No Bullsh*t Strategy

there are three broad categories of why that you might consider: 1.Consumer benefit why 2.Category change why 3.Social good why

my adage to people has always been to “make interesting companies, not interesting advertising”. It’s expert-level stuff, admittedly, in a world where so few brands are capable of mastering the strategic basics – but it’s something we should shoot for, no question.

if we think about Dominoes’ value offering, particularly in the early days, we can see that it’s not really focused on quality pizza but rather efficient delivery. They don’t “own taste” (that’s a generic category expectation, anyway); they own “getting it to you fast”. Now who does this remind you of? Not any brand in the food space but rather del

Cross-category copying is where you copy elements of the branding of other brands with similar value offerings – providing they are in totally different categories.

So another way of thinking about your MVS is: what is the minimum we need to do for consumers to understand our value offering without us telling them what it is? If you can arrive at two or three ideas to achieve that, then you’ll be in a really good spot – go out and do them.

The how cascade is a tool you can use to resolve this issue – and make sure you don’t accidentally move forwards with a goal / strategy. The way it works is simple. To any strategic statement or idea you might have, ask this one word: How? How are you going to do that thing you’re stating? When you’ve answered that, ask again. How? Keep asking how

a strategy laid out as a single piece of flowing prose is far easier to share than one in deck form, which is always going to be incomplete and disconnected without someone there to talk it through.

Remember, only strategies which your competitors might choose not to do are legitimate. Strategies which everyone would agree with, and which everyone would be keen to pursue, are illegitimate.

Your job isn’t to be “good”. Your job is to offer something specific which some people will think is good, and some people will probably think is bad.