

Carroll, is from planning background. Planning involved at the management level, clearly shows that how important, planners are considered

across BBH network.

The point which inspires me about Planning at BBH, is the definition it enjoys. For BBH, planning at a senior level, actually contributes in the

development of the agency structure. And it’s due to planning and its grand implementations, that BBH has managed to develop such a strong

independent communications network (FIG 12). Despite of the agreement fact, BBH is also investing in opening specialised fields of planning, and

the recent efforts include Engagement Planning, Innovation Planning. For example, in order to reach effective solutions in innovation planning, BBH

uses ‘Brand Compass (Fig 13)’.

37 Figure 12, WAQAR RIAZ presentation to Jim Carroll, Chairman BBH UK, March 2009

ENGAGEMENT PLANNING

BBH AGENCY BBH RETAIL ZAG

INNOVATION PLANNING

BBH LABSBBH SECOND LIFE LEAP MUSIC

FIG 12 – BBH Grand Structure

FIG 13 – Brand Compass

Brand Idea




For TBWA, Planning is all about creating stories, challenging the norms

and triggering positive “disruptions” for the brands. Warren Berger, in

his book, Disruption Stories says, ‘The story of a brand should never

become stale or static. It should not dwell only on heritage and history

and it should not repeat itself. Unfortunately, brand advertising is often

used in a limited manner – to reinforce the status quo. But the reality is

that every brand is in transition, or should be. As the world changes,

and as markets change, and companies change, so, too must a

brand and its “story” must evolve. From time to time, the very essence

and meaning of a brand must be re-examined, in the context of a

changing world. Everything must be questioned, all assumptions

challenged. After which, the brand’s story must be told – with new

twists and unexpected turns. If the story is big enough, important

enough, groundbreaking, relevant and powerful enough, then the

result can be... Disruption’.

In further explaining how disruption occurs, Berger writes, ‘Disruption

does not result from mere slogans, nor from anything that doesn’t

resonate as true. We found that what was required was harder and

more complex: it involved helping a client to unearth and rediscover

the essence of their own company and brand, the deep, hidden

truths that make it unique’.

I can’t help myself from appreciating TBWA for not keeping all this

‘Disruptive’ philosophy close to their chests. In fact, if you are smart

enough, you can find the information on Disruption, the tools TBWA

uses to master it, and a lot more, by simply Googling the right words.

38

38 Disruption Stories, Warren Berger, 2004, Disruption Introduction


For example, ‘Connections Zone’ is one tool through which disruption

can be achieved. It also gives birth to ‘Connections Planning’ a term

coined by TBWA. According to TBWA, ‘connections planning

determines the most relevant, cost-effective and advantageous

points of contact between clients and their existing or potential

customers; then arrives at the best possible mix, use, and order of

connections to change consumer behaviour to achieve the agreed

business objectives, through the use of results-based, multidisciplinary

planning’.

In defining connections planning, TBWA puts it as, ‘a new discipline,

designed to inspire, amplify and leverage total communication

ideas’.

In a broader sense, Connections Planning informs the selection, use

and construction for clients’ communications across all marketing

disciplines: public relations, direct marketing, advertising, action

marketing (events and promotions), design and original content.

In essence, Connections Planning is the combination of scientific

calculation, creative deduction, and technological expertise to arrive

at the best possible mix, use, and construction of connections to

achieve the client’s business objectives across all target audiences.

To achieve the desired disruptions, by establishing useful connections,

TBWA practices several methods i.e. Connections Wheel, Brand Audit

Wheel, Brand Audit Clock, Customer Relationship Migration Matrix,

Connections Scenario and Persuasion Sequence.

For example, Connections Wheel is used as a symbol of connections

planning theory. It represents all connections that communicate a

brand’s reputation, relationship or identity to the consumer.

CONNECTIONS ZONE

39

39 Connection Wheel, Image available at; http://brandpalace.typepad.com; accessed on 25-11-09



I guess, we can spend ages in discussing planning definitions and

different methods, in use at various advertising agencies. However, I

believe, that would be getting off the track, so, let’s rewind... and go

back to what we were discussing in the earlier pages. Let’s open our

eyes and ears to the philosophy of King and Pollitt, who (despite of

their differences in the approaches they took) realised the

importance of planning in communications design. However, in

recent years, we as an industry, totally split their thinking and the

meanings of their efforts. We imagined, as if, it was a cool thing to

introduce something new back in 1960’s, and started to put our

efforts on creating new forms of planning, rather than understanding

what King and Pollitt were trying to communicate.

In recent chapters we have discussed, how successful planning was

for other industries (i.e. Pyramid of Djoser, World War II, lever Brothers

‘Unilever’ 1880s – 1920s ) and how it helped them in gaining a

competitive advantage. However, Unfortunately, today we are

repeating the same mistakes, which were part of communications

curriculum back in 1930s – we are not taking planning as seriously as

we should. It’s time that we stop confusing our clients with a new

name for Planning everyday, and stick to the original ‘Planning’.

In its true essence, whatever we have discussed about planning from

the point of views of various agencies, are the fundamental standards

of planning. Without a doubt, planning should deliver engagement,

connections, values, research, creativity, innovation , disruption and a

lot more.

However, every day we are trying to come up with a new form of

planning. I fear a lot about the future of planning. It’s time for us to stop

thinking of planning, as merely a selling tool, which sounds cool in pitch

presentations, and take it as a subject which can bring us a whole new

world of opportunities across all communication disciplines.

It’s time for us to look at planning from the eyes of Clausewitz,

Imoteph, William Lever and Steve Jobs. And that is; designing business

processes around the value of planning and not inserting parts of

planning within individual business disciplines. Planning in its true form,

must answer all the business challenges and therefore create a

sustainable connection between people, organisations, markets and

channels. Unfortunately, this is not what’s happening today and Figure

14 clearly shows how unkindly we have disabled the subject to work

ineffectively.Images sourced from the earlier part of the dissertation



FIG 14 – The Disintegrated Model of Planning



I will end this chapter with a classic example of disintegration by Stephen king and leave the rest for you to imagine.

In his essay ‘What is a Brand?’ King wrote; ‘Sharpening up on planning methods is going to be necessary too in improving a going brand or developing a new one. It can be like the sad parable of the man rich enough to have an entirely custom-made car. He decided that nothing but the best would do, so he went to the best people regardless of expense. He himself was very keen on spending up the M6, so he went to Jaguar for the engine.

He knew his wife would found parking a bit of problem, so Fiat seemed the best people to go for the chassis.

And he felt that Volvo could deal best with accommodating his three children, two retrievers, au pair girl and beagle in the back; so they did the bodywork.

The curious thing was that when the car was assembled, it never seemed to work very well. And when in the end he decided to sell it, he had quite a lot of trouble of finding a buyer at all’.

Image courtesy and story of Stephen King, available inside the chapter What is a Brand - 1971?


‘Planning’ is a universalsubject (by nature). Itworks best when its valueis delivered at the heartof a business and itsoutcomes are not treatedindividually for differentbusiness scenarios.

THE POIN

T IS...


CHAPTER FIVEIDENTIFYING THE OPPORTUNITY

If you have managed to getsomeone’s attention you can’tafford to waste it.

Simon Andrews

And believe you me, I am certainly not planning to lose

yours (if I still have it). Before we move forward, I want to

admit something – a realisation on my part, or a success of

our collaborative effort;

From researching through all these great inspiration stories

and the working style of extraordinary people, I think I am

beginning to learn something new. For example, when I

mapped out the content chart for this primer, I categorised

this chapter as “Identification of the Problem”. However,

having travelled on this research journey, I realised it’s not

worth looking at the world with evil eyes. Instead, it’s worth

exploring potential for opportunity in everything. For now, I

know for certain that every situation (good or bad) brings a

world of exciting opportunities with it. Usually these

opportunities are ordinary changes / modifications /

improvements to things and concepts we already have.

However, sometimes the next big thing is the result of a

change, that is so small in scale and implementation that

we tend not to believe it, except those who have the

brains and the desire to keep challenging the world with

‘simple logic’ like Lever, Jobs, King and Serge.

The reason for taking you through this chapter is extremely

critical, as it is here that we will make an attempt to

understand the opportunity that the current situation of

communications offers us for the subject, ‘Planning’.

“ “40 Quote: Simon Andrews, Branded Utility Essay, Published on WARC, accessed on 25-11-09


When I lose the sense of motivation and thesense of to prove something as a basketballplayer, it’s time for me to move away fromthe basketball.“ “

Michael Jordan

41 Image courtesy of Google Images; available at; http://shoeminx.com/nike-air-jordans-turn-23-is-his-airness-finally-ready-for-some-hang-time accessed on 26-11-09


So, let’s move away from planning for a little while and focus on

marketing / advertising in general and maybe it will help us to

understand the underlying opportunity.

Niall Fitzgerald, Unilever Co-Chairman, once said, ‘if somebody

asked me rather than one of my distinguished predecessors, which

half of my advertising was wasted, I would probably say 90 per

cent of my advertising was wasted but I don’t know which 90

percent. Our marketing advertising and marketing support budget

is over £4billion. It is by far the biggest of costs in this business’.

And that is so true, as most advertising agencies would have their

clients believe when selling them their creative and unique ideas.

They make them believe, one way or another, that it is their

expensive magic bullet they need, which can spur renewed

demand, whilst generating incremental sales. Otherwise, how on

earth could all these agencies have made so much money? For

example, it was recorded in 2008 that the value of AMV BBDO

London was £386.1 Million, McCann Erikson London £287.1 Million,

M&C Saatchi London £262.8 Million, BBH London £259.4 Million and

JWT London £256.8 Million. And these figures are only for London –

you can imagine what would it be like for New York or the

advertising world at large.

Without a doubt, marketing is increasingly adding more cost than

value to producers and users alike. At every pitch, the marketing

agencies convince the clients that they will generate the

maximum return on their investment. They try inspiring them with

great personas of the audience or a piece of research.

Sometimes they try shaking up the boardroom with an inspiring

creative idea. Beneath this façade, however, most of them are

selling either an expensive media plan, a super-big retainer fee,

or an extraordinarily overcharged hourly rates. The story doesn’t

end here – big ideas are sold with extremely complex creative

executions to increase production budgets. And of course, as

all advertising agencies know very well, there is a lot more

money in producing a television commercial than making an

iPhone app or launching a video on YouTube.

What all marketers need to understand, and it’s extremely

important that they should is that advertising is not an art, it’s just

a business like many others. More important than that, is the shift

in people’s attitudes. Today, people demand utility and

usefulness over anything else. They want creativity in the

product and not how the product is been advertised. We are

now moving from an age of entertainment to an age of

engagement and usefulness.

We have analysed in the recent chapters that products can be

advertised with extreme success without the use of expensive

marketing campaigns, if the focus is on adding creativity to the

product and its design. Gmail, YouTube, Google Search are just

42

42 Alan Mitchell, Right Side up, Chapter 4, Page 41, 200243 Campaign, available at; http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/785296/Top-10-ad-agencies-2008 accessed on 26-11-09

43


a few examples. The point for the brands to realise is critical,

people no longer want to perceive the product creatively; they

are more interested in knowing what they can do with it. This is

the age of information and no one can control the audience,

just by sharing creative stories. In marketing, we are moving

away from the age of entertainment to an age of

engagement, productivity, sharing and utility.

In Fig 16, Of course, all the blame for this declining brand value

can’t go to the advertising dinosaurs, but at the same time, it is

important to understand that advertising has hardly moved

away from thinking of attractive communications. In my very

own personal opinion, the job of a communication partner

should be to increase brand value, not by testing one creative

advertising idea after another, but by analysing the client’s

Brand Value

Agency Value

v.

FIG 15 – My Imagination of the big London agencies FIG 16 – Brand Value V. Agency value

business and the challenges it faces beyond marketing. This

could even be an issue of staff training. But why would

agencies do that when they don’t see their economy beyond

media or creative earnings?

44 FIG 15 – Image available at http://dinosauria.tripod.com/Allosaurus.html accessed on 26-11-0945 FIG 16 – Data Sources Milward Brown Optimar 2007, top 100 Brands


However, it doesn’t mean at all that advertising has always

been ineffective. I guess that’s not the point here either. The

point is that advertising has been working as the sales window

at the train station, selling expensive tickets to the people at

the counter and not encouraging them to book over the

phone or online to save costs. Though giving the same service

in a much more basic manner way would mean one paying

much lower price, it would be in a much nicer way otherwise.

If we look deep into this marketing regime we find even more

concealed evils. The whole system has been designed in a

way to support the mighty. For example, in order to prove to

the clients and marketing industry at large that advertising

actually produces effectiveness, the industry created an

official body by the name of IPA. IPA introduced effectiveness

awards to establish and argue the effective side of

advertising. Every year, the IPA issues case studies of the best

brands and how advertising agencies turned their fortune

around. It all looks very nice – so long as we don’t use our

mind. Did you know that Thinkbox UK TV advertising body is

the main sponsor of IPA Effectiveness awards? If we delve

deeper, the face of evil reveals that in 2008 seven IPA

Effectiveness awards winners (including the Gold Winner)

were those who used TV as their main medium of advertising.

In total 80 per cent of all submissions used TV as the main

medium. Or put it like this, 80 per cent of the advertising

agencies that participated in the 2008 IPA Effectiveness

Awards encouraged their clients to spend on TV, the most

expensive medium of advertising. To prove the clients that

they are doing the right thing, IPA awarded them with the so-

called most prestigious award in advertising.46

46 Laura James, The four key media trends from the 2008 IPA Effectiveness Awards, WARC Online47 Images courtesy of Google Images available at http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&rlz=1T4GGLL_enGB353GB353&um=1&ei=upIOS-bMNsnp-

QbcjLyrCA&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=ipa+effectiveness+awards+logo&spell=1&start=0 & http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&rlz=1T4GGLL_enGB353GB353&um=1&sa=1&q=UK+TV+Thinkbox+logo&aq=f&oq=&start=0 ; accessed on 26-11-09


This system is just perfect for everyone; the jury judging the

awards, the body sponsoring the awards, the agency getting

the award and the marketing director approving the

campaign as it makes them all happy and prosperous on

individual level. Except the brand, that pays them all (directly

or indirectly). After a couple of years, the brand realises, it

was not just the magic bullet of TV that brought them this

newfound prosperity, as there has to be a reason for its

declining sales problem five years later, in another IPA case

study, when it was using the same channels and an even

bigger ad spend on communications. Perhaps all that TV did

was just to create awareness. Now I would ask, that in the

age of Web 2.0 when people spend more time in front of

online consoles and building online communities than

anything else, is it worth spending millions of pounds on TV, just

to create awareness? Please don’t imagine that I am trying to

establish TV as a medium that is not useful anymore. However,

the point I am trying to make is that the new shift in the

behaviours of people necessitate new ways for brands to

engage people. For example in the 18th Century, the wealthiest

of all men bought the best of all horse breeds for travelling.

However, in the 21st Century, the same man would probably

buy the best car and keep the horse for his stable. The reason

for this 21st Century man buying the best of all cars in 21st

Century is not that the horse is not useful for him anymore.

Instead it symbolises that the horse is more effective for use in

country lanes and fields, and the car for travelling within city.

Unfortunately, in advertising we are still using the same formulas,

practices and techniques which are too old to be effective.

48 Images courtesy of Google Images available at http://akumono.deviantart.com/art/Rolce-Royce-Phantom-Drophead-81009885 & http://www.nakasendoway.com/178thtra.xhtml accessed on 26-11-09


Apparently, most o f the times the answer seems to be the

latter, and it all makes sense for the agencies. It’s quick,

pleasurable, and without any long-term commitment or

responsibilities. On the other hand, having a relationship

means something, as relationships demand going through

tough times to get to the good times . They seek

understanding and love – relationships are connections

beyond reason.

Without a doubt, agencies are realising the shift of control to

the people. However, instead of actually understanding this

new state-of-mind of the people, brands and agencies have

started to use it as another selling technique. Unfortunately,

they don’t understand that the customer has all grown up –

they know how unkindly communications have betrayed

and ripped them off in the past. They can actually spot the

difference between advertising slogans ‘positioned on you’

and companies actually working for them.

It’s quite funny, when brands and agencies start to

communicate as though the customer is a baby who will

listen to them no matter what they say. Times have

changed, people have changed and it’s important for our

attitudes as marketers to change too. It’s not enough to

communicate pleasing statements to the people unless we

don’t mean them. Because, you know what? People know

about mass manipulation.

Recently, I have been observing some rather depressing

advertising examples. Every other brand holding the ply

card showing ‘you (customer) are the king’.

For example, the new campaign by Yahoo, focusing on the

fact ‘You’. The $100 Million campaign as described by


Are agencies interested in having arelationship with brands and people or justsex?

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz is something like this, ‘What we want

to do is show (people) what the new Yahoo is about so they

come (to the site) all the time’. All this powered by the

unique advertising bullets expressed in the form of images

and taglines “It’s time to get personal” and “The new Yahoo

lets you do it your way every day.” “The Internet is under

new management. Yours,” “Now the Internet has a

personality. Yours.” The television film heaves with images of

dancers, Dalmatians, soccer and kids blowing bubbles, and

highlights Yahoo’s array of services and customization

options.

In further explaining the campaign’s philosophy Carol Bartz

adds, ‘Yahoo is an asset to our users out there, and Yahoo

wants to be a tremendous asset to all of you,” she said. “The

‘You’ is also you.”

Now hang on for a second and let’s focus on what this $100

Million campaign is actually trying to communicate. To my

understanding, all it is doing is pretty straightforward, ‘pleasing

the audience’, by making statements which communicate

Yahoo as a company designed around people. But hey, do

you actually need to say that to people if you are working for

them? Advertising agencies and brands, please try to

understand, if you are working for the people, they will know

it. You won’t need to tell them by wasting millions of dollars.

Learn something from Google - they do useful things for

people, rather than just saying so all the time. Google doesn’t

49 The Wall Street Journal Blogs, available at http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/09/22/yahoo-debuts-its-you-marketing-campaign accessed on 30-11-200950 Images courtesy of Google Images, available at ; http://trak.in/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/YahooYouCampaignAd.jpg accessed on 30-11-2009

49


waste all its money on telling people that it’s useful for them.

Instead, it focuses on improving its product and when

people use it, they automatically know the difference. This

simple focus on work and not emotional lies is what makes

Google the world’s number one brand in terms of its value.

Yes, there was a time, when it was possible for companies to

create perceptions about brands which actually were not

included in the offering. But this is a different age. People

can now cross check the utility of the products and services

with the Whole Wide World. The communication between

user groups have immensely increased, and what was

before the opinion of a few people on a product or service

has now become the sharing between thousands of people.

Today, it’s practically impossible for brands to win people’s

hearts, without bringing utility into their products and a

change beyond just advertising.

How great would that be if Yahoo’s communication partner

had used that $100 Million dollars to think, create and

communicate what people find useful, rather than telling

them how they should feel about the brand?

51 Images courtesy of Google Images, available at ; http://images.ientrymail.com/webpronews/article_pics/you-and-yahoo.jpg accessed on 30-11-2009



Of course, the ‘prosumer’ challenge faced by brands today

demands a change of thinking from client’s as well as from

the agency’s side. It is fundamental for all the brands to

change the way they plan and execute their processes. This

makes the job of a Planner more interesting and even more

challenging, as the planner of the future has to be an expert

thinker of every link between the Brand, Audience and the

Agency. Russell Marsh, Group Digital Strategy Director at

Rapp London while explaining the role of a planner of

tomorrow says, ‘The planners of the future now have too

many options to plan all of the possibilities and so now have

to find ways to use data and probability to map the future –

The future is going to look more like the stock market with

automated systems and traders predicting market changes

based on data rather than a paper plan based on 6 month

old insights’. On the other hand Lorna Hawtin, ‘Disruption

Director’ at TBWA, while discussing the future of advertising

agency business models replied, ‘I think planners have a

massive role to play in creation of value’.

Jim Carroll, Chairman of BBH London carefully explains the

hardships of past, ‘I think we knew fundamentally that most

events were precipitated by complex systemic pressures and

relationships. But our limited power to disentangle the many

elements in one system reduced us to characterising most

strategic problems in rather monochrome ways’.

All of these insights leads us to a point of understanding that

the change in our environments, necessitates a change in our

thinking as well. However, it’s not necessary that the change

has to be a product of something entirely new or a set of new

crazy proprietary tools. The change mentioned here refers to

bringing capabilities in one’s thinking which are more

appropriate to the situation in hand. In my journey of the

world one thing has emerged quite clearly. That is that

everything is a by-product of something else – there’s nothing

new in this world. Therefore, success comes to those who

evolve their thinking not by status, but by need. Sometimes, in

order to bring about change we simply have to go back to

something pre-existing, as is the case in fashion. Nick Kendall,52 Images cortesy of Google Images available at http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&rlz=1T4GGLL_enGB353GB353&um=1&sa=1&q=russell+marsh+rapp&aq=f&oq=&start=0 accessed on 2-12-200953 Discussions and interviews with Lorna Hawtin and Russell Marsh – August 2009 and November 2009

52


54 Interviews with Jim Carroll and Nick Kendall, BBH, March 200955 Jim Carroll’s view on the changing role of advertising – interview March 2009

Group Planning Director, BBH, in a reply to how we should

tackle brand planning and communications in the future

said, ‘So... we have to reverse the process’. Thirty minutes

after that discussion, an email popped up in my inbox,

containing ‘Soap Wars’ from ‘The King of Sunlight’.

In understanding this wave of change, it’s fundamental that

we also consider the changing role of advertising agencies.

There was a time when the role of advertising agency was to

take the client's brief through the available communication

choices within the advertising funnel. However, this has

changed in recent years. The situation now demands from

54

FIG 17 – Changing role of advertising agencies

us to think beyond client briefing and sit at the end of the

advertising funnel and instead of creating solutions that suit

desired advertising choices. Our job is now to create ideas

big enough to engage the audience (employees, vendors,

partners, users, buyers, management) against any business

challenge. This modified role of advertising demands

extraordinary people who can think logically and implement

creatively, whilst considering and strengthening the growth

for the agency’s and the client’s businesses. Figure 17,

above, presents Jim Carroll’s view of the changing role of

advertising (as he sketched it) and further strengthens the

argument.55

CB A

Past Present

BIA

RM

TV

D

P&P

Etc.

The age of broadcasting

is over and the era of

engagement and value

has begun.

THE

POIN

T IS.

..


If you can dream it, you can do it.“

“56 Peter Fisk, Marketing Genius, Page 257, 2004

57 Image courtesy of Google images available ; http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_tEZc1tH3HdU/SduLV__YReI/AAAAAAAAABQ/YkYShN5H3a4/s400/walt-disney-logo.jpg accessed on 1-12-2004


Richard Branson is the epitome of an entrepreneur, thinker,

planner, best known for the Virgin brand that he founded

and still leads. Born in 1950, he has never lost his love of

adventure and innovation, his curiosity of what might be,

and his passion to make new things happen.

While other leaders might care most about finances and

governance, Branson focuses on the customer, a walking

incarnation of his brand, working with people across his

many businesses to engender the same entrepreneurial spirit

and brand values that have served him so well.

His passion is for the customers, much more than the

financial, ‘I never get the accountants in before I start a

business. It’s done on gut feeling, especially if I can see that

they are taking the Mickey out of the customer’.

He first reached notoriety with Virgin Records, a record label

that started out with the unusual Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield

and then introduced bands like the Sex Pistols and Culture

Club to the world. Known for his wacky exploits used to

promote his businesses, Branson is keen on playful

antagonisms, exemplified by his ‘mine is bigger than yours’

slogans that marked the arrival of Virgin Atlantic’s new Airbus

A340-600 planes.

58 Images courtesy of Google Images, available at ; http://www.virginlifecare.co.za/assets/images/AboutVirginLogo.jpgaccessed on 30-11-2009


On a Virgin America flight, a passengerTweeted about not receiving a meal they hadordered. Virgin America saw this Tweet andcalled the cockpit to have a flight attendantbring the meal.60

59 Image courtesy of Google Images, http://www.therefinishingtouch.com/blog/uploaded_images/Virgin-Atlantic-Plane_March-16-732829.jpg accessed on 30-11-200960 Story available at http://brandtwist.com/?p=982 accessed on 1-12-2009


He is famed for his heroic failures as well as successes,

having made several unsuccessful attempts to fly in a hot air

balloon around the world. ‘Virgin Atlantic Flyer’ was the first

hot air balloon ever to cross the Atlantic Ocean, and was

the largest ever flown. Such escapades almost cost him his

life on more than one occasion. Yet the PR value was

immeasurable.

He became Sir Richard Branson when he was knighted by

the Queen in 1999 for his business prowess and contribution

to UK society. Meanwhile, he has guest starred, playing

himself, on several television shows, including Friends,

Baywatch and Only Fools and Horses. He was also the star of

a reality television show called The Rebel Billionaire where

sixteen contestants were tested for their entrepreneurship and

their sense of adventure.

61 Images courtesy of Google Images, available at ; http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&rlz=1T4GGLL_enGB353GB353&um=1&sa=1&q=Virgin+brands+logo&aq=f&oq=&start=0 accessed on 30-11-200962 Peter Fisk, marketing Genius, Page 400 – 401, 2004

59


What is your role as a planner, strategist, creative

planner, digital strategist or innovation planner?

Indeed, what is the role of Imagination with that of

implementation?

THE POINT IS...

1. What’s the essence of your role?

Clarify the added value of the Planner, accountabilities and how personally adds value to collective performance

2. What are your goals and metrics?

Make time to set transparent goals and metrics for the benefit of yourself and team, as much as your audience

3. How can you inspire people with your vision?

Thinkers inspire; individuals follow... Inspire your team , audience and the business with your personal vision

4. How can you connect best ideas together?

Add value by connecting ideas from across business disciplines, and other business functions

5. How can you best support your client, agency and the audience?

Engage and enable people, taking on a coaching more than directing role, building capabilities and confidence

6. How can you champion great thinking?

Be the champion of great ideas and thinking in your team, business, and market. Build respect and reputation by delivering on your promises


Inspired. I feel like thinking planning now, which agencies

usually find pretty interesting for selling their creative stuff.

They consider it as a ‘thing’ to shut their client up, and make

them sell their ideas easily and consistently. Unfortunately,

this attitude of agencies has put limitations on the role of

planning – and the sad part is, that even our expectations

from it are limited. Jon steel, Planning Director for WPP, in

one of his papers published on WARC mentioned, ‘“So what

exactly do you do?” I recently asked the same question of

the planning director of one of America's most famous

creative agencies. (I knew the agency's founder had a

deep, unflinching loathing of account planning and

research.) He told me it was his job to “look cool, be smart,

and hang out with the creative department”’. How sad

would it be for people like lever to imagine that.

63 Jon Steel, Jon Steel on planning – The last of the handloom weavers, Published on WARC in November 2009

Planning is beyond supporting creativesales – it must encourage growth in the totalbusiness environment.

I remember reading in the chapter two , ‘planning has no

limits’. I also remember studying the lives and businesses of

great planners or Grand Strategists i.e. Lever, Jobs, Branson,

King, Pollitt, Serge, Imoteph, Clausewitz. of course the

following were very obvious in all that;

- They never restricted their thinking.

- They never confused their thoughts between left and right

sides of their brains.

- Their thinking was totally integrated with their actions and

imaginations.

I believe that unless we integrate our thinking into our

agency’s and client’s ‘total business’, it’s hard for us to see

planning that can last for decades and centuries which can

actually bring value for everyone.49



It is important for brands as well as agencies to consider

planning as a central point for all of their business activities.

Instead of having dozens of communications partners –

strategic planning must come from a single point, whether

the brand is facing an issue in ATL, BTL, product

penetration, packaging, production, retailing, digital or

whatever. It is also very important to differentiate the role of

Grand Strategist from that of a Management Consultant.

The management consultants only show the directions, but

Grand Strategists must excel themselves to set directions

and implement and execute solutions.

For brands and agencies in order to reach from point A to

point B of their business lifecycle, they need integrated

Grand Strategist

BrandPeople

Business / World in general

Agency

FIG 18 – Opportunities for a Grand Strategist

individuals (Grand Strategists) – who can think solutions and

create experiences with an unbiased approach to the

given challenge.

For us as planners, the journey to our ‘Grand Strategist’ is an

ongoing and continuous process. It is vital that we never

stop challenging what has never been challenged before.

We have to become more effective by understanding all

the different touch points between any business and its

audience whilst developing specialisation in determining

and identifying the opportunities for all. Figure 18 illustrates

the area of opportunities for a Grand Strategist.


The challenging role of the Grand Strategist

(discussed on the previous page) demands a

new working structure within advertising

agencies. The old model of creative teams,

account management and planning cycle is

too old to cope with the needs of modern

times.

The current way of working within advertising

agencies is not very different from that of King

and Pollitt purposed back in 60s. Few agencies

such as Mother have tried to evolve the

advertising model and they have eliminated

account handling from their advertising

process.

However, where it is important that the

thinking of brands is single minded and not

divided between dozens of communication

partners, it’s also inevitably necessary for the

origin of that thinking to be single minded. The

reason for introducing this new model of

working is obvious. The traditional structure of

advertising doesn’t allow the freedom a

Grand Strategist should have. Roles are

New

challenges

demand

modified

solutions

defined and limited, for example, account

management has to favour managing and

growing agency’s business and maintaining

relationships , creative teams to execute the

best thinking based on the brief they receive

and Planning to bring the audience and

brand into the advertising subject to make

communications more effective and

relevant. This way of working only focuses on

one side of a client business, ‘Marketing’. It

doesn’t support value input in the brand’s

overall business environment.

Brands and agencies, in order to truly benefit

from Planning need to consider it as the

starting point for all of their business

movements. This approach puts planners at

the top of the thinking process with a pool of

solution resources available to them use

when, where and how the businesses need

them. Figures 19 and 20 explain the

difference between the current and

purposed method of working structures.

FIG 19 – Current advertising team structure


InteractiveDigital Media Production Research Etc.

Key benefits:- Financially sensible- long-term and sustainable- Rewarding for everyone

Traditional

Fig 20 – Developed with the help and input of Nick Kendall, Group Planning Director, BBH and Stephen Maccrron, Planning Director, JWT Manchester, meeting took place at the JWT Manchester & BBH London offices in March and August 2009


FIG 20 – Purposed Model of Working

Grand Strategist

AccessSolutions Support Pool

A fusion of business, logic and creativity

Brand Agency

Business solutions

Supply chain

solutions

Retail strategies

Product/ service

InnovationPricing

Strategies

Retail comms

TV, Press, Radio

Third party

relations

Experience Digital, social, Mobile

Any other relevant solutions

When I presented the concept of ‘Grand Strategist’ to the Planning Director of

one of London’s big agencies (that recently got famous for putting animals in

cute costumes), she questioned, ‘And where will you find these super humans?’.

Without a doubt the question was very interesting. I spent weeks upon weeks

searching for the answer with no results, until I met Stephen, Planning Director for

JWT Manchester. He made a very simple point but resolved a very complex

problem. In his opinion the best way to make sense of the ‘Grand Strategist’

thinking was to imagine the role of an Architect. Once he said that, it all started to

make sense.

An Architect has no technical skills in sewerage control,

electrical wiring, fixtures and fittings, making of pillars and

other things that are needed in the construction of any

building. Nevertheless, it’s impossible for labourers,

electricians, engineers to do anything without the

instructions from Architect. What an Architect needs in

order to be the master in his subject is the knowledge of

everything that connects with his subject whilst having a

being able to specialise in designing architecture.

Similarly, the job of a ‘Grand Strategist’ is to design

solutions whilst using the resource pool for the execution

of the recommended strategies.

61

64 Images courtesy of Google Images; available at http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&rlz=1T4GGLL_enGB353GB353&um=1&q=blueprint+of+a+building&sa=N&start=18&ndsp=18 accessed on 3-12-200965 Stephen Maccrron, Planning Director, JWT Manchester, meeting took place at the JWT Manchester office in August 2009



and the fifth to the senior started to control the indicators.

If brands and agencies don’t change the way they think, then it would be like the tale of five people, who all were the perfect

drivers on planet earth. One fine day, they received an invitation to a motoring exhibition. They all decided to use one car to reach

the destination. However, once they made themselves comfortable inside the vehicle, they all wanted to show off their knowledge

of driving.

After a long and heated debate about who should drive the car, they all decided to split the driving between them. So it was

decided;

The senior of them all took the steering wheel,

the second to the senior controlled the accelerator,

the third to the senior took charge of the brake pedals,

the fourth to the senior was made responsible for keeping eyes on the road,

Sadly, it took them ages to get to where they wanted to and the worst of all they never made to their destination, as none of them

could understand what the other was shouting. Finally, on a turning sharp and steep they all ended up driving down from a cliff

thousands of feet high – and that’s how they all disappeared with a ‘CAR’ strong and magnificent.

It wasn’t their driving skills that got them killed and the car destroyed. Instead, it was the car designed to driven by one person. They

lacked a single mind, able to take responsibility for all the procedures and techniques to drive the vehicle from Point A to Point B.

With this example, I will end this chapter and paper here. However, it doesn’t mean that I am also

ending the discussion we started and the areas we highlighted before starting our journey.

Consider this abrupt end an academic limitation which I have to respect. Nevertheless, there are

three more episodes still waiting to be explored. We still have to explain what makes a ‘Grand

Strategist’ so important for everyone, by sharing one person; one brand world model. We also

have to analyse the job areas, responsibilities and the necessary training methods one would

need to apply Grand Thinking. Last but not least we yet have to investigate the world of a ‘Grand

Strategist’ and the monetary, competitive and utility benefits it can offer to the brands, agencies

and the audience.

Good luck with our thinking and stay in touch!


We are witnessing a breathtakingevolution of new forms of challenges.More than witnessing, we are facilitatingthem. All of this is unfolding so quicklythat we do not have time to pause andreflect on what is happening.

Instead of having integrated systems, it’stime we have integrated people whocan seize opportunities for all of us, whilstthinking deeply, broadly, creatively andlogically.

THE

POIN

TS A

RE...


The King of Sunlight – Adam Macqueen, Corgi Books; New edition (2 May 2005)

A Master class in Brand Planning – The Timeless work of Stephen King , Judie Lanon, John Wiley & Sons (26 Oct 2007)

The Invention of Air – Steven Johnson, Penguin (29 Oct 2009)

No Logo - Naomi Klein, Flamingo; New Ed edition (15 Jan 2001)

Ads to Icons – Paul Springer, Kogan Page; 2nd Edition (3 Aug 2009)

The Anatomy of Account Planning – Henrik Habberstad , White paper, 2004

Politt on Planning – Stanley Politt, Paul Fledwick , NTC Publications (29 Feb 2000)

Hitting the sweet spot – Lisa Fortini, Copy Workshop (April 1992)

Lovemarks – Kevin Roberts, Powerhouse Cultural Entertainment Books; Revised edition (2 Feb 2006)

Right Side Up – Alan Mitchell, HarperCollins Business (20 Feb 2001)

Action Research – Peter Reason and Hillary Bradbury, Sage Publications Ltd; Concise ed edition (13 Dec 2005)

Truth, Lies and Advertising – John Steel, John Wiley & Sons (16 Mar 1998)

Operational research – T.A. Burley and G. Sullivan, Palgrave Macmillan (15 Aug 1986)

The Advertising Budget – Simon Broadbent, NTC Publications (May 1989)

The visual display of Quantitative Information – Edward R. Tufte, Graphics Press USA; 2nd edition (31 Jan 2001)

Marketing Genius, Peter Fisk, Capstone (24 Feb 2006)

Michael Jackson -Life of a legend, Michael Heatley, Headline (17 Jul 2009)

A Guide to Creating Great Ads, Luke Sullivan, John Wiley & Sons; 2nd Edition (15 April 2003)

The Lovemarks Effect, Kevin Roberts, Powerhouse Cultural Entertainment Books; illustrated edition (8 Mar 2006)

Creative Advertising, Mario Pricken, Thames & Hudson; Revised edition (26 May 2008)

The Story of Philosophy, Will Durant, Simon & Schuster; Revised edition (20 Jan 1999)

The Online Advertising Playbook, Joe Plummer, Steve Rappaport, Taddy Hall, Robert Barocci, John Wiley & Sons (18 May 2007)

Account of Sources: Reading / Text


Guy Murphy – Worldwide Planning Director, JWT

Nick Kendall – Bartle Bogle Hegarty - Director Strategy BBH Group

Martin Runnacles – Former Marketing Director BMW and now Managing Director Ultegra Consulting

Jim Carroll – Chairman, Bartle Bogle Hegarty

Stephen Maccron – Planning Director, JWT Manchester

Amelia Torode – Director Planning, VCCP

Rik Haslam – Group Creative Architect, RAPP

Ian Haworth – Global Creative Director, RAPP

Russell Marsh – Group Digital Strategy Director, RAPP

Lorna Hawtin – Disruption Director, TBWA

Andrew Hovells – Planner, TBWA

Sarah Tate – Strategist, Mother London

Account of Sources: Interviews / discussions


Russell Davies Blog - http://russelldavies.typepad.com/

The Account Planning Group - http://www.apg.org.uk/

Google – www.google.com

Amelia Torode Blog - http://ameliatorode.typepad.com/

Planning Sphere - http://plannersphere.pbwiki.com/

IPA - http://www.ipa.co.uk/

Fallon Trend Point Blog - http://fallontrendpoint.blogspot.com/

Planning Blog - http://www.planningblog.com/

Account Planning Net - http://www.accountplanning.net

Another Planning Blog - http://www.simon-law.com/

Gareth Kay Brand New Blog - http://garethkay.typepad.com/

Adliterate Blog - http://www.adliterate.com/

The Staufenberger Repository - http://staufenberger.typepad.com/

WARC – http://www.warc.com

Contagious Magazine – www.contagiousmagazine.com

Premier Mintel – www. Premier.mintel.com

What the trend? – www. Whatthetrend.com

BBH Labs – www.bbh-labs.com

RAPP Blog – www.livinginadigitalworld.com

Twitter – www. Twitter.com

Google – www.google.com

Slideshare – www.slideshare.com

Admap – www.admapmagazine.com

Punk Planning - http://www.charlesfrith.com

Account of Sources: Webography


BBH London – February 2009

AKQA London – March 2009

EHS Brann London – March 2009

M & C Saatchi London - April 2009

Mother London – August 2009

AMV BBDO – August 2009

Rapp London – August 2009

London 2012 Olympics – March 2009

Account of Sources: Industry Presentations - Workshops


Documents

The birth of a grand strategist