A marketing leader preparing next year’s plan has plenty of options. The harder decision is where to put the team’s attention and the budget available.
More customer research may be useful. The brand may need work. The team may need training before it can take on new responsibilities. Each choice carries a cost, including the work you will have to postpone.
Our view at Noetic is that the business question should guide the choice of assessment. Before adding an initiative, get specific about the decision you are trying to make and what you do not yet understand.
Start with the outcome the business needs
In her conversation with Nancie McDonnell Dougherty on The Metamorphosis Moment, Ana Ferrell describes how Ecolab’s marketers work to understand the outcomes customers need. For a customer responsible for a manufacturing site, that can mean keeping equipment running or reducing water use. The value of an offering becomes clearer when it connects to that responsibility.
The same discipline applies to your own marketing plan. If the business needs growth in a particular market, ask what is preventing it. Are you reaching the wrong customers? Is the value unclear? Does the team know enough about the decision a customer is making?
Different answers lead to different work. An assessment can help narrow those possibilities, but it should be chosen for the question it can answer.
Look at the brand from outside and inside
The Noetic External Brand Audit™ examines how your brand appears in the market. It considers your digital presence, messaging and competitor positioning. It is useful when leaders need to understand whether customers can see a clear reason to choose the business.
The Noetic Internal Brand Assessment™ examines how the brand is understood and experienced inside the organization. Leaders may agree on a promise while employees interpret it differently or struggle to deliver it. Looking at that gap helps identify what needs attention before asking people to carry a new message into the market.
These tools answer related questions. Neither replaces direct customer research. If you need to know why buyers hesitate or how their priorities are changing, you may need to speak with them and test your assumptions.
Understand what the team needs to deliver
A change in expectations can reveal a gap in preparation. A marketer who has been asked mainly to execute campaigns may now be expected to frame a business problem or turn research into a recommendation.
The Noetic Art & Science Assessment™ helps leaders understand the team’s marketing strengths and development needs. Those findings can inform training and coaching. They can also help a leader distinguish between a skill that needs development and a responsibility that has not been clearly defined.
Everything DiSC® addresses another part of team performance: how people communicate and work together. It can help a team recognize patterns that affect feedback or decisions. Applying that understanding requires practice and support after the assessment.
For teams adopting AI, the Noetic AI Readiness Assessment™ looks at people’s exposure, curiosity, confidence and discernment. It helps leaders identify where shared expectations or further support are needed before expecting consistent use in the work.
Decide what will change after the assessment
An assessment takes time and attention. If you cannot explain how the findings will inform a decision, pause before adding it to the plan.
The cost of choosing poorly can be substantial. A team may spend months rewriting messages when its bigger problem is an inconsistent customer experience. Or a leader may commission broad training when a specific skill needs attention. A more focused diagnosis helps protect the budget and the team’s time.
Before you begin, name the decision. Identify what evidence would help you make it. Agree on who will act on the findings and when you will revisit the outcome.
Noetic’s CMO advisory work helps leaders make those choices and stay involved as the work moves forward. Depending on what we find, that can include research, brand or marketing strategy, training and coaching. The assessment gives us a clearer starting point. The work that follows should address the business problem that brought us there.
If you are deciding what belongs in your next marketing plan, contact us about the decision you need to make.