The Lakeview Blog

This is our third post as part of our strategy series. You can find the first, Strategy vs Tactics here and the second on Audiences here . ------------------------------------------------------------------- Lewis Carroll said, "if you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there." Where "there" is would be anyone's guess. This might be fun, if you're up for an adventure, but if you're trying to run a successful business or organization, it's a recipe for chasing down a lot of dead ends - or running off the road entirely. That's why knowing what you want to achieve is so important. A goal is a long-term proposition. It's a step in achieving your vision - that aspirational dream of success. Examples of vision are: Microsoft: A computer on every desk and in every home.  Wikipedia: A world in which every single person is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. Oxfam: A world without poverty....

In the last blog post , I talked about "audience" as being one of the critical factors in figuring out your business/organizational strategy. Understanding your audience is so important that it's worth spending time on the difference between primary and secondary (or tertiary, etc.) audiences.  To begin, can we agree to get rid of the term "general public?" It's a lazy short form that we often use when we think we want market to everyone , hoping that it will resonate with someone . The problem with this approach is that when we think of the general public, we're really thinking about a faceless blur of people. What we're really saying is that we don't know our produce or service well enough to know who can benefit from it. We're really saying that we haven't done our homework. Let's consider an example, pretending for a moment that we run a daycare service and have space for a few more children. (A silly example. Who's e...

From: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/strategy How often have you walked into a meeting to discuss strategy only to find your team debating the value of brochures over radio ads or pop-up displays and website content? The team whips together products that they believe will achieve their (usually unarticulated) goals only to deplete the budget without getting results. "Is this really what strategy is all about?" you might well ask. We're going to spend a few weeks talking about strategy in a way that we hope will help you get really comfortable staying away from tactics and helping your team members grasp big-picture thinking. Let's start with defining what strategy is -- and what it isn't. First, from the Oxford Dictionary, strategy is a plan to achieve a long-term goal. It is not the detail, which would be set out later in an operational plan. It is high-level. It is the "how" or approach you'll take to achieve that goal...

It may go without saying, but we're going to say it anyway: raising awareness of an issue or event takes thoughtful planning, creative execution and ongoing monitoring and measurement to ensure that goals are being met. In simple terms, there are five main steps to such a campaign. Consider the steps to be part of a loop-back process rather than a linear one as monitoring the campaign's effectiveness means looking back at goals, audiences, strategies, etc. and tweaking where needed. 1.  Set your objectives Know what you want to achieve so you'll know when you've been successful. Set the objectives against which your efforts will be measured. These can be both qualitative and quantitative. Is there an action you want people to take? Is there a prevailing attitude that you  wish to change? Objectives may be set out in phases to allow you to determine if changes to strategy and tactics are needed. You will also want to identify any benchmarks that exist or w...

I watched a home design show not too long ago — a woman redecorating a cottage. As she selected and installed a white couch all I could picture was how it would look after sandy feet, damp bathing suits and  dripping ice cream had had their way with it. The result of her decorating was gorgeous, but I thought it was an example of poor planning. This in turn got me thinking about goal setting and about the things that we do that are contrary to what we want to achieve. In business as in life you have to set goals or you’re going to find that you run out of time and money before you get to do those things that must be done. I've seen many organizations, particularly small businesses without internal PR or marketing staff, bombarded with opportunities for promotion from broadcast to print to digital. Without knowing what their business goals are or how they are going to measure the success of their promotional efforts, it’s impossible to decide which, if any, of these o...