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Translating strategy in practical tactics
This phase is about translating the public value strategy into practical actions. In a regular marketing plan four areas are addressed in the form of the marketing mix (4 P’s): promotion, product, price and place (distribution). For the public value plan we focus, for the purpose of direction, on promotion and product development.
Since the experience concept entails many products each with their own cost-benefit analysis, discussing pricing would be too overwhelming in this part. It would also undermine the main purpose of developing a tactical value plan, which is getting a wide range of stakeholders to agree on a focused set of decisions.
Distribution is also less relevant for a place to discuss since places (e.g. neighborhoods or cities) can not physically be moved to customer groups. The only thing that logistically can be improved is the access to the place in the form of transport (car, public transport, cycling, walking).
Promotion
Promotion translates the strategic symbolic public value in tangible actions such as advertisements, commercials, websites, social media accounts, newsletters and influencer marketing. The effectiveness of these initiatives depend on the fit with the preferences of the established target groups. Therefore, developing promotional efforts should start with understanding different customer profiles (i.e. personas). For example, when you know the geographic location of potential tourists, their interests and preferences for promotion, only then can you decide upon which promotional vehicle to use (e.g. type of influencer, type of social media).
Product development
The experience concepts developed in the strategic vision need to be translated in tangible products. Products can be:
- Events: e.g. conferences & festivals;
- Infrastructure: e.g. waterfronts, playgrounds for children, IT services, transport facilities;
- Architectural design: e.g. developing unique landmarks such as the Las Vegas strip, Disneyland, Corcovado-Christ Statue of Rio de Janeiro, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, or, more modest, a renovated historical building which houses a permanent food market;
- Community building initiatives: e.g. neighborhood watch, volunteering;
- Community facilities: community centre, neighborhood app & social media account.
To get the ball rolling in this exercise, make a table with the experience concepts in the column headers and the different customer groups in the row headers. Next, in each intersection of row and column, provide tangible examples of products (events, landmarks, infrastructure, community building initiatives).
| Exp concept 1 | Exp concept 2 | Exp concept 3 | Exp concept 4 | |
| Target group 1 | product examples | product examples | product examples | product examples |
| Target group 2 | product examples | product examples | product examples | product examples |
| Target group 3 | product examples | product examples | product examples | product examples |
| Target group 4 | product examples | product examples | product examples | product examples |
Go to step 5