Developing creative strategies is my students’ most difficult assignment in Integrated Marketing Communications. Learning that tactics are not strategies is much harder than finding an audacious or at least original idea.

We begin with goals and translate them into ideas and strategies. Sometimes we simply play with taglines and work backwards to see what they have in common. Invariably, we examine what other people are doing to map the process and see the difference between strategies and tactics.

Here’s a great example.

Marketing Goal:  Get more customers

Communications Goals:  Differentiate this business from its competitors

Creative Strategies:

• Showcase the CEO’s humor
• Arouse the curiosity of potential customers
• Begin your own story
• Make this business distinct from its competitors

Tactics:

• Quick and funny video series with the CEO

• Visual vs. text heavy homepage designed for the target market

• Transform the idea of purchase into “writing your own story”