As we head into the complex marketing world of 2014. We thought it might be useful to give marketers a checklist of 14 questions to ask themselves and their teams

1. 14 QUESTIONS MARKETERS SHOULD ASK IN 2014
DECEMBER 16, 2013
Monday, December 16, 13

2. AT A TIME OF INCREASING COMPLEXITY
“Turbulence is the new normal for CMO’s”
-
Accenture
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Monday, December 16, 13

3. WHEN IT’S HARD TO KNOW WHAT’S RIGHT
“No one knows what’s right, what’s
wrong, what’s up, what’s down.”
-
Victor Lee- VP Digital, Hasbro
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Monday, December 16, 13

4. WHEN PEOPLE ARE ASKING- “WHAT’S NEXT?”
“Marketers don’t get excited anymore about the
mere fact that Google or Facebook or behavioral
targeting exists, nor do they wring their hands over
how digital has enabled consumers to tune them
out. A real question—and a big one—is where do
marketers go from here?”
- Catherine Taylor- Strategy and Business
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Monday, December 16, 13

5. WHEN NEW OPPORTUNITIES ARE ABUNDANT
“So, this is where the next wave of business innovation will
come from: a fully immersive, two-way interaction between the
consumer and business. Think about this for a second: Anyone
can create something that everyone can see. It sounds simple,
but it’s actually a profound change in the way people
communicate. And it’s something that plays to the strengths
of the media and marketing industries.”
-
Nikesh Arora- Google
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Monday, December 16, 13

6. WHEN LEADERS EMBRACE THE FUTURE
“Describing the company's strategy as "digital back", Pritchard
explained how the best agencies now started campaigns in
the digital world and then built back into the rest of the
marketing mix."
-
Mark Pritchard- P&G- As quoted in WARC
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Monday, December 16, 13

7. A CHECKLIST COULD BE USEFUL
THINK OF THIS AS A CHECKLIST OF
QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF AND
YOUR TEAM AS YOU HEAD INTO 2014
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8. BEHIND THE CHECKLIST
A RECOGNITION THAT MARKETING
DISCIPLINE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN
EVER, BUT IT NEEDS TO BE FLEXIBLE
ENOUGH TO BE OPEN TO
CONTEMPORARY REALITIES
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Monday, December 16, 13

9. BEHIND THE CHECKLIST
SOMETIMES THE SIMPLEST
QUESTIONS ARE OFTEN THE HARDEST
TO ANSWER
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Monday, December 16, 13

10. 14 QUESTIONS FOR 2014
Monday, December 16, 13

11. 1. HOW ARE YOU GROWING YOUR BUSINESS?
•
Are you cutting your way to profitability?
•
Are you selling more to the same people?
•
Are you finding new people for your brand?
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Monday, December 16, 13

12. 2. WHO ARE YOU TALKING TO?
•
What do you know about who you are selling to?
•
Are you selling to everyone, or a generic demographic?
•
Do you have a deep richness of customer understanding?
•
Do you know how these use it and where and how your brand fits into their lives?
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Monday, December 16, 13

13. 3. WHO ARE YOU COMPETING AGAINST?
•
Are you challenging an established leader?
•
Are you looking at the right competitors?
•
Are your real competitors in another category?
•
Could your competitor be a consumer behavior?
•
Is it the two guys in a coffee house?
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Monday, December 16, 13

14. 4. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF YOUR BRAND?
•
Why does your brand exist?
•
What is your brand’s higher calling?
•
Does your brand have a meaningful societal idea at its core?
•
Is your purpose widely understood?
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Monday, December 16, 13

15. 5. HOW DOES YOUR BRAND’S PURPOSE FIT INTO CULTURE?
•
What do you see in culture that’s relevant to your brand?
•
What’s your perspective on that?
•
Do you want to lead culture, or follow it?
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Monday, December 16, 13

16. 6. HOW MUCH RISK CAN YOU TOLERATE?
•
Are you prepared to take risks?
•
Have you defined the parameters around risk?
•
Do your team and organization understand that?
•
Are you prepared for failure?
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Monday, December 16, 13

17. 7. DO YOU HAVE A MASTER PLAN?
•
Do you have a clearly articulated blueprint to guide you?
•
Does it tell you what the brand is going to be doing?
•
Does it have flexibility to cope with unknown opportunities?
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Does it explain how all the communication pieces fit together?
•
Does it explain the roles and responsiblities of internal and external teams and partners?
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Monday, December 16, 13

18. 8. WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH ALL THAT DATA?
•
Do you have a Data Strategy?
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Do you know what data is valuable and what isn’t?
•
Is your data really helping you understand success?
•
Is it helping you understand your customers and prospects?
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Monday, December 16, 13

19. 9. HOW ARE YOU ENHANCING THE BRAND EXPERIENCE?
•
Have you examined your brand experience from the customer’s perspective?
•
Do you know their journey?
•
Have you identified opportunities to improve and enhance elements of the experience?
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Monday, December 16, 13

20. 10. HOW ARE YOU MEASURING SUCCESS?
•
What are you measuring?
•
Do you know what matters?
•
How do you use the insight to improve?
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Monday, December 16, 13

21. 11. WHERE DOES DIGITAL FIT?
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Is digital integrated into the “Master Plan”?
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Is digital more than online presence and marketing?
•
Does your brand have digital experiences?
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How does your brand plan to be digitally useful to customers?
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Monday, December 16, 13

22. 12. DOES YOUR BRAND NEED TO BE A REAL-TIME CONVERSATIONALIST?
•
Does your brand need to talk to people “real-time”?
•
What does it have to say?
•
Does it have different things to say and do in the different channels?
•
What keeps it interesting?
•
Does it talk about more than itself?
•
Is the conversation aligned to the brand’s purpose?
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Monday, December 16, 13

23. 13. HOW DOES CONTENT FIT?
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Where does content fit in the Master Plan?
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Does the brand produce content beyond advertising?
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What is the content designed to do?
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Do you have the means to create engaging/shareable content?
•
Do you have a Content Strategy?
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Monday, December 16, 13

24. 14. DOES YOUR TEAM HAVE A LEARNING CULTURE?
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Do you have a plan to learn from your efforts?
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Does that learning help improve future efforts?
•
Is learning part of your process?
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Monday, December 16, 13

25. BSSP IS...
A 21 year-old communication agency
Offices in Sausalito and NY
A roster of clients that includes- Priceline, MINI, US Bank, Roku, El Pollo Loco, Greyhound, ISIS
Parent of Influx-strategic consulting unit
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Monday, December 16, 13