o, you have a business that needs more customers. And you have an idea for a marketing campaign that should help bring in those customers. 

You can see this marketing campaign idea fully formed in your mind’s eye. It looks good. So you put things in motion to take your idea and put it into the marketplace. Once it launches, you’ll review the response data to see how effective this idea really is. 

This is kinda like having a dinner party and deciding to make a brisket. You really like the idea of a brisket. So you select a brisket and you season it and prepare it. You cook it. And when it’s ready to serve, that’s when you find out if it’s a good brisket or a bad one.

Seems risky.

There’s a lot that can go wrong with making a brisket. Especially if you’re not extremely talented at making brisket. And then there is the preferences of the dinner guests to consider as well. Let’s just say, there’s a lot riding on that brisket.

But you can improve your odds for success by adjusting your plan. Serve your guests lasagna instead of brisket. Better yet, keep the brisket in the plan and serve your guests Charzagna. 

WTF? Charzagna?!?

Charzagna is lasagna that has smoked brisket, smoked gouda cheese, fire-roasted tomatoes, black olives, carmelized onions, ricotta cheese, lasagna noodles—all baked-in . Top that off with smoked mozzarella and you have a real crowd pleaser. It’s got everything your dinner party loves baked into one dish. 

The best part — since the end result is a blend of complimentary flavors, the brisket doesn’t have to be the star of the show. If it is a standout brisket, then it will standout in the Charzanga. If the brisket isn’t extraordinary, that’s okay too. Resting in layers of smoked cheeses and fire roasted tomatoes, the brisket will taste great because the Charzagna tastes great. 

In the end, your decision to make a brisket was the basis for a brilliant dinner party. Brisket success is yours!

Mitigating risk is the whole point. 

That idea for a marketing campaign deserves the Charzagna treatment. 

Take the risk out of launching that marketing campaign by making sure the market research (cheese), insights (tomatoes), creative idea (brisket), and concept testing (noodles) are baked into the campaign together. When you’re ready to launch the campaign, you’re really ready. 

Now you are no longer reviewing response data to see if the campaign is successful, you’re reviewing response data to see how you can make the campaign better. 

Like the brisket, the individual idea for the marketing campaign all on its own will live or die based on its own merit. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You may have a lot of enthusiasm for that idea. And it might be just the thing. But it’s a great example of putting the cart before the horse.  

The proven path to success.

Leading off with a solution, no matter how attractive the idea is, is usually not a good idea. The path to success begins with an evaluation of the context that surrounds the marketing challenge. 

The barriers to implementation and the frictions and motivations of the prospective customers should be explored before solutions are proposed. 

And once solutions are proposed, they should be tested with a sample of the prospective customers to identify which solutions will lead to a successful implementation.

Most marketers understand this as a best practice but they routinely ignore this practice in their desire for quick results. 

Save time and money with market research and creative testing baked in.

That’s why Positive Brand provides creative solutions with the market research and creative testing baked in. And we do it without adding extra time or additional cost to the process.

We know that the biggest mistake marketers make today is happening because they rush to implement their solution in the marketplace. 

The speed of 21st century business, pressure from the C-suite to produce fast results, competitors that always seem to be moving faster, and the allure of data-driven, marketing automation are pressures that cause this rush. 

They hope that fast action produces fast results. It does. 

But not necessarily good results. 

Realizing your marketing solutions full potential.

Every marketing solution is full of potential simply because it is active energy with the intention to interact with the marketplace. Compared to inactivity, it usually has a greater chance for success. 

But this potential is either hurt or helped depending on how effective the planning and implementation for the marketing activity is carried out. 

Too often, this activity is being rushed so fast that it hasn’t been planned using any market research and it hasn’t been implemented using insight-driven and tested creative solutions. 

These necessary ingredients are left out in the quest for a quick hit. 

And this activity has been repeated so frequently that marketers are conditioned to accept low engagement and low response rates. 

The answer to this problem is obvious. Exceptional Planning and Brilliant Execution.

An obvious answer? Maybe, but if obvious answers were that simple then everyone would eat right, get plenty of rest, and exercise everyday. It isn’t because diet, exercise, and sleep are hard or expensive, it’s just because they aren’t a part of our routine.

At Positive Brand, the discipline needed for exceptional planning and brilliant execution are baked into our routine.

Exceptional Planning

We spent years in a battle with clients, asking them for research and insights to help inform our creative solutions. Usually these requests were met with apologies from the client. “We’ve never done that.” “Research is expensive.” “We don’t have the time for that step.” 

Those excuses made no difference to us. We needed insights. So we developed our own research techniques in-house — the kind of techniques that can be implemented quickly so we get the insights we need to point us in the right creative direction.

In addition to a great research practice, we also employ analytical techniques to define our direction with the Williams Behavioral Change Model and the COM-B Model. 

All our research and analysis is accomplished quickly, inexpensively, and effectively — all for the purpose of quickly producing more effective strategies right from the start.

Brilliant Execution

When we present creative solutions, clients always ask us “which is our favorite idea.” And that’s the same problem as leading off with a favorite solution. People tend to decide what creative solution to implement based on their feelings rather than their insights. 

Just as common is the tendency to merge the best parts of the creative ideas together into a single “Frankenstein” solution. Watching beautiful ideas turn into monsters compelled us to develop a better way, one that is fast and informative.

Now when we develop creative options, we conduct a simple survey with unbiased consumers that meet the target audience’s demographics. 

For example, this might mean putting 3 creative options in front of 250 targeted people online and measure their reactions. 

This process generates both quantitative results in terms of points and rankings of each creative option as well as qualitative results by fielding answers to open ended questions. And we get this feedback fast.

The results of these tests do not dictate our direction going forward. They do however provide us with a lot of unbiased feedback that help us to modify, revise, and choose the right path.

Better insights produce better results

Exceptional planning and brilliant execution is what every marketer is after. Unfortunately, too many of them have decided that it’s too expensive or takes too much time to achieve. 

That’s why we developed The Framework — to provide our clients and ourselves with the resources we need to produce better insights that lead to better results.

As a bonus, here’s our recipe for Charzagna.

Grease your deep baking dish with olive oil and layer the ingredients from bottom to top as follows:

• Lasagna noodles

• Red sauce with roasted tomatoes

• Ricotta cheese or goat cheese

• Sliced black olives

• More lasagna noodles

• More red sauce

• Smoked brisket with jalapeños 

• Carmalized onions

• Smoked gouda or Parrano (aged gouda cheese)

• More lasagna noodles

• More red sauce

• Slices or shredded smoked mozzarella 

Cover with foil and bake in the oven for 45 minutes on 400°. Remove the foil and bake for another 15 minutes and voila! You have a Charzagna.