What is a full brand case? The formula for writing a complete brand case!

"Full case" is a word that advertisers often mention. It sounds very important and makes people feel proud when they say it.

"I just finished a full case recently, and I worked all night for half a month."

"I am comparing a full case with a budget of 1 billion yuan"

…

So what is the whole case?

The full case is the core part of the daily operations of an advertising company.

The most important job of an advertising company is to complete the entire case for the clients it serves. Because the entire case concerns the corporate client's overall market layout and planning, the top-level design and architecture of the brand, and the specific measures and arrangements that the company will take throughout the year.

Not every advertising company has the ability to handle a full case. Generally, advertising companies that can handle a full case are called comprehensive brand agencies. This is a common name in the industry. They are also called integrated marketing communication companies and integrated marketing planning companies.

When I mention the company responsible for the overall project planning below, I will generally refer to it as a brand agency or just an agency.

The whole case is the main source of customers for brand agencies.

The mainstream way to acquire customers in the advertising industry is to participate in competitions. Generally speaking, when companies initiate a competition, they are mainly competing for the entire case. They find several advertising companies to do the entire case separately, and give the budget to whoever does the best job.

In addition to comparing the entire case, corporate bidding also includes direct price comparison and campaign comparison, but comparing the entire case is still the mainstream because the entire case can best reflect the comprehensive strength and business level of an agency.

In addition to brand agencies, companies will also look for media agencies, which is the job of media agencies. However, today's media agency competition is not just about comparing resources and prices. Media strategy must involve brand strategy and the content of the entire brand case.

The entire case is the core criterion for evaluating advertisers’ capabilities.

The core criterion for whether you can be promoted to director in an advertising company is whether you can lead a team independently and complete an entire case. If you can't handle the entire case, you are not qualified to lead a project or manage a team.

Because a full case includes content that covers all aspects of an advertising company's work projects. The ability to complete the entire project is the most core ability of an advertiser, especially a planner, including those who are responsible for marketing and branding on the client side.

Working on a full case is a comprehensive examination of the comprehensive planning capabilities, including understanding of the market in which the company is located, judgment of consumption trends and insight into consumer groups, logical thinking and problem-solving skills, strategic thinking, overall perspective, creativity and execution.

Since the whole case is so important, what exactly should be done in the whole case?

To put it simply with a formula -

Full plan = market plan + brand plan + communication plan

1.

The market plan is a pre-emptive one, which defines the subject and carrier of the whole case.

If an enterprise wants to do a full case, it must first know who the case is for, that is, which market segment the enterprise wants to enter and who the target consumers are, so as to establish the market entity.

To this end, before doing the whole case, a lot of data analysis and research work needs to be done, such as industry analysis, market analysis, consumption analysis, terminal visits, user surveys, target user portraits, target user psychological insights, etc.

After determining the market segments and target users, the next step is to decide what products to use to open up this market, which is called product definition. This part involves what the core value of the product is, what its competitive advantage is, how to price the product, through what channels to distribute it, etc.

This is the core marketing strategy in the marketing plan. In detail, it is the STP+4P emphasized by Mr. Kotler:

STP - market segmentation, target population, product definition

4P - Product, Price, Channel, Promotion

Simply put, it is consumers + products.

With the guidance of the core market strategy and the core users and products determined, the next step is to develop a brand plan.

2.

The brand plan is the core of the whole case.

(Otherwise, why are advertising companies that do full-scale work called brand agencies?)

Brands help companies accumulate one-time promotions into sustainable assets, turning products into IPs with fans and content. It can be said that brands are the company’s largest private traffic.

Generally, when an agency makes a brand plan, there are several core components to be done:

Brand value system - what is the core value that the brand brings to users, what is the brand promise, what are the main benefits of the product, and what are the appeals and claims derived from this for communication, that is, what is the advertising slogan.

Brand visual system - the part of LOGO design and VI design, how to design a distinctive and unique brand image, and the main visual image (video and print) used for communication.

Brand portfolio system - some companies may have more than one brand; or the corporate brand and product brand are inconsistent and have different names; or in addition to the product brand, the company also has technology brands, service brands, etc. So, how can so many different brands be differentiated and how can they be organized into an organic whole?

What is the relationship between different product brands, what is the relationship between product brands and corporate brands, what is the relationship between product brands and technology brands, service brands, and business brands, how to differentiate and unify the value design of different brands, and how to distinguish and integrate visual designs.

These all need to be defined: value system, visual system, and relationship system. This is the core brand strategy.

With the core definition of the brand, the next step is how to promote the brand, let the brand come into contact and establish a relationship with consumers, and let consumers know about the brand. This is the communication plan.

3.

For enterprises, marketing plans and brand plans are more of a strategic task, which are usually metaphysical and abstract, and belong to the top-level design.

When it comes to the communication plan, there needs to be feasible and executable implementation measures, as well as execution guidelines that are divided into different time periods and phases.

Of course, before listing the implementation arrangements of the communication plan one by one, there is usually a communication strategy.

What does the communication strategy include? Let’s use another formula:

Communication strategy = information strategy + media strategy

Information is "what to say?" , what content to convey and what value to deliver to target consumers.

For example, if I am making a communication plan for a bottle of milk, what value proposition should I communicate to consumers? Is it that it is nutritious or that it is easy to absorb? Is it quality and health or advanced aseptic technology and preservation technology?

Logically speaking, this part of the work should be completed in the brand plan and is part of the brand value system. However, for some complex brands, in addition to the brand core value and brand main slogan, they may also need to come up with an annual communication theme.

In other words, the slogan can be equal to the annual communication theme. There can also be some distinction. The slogan is the slogan and the annual communication theme.

It sounds complicated, but it's understandable. For example, Nike’s slogan is “just do it”, and its core value proposition is a sports spirit of doing what you think.

But in 2018, NIKE can have several communication themes such as "I dare", "Let me run", "You only have one chance to endure high altitude" to match different campaigns.

Then, there is the question of what content format to use to convey the product's value proposition, is it flat? Or video? Is it an article or an event? Is it public relations or interaction? In fact, this needs to be considered together with media planning.

The medium is "where is it said?" because the message and the medium are one. The content determines what media we should choose, and the media also determines what kind of content it requires us to create.

Nowadays, when we make communication plans, the media we can choose from include television, outdoor, advertising, the Internet, social media, e-commerce platforms, content platforms, information flow advertising, video websites, portals, news media, vertical media, communities, offline activities, event marketing, press conferences, public relations releases, KOL, cross-border marketing, etc., etc., there are too many. Therefore, there are so many creative ways to create content that you will be dazzled.

After talking about all the strategies, including market strategy, brand strategy and communication strategy, we are finally going to move on to the annual communication plan that can be implemented and executed.

(In my context, market strategy is basically equivalent to marketing strategy, communication strategy is similar to promotion strategy, communication strategy is more inclined to media advertising, and promotion strategy is more inclined to channels and BD)

Generally speaking, an annual communication plan includes several campaigns, but the specific number is not fixed.

A campaign is a phased communication plan, an advertising campaign or a communication campaign.

The life cycle of a campaign generally does not exceed three months, because if it takes too long, it will be difficult to operate and execute, and consumers will be unwilling to pay attention to you.

Campaign nodes are usually divided according to the time dimension.

First, according to the product's launch and promotion cycle, what should be done during the launch period, what should be done during the mass production period, and what should be done during the product maturity period and terminal consolidation period.

One is to divide it according to the product's peak and off-peak seasons and natural quarters, such as spring marketing, summer communication, autumn and winter promotion, as well as communication during various holidays, Spring Festival marketing, Mid-Autumn Festival promotion, Children's Day marketing, Valentine's Day marketing, etc., plus various e-commerce festivals such as Double Eleven, Double Twelve, 618, Super Product Day, etc.

There are also divisions by location and different media channels.

For example, promotion plans for first- and second-tier cities and market penetration plans for third- and fourth-tier regions, online communication plans and offline promotion plans, retail channel communication plans and KA key customer promotion plans.

The marketing plan, brand plan and communication plan together make up the complete plan.

This is what companies can do when they look for brand agencies. In addition, there are also some advertising companies that only do campaigns and only provide online and Internet communication plans. These are what we call interactive advertising companies, digital marketing companies and creative hot shops.

One point that needs to be emphasized is that

Although I said that the entire case = marketing plan + brand plan + communication plan, different corporate clients have different needs and requirements for the entire case due to their different industries and different stages of corporate development. In addition, brand agencies are limited by their own capabilities and industry attributes, so the answers they can give are also different.

Usually, for mature large enterprises, the agency usually makes a full case =

25% marketing plan + 50% brand plan + 100% communication plan

Because mature companies, after years of development, already have clear market strategies. They know where their market is, who their competitors are, what kind of target consumers they are, and they also have a formed product portfolio, an established pricing system, and established sales channels.

Therefore, it does not need an agency to help it develop a new marketing strategy. The agency only needs to help it with market insights and consumer insights.

So, this is the 25% market scenario.

Similarly, mature companies usually have a complete brand system and a clear brand structure. They do not need an agency to help them design a brand from scratch and build the brand from naming, LOGO design, and VI design.

But he may need an agency to help him refine his brand values ​​and propositions to be sharper and more compelling, and to create a more distinct and recognizable brand image and personality.

So, this is a 50% branding solution.

For mature enterprises, what they need is not the top-level design of the market and brand, but more specific and direct information about how to acquire customers and how to realize the profits, so they need a 100% communication plan.

However, when a mature enterprise needs to promote new products, or when growth is sluggish and it needs to transform and enter new markets, it needs top-level design and develop new market and brand strategies.

This actually belongs to another type of enterprise, a growth enterprise.

The biggest characteristic of a growing company is that everything is uncertain. Although the product is selling, there is no clear market definition; there is no clear definition of who the target users are, and they are sold as many as they can get; the company has not found its own development path and growth paradigm; and there is no brand.

For this type of growing enterprise, the agency usually makes a full case =

50% marketing plan + 100% brand plan + 30% communication plan

What a growing company needs is definitely a 100% market plan, but why can a brand agency only provide 50%? Because brand agencies and advertising companies are usually not proficient in channels and pricing, and lack data and talent in this area.

The agency can only help the company define the target market, target users, core competitors, and do a good job in product design and product line combination. The remaining pricing and channel issues must be completed by the company's own marketing department, or find some professional marketing companies to solve them.

A 100% brand plan is a systematic brand design from scratch, from the most basic LOGO, VI to visual design, brand image design, from the value system to the advertising slogan and communication proposition, from single brand to multi-brand architecture design.

As for the communication part, growing companies usually have a bug, or a dilemma - growing companies usually have no money. There is not enough marketing expenses and media budget to spend on advertising and promotion.

Therefore, they do not need a systematic, full-scale, three-dimensional communication plan from the air to the ground. They only need to focus on specific nodes and specific channels to carry out a wave of communication and promotion.

This is the 30% communication plan.

Although different companies have different needs, the overall plans they produce will also look different. However, for a planner working in the advertising and marketing industries, he or she should still have a comprehensive knowledge of case planning and understand the market, brand, and communication.

Understanding the market and brand strategies will make the communication plans more precise and sharper , and avoid the situation where the ads are good but the sales are poor, or the ads are good but the sales are poor.

Only by understanding the rules of communication and promotion can the marketing and brand strategies be better implemented, and not be empty and unrealistic, seemingly sophisticated but completely unable to impress the market and consumers.

It's just that the Chinese market is too big.

Many companies and individuals who focus on communication and campaigns only see hot topics, screen-sweeping news, big ideas, and draft proposals. They regard early market strategies and brand strategies as optional nonsense that have to be written on PPT in order to sell ideas.

However, more companies that only do marketing consulting and strategic design are shouting that creativity is useless, saying that creativity is just the fantasy of advertisers and a waste of clients' money. However, they are in charge of the dissemination themselves, and the designs and copywriting they put out are ugly and crude, which are disliked by consumers. They can only achieve limited brainwashing effects by spending money and huge advertising fees.

There is no solution, just ride the wave with your attitude.

Author: Empty-handed

Source: Empty Hands (firesteal13)