𝗤𝘂𝗶𝗰𝗸, 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴: 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴-𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻?
Most marketers can't answer that. The plan got presented, it got approved, and then it went to the share drive to die. Printing it into a binder doesn't help either. Nobody opens the binder.
𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝘆 𝗜 𝗽𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴-𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗲.
A brand strategy roadmap covers three to five years. It sits above your annual plan. The roadmap says where you're going and why. The annual plan says what you'll do about it this year. Teams that skip the roadmap end up with twelve months of activity that doesn't add up to anything.
Here's what goes on the page, using Gray's Cookies as the worked example.
𝗩𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 → where you could be. Gray's: be the first healthy cookie to generate the craving, popularity, and sales of a mainstream cookie. $100 million by 2030.
𝗣𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲 → why you exist beyond the P&L.
𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲𝘀 → the things you won't trade away when the quarter gets tight.
𝗕𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗮 → the center of the page. Gray's are the best tasting yet guilt free pleasure so you can stay in control. From there it stretches across the promise, the story, innovation, the purchase moment, and the consumer experience.
𝗚𝗼𝗮𝗹𝘀 → the numbers you'll be held to.
𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗜𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗲𝘀 → written as questions, always. How do we tighten the bond with our most loyal brand lovers? How do we defend our leadership in the healthy cookie segment? A key issue you can't phrase as a question isn't an issue yet.
𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀 → one per key issue, using Program + Accelerator + Result. Reposition Gray's from indulgent treat to better-for-you snack, by leading with ingredient transparency across all communication, to drive trial among health-conscious shoppers.
𝗧𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀 → the three or four moves under each strategy that prove you meant it.
The one-page discipline is the whole point. When you only get one page, you have to decide what matters. Eight pages let you avoid deciding.
My advice to teams: laminate the Brand Strategy Roadmap and the one-page Brand Plan back-to-back. Everyone keeps it at their desk. It gets referenced on a Tuesday afternoon when someone has a decision to make, which is the only test of a plan that counts.
For decades, marketers have searched for a Unique Selling Proposition.
One message
One feature
One reason customers should choose you
The problem is...
That's not how customer preference and decisioning works.
After developing positioning at V2RSION for over 50 clients,
I've evolved the idea of differentiation to be richer in context than the simplistic USP.
Differentiation isn't one thing.
It's the combination of multiple dimensions, that together make your business the obvious choice for your market buyers.
That's why we developed what we call your Differentiated Context.
It breaks differentiation down into 6 interconnected contextual components:
1️⃣ The customer problem you're solving
↳ Start with the customer's urgent reality, not your product.
2️⃣ The unique value you create
↳ Define the value only your business can credibly deliver.
3️⃣ How that value is delivered
↳ Your capabilities, process execution and evidence are what make your promise believable and repeatable.
4️⃣ The customers making the decision
↳ Different buyers value different things. Who values your value?
5️⃣ The competitors and alternatives you're chosen against
↳ Differentiation only exists in comparison.
6️⃣ The category that frames your value
↳ The category shapes how customers interpret your business before they've even engaged with it.
Miss just one of these, and differentiation starts to look weak.
Because customers choose businesses that create the clearest, most compelling context for preference and choice..
This framework has become one of the core principles behind how we think about positioning at V2RSION.
Which of the six do you think businesses overlook most often?
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