What is a Strategy?

I’ve been fortunate enough to be around the Marketing Industry for nearly 2 decades now and in that time I’ve seen a dramatic shift in how things happen.

I can still recall climbing up onto art stools to see what the Graphic Artists were doing or exploring the many wonders of electronic equipment in the boardroom like “Television Remotes” and “Speaker Phones” (remember the 90’s?). I was fascinated how this world worked.

In 2012, so much has changed. With the advent of technology, we’ve seen a whole range of new mediums become available, along with a massive amount of valuable marketing data.

The question is though, have the foundation principles of developing a strategic document for an organisation changed?

Well…yes and no.

While there are many of the core principals that still remain and are (and shall ever be) the very basis of Marketing and Strategy, the biggest game changer is speed.

With a world that is so much quicker than it ever has been before, Marketers need to react quicker, develop quicker, learn quicker and perform quicker.

Jack in the box has always believed in a philosophy that a Strategic piece of work was a living document. With such a fast paced market, a strategy is required to adapt and mold to the new and ever changing conditions.

Today we see ourselves developing far more advanced strategies than we were 10 years ago, crossing now into the digital abyss with the production of Digital Strategies and Content Strategies. These are more focused documents on the digital aspects of an organisation and have come about due to speed.

Many of our clients simply can’t keep pace with everything that is going on. Between social networks, websites, sms, emails, apps and online advertising, the digital space is packed with options and ‘moves and shakes’ at an incredible pace.

So while many of you may have been clear about what a strategy was in the past, today the lines are blurred and only one aspect really remains a constant. That is, the existence of a plan.

It’s cliche, but ‘without a plan, you plan to fail‘.

The plan needs to be flexible. Gone are the days where it was a concrete path to follow. Today’s strategies are not a Google Map…they’re more of a mud map. They should guide you but not force you to feel locked in.

It’s a foundation on which to build upon and a good strategy should be something that allows your organisation to grow and take advantage of the boundless opportunities that present themselves along the way, that fit between your general guidelines.

So while we may still deliver a strategy as an ‘attractive, wire bound’ document, the contents is a moving feast with its structure being flexible to both the market and the needs of a client. It’s indicative of the world we live in and understanding that as an organisation, we need to apply the same flexibility and organicness to our process as we do to the contents we write.

Know where you want to go. Know how you’re going to get there. Pack the tools you’re going to need along the way. And don’t forget to charge your phone…just in case you need to call us.