Whereas tactics are concerned with actively doing something, strategy is all about your plan for actively doing something. The key words here are ‘your plan’.
Launching straight into a piece of design without knowing why you are doing it, or what you are trying to communicate or to whom you are communicating, is, quite frankly, a waste of everybody’s time and effort.
Having a strategy is not a ticklist exercise, but a methodology for getting to where you want to be.
It can take many different forms from a simple who, what, why, where, when and how, through to a more formal PRINCE2 documented process.
The scale and depth depends on the nature of a project – a flyer will not need the same attention to detail as a campaign.
The important thing is to make your strategy work for you so that you have a solid base on which your communication is built. Each element of the framework can then be tested to make sure your design decision-making is evidence-based and sound.
You can then argue that you may not like the solution, but you can’t argue with the solution.
Plan to succeed
Start with a blank sheet of paper, and on it define a structure within which you can construct your design. By creating a pattern of decisions and actions in the present, you can guarantee success in the future.
So before you even think about words and pictures, you need to work your way through your strategy and see how it will influence the design;
- Have you a mission statement (do you know why you are doing this)?
- Do you know what your aims and objectives are (where are you now, where do you want to be and how are you going to get there)?
- What are the characteristics of the brand you are working with?
- What are the communications criteria (segmentation, positioning)?
- Do you have a communication plan (audience, medium, message, schedule, budget)?
- Do you know what the communication channels are?
- What does success look like (and how will you measure it)?
And then there are all those paper tools you can use to help inform your strategy (all with their little acronyms);
- SMART – Specific. Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timebound
- SWOT – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats
- AIDA – Attention, Interest, Desire, Action
- PPPP - Product, Price, Place, Promotion
Do you need to use them all? The answer (of course) is that it all depends on the nature of the project, but a partly informed strategy is better than no strategy at all. And as they say in the army, ‘Perfect Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.’
