How to conceive a planning proposal in a clear and organized manner?

I have heard many of my friends and colleagues talk about their state when writing proposals. They often open the PPT for a long time and still stay on the first page, writing down only a few words... I believe this phenomenon should be quite common in the workplace.

Why can some people write proposals in one go, while you spend a long time squeezing toothpaste and can't even write a few words?

Why is it that the proposals written by others are clear in structure, but yours is confusing and incomprehensible?

The reason is that there is no logical framework formed in the mind in advance. The framework of conception is the premise and foundation for writing a plan. The lack of a framework will not only lead to low efficiency and logical confusion, but also make you unable to grasp the core issue and go off topic.

Some people say that it is impossible to write a plan without inspiration. Is that true?

This is probably an excuse for lack of confidence in one's own abilities; Lao Pao firmly believes that writing proposals is a science. As long as you master the scientific methodology, you can achieve stable proposal output regardless of whether you have inspiration or not!

Lao Pao discussed with several senior planners and summarized their years of experience in writing marketing plans. They extracted a set of universal routines for the creative framework to help everyone master the meta-skills and thinking patterns for writing marketing plans.

Understanding needs and goals: Determining the general direction

Any plan exists to "solve a problem" or "produce an effect", so in the early stage of the project, a very important step is to communicate with the party who proposed the demand many times to find out what the needs and goals of this plan are.

The need for marketing plans usually includes brand diagnosis and positioning? Market research? New product launch promotion? Boost sales? Increase visibility? Competitive research? Consumer insights? User operation? Advertising strategy and creativity? Media placement plan? PR and event communication? etc.

Only by ensuring information parity between the party proposing the demand and the one producing the solution can we clarify the dimensions of the solution concept and ensure that the general direction is correct.

Practical examples:

Z Brand Practice Step 1: Find out the project background of Z Brand, as well as the needs and goals of marketing communication

Background description of the project: A consumer health plan launched by Z Insurance Brand - encouraging consumers to exercise more and get more rewards; the plan has now undergone a major upgrade, setting up a series of health challenges to win a variety of health benefits, allowing exercise to bring more health value to consumers!

Marketing needs and goals: Through social communication and interactive fission, establish the differentiated image of brand Z as a "sports advocate" and innovative insurance concept; let consumers form a healthy perception of brand Z and have a strong sense of concept identification, and ultimately guide consumers to join the plan.

Organize and collect information: familiarize yourself with the project

After knowing the general direction, the next step is to spend time and energy to organize and collect a large amount of information in order to have a more comprehensive grasp of the project situation, brand/product, market competitors, consumers, social culture, etc.

For example, when making a brand positioning plan, the information usually needed includes: an introduction to the brand and products, the overall market environment and trends, competitors' brands and products, competitors' advertisements, consumers' basic social attributes, consumers' lives and behaviors, consumers' perception of the brand (which may not be available ready-made and may need to be obtained through research), etc.

Here are some commonly used data collection platforms recommended: websites that collect reports include 199IT, iResearch, Penguin Think Tank, Analysys, etc.; websites that collect marketing cases include Shuying.com, AdChina, Meihua.com, Socialbeta, Campaign Asia, etc.; of course, Baidu, Zhihu, WeChat, etc. are also very good data collection platforms, but when searching for information on these platforms, it is very important to know what search keywords to use.

Although organizing and collecting information is a rather laborious and boring task, only by organizing the information well and digesting it thoroughly can you provide sufficient ammunition support for the subsequent output of ideas.

Practical examples:

Z Brand Practice Step 2: Ask the customer to provide as much information as possible on the brand, project status, communication resources, etc., and additionally collect a large amount of relevant information on the population, competitors, fission marketing, etc.

The information provided by the customer includes: a detailed introduction to the health plan, a portrait of the target population of Brand Z, and the marketing resources that Brand Z can provide (such as spokespersons, a large number of salesmen, company self-media, etc.).

Additional information collected includes: the target population’s living conditions, health concerns, exercise status, etc., similar plans, marketing activities and advertising communications of competing brands, effective fission marketing methods, and mainstream fission marketing positions.

• The information of the health plan and the information of the competitors help us to accurately extract the core advantages of the plan;
• Through the target population portrait and other population data, we can formulate appropriate communication strategies, interaction strategies and media combinations based on the analysis of the social attributes, interests, behaviors and lifestyles of the population;
• Competitive product information and fission marketing information help us see the overall competitive landscape and marketing strategies, so as to build a more suitable and effective marketing model.

(Marketing method information)

(Crowd Movement Data)

Research and Investigation: Finding Clues

Some information is available for immediate use, such as brand and product introductions, market environment and trends, etc. However, most of the information must be further studied and analyzed in order to find valuable clues; or further investigation must be carried out to draw the conclusions we need; for example, when we get the advertising information of competitors, we have to study what its advertising strategy is? What are the advantages and disadvantages of advertising? For example, once you have obtained consumer information, you need to further use quantitative and qualitative methods such as questionnaires and focus groups based on known basic consumer attributes to gain insight into the real reasons behind consumer purchasing behavior.

Research and investigation work is extremely challenging for planners. Usually only experienced planners can quickly discover valuable clues. Of course, as long as junior planners ask more questions, learn more and think more, they will also gain a lot in this process.

Practical examples:

Step 3 of Z Brand Practice: Study various materials, discover the value points of Z Brand to attract users, and formulate a marketing strategy to trigger the spread of the brand.

After studying the Z brand health plan and population data, it was found that consumers of the Z brand believe that exercise not only allows them to maintain a healthy body, but also brings a higher dimension of excitement and value to their lives, including continuous self-improvement, self-discipline, courage and confidence, stress relief, and a better understanding of themselves.

After carefully studying the brands that are good at fission marketing and analyzing the fission marketing materials, we concluded that the essence of fission marketing is to use benefits to leverage users' social relationships and achieve fission communication among users; and the most effective position for brands to play fission marketing is mini-programs, which rely on the WeChat entrance to obtain traffic dividends, can build the marketing scenarios needed by the brand, and have a natural advantage in WeChat sharing.

(Fission research clues)

(Crowd Insight Clues)

Refining the core topic: Establishing the proposition

Generally speaking, the three preliminary tasks of "understanding needs, organizing information, researching and investigating" may take up half of our time, but we have not yet officially entered the stage of proposal writing. Why does it take so much time and effort up front? It is to accurately extract the core issues of the entire plan and strike a fatal blow! It is just like when a doctor examines a patient. He will first ask the patient to do some tests and ask about his physical symptoms. Only after a clear diagnosis can he prescribe the right medicine and give a reasonable treatment plan.

Charles Gidelin, a management consultant for General Motors in the United States, proposed a famous Gidelin's Law: If you state the problem clearly, you are halfway through solving it. This shows that in any work, identifying the core issue is a very critical part.

Practical examples:

Z Brand Practice Step 4: Core Issue - Consumers do not have a strong sense of identity with the plan, the current number of users is not large enough to form a social effect

To complete the three-dimensional marketing of the Z brand health plan in breadth and depth, we need to focus on completing four things: "refining communication concepts and slogans, packaging creativity and content, planning effective fission mechanism gameplay, and selecting appropriate seed users and communication channels." The planning of the communication part of the program will revolve around the above four core propositions.

Propose a solution: Solve the problem

Now that we have diagnosed the problem, what solutions are available to solve it? Usually, both the client company and the agency have some mature methodologies to solve marketing problems; for example, Ogilvy's "360 Brand Compass", Roland Berger's "PROFIL Consumer Value Model", Leo Burnett's "Humankind Brand Model", JWT's "Total Branding" are all authoritative methodologies in the marketing and advertising circles.

The more methodologies you master, and the more you integrate and use them in combination, the higher the quality of problem solving will be. This is why in martial arts novels, if a martial artist has learned a lot of kung fu, the standard for measuring whether he can truly become a martial arts master is not how many moves he has remembered, but how much he has forgotten, because the process of forgetting is the process of understanding and integration. Only when you understand and apply it flexibly can you truly master it. The same principle applies to work.

Through work and study over the years, I have accumulated some marketing models, thinking models and doing models; these models are stored in my mind, and when I encounter specific problems, I will call out the corresponding model to solve the problem.

The accumulation of these models mainly relies on three methods: (1) learning some classic and easy-to-use models; (2) improving other people’s models based on your own understanding; and (3) thinking hard during actual operations and summarizing some models.

(Positioning model)

Practical examples:

Z Brand Practice Step 5: Marketing Model of Z Brand Health Plan - 3W+H

Let’s sort out the problems that the plan needs to solve: What kind of content should be created to arouse recognition and discussion? What brand tone should be maintained in communication? How to achieve low cost and high dissemination effect? Where to find seed users, and what channels to use to boost voice?

We used the most practical and common "3W+H" model to develop a complete communication strategy. Based on such a large framework, we can quickly and clearly list the things that need to be done in the entire communication work.

Who said to whom: First- and second-tier cities, high-end white-collar workers, middle and senior management of enterprises, high disposable income

What: Spread the slogan "Go for More Possibilities", as well as social posters, videos, soft articles, etc.

Where to say: Z brand agent, sports/lifestyle/health KOL, WeChat Moments advertising

How to say: Develop an interactive and fission app based on the rule of "walking to win rewards"

Combing and Packaging: Logical Expression

The core problem was diagnosed and a solution was proposed. The next step is to consider how to make your views more easily accepted and understood? We need to sort out the logic of the overall plan and package the story line of the plan. This is also an indispensable step to make a plan sublime. It is not enough to figure it out by yourself. Only when your ideas are successfully understood by others can it be considered a high-quality plan.

Regarding how to sort out the logic and how to package the main line of the story, please refer to the previous article "Understand the core principles and easily produce high-quality PPT! (Logic and Communication Level)” has a detailed introduction, so I will not elaborate on it here.

Completing a plan involves a lot of professional knowledge and skills. No matter how awesome and versatile a planner is, it is impossible for one person or one team to take on all the work in the plan. At this time, the planner has to take on the role of project owner to coordinate the human resources of other relevant departments to jointly improve the overall plan.

For example, communication slogans, TVC scripts, event ideas, etc. need to be completed by copywriters; main KV, event demos, TVC storyboards, etc. need to be completed by designers; media strategies, media combinations, and media effect estimates need to be completed by media; online interactive activity gameplay needs to be confirmed with technology whether it can be achieved; new media communication content, communication activities, etc. need to be assisted by new media operations.

Practical examples:

Z Brand Practice Step 6: A total of six departments assisted in the completion of the plan

In this plan of Brand Z, six departments participated. Some tasks can be completed independently by each department, while some tasks require everyone to gather their strength to hold meetings and brainstorm:

The copywriter mainly produces slogans, TVC scripts and material copy; the designer produces visual DEMOs such as KV, posters, TVC storyboards, mini-program interfaces, etc.; the media provides quotations for the circle of friends, recommendations and quotations from KOLs; technology helps confirm whether the link of the entire fission activity is feasible; new media operations write graphic content and PR manuscripts for self-media. Account is used to control whether there is any deviation between the overall direction and customer requirements.

Forming the final framework: Recording ideas

After all the plan contents are completed, we still have to think about how to make our views easier to accept and understand?

This requires us to sort out the logic of the overall plan and package the story line of the plan. This is also an indispensable step to make a plan sublimated. It is not enough to just figure it out by yourself. Only when your ideas are successfully understood by others can it be considered a high-quality plan. Let’s first understand how to sort out the logic of the plan and package the story line:

(Conceptual scheme framework summary)

1. Sort out the logic of the plan

Inexperienced planners can easily fall into a misunderstanding: talking about whatever comes to mind. As a result, the audience has no idea what you want to express and your mind is also in a mess. The best way to avoid this kind of messy thinking is to master some logical thinking methods, such as PDCA principle, SWOT analysis theory, time anchor sequence, etc.

Making PPT is ultimately a matter of thinking ability. You must think clearly about what kind of logic to use so that others can follow your thoughts and the information can be easily received by others. I recommend you to read a book called "The Pyramid Principle", which can cultivate the logic of thinking, expression and problem solving. I believe you will gain a lot after reading it.

Practical examples:

Z Brand Practice 7.1: Clear solution structure and narrative logic

After all the content was produced, we carefully sorted out the structure of the plan to avoid logical confusion and jumping thoughts. The following is the structure and narrative logic of the Z brand plan:

Review customer needs - analyze Brand Z and competing products - gain insight into target groups - extract core concepts - develop marketing models - plan marketing rhythm - plan marketing execution - budget and effect estimates.

2. Packaging storyline is important

Making PPT is also an art of storytelling. When you use stories to package and narrate the same thing, it will definitely make people remember it better than simply explaining some concepts or professional knowledge.

Once when we were sharing at the company, our team transformed ourselves into animated characters from the movie "Zootopia" based on the abilities and characteristics of each member, and then explained our PPT in the voice of the corresponding animated characters. In the end, we turned a very professional and boring sharing session into a novel and interesting storytelling session.

When Jack Ma was a university teacher, there were basically no students skipping classes, and even many students from other majors came to audit his classes on their own initiative. Luo Yonghao was a star teacher at New Oriental back then. His classes were crazily sought after by students, and he eventually became a generation of Internet celebrity after his lecture videos were uploaded to the Internet. Both experts have one thing in common when giving lectures, which is that they like to turn what they are saying into stories.

Practical examples:

Z Brand Practice 7.2: Using Real and Emotional Stories

In order to add some spice to the plan to enhance the audience's sense of involvement, to allow the audience to truly feel the inner voice of the target group, and to avoid the plan appearing to be full of brain-burning deductions and boring theories.

When presenting the consumer insights part, we also included some real words and real photos from the consumer research process into the PPT, which instantly filled the entire plan with a heartwarming sense of reality and humanity.

A seemingly simple framework actually contains a lot of thoughts!

A universal routine for conceiving a marketing plan framework, every planner deserves it!

Author: Bubble Ter

Source: BubbleTer