The document provides guidance on conducting a marketing communications planning process. It begins by emphasizing the importance of understanding the customer perspective. The planning process involves a strategy audit using a consumer purchase cycle framework to evaluate the current strategy, followed by forward planning to develop new strategic objectives and solutions. Key steps include identifying challenges, setting measurable objectives, focusing resources, and producing a written marketing plan.

1. Marketing Communications
Planning Process
PLANNING GUIDE
© LOOMIS
2016

2. FIRST THINGS
FIRST.
At this early stage in our planning process, this is simply a “yes” or “no” question. We either have a
complete understanding of our primary customer or we need to develop one. Before we can align
around answers and engage in a meaningful process, we will need to have the box checked on this
item. There are many important perspectives in the planning process, but the customer’s perspective
should trump all. NOTE: Answering this first question may require us to slow down the process and do
some additional research before moving forward. We cannot conduct the strategy audit without this
information.
Do we have a research-based, personally
observed,
solid understanding of who our customer is and
what he or she wants?

3. THE LOOMIS PLANNING CYCLE
Our planning cycle operates like a repetitive learning loop
that evolves formally at least annually and sometimes
more often depending on market conditions and
organizational developments. The focus of the process
is on gathering good intelligence that drives insights
leading to strategically sound ideas for moving the
business against measurable objectives. We
implement those ideas, evaluate effectiveness, factor in
new learning and repeat the process perpetually.
While we generally engage in the formal planning process
annually, this very same process drives our daily thinking.
It’s the way we come up with ideas. The intention of the
formal planning process is to create shared
organizational learning and alignment.
The formal process gets everyone on the same page,
doing smart things and pulling in the same direction to
move the business. That’s the planning concept, but our
planning framework for doing the work of building a plan is
more tangible.
The most fundamental and productive exercise we can
engage in at the beginning is to properly identify and
frame
the problem or problems we are trying to solve with
marketing communications. What are we trying to solve,
specifically? Proper framing of the problem allows us to ask
the right questions.
The planning process is driven by asking the right
questions and arriving at the best answers. We use the
customer buying cycle for our planning framework.

4. WHAT’S OUR GOAL??
Our planning process is based on a tried and true marketing model that illustrates the way people buy
things. It’s often referred to as a consumer purchase cycle, and we use it as a framework for planning.
We begin our process with a thorough audit of our current strategy and use the information gleaned from
that exercise to inform the forward planning process. For this process to be effective, it requires a client
champion. It cannot be done effectively by a third party operating at arm’s length. The process is aimed
at creating organizational alignment around the marketing effort for all stakeholders. Anyone whose
contributions and buy-in are important should be included appropriately in the process.
The resulting plan provides directional clarity and focus for the team based on empirical data and the
collective judgments of organizational leadership, and it is also a flexible product. It should be adjusted
to meet significant changes in market conditions, but it should not be changed lightly, and it should only
go forward with team alignment and commitment.
Our goal is to use the customer purchase cycle
framework to audit the existing marketing
communications strategy and develop new
strategic alternatives.

5. As we begin the process of strategic inquiry using the purchase
cycle framework, we will focus on raising and answering
questions that will help expose knowledge gaps, identify
hidden opportunities, and clarify our objectives (objective
setting is part of the second phase—the forward planning
process).
Our first step is to
review the current
plan using the
purchase cycle
framework.
PHASE 1: STRATEGY AUDIT

6. The consumer buying cycle is a useful planning framework
for guiding us through a process of inquiry aimed at asking
the right questions and surfacing and framing problems.
The buying cycle illustrates the way people become
aware of categories, products and brands and their
process for moving toward a purchase. This framework
holds up for every consumer category. The time it takes to
work through the process and the amount of deliberation
at each stage depends on familiarity (first-time vs. repeat
or routine) and the level of involvement associated with
the purchase (high for a home or new auto; low for a
snack or a newspaper).
The goal for marketers is to develop an insight-based
strategy for moving potential customers through the
cycle as efficiently as possible, and to create a large
customer base of brand advocates—those people who
adore you and tell
the world.
When we understand how the buying process works for our
category, we are in a better position to make judgments
about where we can have the greatest affect on potential
customers. We need to understand which sources of
information are used and trusted by customers in our
category, the variables they consider at each stage, and the
ways in which we can impact their decisions at each stage of
they buying process.
This is an important framework not so much because it
carves up the customer’s purchase into neat stages, but
because it forces us to evaluate and consider the way
the customer thinks about the purchase from start to
finish. When we work through this process deliberately we
become much better informed about the customer’s
perspective and are better equipped to spot uniquely
motivating communication opportunities. We’re also less
likely to overlook something important as we build our plan.
The result is a more comprehensive and effective approach
for achieving our goals.
The Buying System framework in the appendix may also be
helpful for guiding this work.
HOW HAS OUR CURRENT
STRATEGY HELPED MOVE
OUR TARGET THROUGH
THE PURCHASE CYCLE
TOWARD OUR BRAND?

7. We’ll conduct our strategy audit sequentially beginning with
Category Awareness and ending with Advocacy. The questions
we have listed on the following pages are just some of the
potential inquiries. The more empirical data we have to support
our answers, the better.
We can supplement our questions with the “Audit 50” questions
where appropriate (Appendix). If questions or answers surface
that are not relevant for a particular stage, we’ll note them in a
“Parking Lot” and return to them at the appropriate stage or time.
We’ll need a scribe to record notes accordingly.
CONDUCTING THE
STRATEGY AUDIT

8. 1. Who are our key rivals?
2. What are their relative ad spend levels?
3. Can we determine share of voice or brand awareness?
4. Who dominates and why?
5. What are competitors doing that lifts the category?
6. Which has the most clearly defined brand position?
7. Which of them is doing an especially good job?
8. Which competitor(s) benefits most from customer advocacy?
9. Who gets the most publicity?
10. Which one gives us the biggest headache?
11. Are there seasonality considerations?
WHAT DOES CATEGORY
ADVERTISING LOOK LIKE?

9. 1. Is our (best) target customer clearly defined?
2. Do we have a research-based understanding of
his or her needs?
3. Have we done a recent ATU study?
4. Do we know our relative brand awareness?
5. What are we the very best at delivering?
6. Do we have an established brand position?
7. How long has it been in place?
8. What is our big brand promise?
9. Is it rooted in customer research?
10. Are we consistent?
11. Does the look, tone, feel of our advertising capture the brand’s essence?
12. Do we know what customers think of our campaign?
13. Do we get spontaneous customer feedback on our advertising?
14. Are our store locations visible and easy to locate and spot? (Do they
help create awareness?)
WHAT DOES OUR BRAND
ADVERTISING LOOK LIKE?

10. 1. Where do customers get information about us?
2. Do we have an explicit plan for facilitating WOM?
3. What are the goals of our PR plan?
4. How effective is our Web presence?
5. How are we using social media?
6. Which media are most effective for us?
7. Are our locations visible?
8. Do we offer compelling promotions?
9. Are we price / value competitive?
HOW DO WE PERSUADE
CUSTOMERS TO CONSIDER
US?

11. 1. Are we certain our products and experience deliver
against target needs and desires?
2. How do we stack up to competitive offerings?
3. Do we have a plan for continuously developing new
products and appeals for our customers?
4. How are we driving trial consistently?
5. Is there a competitor who’s done a particularly good job
doing these things?
HOW DO WE BUILD
PREFERENCE FOR OUR
BRAND?

12. 1. How can customers “buy” us, specifically?
2. Which metrics have we traditionally relied on as indicators
of marketing communications performance?
3. Against which objectives, specifically?
4. Have we measured purchase intent for our brand?
5. How do we compare to category competitors?
6. How does our trial and frequency compare to category
and specific competitors?
DO WE KNOW ADVERTISING
IS GENERATING RESPONSE?

13. 1. Do we know whether or not our brand keeps the
customer promise?
2. Do we use secret shoppers? What do they tell us?
3. Have we performed a 360-audit to make sure all
customer touch points are being leveraged?
4. Is the experience delivered consistently?
5. What do customers rave about?
6. What is our Achilles Heel?
7. How have our sales been tracking?
8. How do particular products perform?
WHAT ARE WE DOING TO
ENSURE THE BEST CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE?

14. 1. Do we have a formal retention plan in place?
2. Do we know our attrition rate?
3. Do we know why customers defect?
4. Do we know why new users try and reject?
5. Do we have a formal “open loop” process for maintaining
a dialogue with our customers?
6. Can we point to specific learning generated through
intentional customer communication?
7. Do we collect data on our customers, and has it
been profiled?
WHAT DO WE DO TO KEEP
OUR CUSTOMERS COMING
BACK?

15. 1. Do we have a plan for identifying our brand champions?
2. Do we know them when we see them?
3. Do we have a special communications strategy to support
this base?
4. Do we provide special tools to our advocates to help
spread the good word?
5. How do we recognize and reward our advocates?
HOW DO WE LEVERAGE
OUR BRAND ADVOCATES?

16. The second step in our process is the forward planning effort.
We want to take the learning from the audit phase and begin to
construct a new plan—or build in course corrections to the
existing plan—to more effectively drive toward our goals.
Before we begin this process, however, we have to answer
three critical questions.
How do we improve
the strategy for
moving our target
toward our brand?
PHASE 2: FORWARD PLANNING

17. THREE INITIAL QUESTIONS
This is the first significant step of the forward planning
process and time should be invested in addressing our
three initial planning inquiries. Team alignment and
commitment to the answers is important.
Taking the learning from the brand audit process, we’re
seeking to isolate a manageable group of definable and
solvable problems that can be addressed with
marketing communications activities. As we ask the
initial three questions, we need to make sure we don’t
have any critical knowledge gaps; if we do, those gaps
need to be addressed and we need to determine how they
will be handled (more research, an educated guess,
parking lot). The goal for this question is to reflect back
on the audit and the previous chart and think about
the single largest opportunity to make an impact for
the brand.
Do we have an awareness problem that we can solve? Is
our pricing strategy screwing up our value perception? Are
we positioned incorrectly as a brand? Are we getting trial
but not frequency? Are we missing a particular group of
customers? Look over the questions in the “Audit 50”
document in the Appendix as necessary to help work
through the process of setting our single most important
largest opportunity and associated objective is identified,
create a list of additional significant opportunities. Our
planning process goal here is to align around specific
marketing communications objectives – objectives we can
quantify and measure.
The objective-setting step should kick off a collaborative
thinking process aimed at using insights to drive
creative and media strategies for solving the challenges
we’ve identified (1), and achieving our defined objectives
(2). The answers to the third question will begin to surface as
we work through the balance of the strategy planning
process.
What is our biggest challenge, and how
is
the problem properly framed? What are
our additional critical challenges?
What are our marketing
communications objectives? These
should be specific and measurable.
Where should we place more focus and
resources for achieving our objectives?

18. Once we’ve identified our
objectives we need to
begin to think about
implications for our
communications. There
are a great variety of
organizational implications
generated by the
marketing
communications planning
effort. Not all will return
with equal effectiveness.
Which areas can we
afford to focus on, and
which of those are likely to
return the greatest ROI for
the company? Which
areas are essential to
focus on in order to
achieve our goals?
HOW SHOULD WE FOCUS
TIME AND RESOURCES?

19. WHERE DOES OUR BRAND NEED
ATTENTION?
The chart below brings the
purchase cycle concept together
with some of the implications we
just looked at for marketing
communications planning. It
overlays the customer buying
process with some of the major
factors acting on our ability to
move people toward our brand.
It culminates with what we call the
“Brand Nexus,” which is the link
between our external marketing
communication and the
experience delivered for the
customer as a result of various
internal activities. At the point
of experience, external
communications lose most if not
all of their ability to influence
customer perceptions and choice.
In essence, the customer
experience is the brand. Factors
such as the product quality,
facility appearance, operational
performance, and price/value
relationship take on greater
importance as the customer
engages more deeply in the
purchase process. Retention and
loyalty activities only make sense
once customers have already
become fans of the brand. The
ultimate goal is to create
authentic customer advocacy.
As a starting point for the planning
process, we should first think about
where our brand needs the most urgent
attention, and where our attention is
likely to yield the biggest impact.

20. AND NOW WE
WRITE.
1. Problems that must be addressed, framed properly
2. Specific, measurable marketing communications objectives
3. Description of the purchase cycle for our category and brand
4. Opportunities surfaced through evaluation of the purchase cycle
5. Competitive comparison
6. Rich target description
7. Brand positioning statement (our brand promise)
8. List of organizational implications for making that promise
9. Creative strategy for communicating our promise effectively
10. Media strategy for building and sustaining brand exposure
11. Annual budget
12. Executional calendar containing tactical elements
12 components of the written plan:

21. APPENDIX
1. Articulated LOOMIS Customer Purchase Cycle
2. The Buying System framework
3. “Putting People in Your Plan: Why Marketing and Human Resources
Should Share an Office,” LOOMIS White Paper
4. “Customers First? Not so Fast.” BARK! by LOOMIS
5. “Why Your Customers Don’t Want to Talk to You,” Matt Dixon and
Lara Ponomareff, Harvard Business Review
6. “A CURE FOR EXPERIENCE: INTELLIGENT NAIVETY” by
LOOMIS

22. ARTICULATED CUSTOMER
PURCHASE CYCLE

23. THE PURCHASE CYCLE IS A
TRIED AND TRUE MODEL
Represents all consumer
interactions
Duration and deliberation
at each stage varies
Low-involvement vs.
High-involvement purchases
Framework for a process
of strategic inquiry

24. IT’S THE WAY WE BUY,
AND BUY AGAIN (OR DON’T).
“I want to find a quick place
for lunch.”
“McDonald’s has a new burger.”
“DQ and Whataburger sound
good, too.”
“But I like DQ’s treats best of
all.”
“I think I’ll make a left and go
to DQ.”
“This burger is great, and the
new Blizzard is delicious.”
“I’ll come back again next
week.”
“I’m joining the Blizzard Fan
Club,

25. HOW DOES IT HELP US MAKE
MARKETING DECISIONS?
Learn how best to direct
customers toward our
brand as they move
through purchase cycle.
Determine where we can
make the greatest impact
with our resources.

26. HOW DO WE BECOME
AWARE OF A CATEGORY?
“I want to find a quick place for
lunch.”
Driven through routine, impulse,
solution, lifestyle, or blend.
Driving category awareness is
generally cost-prohibitive.
 Previous experience
 Word-of-mouth
 Competitive advertising
 Publicity

27. WHAT MAKES US
AWARE OF A BRAND?
“McDonald’s has a new burger.”
Exposure through a variety of
paid and non-paid
communications and social
interactions.
 Brand advertising
 Previous experience
 Word-of-mouth
 Brand publicity
 Facility (drive-by)

28. HOW DO WE CONSIDER A
BRAND?
“DQ and Whataburger
sound good, too.”
Collect and evaluate
information; compare available
options.
 Brand advertising / promo
 Previous experience
 Word-of-mouth
 Price / cost
 Publicity
 Facility
 Convenience

29. WHY DO CUSTOMERS
PREFER A BRAND?
“But I like DQ’s treats best of
all.”
Functional and non-functional
benefits drive preference.
 Rational benefits
(Functional)
 Emotional benefits
(Non-functional)
 Previous experience

30. PURCHASE INTENT JOINS
BRANDING AND RESPONSE.
“I think I’ll make a left and
go to DQ.”
Interest and motivation become
actionable as customer decides
purchase will meet need / desire.

31. WHAT HAPPENS AT
POINT OF PURCHASE?
“This burger is great, and the
new Blizzard is delicious.”
Experience either meets or fails
to meet customer expectations.
 Product quality
 Facility
 Customer service
 Value perception
 Various factors

32. CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
DRIVES RETENTION.
“I’ll come back again next week.”
Positive experiences have the
potential to motivate repeat visits.

33. THE HOLY GRAIL:
CREATING BRAND ADVOCATES.
“I’m joining the Blizzard Fan Club,
and bringing my buddies!”
Peer-to-peer “brand talk” is
valued twice as much as
information received through
other sources.

35. Contact Mike Sullivan for more information.
Theloomisagency.com
(972) 331-7000
Dallas, Texas