Annual Plan Checklist for a Killer 2022!

We hope your 2021 is exceeding expectations and you’ve created a strong plan for 2022 to grow faster.  As most of you are, or are approaching, completing your 2022 Plan, here’s a checklist to make sure you’re ready for a killer 2022!

2022 Annual Plan Checklist

1. Develop a Written, Market Based Growth Plan Carefully

• Analyze and segment your customer and consumer base, prioritize by growth potential
• Understand what your customers’ unmet needs and why they will choose your superior product or service
• Build a strategy that leverages your business model: market opportunities, your core competencies and where you are most profitable

2. Widely Communicate Your Growth Strategy

• Summarize your 3-5 Key Growth Strategies, based on factual analysis (e.g. channels, products/services)
• Growth Priorities should be quantified and clearly communicated throughout your company and key constituents (e.g. suppliers) so everyone understands them and is aligned
• Innovation should be among your top priorities; have clear parameters (fertile areas in which to innovate) to provide direction

3. Have, or Get, the Right Accountable Team

• Have accountable talent who can lead and drive respective pieces of the growth strategy
• Have strong and clear inter-department communication and processes
• Have the right talent who can produce; commit to coach up, outsource for, or dismiss those who can’t

4. Execute with Cross-Functional Precision

• Have clear leadership, accountability and measurement of top initiatives
• Maintain ongoing cross-functional leadership and communication to keep key initiatives on track
• Track key programs quantitatively and refine them based on in-market learnings

5. Deploy Effective and Efficient Marketing

• Marketing should identify and drive consumer and marketing growth opportunities
• Marketing should develop and lead a clear marketing strategy that directly ties to growth strategy Your brand positioning(s) should be clear, consistently communicated.
• Your marketing communication and R&D efforts should consistently strengthen your superiority
• All major programs should be on strategy, measurable, optimized across multiple media, and provide measurable return-on-investment

6. Drive Productivity… Everywhere

• Set ambitious, achievable productivity goals (cost reduction/efficiency). $1 in productivity > $10 in new sales
• Challenge each function to develop specific, measurable, cash-saving (not conceptual) programs; drive wide participation
• Celebrate, publicize, and reward best programs. This creates a ripple effect for more productivity

5 Ways to Maintain Brand Growth and Relevance: StarKist’s Revitalization Strategy

StarKist‘s marketing strategy is a rich example of maintaining brand relevance and accelerating profitable growth.    Despite having some significant brand challenges:  a mature category, a mature brand, dated brand equities, and pricing challenges, their strategy is spectacular and effective.

Here are the 5 brand revitalization best practices they’ve nailed:

1.   Maintain a clear, consistent, and relevant brand positioning  –  StarKist’s brand’s positioning is the best brand of high quality, nutritious tuna.   This has been a virtual constant for over 60 years.   Consistency is relatively easy, but maintaining relevance over time is more difficult and even treacherous, if you don’t do it.    They have brilliantly adapted, but not radically changed, the brand positioning to ‘the best brand of high quality satiating nutritious tuna.’     That transformative “tweak” moves pre-packaged tuna from dated and increasingly irrelevant, to a brand that is contemporary, appealing and compelling for today’s consumer.