Strategy is one of the most abused and misused terms in marketing. When I was a younger, I struggled a lot with that. There are so much opinions out there and it seems like everyone tries contradicting each other on purpose. On the 2nd of October, I got the chance to speak to 50 students at Thomas More Hogeschool and to tell them what I think strategy is and why it is so goddamn necessary in communications, marketing and yes, let's just say the world. Comments and feedback are definitely welcome.

1. @elinegoethals
Happiness Brussels & FCB Global
WHY THE HELL DO WE NEED STRATEGY?

2. EEN OF ANDERE
INTERESSANTE TALK
(of misschien net niet)
Hi there!
- @elinegoethals
- Strategic Director at Happiness Brussels and
Strategist at the FCB Global Strategy Team
- Founder & board member of YoungDogs vzw
- Board member of Expertise Center Strategic
Planning ACC Belgium (and unfortunately the only
woman)
- After hours, I teach entrepreneurship at Let’s Go
Urban (Urban Dreamers)
- I travel a lot for work
- I have 2 dogs (not the one on the pic)
Before?
- 2013 – 2016: Strategic Planner at LDV United
- 2010 – 2013: my own non-profit, City of Antwerp,
my own video company,…

3. 1. But what the hell is strategy?
2. THE STRATEGIC PROCESS
3. How to write a good strategy
4. WHAT MAKES A GOOD STRATEGIST
WHAT WE’LL BE TALKING
ABOUT TODAY.

4. 1. BUT WHAT THE HELL IS STRATEGY?

5. THE BIGGEST BUZZWORD OF ALL
TIME, YET LITTLE PEOPLE KNOW
WHAT IT REALLY MEANS.

8. Objective: what you want to achieve
Strategy: how you’re going to achieve it.

9. Strategy is a roadmap:
a way to solve a certain
problem to an
advantage.

10. Rumelt says that good strategy consists of 3 things:
(1) A diagnosis that defines or explains the nature of
the challenge/difficulty
(2) A guiding-policy for dealing with the challenge
(3) A set of coherent-actions that are designed to carry
out the guiding-policy

11. SO, CREATING a strategy means:
1. Knowing where you want to end (what your objective is),
2. Diagnosing the challenge(s) to get there,
3. Coming up with a way to over come these challenges (your solution),
4. And having a clear roadmap, a plan to bring your solution to live.

12. THE ART OF STRATEGY HAS BEEN
EXISTING FOR EVER, WAR AS MOST
THE discussed EXAMPLE.

13. "The Art of War" remains on of the world's most famous
military texts, 2,500 years after it was published by Sun Tze
( Sūnzi) an adviser who probably lived during the
Spring and Autumn Period (776-471 BCE).

14. "He will win who knows when
to fight and when not to
fight."
“Victorious warriors win first
and then go to war, while
defeated warriors go to war
first and then seek to win”
“Strategy without tactics is
the slowest route to victory.
Tactics without strategy is the
noise before defeat.”

15. ‘BLITZKRIEG’

16. But why do
we need it in
marketing?

17. BUSINESSES NEED STRATEGIES TOO.
AND CLIENTS HAVE ALWAYS COME TO
AGENCIES WITH A BUSINESS PROBLEM.

18. THE
GODFATHERS
OF Strategic
planning

19. “I do not accept that there has to be a choice between
advertising that is strategically relevant or creatively original”
Boase Massimi Pollitt

20. ‘the voice of the consumer’

21. 1968 – Stephen King:
“The main responsibilities of the account planners are to: (1) set objectives for
creative work, media scheduling and buying, merchandising and to help
develop the objectives into action, (2) plan, commission and evaluate
advertising research, (3) plan advertising experiments, (4) evaluate advertising
and experiments and (5) present work to account groups and clients.”

22. IN WORDS MY MOM UNDERSTANDS:
When developing a campaign, the strategists defines the
- why (objective)
- what (message)
- who (audience)
- when (timing)
The creatives then come up with a brilliant ’how’.

23. IN AN IDEAL WORLD

24. OUR JOB ISN’T ONLY ABOUT
CAMPAIGNS ANYMORE.
IT IS ABOUT SOLVING ALL
KINDS OF PROBLEMS.

25. 2. THE STRATEGIC PROCESS

26. 1.
IDENTIFY THE
CHALLENGE
2.
IDENTIFY THE
solution
KNOW
YOUR
OBJECTIVE
END WITH
A DETAILED
PLAN

27. THE STRATEGIC PROCESS
1. Define your objective
2. Read around the subject
3. Define the barriers that are in your way
4. Identify your strengths: the things in your favour
5. Re-define your problem precisely
6. List the potential solutions (never go for your first and only idea)
7. Write an honest list of their pros and cons
8. Choose the most promising
9. Test/research it
10.Summarise your strategy and how it should work

28. 1. DEFINE THE OBJECTIVE
What do we want to achieve?
How will we know if we are successful?
What do you need to do in real terms?

29. BUSINESS
OBJECTIVE
BUSINESS
STRATEGY
MARKETING
OBJECTIVE
MARKETING
STRATEGY
COMMS
OBJECTIVE
COMMS
STRATEGY

30. BUSINESS OBJECTIVE
Grow revenue by 2.5
billion pounds
BUSINESS STRATEGY
Focus on core
business of
supermarket

31. BUSINESS OBJECTIVE
Grow revenue by 2.5
billion pounds
BUSINESS STRATEGY
Focus on core
business of
supermarket
Marketing objective
Increase ticket value
of existing clients
MARKETING STRATEGY
Increase every
transaction with £1,14

32. BUSINESS OBJECTIVE
Grow revenue by 2.5
billion pounds
BUSINESS STRATEGY
Focus on core
business of
supermarket
Marketing objective
Increase ticket value
of existing clients
MARKETING STRATEGY
Increase every
transaction with £1,14
COMMS OBJECTIVE
Stimulate clients to
add extra elements
to their basket
COMMS STRATEGY
‘try something new
everyday’

35. Generate profit for staff bonusses
Increasing share of department store market
Increasing sales during Christmas period
Get more customers, spending more
Increasing store traffic
Increasing propensity to shop at JL for
Christmas gifts
Increase brand salience and deepen
emotional connection
Creating Britain’s most watched, loved and
talked about Christmas advertising
BUSINESS
OBJECTIVE &
STRATEGY
MARKETING
OBJECTIVE &
STRATEGY
COMMUNICATIONS
OBJECTIVE &
STRATEGY
BY
BY
BY
BY
BY

36. 2. DEFINE THE CHALLENGE
Strategy doesn’t make sense if you don’t know the context in
which you operate. You need to define the business context and
the problems / challenges the business is currently experiencing
before you can find ways to achieve the objective

37. WHY AREN’T WE CURRENTLY
REACHING our amazing
OBJECTIVE?

38. Possible problems:
ü lack of knowledge / familiarity with the brand,
ü value perceptions
ü user or brand imagery
ü lack of relevant role / positioning for the brand
ü inferior product
ü seasonality
ü clutter
ü relative competitor strength
ü human failing / shortcoming
ü market categorization
ü …..

39. WHICH ONES CAN
COMMUNICATIONS /
MARKETING SOLVE?

40. WHICH things are in
your favor? Which
aren’t?

41. CAN YOU PHRASE YOUR
PROBLEM EASY AND
CONSIVE?

42. FORMULATE A
HUMAN PROBLEM,
NOT A BUSINESS ONE.

43. AS STRATEGISTS, WE CAN
SOLVE WICKED PROBLEMS.

44. ‘Young girls feel like they need an extensive and complicated
beauty routine to be ‘part of the cool gang’.
‘People remain client of a way too expensive telecom
operator because they are inert to make a change
(lazy!).’
‘People don’t trust a multi-purpose cream (body and
face) and don’t believe it is good enough.’
‘Drinkers of non-alcoholic beer are still seen as nerds
and people who settle for less taste.’

45. 3. DEFINE THE SOLUTION
There is never just one solution. All strategies are well estimated
guesses, very probable solutions but one never knows for sure. It
is our job to make sure our solution is the most probable one.

46. READ AROUND YOUR SUBJECT
RESEARCH your context
Start with the brand and product.
Then go to the 3 c’s of context:
Culture
Consumer
competitor

47. Most of the time, the best solutions are based
on an insight. A revelation that tells you
something about people, about brands, about
the way products are used that can be used in
your solution.
Insights function as leverage.

48. “Nothing is so powerful as an insight into human nature,
what compulsions drive a man, what instincts dominate
his action, even though his language so often
camouflages what really motivates him. For if you know
these things about a man you can touch him at the core
of his being.”
- Bill Bernbach, DDB

49. AN INSIGHT IS:
NOT A FACT
People tend to feed their pets twice a day.
NOT AN OBSERVATION
They tend to feed them at breakfast and dinner time.
THIS IS THE INSIGHT
People feel guilty eating in front of their pets.

50. Observations and statistics record what people do or say.
insights tell you why.

51. A GOOD STRATEGIST IS A GOOD DETECTIVE.
It’s not ‘insights-mining’ called for nothing.

52. WHICH INSIGHTS ARE
GREAT LEVERAGES FOR
YOUR SOLUTION?

53. #1 IT’S HUMAN.
A GOOD INSIGHT IS BASED ON HUMANS. HUMAN BEHAVIOR.
THIS COULD BE BEHAVIOR AS SUCH, LINKED TO THE
PRODUCT, LINKED TO THE BRAND, LINKED TO THE
CATEGORY BUT ITS ALWAYS HUMAN.

54. #2 IT’s THOUGHT-PROVOKING
I BELIEVE GREAT INSIGHTS PROVOKE SOMETHING.
IF YOU TELL THEM AT YOUR MOM, SHE WOULDN’T SAY ‘OK’.
SHE WOULD START TALKING, DEBATING, AND SO ON.

55. #3 IT UNCOVERS A CLEAR TENSION / FRICTION
GREAT INSIGHTS UNCOVER SOMETHING THAT WAS
COVERED UNTIL THEM. SOMETHING PEOPLE DO
UNCONSIOUS, DIDN’T SEE OR KNOW BEFORE,…
IT SHOULD HIT A NERVE.

56. #4 IT ANSWER A WHY QUESTION, NOT A WHAT QUESTION
A true insight answers a ’why’ question and is not
simply a statement, observation or a description of
a certain happening.

57. #5 IT TAPS INTO AN UNMET NEED
Spotting an insight as a brand that no other brand
has done, gives you a competitive edge. It is about a
consumer need that no one has realiZed yet, that
no one saw before.

58. #6 and, it is universal
THE BEST INSIGHTS TAP INTO A LARGER AUDIENCE, IDEALLY
EVEN ALL HUMANS ON THIS PLANET. THE BIGGER THE
AUDIENCE THAT YOUR INSIGHT TAPS INTO, THE MORE IT
WILL SPEAK TO PEOPLE. INSIGHTS THAT ARE ABOUT A
NICHE, CAN ONLY BE USED FOR THAT NICHE.

59. Insights can come from everywhere.

60. AND ANYONE
11
Creatives
Account “paper pusher”
The front desk
Significant other
Overheard on the
street
Mom

61. CREATE OBSERVATIONS WHEN NEEDED
22
To understand the personalities of different luxury car
owners, one agency simply photographed and analyzed
their personal license plates.
Insights don’t have to be expensive or come with 8-week
timelines
To understand the meaning of
beauty today, one agency simply
asked women to tell them.
Source:Paragraph Project

62. INSIGHTS ARE OFTEN THE
FOUNDATION OF YOUR SOLUTION.

63. Objective: increase sales of Beats by Dr. Dre
Challenge: The brand couldn’t fight it out on technical specs/product
innovation because competitors already more cred’ (Sennheiser/Sony/Bose )
and anyway Beats had historically been dissed as a posers brand. Not for
people who really love music.
Solution: Our new headphones cut out noise so you can hear the music not
the background - so - that means you will not be distracted by the world
around you. So - that means you will be calm and focused. So - that means
you will have the focus that is needed to perform at your very best.

65. STUCK? HERE’S A TECHNIQUE

66. STUCK? HERE’S A TECHNIQUE
à Done by Nintendo, right before the invention of the Wii.

67. Extra checks for your solution:
• How credible is the solution?
• Does it help differentiating the brand?
• Will it motivate?
• What will the staff think?
• Is it an inspirational creative springboard?

68. Then, when you have your promising
solution; test & research it!
1. Get a colleague to play devil’s advocate
2. Go back to your original research & try to
disprove it
3. Socialize your thoughts with experts (and
refine)

69. On to the creatives!
Creatives looooove solving
problems.
1. What’s the problem we are
trying to solve?
2. What’s an insight that can help
solving that problem?
3. What can we say, inspired by
that insight, to help us solve
the problem?

70. 3. hOW TO WRITE A GOOD STRATEGY

71. There’s quite a lot of shitty
strategy out there.
Get ready to hear the word
where ever you go and in
whatever you read.
Knowing what is good strategy and
what isn’t will make you useful (and a
bit of a smartass but deal with it).

72. Generally speaking,
there are 4 common
fails in writing or
recognizing a good
strategy.
1. Failure to Face the Problem: A
strategy is an approach to overcoming
obstacles. If you fail to identify and
analyze the obstacles, you don’t have a
strategy.

73. Generally speaking,
there are 4 common
fails in writing or
recognizing a good
strategy.
2. Mistaking goals for strategy:
Setting goals without a supporting
strategy can mislead the organization
(vs “just one last push, guys”) .

74. Generally speaking,
there are 4 common
fails in writing or
recognizing a good
strategy.
3. Bad strategic objectives: A long list
of goals and projects cobbled together
at a planning session, or a set of ideas
that no one has a clue about what to
do or how to get there, are signs of
bad strategic objectives.

75. Generally speaking,
there are 4 common
fails in writing or
recognizing a good
strategy.
4. Fluff: A restatement of the obvious,
combined with generous sprinkling of
buzzwords that masquerade as
expertise designed to mask the
absence of thought.
An example of “fluff” from a retail bank
states: “Our fundamental strategy is
one of customer-centric
intermediation.”

76. 4. WHAT MAKES A GOOD
STRATEGIST

77. I have totally no authority or expertise
to say even the least about this.
But still, here are some things I think
great strategists have in common.

78. 1.
First and foremost, empathy. They can place
themselves in the shoes of another. They feel
what worries people, makes people happy
and what makes people care. It is like an
instinct for them, they are students of
humans.

79. 2.
They question everything. They might be
annoying but they sure will come up with
right insight by doing so.

80. 3.
They are curious. They want to learn. They
get bored after seeing the same things over
and over. In their free time, they’re constantly
taking courses, reading, learning.

81. 4.
They know the client’s business(es) by heart.
They love the product, they know
competition, they notice campaigns or
interesting trends.

82. 5.
They are in touch with culture, they know
what is happening and bring this to the table
in a relevant (for clients) manner.

83. 6.
They can tell stories instead of summing up
facts.

84. 7.
They succeed in making complicated things
sound simple. They are useful, not smart.
They often say smart stuff that is so right
other people might think it is common
sense.

85. 8.
They excel in second and
third order thinking –
that’s where the real value
comes along.

86. That’s it!
Questions? Want a chat?
Looking for an internship?
You can always contact me:
Eline Goethals
eline@happiness-brussels.com
+32496482740
@elinegoethals on Twitter