Number 21: Winter 2003

 

Issues Marketing and The Creation of Long-Term Brand Value

By Rich Wagner

Editor's comment: Much has been written about the changing role of different marketing agencies. One area that is clear is that an understanding of the bigger picture is vital. Agencies working on one functional area may too often view that as an end in itself rather than the value they add to the overall marketing idea.

Generally speaking, existing marketing, advertising, and public relations agencies do not offer clients long-term value. Rather, such agencies serve as tactical tools, as implementers that focus on execution rather than fueling brand growth and development. Thus, compensation is based upon labor, measured by an hourly rate, rather than on the value they create. 

Creative agencies must begin to develop ideas that create value or risk becoming a service commodity that focuses on quantity, be it in the number of press releases, contacts, or hours billed. One approach to creating long-term value is the development of “Big Ideas” and the application of a new communications philosophy that seeks to bridge the gap between public issues and needs with solutions in the forms of corporate brands, products, and services.

The Universe of Corporate Consultants and Advisors

Consider an industry that includes management consultants, implementation experts, concept developers, advertising agencies, and public relations enterprises. Such an industry, loosely described as corporate consultants and advisors with combined annual revenues in excess of $50 billion, is structured into four clearly defined sub-industries based upon the scope of the work and the process applied to a project. The scope of work can be either tactical or strategic in nature; the process applied to the project can be either analytical or creative in nature. The relationship between scope and process produces four quadrants in which existing corporate consultants and advisors may be classified.

Figure 1: Brighthouse’s Model of Business Consultants and Advisors

The Application of Creative Processes

By isolating creative process quadrants in the matrix above, it becomes clear that creative projects may be either strategic or tactical in scope. If the creative column is rotated so that tactics follow strategy, as illustrated in the diagram below, it becomes evident that the relationship between strategy and tactic is that creative/tactics are the functions that implement the elements of creative/strategy.  

Figure 2: Creative Business Processes

Within creative processes exist strategic and tactical functions. Strategy and tactics are interrelated; tactics are merely the functional application of strategy – it is where the strategy interacts with the marketplace.  

“Issues Marketing”(SM) and “Big Ideas”

Issues Marketing is the application of ideas to issues; an approach to marketing and branding that is part strategic, part tactical. Issues Marketing is a business model, a process for coupling issues with solutions and solutions with public needs. 

The practice of Issues Marketing involves the identification of a core “need” that is consistent across all the various publics of an enterprise – the consumer, the investor, and others.

In a way, the identification of a core, consistent issue that is reliable across all constituencies is similar to the concepts applied in Umbrella Branding.  In Umbrella Branding, defined as the consistent positioning of a dominant brand with sub-brands that differ slightly in function or design, the message communicated to the target audiences must be both consistent and relevant to all brands under the dominant brand umbrella (such as vehicle make and models). 

With that said, Issues Marketing seeks to define the core need and the related “issue” that is relevant to all publics.

The identification of a central issue produces a theme that, like Umbrella Branding, is consistent throughout the Issues Marketing approach. The issue becomes the umbrella under which all communications, to all publics, are created, nurtured, and distributed. The establishment of a consistent theme provides for an interrelationship between all communications tactics (PR and Advertising) and all publics (consumers and investors).  

Figure III (a): Creative/Tactic Process

Armed with the core issue, Issue Marketing then requires a link to be established between the issues and the publics.  In essence, Issue Marketing demands ideas that solve the needs that exist across all publics. The link is established through the analysis of the environment and understanding of the various “needs” and creative problem solving that identify a connection between product/service and relevant needs and issues.

The issue then becomes tied to the idea, which serves as a solution to a problem at hand. What is then being offered is not merely a product or service but, rather, a remedy. By offering remedies, creative tactics (communications), be it PR or Advertising in nature, emerge to support and communicate the relevance of the solution.   

Figure III (b): Creative/Tactic Process

The creation of a link between an issue and an idea is where most marketing communications fall short. Too often, the communication focus becomes a numbers game where the execution of a tactic – a press release or a television commercial – becomes an end in and of itself. The focus on the tactic, rather the binding issue and its relationship to idea that serves as a solution, often produces an inconsistent and confusing marketing message at best and a conflicting marketing message at worst. 

The solution itself perpetuates an increased “buzz” about the idea which fuels the publicity cycle by becoming newsworthy in and of itself. The ripple effect induced by offering a solution to a problem that address all publics contributes to awareness, builds brands, and increases demand for the solution because the various publics “make up their own minds” as to the relevance and value of the solution. 

By attaching existing issues with ideas that offer solutions and by communicating the link between a solution and a need, Issues Marketing presents a product or service as a solution. 

Evolution of Big Ideas

In recognition of the role between strategy and tactic, a methodology based upon Issues Marketing assumptions may be established that outlines the process of creating a ‘Big Idea’ and clarifies the role of ideas in the communications process. From start to finish, Issues Marketing spans two quadrants of the Corporate Advisor Universe: Creative/Strategy and Creative/Tactic.

Creative/Strategy is the environment in which ‘Big Ideas’ are born, nurtured, and tested.  Upon meeting the standards that govern an advisor operating within the Creative/Strategy quadrant, the ‘Big Idea’ is then applied and propagated through tactical efforts while remaining true to the ‘Big Idea’. Thus, all tactical components, having their roots in the same ‘Big Idea’ provide for a coherent, consistent, and interrelated message to all publics. 

Figure 4:Sequence of ‘Big Ideas’ in Issues Marketing

The identification of issues falls within the scope of strategy, whereas the communication of the issues’ relevance, and therefore the relevance of the solution, falls within the scope of tactics. Because the metrics used in measuring performance and success differ by scope, few advisory firms offer both strategic and tactical expertise.

Figure 4 illustrates that Issues Marketing is essentially a five-step process. The first four steps of the Issues Marketing process illustrate the Creative/Strategy elements. Stage 5 the process initiates a tactical sequence that may take the form of advertising, public relations, direct marketing, or any of a number of communications tactics.

As Figure IV suggests, ‘Big Ideas’ emerge from core public issues that are relevant to both the client and the consumer. Relevance is discovered through a research process that incorporates reflection and client interaction. Working backwards, the broader issue can then be inferred from the existence of a common need, be it improved health-care, improved communication, or enhanced public security. 

Armed with an understanding of the need and the related issue, creative consultants can then focus on the gap between the need and the issue.  The “Big Idea” serves as the bridge and is the result of an iterative process of creative thought, analysis, reflection, client interaction and testing.  With the issue and need connected by a solution, tactics are then implemented and executed to communicate the presence of the solution to the relevant target audiences.  All communications efforts become defined based upon the tactics relationship to the core theme, the relationship between the issue and the need.

The Relationship Between Strategy and Tactics

Imagine the implementation of tactics without a common theme. Each tactic then becomes an unrelated means to an end. This fragmentation of message causes brand erosion and creates confusion in the mind of the consumer. Tremendous publicity and awareness of the brand, product, or service may be generated; however, tremendous confusion over the brand’s relevance to the consumer may also exist. 

Issues Marketing seeks to avoid such confusion. The philosophy builds brands through a consistent theme developed through problem solving measures. Issues Marketing is a philosophy that enables any business representative who communicates with the public through public relations, marketing, and advertising to build brands through the development of strategy rather than the execution of tactics.

Disclaimer

Contact Webmaster

Pool Version 2.0 

© Rich Wagner / Through the Loop Consulting Ltd 1998-2003