The nature and services of advertising are always evolving, and today's approach to marketing has caused the role of the planner in agencies to become more and more important. Research is an integral part of the planner's job, so senior research people sometimes assume the role of planners. But a separate breed of planners is now emerging, brain children of a handful of agencies or, more accurately, individuals, who pioneered this concept. Two London agencies in particular spearheaded this movement. They both have large planning departments and are prepared to take young people with no previous experience and train them. To have received your training at one of these agencies is a passport to success and now many other agencies are creating planning departments. Until there are more planners than required, training and job opportunities will be good.
There is a clear difference in roles between the planner and account executive.
The planner represents the consumer's voice while the account executive represents that of the client. There are instances when their spheres of influence overlap, but the planner is principally concerned with the consumer's point of view. Why does she buy a certain product, where and how often? Is she satisfied with it? Could she be persuaded to buy more and, if so, for what reasons? To obtain answers, the planner uses research of all kinds, including group discussions and wider surveys. The planners also track the success of a campaign by studying continuous data flowing in about it.
With all this statistical data, it follows that planners must be numerate, able to read statistics, and comprehend the analysis of them. They should be able to present research findings in terms that are relevant and understandable to the client.
There are certain personality characteristics that are basic to people who make good planners. They need to be greatly interested in people and what makes them tick. They should have an abundance of curiosity and a natural desire to find out about new things. Above all, planners need sensitivity to emerging social trends, consumer attitudes, and life styles. Although they are dealing with facts, planners are more creative in their approach than the account executive. It is often a good thing to be somewhat anarchic, never rigid in your opinions, and always open to new ideas if you want to be a planner.
Once again that requirement to get on with people, clients, account executives and the creative teams is basic to your daily work. Just how does co operation between a planner and the creative team work? After all, creative people are supposed to be sensitive and aware of the consumer and society and in real touch with change and mood. Let's take an example of the planner and creative team together. Trying to devise the strategy for a lager campaign, the planner found out through the research that the key benefit consumers looked for in lager was refreshment incidentally something no other beer advertiser mentioned. The creative team took this new insight and used it as a spring board to create a very successful campaign based on sprouting leaves and the headline: 'Refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach', thus demonstrating the imaginative leap creative people make from research findings to effect communication messages.
Although at the moment only a handful of agencies have planning departments, planning is a fast growing area in advertising and not only advertising management consultants are beginning to recognize the importance of the planner in many aspects of commerce. Here is a career in advertising where the potential for moving out to other service industries will probably exist.
Planning is an attractive job, interesting and profitable, but it is a developing area of expertise. This means there are as yet few signposts pointing to success no hard and fast rules as to how to qualify, how to get started, or really exact definitions of the work you do. Should you succeed in becoming a planner you would be helping to create these parameters?
