Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe – Abraham Lincoln

This is one of the biggest productivity dampeners – the lack of planning in a campaign. And we have all seen this many times. Whether it is as big as launching something or a regular campaign, the nitty-gritties, the dotting of i’s and the crossing of t’s does not happen in the way they should. Many a time we have come across somebody telling us “we are having this event, make a set of collaterals” – yes that is the brief! Firstly there is not proper brief (for what constitutes a brief, click here). Then there is absolutely no thinking through of anything. For example if it is an invite – what is the content, what are the facts, what needs to be highlighted and related are not thought through at all. And moreover there are frequent changes to the content, making it a last minute job every single time.

Let’s send an emailer. Good. So then let us access the emailing database. Oh! We forgot that we do not have a database. Ok. Let us buy one. Nah. That much budget is not there. Then what should be done? Can we mine from our online forms? Ok. How have we stored it? Stored it? Oh yeah we don’t how to retrieve it. Can you just look at our over 1000 address books and get the email ID’s?

You get the point. The big picture should first be envisioned. Then what all can be done can be filtered. Then for action to be done, we can do elements. So if you were to plan a communication exercise, something of the following process could be followed:

  1. Establish the communication objective
  2. Clearly identify the target audience
  3. Decide on the communication budgets
  4. Shortlist your media tools based on objective, target audience and budget
  5. List down lead and lag measures for each media tool
  6. Prepare the brief for the campaign or even for each media tool if required (again click here for writing an effective brief)
  7. Evaluate the creatives against the objective, brand positioning and identity
  8. Prepare the media release plan
  9. Set up a tracking and monitoring process for measuring the lead and lag measures
  10. Start the communication
  11. Monitor and track the process
  12. Course correct if required

Like Abraham Lincoln said, while the execution is crucial for success, planning gives you the clarity of purpose. So plan, plan, and plan!