Let’s say you  are ready to think strategy, how do you get started? In this episode, we will talk about the steps to take and much of this is shaped by Kathie's time at the Wall Street Journal to build up the Lifestyle Brands division.

THINK STRATEGY

1. To Get Started You Will Need to:

• Plan your team
• Create a Schedule
• Gather documents, data, and information for decision-making

 2. Establish a Timeline

• Most productive strategic planning sessions take 3-4 months on the average.
• Make sure that the process moves along at a pace that allows you to not just “Check the Box” but to actually believe that you are accomplishing your objective(s)

3. Invest the Time Needed

1-2 Weeks (1 – 1.5 Hour Meeting with CEO/Owner, Strategic Director, and facilitator to discuss process, information collected and direction on how often you plan to revisit the strategy and reassess.

4. Questions to Ask the Planning Team

• Do they have the right answers or ability to envision a different outcome than the current path of events?
• Do they have the time to dedicate to this endeavor?
• Do they have the skills to pull information together and create a concise strategic plan?
• Who will lead? Will there be a strategy Director or special task lead? You absolutely need to have a point person to guide the entire process.
• Fast forward 12 months from now, what do you want to see differently in your organization as a result of embarking on this endeavor.

 CREATE A BRAND PLAYBOOK

1. ESTABLISHED ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES FOR THE TEAM MEMBERS. 1 day meeting dedicated to this. Key functions were data operations, marketing, customer service, finance and analytics, and advertising.
2. ESTABLISH TIMELINE FOR BRAND BOOK.  Decide what will be used internally and externally? (with Brand partners). This took 2.5 Months  including the interviewing of potential brand partners.
3. DATA COLLECTION/MEASUREMENT. We used current planning information and established a feedback loop to continuously get data.  Customer service ongoing demo and psychographic studies  
4. BUILT A BRAND BOOK. Hired outside consultants to create logos, fonts, how to’s, the brand’s tone of voice, positioning statement and brand story, emotional connections of the brand to our customers, voice, tone, and the right and wrong way examples on how to use our brand.

 COMMUNICATIONS

1. Planned Introduction Meetings for Internal Stakeholders
   • List of those departments/brands that we needed to meet.
   • Calendar meetings and availability of the top interactions to optimize brand expansion
   • Reconnecting via a brand intranet site.

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