The toolkit
Canvases, templates, checklists, worksheets and calculators to use today. Each one is built on a named framework, explained with its sources, and ready to fill in here, print or download. What you type stays in your browser.
Canvases2
One page that holds a whole idea, filled in together.
- The IMC plan canvas: the whole integrated plan on one pageEight boxes, filled in order, that turn a business problem into one integrated plan: situation, objectives, audience, message, mix, timing, budget and measurement. Built on PR Smith's SOSTAC and the marketing plan outline in Kotler and Keller.
- The brand platform canvas: purpose, positioning, personality and proof on one pageEight boxes that write down what a brand stands for and how it shows up: purpose, vision, values, positioning, personality, promise, proof and distinctive assets. Drawn from Aaker, Keller and Kapferer, with distinctive assets after Romaniuk.
Templates1
The documents a plan needs, with the headings already right.
Checklists2
What to check before it goes out, ticked off as you go.
- The launch checklist: before, during and after, across every disciplineThe checks that keep a launch from failing at the joins: objectives and briefs, claims and codes, consent and accessibility, product and service readiness before launch; synchronised go-live and monitoring during it; and a measured review after it.
- The crisis communication checklist: prepare, respond, recoverWhat to have ready before a crisis, what to do in the first hours, and how to recover and learn after it: the crisis team, stakeholder map, holding statements and approvals; verified facts, one voice and regular updates; and an after-action review. After CIPR, PRSA and UK Government Communication Service guidance, Coombs's situational crisis communication theory and ISO 22361.
Worksheets1
Questions to work through, one decision at a time.
Calculators2
The arithmetic behind a rule of thumb, with its source and its limits.
- The objective-and-task budget calculator: cost what the objectives needBuild the communication budget up from the objectives: list the tasks each objective needs, cost each one, add a contingency, and see the total. The objective-and-task method taught in Kotler and Keller, with the checks the budgeting research recommends.
- The customer lifetime value and acquisition cost calculatorEnter order value, orders a year, gross margin, expected years and acquisition cost to see a simple, undiscounted customer lifetime value, the ratio of value to cost, and the months it takes a customer to pay back what it cost to win them. After Gupta, Lehmann and Stuart's work on valuing customers.