How future-looking should we be when driving annual brand planning processes?
When we think about well-established preventative medicine programs, the goal is to avoid future healthcare issues and costs by investing in screening. Can the same future-looking outlook drive efficiency and longevity in annual brand planning? The answer is yes, as long as our annual brand planning frameworks go beyond the near-term and consider the mid-term.
Annual brand and franchise planning processes are – by definition – focused on defining strategy for the following year, or possibly the following 1-3 years. The foundation for this planning is a Situational Analysis that aims to capture a pan-stakeholder view of the external market and the changes in the last twelve months that could impact strategy development. Any significant changes in the market environment that happen after the Situational Analysis has been developed, e.g., competitor data publications, clinical trial delays, etc., tend to be analysed on a case-by-case basis in a somewhat reactive fashion. But Situational Analyses and Brand/ Franchise Plans don’t need to have an ‘expiration date’ of one year – building mid-term uncertainty identification and management into these processes can improve longevity and optimise existing planning processes.
With Annual Brand Planning Processes and Competitor/ Stakeholder Simulation Workshops focusing on the near-term (1-3 years), and early Lifecycle Management (LCM) and Scenario Planning being the established tools to plan for the long-term (5+ years), mid-term planning for the next 3-5 years is often neglected.
By neglecting this mid-term timeframe, we also miss out on the opportunity to prioritise, monitor, gain insight, and ultimately plan for the internal and external risks and opportunities that lie ahead. By not dedicating effort to mid-term planning, Brand and Franchise plans may need to be overhauled on an annual basis, and signs that stakeholder behaviours are evolving differently than expected may be missed. Opportunities to tailor KITs and KIQs to optimise market insight may also be overlooked.
To effectively plan for the mid-term, a robust framework is required to underpin the identification, prioritisation and management of uncertainties in this timeframe. This foundational framework should enable uncertainties associated with base-case assumptions to be mapped to facilitate identification and alignment on priority risks and opportunities. Building this foundation in turn empowers action-planning to leverage or mitigate the unknown, bolstering contingency planning and risk monitoring. Where possible, cross-functional working sessions optimise the power and resonance of this type of uncertainty mapping and action-planning.
A key advantage of this type of mid-term uncertainty mapping is its ability to provide valuable outputs no matter where on the Annual Brand Planning timeline it takes place. The outcomes can inform a Situational Analysis if initiated at the start of the annual Brand Planning timeline, or it can inform market monitoring/ CI activities, and market-shaping tactics if completed prior to tactical planning. And with its future-looking focus, the outputs of any mid-term uncertainty management program will inform the next iteration of brand planning. By building a 3-5yr outlook into the annual Brand Planning process, strategy becomes more durable, and the focus can be evolution rather than revolution.
As you and your team work through an annual brand planning cycle, or franchise planning workstream, how confident are you of the longevity of the resulting strategy? In addition, in a world of uncertainty, how satisfied are you that opportunities associated with mid-term uncertainties are being effectively identified and leveraged? To learn more about Uncertainty Management best-practice, please get in touch.
