def: (n). strategy - a plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim.
A recent NZ Marketing survey of senior marketers points to strategy being an issue that both they and their creative partners grapple with. This as marketers are increasingly looking to creative and media planners to help turn high-level strategic objectives into marketing outputs that grow their brands.
Marketers tell us that they want more strategic planning and implementation and deeper business thinking, along with better consumer insights and creative thinking. But what exactly informs this strategic thinking? Who gets to decide on it? How does business strategy translate to marketing output? Does the word mean different things to different people in an organisation (or even between organisations)? And how do organisations ensure everyone is on the same strategy page?
These are all questions I seek answer for as I chat with marketers about business and brand strategic objectives, how they communicate these to agency partners and strategic directors, who in turn share with me details on how these objectives are turned into creative outputs through the lens of their own organisations’ strategic objectives. This will set the tone for a continued discussion on strategy that runs throughout this issue with exclusive opinion pieces and relatable case studies from Kiwi brands.
‘No matter how complex or challenging the environment a business is in – a strategy needs to be simple, it must seem tangible and achievable.’
Ziena Jalil
Before I delve into a discussion on the role strategy plays in producing marketing output that meets both business directives and customer needs, let’s start by defining strategy (or at least trying to). Specifically, strategy as it relates to marketing and brand.
WHAT IS STRATEGY?
“A well over-used word these days,” says Wendy Rayner, GM Strategy & Brand, NZ at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners.
This is a question I put to several client and creative agency marketers in the hope of narrowing down a definition of strategy. But each time, met with a different interpretation.
