Last week, we put on the mechanic’s hat. We ran diagnostics and built our Growth Logic — the engine that defines how our brand wins.
But even the best engine is useless if it stays in the garage.
The minute you present your shiny new Growth Logic, your CEO, CFO, or your manager will ask the real question: "This is great. Now, where is the growth going to come from?"
And this, friends, is where a lot of strategies fail. Neither because the strategy is not sound. Nor because the teams fail at execution. And in most cases, definitely not because enough funds / resources are not available. In a lot of cases it happens because of the lack of focus.
Fully convinced by our growth logic and the multiple growth opportunities - we spread our budget, time and people thinly and set out to conquer everything:
“We’ll try to win new 18-24 year old consumers.”
“And we’ll launch a new premium product.”
“And we’ll also try to get our current users to buy more often.”
This isn’t a plan. It's a kitchen sink. The opportunity is to turn this marketing plan into a surgical strike. For this part of the journey, I want you to imagine like the CEO of an Oil Drilling company - to hit oil, you don’t drill 100 tiny rigs all of shallow depth - this will only give you dirt; rather, you conduct a seismic survey of hundreds of miles, map out every possible pocket of opportunity (oil underground), identify the single largest + most accessible reservoir, and then you build one massive rig there. Surgical strike.
Here is a 3-step process to get to the one massive rig aka your brand’s growth plan - from a kitchen sink of everything that CAN drive growth, to the few things that WILL.
🔍Step 1: The Seismic Survey aka Unpacking the Sources of Growth
Before an energy company commits billions to a rig, they map the ocean floor. They want to consider every pocket of value / opportunity out there.
You need to do the same - you need to get all the ideas on the table. The simplest diagnostic tool for this is something called the ‘3 MOREs’ framework (if you do want to geek out, go check out ‘3 ways to grow a business’ by Jay Abraham).
Get your team in a room and ask:
How can we get MORE USERS (or buyers / customers / clients / consumers / shoppers - whatever rocks your boat) - aka PENETRATION? Some examples / options:
Can we bring new users into the category?
Can we steal from competition?
Can we find a new target demographic?
Can we get users to BUY MORE (more often / more frequently / more quantity) - aka CONSUMPTION? Some examples / options:
Can we create new usage occasions, e.g. ‘breakfast’ for a protein / granola bar?
Can we sell multi packs instead of singles?
Can we get them to use more products, e.g. ‘night brushing’ for toothpaste?
Can we get users to PAY MORE - aka PREMIUMISATION? Some examples / options:
Can we increase the prices?
Can we launch a premium version / format, e.g. ‘liquid detergent’ for a detergent brand?
Watch out → Everyone loves brainstorming ideas. And then we fall in love with our ideas. At the end of this exercise, your whiteboard will be full. The temptation is to pick the ideas that we LOVE (read as - ‘that’s my idea’ / ‘this is a really cool idea’ / ‘this is the most creative idea’ etc), or worse, to pick all these ideas and hand them to three different teams and say ‘GO’. Please don’t.
🧠Step 2: The Geological Analysis aka Filtering the Options
Just because there is oil down there doesn’t mean you should drill for it. Some reservoirs are too deep. Some require machinery you don’t have. Some too small for all the effort and investment.
We need to filter. For this - let’s visualise a real filter, made of the following questions:
What is the size of this opportunity?
How likely is it that we will win this opportunity? (based on any past learning, learning from other markets / other brands etc)
Do we have the required resources to win this opportunity?
MOST IMPORTANTLY - Does it fit well with your growth logic? (from last week - for more on this, please go take a look at https://marketingsystem.beehiiv.com/p/your-brand-doesn-t-need-more-fuel-it-needs-a-mechanic)
Score each idea on a scale of 1-5 for each of these questions. Overall, higher the score, the more you prioritise. The last question gets a veto - if the score on this one is 1 or 2, it’s a NO GO.
This step 2 will not happen in the workshop with your team - it needs to happen outside, because it needs some data and inputs which you / your team might not have at hand immediately. At the end of this, you will visually be able to see the biggest oil reservoirs which can be considered for your massive rig.
Watchout → The temptation here again is to choose too many of these reservoirs / opportunities. Don’t give in. Lesser the better. In the ideal world, you would have only 1. At max, 3. If you have more than 1, you need to call out which is the primary growth pillar and which is secondary. The outcome we are chasing is focus.
🛠️Step 3: Building the Rig aka growth plan
Now that you have identified your biggest and most promising oil reservoirs, it’s time to start putting together a plan on what the rig will look like:
How much growth will each of these (up to 3) growth pillars generate? (Use research inputs, benchmark to other products / brands etc)
How much money do we need to invest behind each to generate the above mentioned growth? (use past conversation ratios, ROAS estimates etc)
What kind of activities will we need to invest in? (e.g. work with influencers, digital media, participation in events etc)
What other resources do we need? (e.g. expand professional engagement team, increase distribution etc)
The objective here is to build a realistic plan — one that maps growth potential to investment, activities, and resources.
Watchout → while these are growth opportunities, what about the base business? That needs investment / support to, to make sure that our bucket does not leak from the bottom while we are busy filling it from the top. It’s equally important to identify how much investment in what sort of activities do we need to maintain to sustain this base business. Maximise investment on growth pillars while keeping minimum of what’s required to sustain the base.
I have created a template that you can use through this 3 step process → https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FZZH9Ek1LLsDUq8BRMpmgXH75Uvofvv_icgcNOmYQts/edit?usp=sharing
Let’s use a fictional example of a Protein Bar brand named Miracle whose key advantage over competition is that their protein bars taste great, unlike other options which taste dry and chalky. The growth logic is:
Key advantage? | Gourmet protein bar |
What convinces people of this advantage? | Endorsement from fitness influencers and food influencers |
How can we scale this? | Influencer led content, retail visibility |
Step 1: Unpacking sources of growth (3 Mores)
The team lists 10 ideas: "Launch a powder," "Launch a Pro-Series bar," "Target office workers," "Steal share from Clif Bar." etc
Step 2: They filter with Logic
They score each opportunity on the 3 questions. For the 4th (fit with growth logic), refer to the thought process below:
Idea A: Launch 'Strive Protein Powder' (Product Dev).
Logic Check: BAD FIT. A powder forces them to compete on "specs" (grams of protein), not "gourmet taste." It dilutes their brand. Eliminate.
Idea B: Target 'Busy Office Workers' (Market Dev).
Logic Check: GOOD FIT. Office workers want a "3 PM healthy snack" that tastes like a treat. This leverages their "Taste" engine perfectly in a new market. Keep.
Step 3: Building a growth plan
They leverage past learnings and identify that 50% of their desired growth will come from selling to busy office workers as a ‘3 PM healthy snack’.
They leverage past conversation ratios and ROAS estimates to estimate the amount of investment required.
They identify that they’ll need to invest with lifestyle influencers who talk about work related subjects as a key campaign option.
They identify distribution at vending machines in commercial areas as a key task.
🧩What you can do this week
Use the template to guide your team through the 3-step process → https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FZZH9Ek1LLsDUq8BRMpmgXH75Uvofvv_icgcNOmYQts/edit?usp=sharing
Again, progress over perfection. Don’t let the lack of abundant data hold you back. Make assumptions and educated guesses where you need to. Think 3 years while doing this, and do it once every year.
On the other side of this, you will have a plan which is sharp and focussed like a surgical strike - your one big massive rig that will deliver oil. You have now used your brand strategy and growth logic to build a growth plan that is focussed, realistic, and ready for the next step - execution planning. We’ll get into this next week.
🔜Next week: We’ve got the strategy. We’ve got the plan. Now let’s make it move.
📬 Subscribe below to get it straight in your inbox.
