A set of actions dictates how the guiding policy will be delivered.

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Finally, the tactics.


The actions should be coherent, meaning the use of resources, policies, and maneuvers that are undertaken should be coordinated and support each other — not fight or be independent of one another.

The coordination of action provides the most basic source of canada cell phone number list advantage available in strategy.

The overall kernel is supposed to be a simple description, not a complex 100-slides deck.


Marketing Strategy Kernel
Now, in our own world of marketing, Rumelt’s strategy kernel model comes down to being able to answer a few basic questions:

Who is my audience?
What are the market and the competitive scenario?
What is my position for that target audience?
What are my strategic objectives and goals for that target market?
We should then formulate our guiding policy and answering these questions long before we have started spending time and money on tactics, on Virtual Reality utilization plans, or by opening new shining Instagram and TikTok accounts.


Content Marketing Strategy Kernel
What about Content Marketing? Well, as you can expect, a similar approach.

Content Marketing Strategy Kernel
Source: Marketing Across Borders
Diagnosis
It’s basically answering the question: what’s going on? Better, it’s:

Answering the question: what challenges are we trying to overcome? Is it brand awareness or a demand-gen problem? Or both? Also, understanding your audience, the preferences in terms of content by the phases of the journey, your audience’s psychologic profile, and the distribution channels where content is consumed (online and offline).
Understanding competition, competition’s audience, and market dynamics
Eventually running a content audit, to understand if and how much the content you’ve generated so far resonates with the audience’s preferences, challenges, and pains.
Guiding Policies
You should define your objectives and goals for that target audience. Also, what’s your position to that audience and what macro-themes (content pillars) are critical to engage that audience.

Set of Coherent Actions
It’s basically the editorial and the distribution plans.


Back to the Three Scenarios
It should be clear at this stage what are the strategic mistakes made within the three scenarios.

If that’s not evident enough, here is my view — then you can add your thoughts and comments.

Scenario One
It is clear that the agency is suggesting a set of actions without first understanding the challenge, and without a clear diagnosis.

This is what Mark Ritson calls “the risk of tactification”.

Tactification has always been a marketer’s obsession but has grown with the arrival of social media platforms and the capability to measure real-time results.

“Instagram marketing,” “Social media strategy” are not things. Instagram is a marketing channel. “Social media” is a collection of marketing channels.