Why we insist on aiming for “Strategic Clarity” first.

Discover the transformative impact of strategic clarity on your media strategy, ensuring alignment, efficiency and clearing the way for media excellence.

Learn how it’s the cornerstone of success for any business aiming to achieve its goals and sustain in the long run. 👇

When we talk “Strategic Clarity”, we need to go back to some strategic and marketing basics.

- Oh no… Theory, really? -

Don’t be mistaken; media and marketing are intricately linked to each other.

Don’t expect to be impactful in media in the long run if your marketing fundamentals are not clearly defined.

Unless you have a unique product/service and are alone in your market – which rarely happens - competitors will soon or lately set stronger brand fundamentals than you and eat your market shares.

This foundational work, although seemingly daunting at first, is an indispensable one-time effort that can be tackled within a few weeks if you have the proper guidance and methodology.

- ODYSSEY’s 6-step Strategic Fundamentals -

Thus, at ODYSSEY, we usually start by answering those 6 fundamental strategic questions together with our clients (whom we’re happy to help doing so of course!).

Strategic Fundamentals	What is it?	How will this impact your media strategy?
1. Your strategic insight	WHY you started your business at the first place; what struggle you observed and want to solve or on what universal reality your brand is founded	Understanding the deep reason behind your business serves as a guiding light for media actions and ensures media efforts are aligned with your initial purpose. It enables to define the key elements for media efforts: ·       the target audience concerned by the struggle ·       the messaging that best resonates with your audience’s reality ·       the competitive positioning to highlight how your solution differs from competitors’ alternatives
2. Your strategic target audience	WHO your products/services are mainly dedicated to	Audience targeting is what makes digital marketing worth it. A deep and detailed understanding of the target audience enables to: ·       prioritize and focus media efforts ·       select the right media channels ·       use the right tone of voice ·       develop audience-appealing visual creatives
3. The benefits you’re offering	WHAT functional and emotional benefits your target audience will experience	This is the message that the media campaigns will play with and hammer to your target audience. Thus, those 2 types of benefits should be clearly defined.   ·       Functional: concretely, how does your product/service solve the initial problem; list the unique features/solutions you provide to your audience ·       Emotional: how will your audience feel after using your product/service? You can list adjectives that the media copy could be based upon.
4. The “reason to believe” (RTB) of your brand	Why you should be trusted: proven skills/experience, recognized scientific formula, label, social proof, …	The RTB often becomes a claim widely used in media campaigns. It’s a powerful way to quickly convince/reassure your audience if it is still hesitating.
5. Your brand personality	How your target audience would quickly describe you to others: 3-5 adjectives, or a mood board, or a celebrity perfectly encompassing your traits	These aren’t just words, but a powerful way to ensure 100% alignment through all media actions. Your brand should exude these personality traits consistently across all touchpoints; use them as a check list for the media assets you develop, your website UX, your customer service, etc. Do these interactions tick the boxes of those 3-5 adjectives?
6. Your brand purpose	Why you exist beyond profits, your positive impact on the world	A strongly articulated purpose makes your brand inspirational/aspirational and resonates with your target audience’s need for impact/change. It elevates the messaging and has a strong seductive/rallying power as it reflects the company's values, beliefs, and the positive impact it seeks to make on the world.

A clear answer to each of those fundamentals lays strong foundations for a powerful media strategy. 🏗️

🔜 In another post, we’ll share our answers for our business, ODYSSEY, so that you can see the direct impacts of having those points clear before spending a pence on media.

- Clear with your 6 Fundamentals? Let’s talk Business! -

Media serves business. Not the other way around (media can be a big spender!).

Answering key business questions for this year and the coming one will give birth to a resulting media strategy perfectly serving your vision and goals.

At ODYSSEY, we usually focus on the following questions: 

Key business questions:	What is it?	How will this impact your media strategy?
1. Your main financial objective	What figures did you promise to your stakeholders?	Ground your media teams in reality. Share your business objectives with them. You want to make sure that your media efforts ultimately serve your business goals, and not isolated media objectives (make sure that getting +1000 followers on IG is part of the Big Plan !)
2. Your resources and limitations	What are the internal and external resources dedicated to media ? What media budget do you have on hand ?	Media offers endless opportunities. Depending on your resources, your media plan could aim at generating awareness among mass audiences, driving on-site traffic from qualified audiences or (re)engage lower funnel prospects.
3. Your main and secondary markets	What are the markets you are prioritizing and how mature are they for your products/services?	Whether you aim for expanding into a new market, consolidate your business in existing markets or focus on markets with the highest margins, the resulting media strategy (audiences maturity, media channels, campaign objectives, KPIs monitored, …) will completely differ.
4. Product portfolio strategy	Which are your recruitment products? And your business drivers?	Prioritizing is key. Focus on advertising strategic products/services to specific audiences. Start by driving high quality traffic on high quality product pages.

Helping you go through those questions is part of our methodology.

We know that…

-       You have little time (thanks for reading our blog btw !)

-       You have high media expectations

-       You need actionable recommendations, no bull**** theory

-       You don’t have ready-to-share answers to most of those questions; we’re here to help organize your thoughts!

- Just in case you’re still wondering… Lacking Strategic Clarity is risky. -

Without strategic clarity, media efforts risk becoming disjointed, inefficient, and ultimately ineffective. This results in isolated media efforts that seem very far from real business preoccupations. Exactly what we do not want. ❌

- So, when does Media Excellence start? -

Right after those fundamental Marketing and Business questions are answered. Media needs those elements to reach Excellence.

Thinking to reach out to ODYSSEY for your media strategy? The good thing is, we won’t need much more of your time after aligning on those key elements. As media experts with a solid understanding of your fundamentals and objectives, we can work autonomously on your go-to-market plan and get back to you with a powerful media strategy.

Let us be your guide. 

We hope that this blog article was helpful.

For more insights on #MediaManagement, #StrategicThinking, #ContentMarketing, #DigitalMedia and #MarketingTrends, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn for updates.

Virtually yours,

The Odyssey team 🌟