Time to Interrogate Strategy.

Questions to ask to get to better strategy (including Stu Outhwaite-Noel’s and Uri Baruchin’s) 

Who… uses you?   do you hate?   is your enemy?   are you for?   aren’t you for?   are you against?   is a fan?   is a hater?   are you like?   drives your brand?   is your CEO/CMO?   is the agency?   is your audience?   talks about you?   doesn’t talk about you?leads your category?lives in your ecoysystem?   are your challengers?   do you compete against outside you category?   are the experts?   is your new offer for?  wants to unbox you? 

 
How… would you save the world?   do you make your offer to the world?   are you talked about on social media?   do your semiotics work?   did we get here?

What… is your name? do you do?  can you do for me?   can you really do for me?  is your greatest strength?  is your weakness?   is your greatest weakness?   do you do for the world?   are you doing now?   are you offering?   did you do in the past?  do your brand drivers say? other work do your agency do? is your product truth?  has changed? excites your agency?  is your story? is your tone of voice? is your customer journey? are the unmet needs?   content are people posting about you? memes have been made about you?   behavioural change do you want to create?   do your audience really care about?   is happening in your category?   are the conventions?   are your semiotics saying?   is your narrative?   works?  doesn’t work? are the trends? web search will find you? shortcut terms will expose you?   are the best search terms (‘trends’,‘insights’, ‘analysis’, ‘statistics’, ‘market research’, ‘sponsorship’)?   country should I search in to track you?  year(s) should I look up to locate you?  books are about you?  images are about you?   excites you as a brand? 

Where… do they use you?   do they decide to buy you?   are they talking about you?   aren’t they talking about you?   is your user produced media?   is your fan-art? do you connect with other brands? are you hiding?  

Why… do you do what you do?  don’t your semiotics work?    should anyone care?  don’t they care?   now?