Discovery Framework
At PE, our mission is to help your business experience transformational growth by building a well-differentiated, distinctive brand and then marketing it to your most influential stakeholders. The first step to transforming your business is an effective discovery methodology. A well-executed discovery session goes a long way into infusing efficiency into the branding and marketing strategies. Here’s a glimpse into the PE discovery framework – what do we attempt to articulate and how do we go about discovering them.
Point A
Where do you stand today? This is an objective-driven milestone. At an overall brand articulation level or at a specific marketing campaign with a specific goal – this is the definition of where you stand today and starting from here, where do you go… Part of the point A articulation are Positioning, Relevance and Salience to stakeholders, Competitors and Category benchmarks, Category drivers and Target Personas’ Definitions.
How do we ascertain this?At the base level, Point A is defined by the business/vertical/product owner(s) during dedicated one-on-one sessions. We use the information gathered from these sessions and verify them with other internal and external stakeholders using a combination of methods varying from quick dipsticks to detailed qualitative research to statistically significant quantitative research.
Positioning + Core Values
What do you stand for? What problems do you solve? How are you unique in ways meaningful to your customers and key stakeholders that your competitors cannot deliver?
How do we ascertain this?Positioning is both a discovery and articulation exercise. The discovery begins with the owners / entrepreneurs / leaders followed by testing for immersion within internal stakeholders and then verifying awareness, relevance and salience of these values among Target Audiences. Data sets from the three sources are then assimilated and articulated into a comprehensive positioning statement.
Relevance and Salience
Are your core values and attributes relevant to your stakeholders? More importantly, are they salient to the decision-making process? To choose your offerings over others in your space. And finally, what is the weightage of each of the values and attributes in aiding their decision to consider/buy?
How do we ascertain this?Relevance and Salience measurement is the outcome of a combination of selective qualitative research interventions and broad-based statistically significant quantitative research interventions. Once the campaigns are executed, these values are continuously tracked over a period to understand the continued relevance of the attributes.
Competition
Who is the stated competition? Who are the category leaders and benchmarks? Understanding the competitive environment helps sharpen the branding and marketing strategies. It also helps craft your messaging uniquely and distinctively.
How do we ascertain this?Stated competition is arrived at after interactions with owners and internal stakeholders. This is then validated during research with the target audiences.
Target Audience Persona
Who is the target audience of a campaign? The buyer? The champion advocate? Or is it the behind-the-scenes influencer who drives purchase decisions? Where is this person found? What are their behavior patterns? What cohort can we best fit them into to ensure your communication reaches the right kind of target? What’s the best way to get into their consideration space? How do we segment and then target this persona in a campaign?
How do we ascertain this?Target audience persona definition is an iterative process. It begins with the stated attributes of the audience by the owner. This information is then compared to data sets sourced from social listening tools and research outcomes to sharpen the definition – and this is the articulation at the discovery stage. The final persona is however put to test on the communication platform during campaign(s) execution and tweaked for efficacy.
Category Drivers
What are the category drivers? What are the category metrics? What are the trends in the space and who is/are influencing these trends?
How do we ascertain this?Category drivers are subjective. Their articulation is an exercise in interpreting data sourced from long tail keyword trends and social listening tools juxtaposed against desired outcomes.
Point B
Now that we know where you stand across a wide array of touch points – where do you want to go? What is your long-term brand goal? What is your near-term activation goal? What should be your priorities and how do you measure the efficacy of your campaigns?
How do we ascertain this?Point B is an internal stakeholder and consultant-driven exercise – the owners and internal stakeholders articulate the specific desired outcomes and the consultants (PE) commit to strategizing, delivering and measuring (using pre-qualified metrics – download our Metrics Framework to know more) how well the outcomes have been achieved.