Need to promote?

Need to promote?

Getting started: a Communications Platform is the first step

Corporate profile

Who are you and what do you do? Don’t assume that your market knows you well. Provide a summary of your business along with a brief history. This information may come from your business plan.

Market and competitive position

What are your strengths and weaknesses? Your competitions’ strengths and weaknesses? Write a realistic evaluation of your company, products/services, and brand relative to your competition.

Communication background

This includes both recent and present communication activity, such as research, advertising, direct mail, graphic design, public relations etc.

Current situation

Explain what’s happening to bring about the need for this project. For instance, you have a new product to launch or see a new competitive opportunity.

Product/service

Describe the product(s) or service(s) to be included in this project: features, benefits, etc.

Target market

• Audience demographics — the age, gender, income, employment, geography, and lifestyle of those you want to reach.

• Audience needs

• Audience wants

Objective

What do you want to achieve? What action do you want your target audience to take? Make your objective specific and the results measurable.

Image

What does the image/format/style of the piece need to say about your company? About your product or service? Use adjectives that describe (such as dynamic, stable, young, lively, etc. – think of the “personality” of the piece).

Objections to overcome

What are the target audience’s objections that must be overcome and questions to be answered to achieve your objective? How difficult will they be to overcome: easy, moderate, severe?

The Big Idea

What is the one key message that your target audience needs to ‘get,’ often leading to an action you wish them to take?

Key messages

What are the three-five other support messages you want to communicate?

Content

List the specific content the piece must contain. Be both specific and complete. If the content is not listed here, I will not know to include it. Don’t forget visuals, such as artwork, photos, logo, map, etc.

Examples

Do you have an example that will give me an idea of what you have in mind? Printed material? Product? Exhibit photos? Web sites URL addresses. Explain what you like about each example.

Format

What will be the likely size, shape, number of pages, etc.?

Quantity

How many will be produced in the initial production? What will be the consumption month-by-month during the first year?

Distribution

How will the piece be distributed to your audience: direct mail, in-store, during sales presentations, take-one display, etc.?

Available budget

If you've done a project like this in the recent past, you may have a budget. Or you may be unfamiliar with costs. Once the Communications Platform is complete, I can develop a budget.

Deadline

Do you have a hard deadline or more of a ‘it would be great to have by then’ date? Keep in mind the following work:

• Consultation (research, strategy, Communications Platform development)

• Creative (concept and design development)

• Production (artwork, printing and other production)

• Delivery

I’ll do my best to work within your schedule, but some times day-to-day realities may alter final delivery.

When starting a new communications project, we begin by writing a detailed Communications Platform. I will work closely with you to complete it.

Why do we need a Communications Platform?

1. The Platform will contain the strategic and tactical information needed for a successful project that achieves the results you want.

2. The Platform will help everyone involved understand what you want to achieve.

3. The Platform will guide dozens of key decisions made throughout the project. The better I understand what we are to accomplish and the more information I have about your situation, the more ‘on target’ my decisions will be, the fewer revisions we will go through, and the sooner the project will be completed.

4. The Platform will provide a means for you to measure how well I have fulfilled the requirements of the project.

The more thought you put into you Communications Platform the more effective will be your communications solution. To help get you started, I’ve set out questions to on this page be answered in your Communications Platform.

Let's get started!

Phone me at 503-701-9284.

Email me at bill.langenes@me.com

communicate!