HOW TO DECIDE IF THIS IS A GOOD IDEA
As brand ambassadors in the market, we are constantly inspired by new ideas and develop valuable insights that we want to capitalize on.
What is your idea? Is it for a new pos item, a new product? An activation? An event? What valuable insight did you uncover?
Whatever it may there is certain process you need to follow to take an idea from a thought to inception and present to executives
In these modules we will discuss how to lie you idea out, show why it solves a problem and helps to achieve a brand goal.
Ask yourself these questions to discover if you idea is worth pursuing:
- What brand problem will this idea solve?
- Will this idea help your brand achieve its goals and objectives for that year?
- Which objective will it help achieve?
- How will it help achieve that objective?
- Can this idea help drive sales?
- Is this idea scalable?
- Does it line up with the Brand Essence ?
- Is it legal?
- Is there budget?
IF THE ANSWER TO THESE QUESTIONS IS YES, THEN YOU HAVE AN IDEA WORTH DEVELOPING INTO A ACTIONABLE PLAN!
STEP ONE: DECIDE WHAT PROBLEM WILL YOU BE SOLVING.
COMMON BRAND PROBLEMS ARE:
- How do we increase brand awareness?
- How do we increase sales?
- How do we boost visibility within the on-and-off trade?
- How do we differentiate our product from others?
- How do we create credibility and trust with the trade and or consumers?
- How do we motivate new consumers to purchase the product?
- How do we generate repeat purchases ?
STEP TWO: DECIDE WHICH ONE OF THE PRIMARY GOALS WILL THIS IDEA HELP THE BRAND ACHIEVE.
Look at your companies Brand Plans to know what their goals are.
TRADITIONAL BRAND GOALS ARE:
- Increase sales
- Build brand loyalty aka advocacy within the trade and among consumers
- Increase social media engagement around a brand, product, or service
- Education: solidify core brand messages with the Trade and consumer
- Build awareness with consumers and trade.
- Increase market share
- Improve marketing positioning
- Maintain healthy profit margins
- Increase distribution
- Increase visibility on the backbars and on liquor store shelves
STEP 3: HOW CAN YOUR IDEA LEAD TO SALES
Showing executives how your idea can help increase sales immediately or in the future will increase your chances of an idea getting approved.
For example, if you suggest an event: "Sales will be achieved via..."
- Build trade relations: Sales team will invite key trade accounts to build deeper bonds with buyers and bartenders.
- Build brand advocacy: Hire bartenders from key accounts to work the event.
- Generate sales leads: Sales Reps will be provided a list of target accounts who attended the event.
- Drive online purchases: Provide signature cocktail recommendations and a discount code for buying online in consumer gift bags / in post-event emails
- Drive menu placements: BA's will follow up with accounts post event to attain menu placement.
STEP FOUR: CAN YOU MAKE IT SCALABLE?
Is this brilliant idea easy to activate in multiple venues, states, and countries and make the same impact? If your initial idea to complex or too expensive think about ways to scale it back, lower the cost, or streamline it, so it is easier to manage.
Make sure the activation is able to scale legally. Every country, and in the US every state, has different laws. In order to make an idea scalable you need to be able to alter the core elements to ensure it is legal in all markets.
Creating a scalable concept is valuable to the company. Developing a new activation or product or POS item takes effort, time, and money. You are more likely to have your idea approved if you demonstrate that it can be repeated or utilized in a streamlined fashion across multiple cities and even countries.
STEP 5: MAKE SURE THE IDEA ALIGNS WITH THE "ESSENCE OF THE BRAND "
As we noted in the Brand Module, the Brand Essence is the reliable feelings customers come to expect when they interact with a particular brand.
So if your idea is brilliant, but if does not reflect the essence of the brand it is a bad idea.
For example, if your "brand' essence" is Luxury and you decide to activate around domestic beer and cheap shots - you have missed the mark! or if you develop shot board instead of a beautiful branded coupe glass etc..
The point is, in order to move you idea forward it has to reflect what the brand stands for.
STEP 6: IS IT LEGAL?
Depending on what state or country you live there will be legalities that you need to follow. A great guideline to know what is legal and what is not is to look at past events/activations/pos etc to see what was approved, especially the language that they use to describe the activations. The correct language can make all the difference to what the legal department approves or not.
Refrain from letting fears of legality curb your creativity in the first stages. Think big, then scale it down to fit into legal compliance as you develop the idea.
Executives will be more likely to approve an idea if they know it can conform to be legally compliant.
But no matter you should never execute any idea without legal approval!
STEP 7: DOES IT FIT INTO THE BUDGET
A brilliant idea is only brilliant if it can fit into a budget. If the idea is out of budget think about ways of how to achieve your core objective but with a more scaled down version of the same idea. Example: hosting an event online instead of in person, ordering pos in bulk, having the markets pay part of the cost etc.
Alternatively, try to get your idea approved for the following year, when a new budget kicks in and more money might be available. Finding out when budgets are being decided (usually 6-8 months before the following year) is helpful in getting an idea's budget approved.
