What happens to the strategic planner with the advent of data and marketing automation?

Second day in the digital summit and I swear that I've met agency groups who see Strategic Planners as an endangered breed.  And they rejoice to hear from one.

Strategic planners - a dying breed?  Well, that depends on where you come from.  In Malaysia, and specifically Malaysian strategic planners - yes, they're high on the list of extinction.  And if data intelligence is going to drive the client's business from now on, then how do we survive?

Image: Easystock

On the contrary, this. Is. Our. Moment.

Was reading Superforecasting on the plane and came across this very interesting paragraph:

"When the scientist tells you he does not know the answer, he is an ignorant man.  When he tells you he has a hunch about how it is going to work, he is uncertain about it.  When he is pretty sure of how it is going to work, and he tells you, " This is the way it's going to work, I'll bet, " he still is in some doubt.  And it is of paramount importance, in order to make progress, that we recognize this ignorance and this doubt.  Because we have the doubt, we then propose looking in new directions for new ideas.  The rate of the development of science is not the rate at which you make observations alone but, much more important, the rate at which you create new things to test."

Take that principle, apply it in planning. Ever come across a planner who struts in and is cocksure that his idea was going to work and everybody else's is going to fail?  Well, that's not a planner.  That's just plain bossy.  Jokes aside, it is true that we must be able to differentiate ignorance and doubt.  And it's always good to have a pinch of doubt in everything we work on because before we are planners, we are human and we must recognize that as humans, our knowledge will always be limited.  Hence, why there are always new ways to be tested, novel ways to do things.  Data, interestingly will help us to reach there and get our answers faster.  Because data does not only show historical behavior, it can also be a rich base for predictive modeling.  And that's essentially what we do isn't it?  We evaluate where the brand is today and project the highest potential of where it can be in one year, 3 years, 5 years time.  And then we work out the kinks on how to get there, considering everything good and bad that could possibly happen under the sun between now and 5 years later.  Predictive modeling helps us to close our doubtful gaps, even if not 100% and advise plans which are a lot more grounded and risk-proof in such a fast paced environment.

Account planning was half strategy and half creative - there was always something subjective albeit calculated in our proposal.  Because we were weavers of culture and we understood the fabric of people.  So we have and will always stand proudly to represent the consumer's voice in the parliament of marketing.  That human intuition will and should never go away.  It can only be made more powerful with data analytics and machine learning.  To quote Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner, "To reframe the man-versus-machine dichotomy, combinations of Garry Kasparov and Deep Blue may prove more robust than pure-human or pure-machine approaches".  The computer learns patterns and can probably spew a million positions in a few seconds, while the human mind can only project to as far as 10 steps ahead. But the computer will never be able to understand context as well as a human and there's where we trump. Honda said it right, Man Maximum, Machine Minimum when it comes to their engineering philosophy, because at the end of the day it is about the 'human taste'.  And THAT, was coined in the 40s.  Likewise, the machine might have hundreds of best variations but it still lacks our God-given creativity - the nature to start fresh without the burden of history. The even better news is, they will help us to be faster and more efficient as a planner.  In levels never before - we can make decisions overnight or in a blink of an eye.  Ten years ago, if you wanted a complete brief in 3 days, you must be out of your mind!  But today, 24 hours is possible with the right tools. But don't you dare test it on me.

Machine will never replace us. They're our friends. And they will help us to reconcile our client's brand and/or category back into the world where it happily belongs, in speed we've never been able to before. We shouldn't just wait and embrace it.  We should create it.

Milking the future.

My latest research expedition brought me to far flung, long forgotten places that are resting in the dusty recesses of the economy - dairy farming.

Nutshell, we are only 12% self-sufficient when it comes to milk production.  What does that mean?  It means, if we were 100% self-sufficient, milk prices will come down and more people can drink more milk because it's more affordable.

It's quite scary to know that Malaysia lacks a strategy when it comes to food security.  We are too reliant on food imports which is why we're all hurting over our grocery bills today when the Ringgit plummeted.  Sometimes I wonder.  I really really wonder.  I wonder what else can the ministry do.  This is not a bashing post, and I don't doubt some people are really good at what they do.  But the question is what's next?  What's our best game plan in feeding 30 million mouths and counting? While Najib has moved on to the 11th Malaysia Plan, a quick search on the internet seems to me that the Ministry of Agriculture and Department of Veterinary Services are still stuck in the 9th!

Looks like all the attention is focused on building a knowledge-based economy that we have left our fundamental needs behind.  Many are quick to jump into an obvious conclusion - use agriculture to lift up the bottom 40 economy.  This is where we make a grave mistake of assuming poor people are meant to be farmers and urban folks are not.  That's a very strong social prejudice in this day and age, mind you.  In my books, it's equivalent to asking women to stay home.  Agricultural and farming technologies have evolved past mere livelihood to increase efficiency for better yield for better revenues for bigger markets for new economies.  You need someone who is savvy and trained and to a very large extent, passionate about about the job.  And no young urbanite today, likes a dirty job.

So perhaps, it would be wise for the government to consider attracting knowledge-based young entrepreneurs back into the agriculture sector to catapult it to its much needed and deserved growth.  Instead of just flogging dead horses, shoving expired KPIs into the shed and trying to attract those who have no will power to succeed nor excel to be part of their program.  It will bode well when we start with education, to inspire young minds to find success in farming. That this field deserves as much pride as your Silicon Valley-ish start-ups.  We need to look and scrutinize short, mid and long-term plans instead and it seems that there're A LOT to catch up.  Such bright future for us, if only the people at high places are more accounted for.

Got a related project or an idea?  Call me and let's discuss over a mug of milk.

The evolution of Man: What CAN we become?

Once upon a time, shortly after the completion of our social research on eco awareness, The Green Chronicles, we propagated that producers/manufacturers should not stop their consumer purchase cycle at 'consumption' but at 'disposal'.  When it is put into their mandatory action list, I am very sure it will drastically change the way products are planned and launched (think cameras, think smartphones).  If manufacturers are responsible for products at the disposal stage, then we will have better quality products with longer 'usage' life and a more sustainable eco-system of consumption.

While I shopped at H&M last weekend, that's one brand which recently launched a global awareness campaign on their sustainable recycling strategy.  Simple: Bring in your old clothes and trade for discounts for new ones.  Old clothes will then be recycled into materials which will be used in manufacturing new ones.  This practice now has a label and it's called EPR - Extended Producer Responsibility.  The whole point is not to mindlessly put new stuff into this world - we need to seriously consider how to 'delete' them from our system.  There.  Are.  Just.  Too.  Much.  Stuff.  In.  This.  World.  Seriously.

Now, you may not think much about this tiny little extended marketing program, but assuming the best that ALL manufacturers in this world were put in place to ensure sustainability in their product life cycle; then the first most immediate visible impact would be: NO LANDFILL.  This world will have no more landfill.  If you can't think of a way to dispose and/or recycle your products sustainably then you can't produce.  Period.  Simple as that.  Imagine, a world with no landfill.  NO LANDFILL.  No more rubbish dumps in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that spans for kilometers in diameter.

Watch the video below to get the picture.

p/s: If you're reading this and are in the business of production, please, I beg of you, consider this epic insight.  As starters, I'll even volunteer my time to discuss possibilities if you need an additional thinking buddy (consultation thereafter is chargeable though, ha ha ha).  Well I'm serious, really, think about it.



Obviously, I'm not the only one propagating.  More reading: You see Garbage, I see Value: Let's make the recycling business a no-brainer.

The issues of price and morality.

Is there such a thing called 'just price'?  A pricing level that has a moral dimension, which does not include excessive profiteering.  Long ago in the 13th century, that's what philosophers thought when religion was so prevalent in the local culture.  The elements of Christianity and 'sin' went beyond what was obvious which is politics to a more hidden dimension - economics.  A 'just' price should include some form of profit that should not be excessive because avarice is considered a sin.

A very interesting take indeed.

One could almost see how religion was treated as a true cornerstone of the society especially to settle the dispute of different opinions.  The common ideology was that if we can't decide which one of us is right, then let religion decide what is the common good for mankind.

Pros and cons.  While I understand the noble intention of religion but in reality, it's much more complicated than that.  Some economists believe that the society itself will determine the 'just' price.  If the price level was too high, people will automatically stop buying thus forcing it to come down.  So if left to society's own antics and decision, even the participants of economies follow the principle of Darwin - the survival of the fittest, which in this case - is the survival of the richest.  Because once the price level is set, anyone who falls below that 'affordability' level will not be able to enjoy the product and/or service.

Something to really consider when setting the price for 'common good' products no?  Think medication, think eco-solutions, think education, think health care, think water, think electricity.  Only if you come from X level of income background would you then be able to enjoy basic necessities, better education and health services and even to a certain extent, eco solutions.

No right, no wrong.  But a very interesting perspective.  Thoughts?

When the testing stops, the manipulation stops too?

Recently read an article on Campaign Brief with regards to the latest 'facial coding technology' by Milward Brown.

Says Daren Poole (global brand director for Link, Milward Brown's existing copy testing solution): "Traditional methods of measuring emotion are not always capable of capturing a true emotional response. Facial coding allows us to track how a person really responds, rather than what they claim to have felt. There's no substitute for a real smile, laugh or frown and for the first time in Australia we can measure this all in the viewer's home environment. 

"Facial coding as part of Link can measure factors such as how well it captures a viewer's attention, how they respond to it and ultimately provide guidance in the analysis of the ad's impact on the brand. If a campaign is pushing the boundaries in terms or humour or controversy this is a controlled means to test how consumers really respond."

Neuromarketing is almost like the perfect matrimony between science and art.  Finally, marketers can make scientific sense out of the art business (called communication or more crudely some say, advertising) via MRI scans.  Getting neuro-scientists to decipher brain activity when 'respondents' are exposed to different storyboards, subsequently helps them to put the dollar on the best one that brings the most profitable emotion home (kaching).

It may sound fine and dandy and even awesome initially, as Morgan Spurlock professed after one of these scans, that he wanted a Coke but didn't know why (The Greatest Movie Ever Sold).  That is how powerful an ad message can be.  More explanation of the usage of MRI scans in marketing here:



Now.  Let us pause for a minute.  Let's take a minute to consider the effects of such testing in Political Marketing.  Are we still in awe?  Let's take another minute to consider the result of neuromarketing in say... pharmaceutical business?  Are you just burnt out from 21st century-living that a good old vacation can't fix or do you really need to be fixed with a drug?

I always felt FGDs fall short of something - people are back-rationalizing what they did in a room with a two-way mirror hence making findings a lot less accurate.  Gives you a sense of direction but hardly provides any crux to the issue.  But to now pay them to sleep through scanners?  Hmm.

I've always thought marketing or advertising as a courtship.  Between us and the consumer.  You don't really know what makes them click unless you put (a hell lot of) effort in trying to understand their world.  It's like a real relationship isn't it?  No effort, no depth.  If you don't bother finding out what they like, dislike, what makes their heart pulpitate and what makes it stop, you'll never develop that dream partnership of a companion they truly want to exist!

Well, hang on a sec.  That's where neuromarketing comes in.  Pay them, scan them, and they'll fall in love with you because amidst of the 10 storyboards of words, surely you must have said something right.  And them walking out of the room, falling in love with you but have no idea why.  And yea, you sustain that relationship as long as they don't fall in love with someone else.  And you extrapolate the findings and make hundreds and thousands and millions of others fall in love with a can of whatever-you're-selling.  Brill.

But that takes away so much romance isn't it?  Whatever happened to good old ethnography?

Neuroscience in consumer courtship - aye or nay?

Is supermarket, the new age fantasy?

I've been a supermarket vulture recently and oh my, how have our civilization has evolved.

We used to have one type of cooking oil. Maybe two or three choices of brand but essentially the same stuff. Then the choice widens as more and more brands push through the shelf. Some independent, some a few sub-brands from the same company, designed to dominate visual space with little product differentiation. And then the range started growing roots vertically. Within cooking oil, you now can choose peanut, canola, palm, etc etc. Brands of each sprouting like branches. And then the budding specialist oils (raspberry mango, olive and spice, etc etc) blossoms to confuse you even more if you're not confused by now. Welcome to grocery 2.0. And that's just the oil. Wait till you see the other stuff.

What happened to us? How much variety can we really consume?

But I must say that going grocery window shopping has become a new hobby of mine. I don't cook much nor great. But I simply couldn't resist the fascination of being awed by the powerful but mostly overlooked little inventions of mankind. Inventions that not only sustain us but nourish and enrich us. Amazing isn't it?

If you believe in the theory 'paradox of choice' then you must agree with me that the business of grocery shopping might be a lot less prosperous than it actually seems to be. What do you do when you click on a website that has nothing but 8 point size text and no matter how long you scroll, the page knows no end? You x it of course. So imagine being overwhelmed by rows and rows of colourful bottles and boxes and packages and what not. With no recipe in hand. You thought you would come for an exploration and an exploration it is. And find yourself at a complete lost, paralysed by the paradox of being able to whip up almost infinite types of dishes yet you could decide on none. Brilliant.

Now for the swift sighted, there's a blatant gaping hole of need that begs to be fulfilled. Perhaps in more than one way but nevertheless a great opportunity to help ease this shopper paralysis and make us all better cooks, chefs, homemakers, husbands, girlfriends, boyfriends, sons and daughters. If you can spot it, why not share it? See if we're on the same page? ;)

Meanwhile, I should stop blogging and get on with my cart. I'm causing a supermarket jam.  Happy shopping y'all!

Really. Seriously. Honestly, what do planners do?

When people ask me what I do in advertising, everyone gets it if I were to say 'Client Servicing' or 'Copywriter' or 'Art Director' or 'Media' or 'Production'.  Most often than not, I just get a blank look when I say 'Planner'.  No one knows what we do.  Heck, even some within our own office don't know what we do.  While some people bitch about Servicing as being the 'high-class' messenger, we are infamously known as the 'expert' Powerpoint writer.

It's total bullshit.

What I do is I PLAN.  I solve problems.  Any problems.  Period.  Full stop.  You have a problem?  You come to me.  I give you a solution.  And that solution has a plan.  It consists of an idea that has a concise strategy to help you get out of your rut hole (Point A) and into dreamland (Point B).  Wherever your Point A is, wherever your Point B is.  It doesn't matter.  Sometimes, we can give you an even bigger plan and suggest the third point.  Point A to Point B to Point C to Point Whatever.  Till you say stop.  Small planners, small journey.  Big planners, big journey.  Simple as that.

There's no job in planning.  Planning is living.  If you're a good problem solver in life, you're a good problem solver at work.  Problems are problems, big or small.  What a planner lives on, he or she feeds back into their work.  So, there's no 9 to 5 job, it's a round-the-clock work because a planner is perpetually living, breathing and most importantly learning.  What a planner learns is oxygen (amazingly well put by fellow planner, Heidi Heckemer) to the agency.  The oxygen that's needed for the ultimate first spark of light (yes, pun intended).  Without that oxygen, there's nothing.

I'm not a workaholic.  I might seem like I'm thinking all the time.  That's because I enjoy learning.  You can't learn if you're not thinking, no? (that's why our education system failed so terribly).  So people may mistaken me as a workaholic.  Well, yea.  Whatever.

In reality, there's no such thing as a 'junior' planner.  Or planning manager, or director, or chief planner.  A planner is a planner.  You're either a planner or you're not.  A good planner or you're not.  Levels don't define how good you are, it just defines how old you are (defers maybe only in some exceptional cases).  But I guess, it's a way for management to safeguard the planning lineage in agencies.  Therefore, they need to photocopy the planning director into many little planners so that they can make more money.  Makes perfect economic sense and I'm not complaining.  But I think planning directors are just highly misunderstood.  That's all I'm saying.  I'm not interested in intellectual masturbation with C-executives.  I'm here to solve problems.  Directorship sets a diplomatic restrain on you, that's all (say that, don't say that, say that, don't say that).  It's no biggie.  Don't like?  Leave.  Be a planning nomad :) (that's my dream job actually.  And now that I've mentioned it, PLEASE REMEMBER THAT YOU READ THAT TERM HERE FIRST.  TQVM).

I have a confession.  I have trouble following rules or systems to be specific.  I can't work in a cookie cutter.  I can't live in a pigeon-hole.  That makes me unstable and that always gets me into trouble.

BIG SMILE.  Sorry, can't help it.  Learning is a dotted-life (credit Steve Jobs).  Hold that thought!  Did you just imagine some black dots on a straight line?  Whether horizontal or vertical?  Hmm.  You know what dalmatians are?  Well, that's what I'm talking about.  Sporadic dots (who says it must always be a line!).  I get suffocated, unhappy, bordering depression if I'm locked within 4-walls.  Not 4 physical walls (I don't really care about physicality) but my light gets dimmer if I'm tied down by systems.  Linear methods.  You must do this and this and this because it's this and this and this.  You must be in by 9am.  I don't really care what time I come to work but to sit in the jam for 2 hours simply don't make any common sense to me.  I defy inefficient systems.  So.  I don't come in to work at 9.  As long as I'm in when I'm needed then problem solved.  You get me now?  Yea, planning nomad.

I get suffocated if I can't travel.  If I can't go and see the world, talk to people and consume their culture, I shrink.  Some people don't.  They retain their original size.  But I will shrink.  I don't why it happens, but it happens.  I'm not sure if it's gonna work as well if you tell me to 'grow up', cause trust me, I told myself that gazillion times before.  But it doesn't work.  On the contrary.  Every time I travel, my mind grows.  It stretches itself so much to carry the excitement back to my team.  My excitement literally bursts out from me.  I wanted to share with them what I saw, who I met, what I did because I have all these great ideas that would make for great problem-solutions.  Without getting out there, my sight dims.  And I will lose the love for my work.  The love for solving problems.  The love for learning.  The love for living.

That's what I do.

That's what a planner does.

And now, I'm gonna share with you a really simple but profound slideshow from Heidi, another planning nomad.  And right after this.  I'm gonna share the link with my bosses.  It feels like these are the words which I've always wanted to tell them but never knew how.  Well, now that a planner has expertly put it into a Powerpoint, I should just click 'send'.  PTL for Slideshare.  Enjoice :)

planning, creativity & planning for creative campaigns

View more presentations from Heidi Hackemer

The standard market cycle.

First, you serve an under served need. When all needs are fulfilled, then you create a new need. When a new need is created, then you create choices. When there are too many choices, then it will go into a price war. When a price war starts, you bundle value-added services. When VAS becomes a standard package, then it's time to create a new product that again serves an under served need.

You can almost tell the positioning of a brand by identifying how much time and resources it is spending on one area of the cycle. An ideal business situation is of course, one that has balance throughout the whole cycle. It doesn't promise you success, but at least you know you're still relevant to the people.

There. No rocket science.

Marketing: Co-creation means increasing perspectives, covering more overlooked spots.

Le Meridien launched its LM100 program with a vision to sign up 100 art and design experts as consultants to further differentiate the hotel chain from rest of the world. In this saturated space, hoteliers need to look for blue ocean to stay profitable and competitive. I thought it was kind of cool to see such an innovative marketing program (launched in 2007) and would really love to see what kind of hybrid ideas come out of it. I've not (yet) stayed in Le Meridien KL before but some quick visits brought back vague artsy impression. Time to check in perhaps?

On a separate note. This co-creating thing. I'm thinking how to redefine researches - turning cold, unfriendly focus groups to consumer think tanks. I know creative will hate this. Because they feel that no one should ever dictate creative boundaries. But I thought sometimes, having outsiders to share view points gives us a different perspective to things. And yes, I am pretty adamant about that whether creative likes it or not. We shall see.

everyoneconnects.net.

3,473,905 (6 plus this) mentions, 278,255 visits, 2,459 number of audio/video, 2,674 comments, 1,053 tweets, 9,434 FB fans. Well done!

Question. From a marketing point of view - we're curious what exactly does everyoneconnects campaign serve? Broadband subscription? Favorable brand perception? Increase connectivity? Even if it's mobile connectivity? Promoting social media for mass acceptance? So that the rakyat won't 'potong'? How does the communication activity explains (or sells) TM's business competency? Or is this another mandatory effort to promote the Satu Malaysia konsep? Hmm.

While we think this is one of the most viral campaigns we've seen so far in Malaysia (no doubt with a big fat budget to boost), we're just curious - what kind of ROI does this justify for a connectivity monopolist?

Compare with BT's version of social media communication which is mainly to promote collaboration (same concept) across the enterprise in 170 countries, connecting 110,000 employees. Catering to the Digital Generation (same insight), BT understands that collective wisdom could perhaps propel the company faster than when it's not on social media. Some of BT's efforts in leveraging on social media:

1) BTpedia (BT's own version of wikipedia) enabling information sharing with 800 over articles and growing within the company
2) BT Collaborate allowing project teams to edit and add comments within minutes internally as well as promoting effective knowledge sharing amongst all team members
3) Blogging - from senior managers engaging their teams to executives sharing their learning experience from trainings
4) BT Today wiring employees to the latest news and happenings via an online newsdesk
5) MY BT - an enterprise social network similar to Facebook provides great functionality by allowing employees to connect with each other through their individual skill sets
6) Podcast to encourage user-generated content via audio and video material

Although the sound business case of ROI was unclear initally, for the deployment of social media in such scale but Richard Dennison (Senior Manager - Social Media at BT) believes that the value it adds on to the business is self-evident.

Read more of the case study here in Dennison's blog.

While we believe that social media is the future, but we're hardpressed to force fit the tool into practice just because it's trendy. The best part about social media is it could help you to solve almost anything if it's used strategically and its integrity respected. That includes solving non-existent problems. Social media solves future problems before they occur if the power to anticipate is accounted as part of the communication strategy. That's simply because communication can solve almost everything. Perhaps TM should reconsider its 2.0 strategy to focus inward instead, building employees collaborative skill sets which in turn contributes to the building of the company. Then again, this is just our two cents worth.

Sorry. What was TM trying to sell again?

Facts you should know.

10% influence the purchasing behavior of the other 90%. 10% generate the content for the other 90%. Now the numbers tally. Get it?