Judgment of objective facts is the basis for planners to solve problems.
Lao Xie, I have been planning for many years. A cigarette, a pen, a book bound with printed waste paper, a computer and a pair of inflexible hands make up my current work and even my life. My love for the job of planning stems from my childhood pursuit of the dream of "strategizing and winning thousands of miles", and my yearning for a free and unrestrained life of "feather fan and silk scarf, smiling at the world". However, in reality, "planning" is far less free and easy. What you face every day are issues that give you headaches, from home appliances to food, from brand promotion to product marketing... In the past few years of my career, I have experienced no less than hundreds of projects, large and small, and cases from all walks of life. More than one.
"Four steps" to solve problems
I believe that the work of most planners usually starts with the project, and of course it may also end with the project. It is undeniable that solving problems is the core function of every planner. When customers put forward their needs, the problems you need to solve will come. Maybe everyone's logic is different, and the methods to solve the same problem will naturally be different. In my experience, there are generally four steps to solve a problem.
For example, a customer says he wants to go to heaven. This is customer demand. Our general solution logic is the "four-step method": The first step is to understand that there are many ways to get to heaven. You can take a plane, a rocket, a joke, or you can choose to commit suicide. So, which method do you recommend for your client? Second step, assuming you choose a suicide method for your client, how to commit suicide? Is it wiping the neck or hanging from a beam? Third step, if it is suicide by hanging from a beam, where and what Time, and who will help you complete this work? After completing the dismantling and answering of the above topics, the fourth step is to design the system solution, which is what we often refer to as creative design and execution planning. Of course , and don’t forget to write down the number of banknotes the customer should pay.
After the four steps of work are completed smoothly, the planning work is basically completed. The specific needs of customers are different, but the ideas for solving the problems are generally similar. The logic is very clear and the idea seems very simple. However, we need to pay attention to two key actions, one is problem judgment based on objective facts, and the other is the design of solutions based on professional basis. But in these two actions, planners often "neglect". Here, the author will share his experience as follows.
Take off the "colored glasses"
Judgment of objective facts is the basis for planners to solve problems. It not only determines your accurate definition of the problems faced by customers, but also seriously affects the scientific nature of the solutions you design. In reality, one of the mistakes that planners often make is that they like to judge problems through "colored glasses" and do not conduct a comprehensive analysis of objective facts, but only rely on their own experience to make subjective judgments.
In 2004, the company I was working for was serving a hydropower manufacturer in Zhejiang. Our job is to disseminate a terminal water purification equipment product of this manufacturer for area A. The biggest highlight of this product is "filtration". Consumers can connect this device to the tap water pipe, and the tap water will be purer after being filtered. Such distinct product highlights prevented the project team from considering any further issues at that time.
First of all, everyone is concerned about health issues (this is a taken-for-granted judgment); secondly, "health" is the main manifestation of the product's USP (unique selling proposition). With this understanding, it can be basically determined that "health" is the most effective combination of product and public value. Therefore, the project team determined the core message of public relations communication as "healthy life starts with water." At the same time, under the guidance of the theme, a "sea, land and air communication plan" integrating outdoor media, print media and television media was planned. At the same time, a series of activities were designed, such as community interaction, terminal roadshows, etc. With a distinct theme, full interaction, intensive communication bombing design, etc., Party A was very excited when receiving the plan. As a result, the project was successfully won, and the boss highly praised the plan and gave the person in charge of writing the plan a considerable bonus.
The success of my colleagues made me and my team (I was mainly responsible for projects in the fast-moving consumer goods field such as dairy products and beverages at the time) very envious. Perhaps it was the mentality of "sour grapes". At that time, I always felt that there was something wrong. Something was wrong, but the success of the project didn’t make me think about it anymore.
It later proved that my "unfounded" worries were not unreasonable. When the project was halfway through, the client suddenly stopped it. In the following two months, there was no movement from the customer, and even the payment became very reluctant and delayed again and again.
Colleagues from the project team made inquiries and found out that nearly a month after our actions were implemented, the market response in Area A was very small and did not achieve the results we expected. Therefore, the boss of Party A who was in charge of the market at that time went to Area A in person. As a result, he came back with a reason that sounded very funny.
It turns out that the water quality in Area A has always been good, and the water tastes sweet. When local residents are thirsty, they often go directly to the tap to "drink a lot." In the words of a dealer from Party A, "Even their donkeys All I drink is mineral water every day!”
Comrade Xiaoping once said that without investigation, there is no right to speak. For example, if you recommend "choose a plane to fly" to a customer, the biggest reason is that you think flying is comfortable. This is just your subjective judgment. If the customer asks, "Is it also comfortable to fly on a rocket?" What should you do? So, we Also tell the customer: Through investigation, it was found that there is a very beautiful Boeing 737 in your back garden (customer advantage). At the same time, compared with rockets, the cost of the aircraft is lower, the safety performance is more stable, etc. Of course, there may be other reasons, but these reasons do not come from "taken for granted" from our experience, but are the best solutions provided to customers through a comprehensive judgment of objective facts.
Our mistake occurred here. We ignored two very important links: one is to investigate and analyze the environment of the communication implementation area, and the other is to conduct necessary research on the target consumer groups. These two jobs are automatically blocked under our "colored glasses".
Judgment based on objective facts is the basis for the entire planning work to be carried out effectively, and is also the most critical step in our planning work. If we wear "colored glasses" and judge the topic based on our own experience or even preferences, it will harm not only our customers, but also our professional lives.
Of course, in actual work, the emergence of various problems such as tight working hours, large amounts of data, and miscellaneous information will also cause planners to encounter a lot of trouble when analyzing objective facts. However, we should not respond passively or even avoid it "cunningly" just because of the existence of difficulties. We must realize that what planners provide customers should not be an irresponsible idea, but a scientific system solution.
Cherish "professional value"
After accurate analysis of the objective facts, we can basically make a basic definition of the problems faced by our customers. But what is the solution we want to provide our customers? We know that the planning industry is very segmented. Advertising planning, public relations planning, marketing planning, etc. Each planning field represents a professional field. At the same time, each professional field has different knowledge, understanding, definition and designed solutions for the same problem. For the same topic, the advertising planner may recommend you choose to take a rocket, but the marketing planner will recommend you choose a plane... In short, all roads lead to Rome, and the rest is how Party A evaluates and chooses.
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This article is Lao Xie’s original original website on ADMIN5. Reprinted with the following note: Lao Xie’s soft article service.