Read Good Strategy, Bad Strategy Before Writing A Marketing Strategy

If you have not yet read Good Strategy, Bad Strategy (Buy in the US | Buy in Canada) as a marketer I highly recommend adding it to your bedside table, eBook reader or audiobook account! My last boss sent me a copy of the book during my first annual planning period with the company. He asked me to specifically read Chapter 5: The Kernel of Good Strategy which covers the concept of Diagnosis, Guiding Policy and Coherent Action.

Book Synopsis from Kobo.com:

Even though everyone is talking about it, there is no concept in business today more muddled than ‘strategy’. Richard Rumelt, described by McKinsey Quarterly as ‘a giant in the field of strategy’ and ‘strategy’s strategist’, tackles this problem head-on in a jargon-free explanation of how to develop and take action on strategy, in business, politics and beyond. Rumelt dispels popular misconceptions about strategy – such as confusing it with ambitions, visions or financial goals – by very practically showing that a good strategy focuses on the challenges a business faces, and providing an insightful new approach for overcoming them.

His sharp analysis and his brilliant, bold style make his book stand out from its competitors (something that Rumelt himself says is crucial). Rumelt has always challenged dominant thinking, ever since, in 1972, he was the first person to uncover a statistical link between corporate strategy and profitability – and this is his long-awaited tour de force.

So what are the steps to writing a great strategy?

The basis of the book is to discover a business problem. Create a guiding policy for moving forward. And then outline coherent actions to solve the problem. So let’s dig into diagnosing a business problem.

Diagnosis

According to the book:

A diagnosis defines or explains the nature of the challenge. A good diagnosis simplifies the often overwhelming complexity of reality by identifying certain aspects of the situation as
critical.

When applying this book as a marketer it can be done at the business and/or marketing level. And the diagnosis might be one and the same or it might have 2 layers. For example, you might have a business problem at the product or service level. And then you might have a marketing problem outside of the service delivery level. Or you might have a business problem that is also the marketing problem.

As an example for one problem, the company might lack a unique value proposition. This would be both a business and a marketing problem.

As an example for two problems, you might have a company with a high churn rate. This could be caused by issues with the actual product or service. However, at the marketing level you might have a lead generation problem. By digging into the data you discover a high bounce rate on your website. As a marketer it’s important to identify both problems. Then respective departments can create goals to solve both problems simultaneously. While product and/or service problems should be addressed first and foremost. That doesn’t mean the marketing department can’t apply this process in parallel and fix their department issues at the same time.

Guiding Policy

According to the book:

A guiding policy deals with the challenge. This is an overall approach chosen to cope with or overcome the obstacles identified in the diagnosis.

In the one problem example of a lack of a unique value proposition, it would be important to identify the overall approach. So if the guiding policy is to carve out the one thing that makes the company different it would be to identify the process to identify the value proposition. The coherent actions will then be built out to establish the value proposition (ie. customer interviews, a thorough competitor analysis, etc.) or how to communicate it to your applicable target market.

Coherent Action

According to the book:

A set of coherent actions are designed to carry out the guiding policy. These are steps that
are coordinated with one another to work together in accomplishing the guiding policy.

From the guiding policy the relevant teams’ can then map out the coherent actions that everyone will then take to solve the diagnosis. In the case of either the one problem or two layer problems, as a marketer it would be important to identify which marketing tools and tactics you would use to solve the diagnosis or business challenge.

Here is one example from the book that allowed me to picture how the three elements work together:

For a doctor, the challenge appears as a set of signs and symptoms together with a history. The
doctor makes a clinical diagnosis, naming a disease or pathology. The therapeutic approach
chosen is the doctor’s guiding policy. The doctor’s specific prescriptions for diet, therapy,
and medication are the set of coherent actions to be taken.

How To Apply To Marketing Strategy Planning

What I believe this concept allows marketers to do is to get hyper-focused on solving one problem at a time. When writing marketing strategies there are so many different areas to focus on throughout the list of owned, earned, shared and paid media channels. What reading this book allowed me to do was to zoom out of the long laundry list of marketing optimizations and focus on a few things that were directly tied to the diagnosis, guiding policy and coherent actions.

I believe going back to our marketing roots of product, price, place and promotion will also allow us to hyper focus when crafting annual, quarterly or monthly marketing strategies and campaign plans.

So if a business/marketing problem exists in product, how will you coordinate with the product team what to fix? Will you create a voice of the customer program so you can provide timely feedback to the product team? How can you organize data so that proper business cases can be made for product roadmap changes? Will you plan out the communication around the product fix once completed?

Below I’ve shared some subheadings to use when writing out an annual (or whatever other time frame you’re planning for) marketing strategy: