A CRISP Approach to Brand & Communications Strategy

Over the years I’ve seen briefs perfectly written, creative work that responds to that brief and brilliant on target marketing communications strategies defined. Yet still many of these run into trouble when introduced. Why? Because many fail to apply a few very simple criteria to judge the strategy and ideas by. 

We’ve devised a short number of criteria to use when both planning marketing communications strategies as well as creative campaigns.  We use it when we are reviewing the ideas and work. We’ve turned these criteria into a short acronym - CRISP.  Consistent, Relevant, Intimate, Simple and Persistent. Five criteria that if most, or better still all, are incorporated we know will have a dramatic difference on the potential success of the strategy or campaign in resonating with the target audience. 

Being Consistent

Great consumer brands teach us that whatever strategy and tactics we might use and where-ever the message appears, it has to be deployed in a consistent fashion. Consistency goes to the heart of branding. 

Do we go to McDonald’s for the best food in the world? Despite what my twelve year old son thinks, possibly not. But we do know what to expect wherever in the world we visit a McDonald’s. Its brand is all about consistency. As a company they are incredibly consistent globally not just in managing their communications but as importantly in managing products and customer experience. Wherever the brand touches consumers it’s consistent. Whatever you are going to do, do it consistently.

Finding Relevance

When it comes to the positioning and marketing approach you take for your brand, it also has to be relevant to your brand’s offering as well as relevant to the audience you are talking with. Gaining attention is relatively easy, show a picture of a man standing on his hands walking down a street. But unless the product stops coins falling out of your pocket its not relevant. The Energizer Bunny has been bopping around our television screens since 1989 and has been used by the Energizer Company of St. Louis, Missouri to demonstrate the company’s claimed superior battery life. The little pink bunny with its motto of Keep Going perfectly communicates the relevance of this message. The campaign has resonated with the public so well in fact, that the bunny has his own personal website where he (and I’m assuming despite his colour preferences it’s a metrosexual he rabbit) lists a number of personal facts. Relevance is everything in brand building.

Get emotional. Get intimate

Intimacy or emotional connection are central to brand building. We all make our choices based on a mix of both practical, functional, reasons as well as emotional ones. Great brands know that you have to leverage emotional intimacy. I love holding workshops with engineers, indeed some of my closest friends are engineers. The wonderful thing is that they are very logical, left brain, people and often claim never to have acted out of emotion in their lives. Everything comes down to specification, performance and cost. I’d love to have seen some of these people propose to their wives or husbands. “Well, you seem to be the best available model for your age, I reckon you’re a fair catch for what it’s going to cost me. Now would you like to get married?” Don’t think so.

These logic driven individuals also claim that, frighteningly, their customers are just like them. Again it’s about cost and specification. Now I’ve observed a number of times these are the same people who drive up in a BMW or a Mercedes. They are the same people who stand there with a Mont Blanc pen tucked in their shirt pockets. When I see this, I always offer to swap my Pilot ball pen, which is a fine pen having cost me all of €3, for their Mont Blanc but they never seem to want to take me up on the deal. Strange really, I reckon my Pilot works equally well. The truth is we all buy things for a mix of both practical as well as emotional reasons. To get people to love you and your brand you need emotional intimacy. It’s not all pure logic. Thank goodness. Get close to your consumers and get intimate.

Keeping it Simple

However clever the products or services the idea at the centre of any brand strategy will also need to be very simple, to cut through the media noise we are all increasingly surrounded by every day. Simple ideas are normally powerful ideas. The remarkable Sam Goldwyn said: If you can’t write your movie idea on the back of a business card, you ain’t got a movie. This same sentiment is equally applicable to any great idea. In essence, they have to be simple. Apple is one of the best known brands in the world, and its advertising always goes right to the heart of the issue with its simplicity. Great brands make a habit of keeping things simple.

On and On and On. Persistence pays off

Finally, if we are going to be serious about gaining some traction and awareness from our marketing efforts, we will also need to be incredibly persistent over a long period of time. Great brands keep on going, driving the same strategy over an extended period of time, and refreshing the execution. Take Coca-Cola as an example. One of the keys to the success of the brand has been the persistence shown by the company since it was started back in 1886 by Dr. John S. Pemberton. Apart from a little blip in the 1980s with new Coke, the brand has been incredibly persistent over the years – a persistence that has helped keep them the number one soft drinks brand globally. Being persistent – it’s the real thing.

So acronym for the day – CRISP. Consistent, Relevant, Intimate, Simple and Persistent. If applied when judging a marketing strategy, or campaign, it can really help provide a simple set of criteria.  

This text was written by Julian Stubbs for the latest edition of the book Strategic Marketing: Creating Competitive Advantage from Oxford University Press by Professor Douglas West. 

About UP THERE, EVERYWHERE and Julian Stubbs.

Julian Stubbs is co-founder and CEO of UP THERE, EVERYWHERE the global cloud based consultancy group which today has over 160 people based in 19 cities around the world. He is a brand strategist, writer and presenter who has worked with developing brand strategies and identities for a wide range of organisations and places. From Technicolor, the Hollywood movie company to the Nobel Peace Prize Concert, to the city of Stockholm, in Sweden. 

His first business book, titled ‘Wish You Were Here’,explores the branding of places and destinations as well as his work for the city of Stockholm, where Julian created the brand positioning and tag line ‘Stockholm, The Capital of Scandinavia’. Today Julian is working with a number of brand and identity assignments.

His latest book titled E-Ployment: Living & Working in the cloud is about the origins of UP THERE, EVERYWHERE and the revolutionary new business model the company has developed. The book is available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk and can be ordered through all good book retailers. 

Julian travels about 120 days a year from his home just outside of Stockholm, Sweden. He is married with two boys and in his free time his passion is watching Liverpool FC, reading history and trying to finish writing his novel. 

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