PHD Perspectives: "Strategy is Sacrifice" - Ed Castillo - MediaBizBloggers

I recently heard Bruce Nelson utter the phrase "Strategy is Sacrifice" at Omnicom University. If he'll forgive my lifting it – and editorializing on its behalf – I'd like to offer my account of its meaning and importance.

The development of disciplined, economical, insightful communications strategies is commonly espoused, but rarely happens. While we are quick to admit those who "do one thing and do it well" are advantaged as marketers, we seem slow to follow their example.

We need -- with conviction -- to single out specific goals, approaches, insights and success-metrics while excluding others when we strategize. (Sure, those excluded goals, etc. can also contribute to the growth of a business; but we've got to make sacrifices if we expect to communicate effectively).

"The good is the enemy of the great."

"If you try to be everything to everyone, you will be nothing to anyone."

If you agree, then you should:
1) Figure out what business you are in,
2) Identify a group that is disposed to transact with you,
3) Present your value proposition to them as clearly and sustainably as possible, and,
4) Measure your success as you go.

The sacrifice I am referring to happens at all stages in the development of communications strategy:

Objectives-What are we trying to accomplish by communicating with people? How will we know if we've communicated successfully?

It is at this point in the process – the beginning – that I feel sacrifice is most important, but rarely happens.

We want new customers. We want existing customers to buy more of our stuff when they buy (or buy our stuff more often). We want existing customers to buy our more expensive offering…

These are all meaningful, valuable objectives. BUT…they all require different approaches. How can you compel one person to consider you for the first time in a meaningful way while also compelling your fans to engage more with you while also compelling those who have rejected you to reconsider their beliefs about you??

Approaches-Some will call this "strategy", but "strategy" means different things to different people, and its use can confuse the issue (the issue being; “how are you going meet your objective…how will you approach that problem?). If you’ve been very clear about your objective (e.g., get 10% of your user-base who have never mentioned our brand in social media to talk about your brand for the first time), then your 'problem' is clear, and you can develop a focused, single-minded approach or plan of action.

Your tactics will simply be all the observable things you do out in the world in order to reach your articulated goal. Save all the "wouldn’t it be cool if we…" musings for the open-ended ideation sessions that will lead to new, future efforts.

If you have several concurrent objectives, GREAT; develop several communications strategies (each with their own success-metrics).

Hope is not a strategy. Throwing things against a wall and seeing what sticks is not a meaningful approach. Identify a goal, make your most informed guess about how you will get there, and go for it…measuring your success (or failure) along the way so that you can optimize (or scrap).

Don’t be afraid to fail. Remember, the (failure-averse) GOOD typically lags behind the (failure-informed) GREAT at the cash register.

Insights-Any information, inferences, learnings, assumptions or realizations that help you get from your objectives to your tactics. I recommend thinking about it like this.

Success-metrics-Tied religiously to your objectives, these should be things that you can measure, that are meaningful, that you have (or can establish) some historical account of, and which are not wildly open to interpretation.

No more, no less.

We work in multi-layered organizations with people who see the same things differently and together we try to affect the chaotic realm of human beliefs and behaviors…

Your objectives and strategies shouldn't contribute to the confusion.

Be brave, and sacrifice things that aren’t mission-critical in your communications strategies.

Ed Castillo, SVP, Director of Account Planning at PHD Media, a Division of Omnicom. You can follow Ed @xandnotx

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