Start with the ideal
I was reminded of an important lesson yesterday - when you’re in the early stages of a marketing plan, start with the ideal. Ask yourself “if I could do anything, what would I do?” No restrictions. No constraints. Pretend, for a moment, that you live in a world where money, time and resources are no object. (Don’t worry - we’ll come back down to reality in a moment.) What is the best possible plan to meet the needs of your audience, in order to convince them to take your call-to-action?
We start with the ideal because it’s much easier to tone down a plan, or chunk it into phases, than it is to ramp one up once you have it in place. You might find yourself in the extraordinary situation of actually being able to accomplish your ideal plan - it doesn’t happen often but it when it does, it’s beautiful. This is a lesson I originally learned in my non-profit public relations class in college - my professor told us about a time her boss asked her what she would do if she could do anything. She replied that she would do a simulcast on all the major stations in Boston about her event. Guess what? They made it happen.
More often than not, you’re going to find that budget, time or resources make your ideal plan impossible. So you do one of two things - you tone it down or phase it out. Toning it down forces you to eliminate parts of the plan that you can’t accomplish, so you might not be able to do 10% of it, but you can deliver on 90%. This might seem like a disappointment, but imagine what you could have ended up with if you had started your planning with every concern and restraint on the table - you could have ended up at 70% or 80% of the ideal instead of 90%. By starting with the ideal and toning back as necessary, you open yourself up to possibilities that wouldn’t necessarily have made it on the table if you hadn’t started with the ideal.
Phasing it out is a long-term way to eventually accomplish your ideal plan - you split it into chunks and do what you can when you can. When we come up with a great plan that we’re really excited about, we often make the mistake of thinking we need to accomplish everything right that second. But you need to take a realistic look at your resources and time and ask yourself what you can accomplish, while still maintaining a level of quality. Phasing it out will get you to the ideal, just over a longer period of time.
Was there a time when you accomplished your ideal plan? Tell us about it and how you did it in the comments!
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January 30th, 2009
This doesn’t pertain to your question, but I thought I would add my two cents.
I think it important to specifically add to the list: don’t worry about technology. Get your plan together, understand your message, your audience’s needs, and your ideal workflow and then find the technological solutions that will make that happen.
Too many times, we tend to let our technology determine our plan instead of the other way around.
January 31st, 2009
Great post. I also use this approach when leading strategic planning efforts with a non-profit I work with. I asked, What would you do with $20 million? Often, it shines a light on what you should be doing - regardless of the constraints.
February 1st, 2009
I’m wondering how this approach deals with those, especially in higher ed, who have a propensity to do what they would ideally like to do (or want to do) rather than what they should do? It’s also interesting that in the early stages of your marketing planning process you would begin with tactical questions. (But maybe by “marketing plan” you meant “advertising plan”.) I can see how this could help people visualize an ideal end and get the juices flowing, but I could also see how it could get people thinking tactically first rather than strategically, which can quickly get you into trouble. But maybe the assumption here is that the strategic work, audience research, etc., has already been done? Otherwise, wouldn’t it make more sense to ask people to first imagine what they would ideally want people to think about their brand and then go from there?
February 1st, 2009
Rob, when I said the ideal, I meant the ideal of what they should do. Also, I’m not implying that you start with planning tactics - I’ve never been a proponent of starting with tactics. However, typically in higher education your goals are pretty consistent so you don’t really need to spend a lot of time planning them and can move right into tactics.
February 9th, 2009
Very good post. I have found that some of our best ideas have come from “no restraints” brainstorming. Across the board it hasn’t mattered if we do this with strategic things or more operational items.