5-Phase Methodology for Innovative and Impactful Marketing

The beauty of Method Savvy’s 5 Phase Methodology is best put by our CEO and Founder Jake Finkelstein, “The brilliance of the methodology is driving accountability to the fundamentals and the real success comes from doing the little things consistently over a long period of time”. It is that dedication to the fundamentals that not only makes a habit of great decision-making but also helps creative thinking and approach to problems overall. Our methodology is woven into every decision, process, and iteration of our work: from client work to understanding ourselves as an organization. Let’s take a closer look:

This methodology scales up, solving some of the biggest challenges that our clients could possibly face, but it also scales down to address more regular, routine needs. It is important to note that this methodology isn’t just for marketing practices. While we use it at our consultancy to tackle problems, the methodology is a strong roadmap to making seemingly rudimentary decisions like balancing a checkbook or deciding on a restaurant for dinner. 

Let’s take a peek at what happens in each of the phases:

Phase 1: Understanding

In Phase 1, you will aim for a holistic understanding of the current state of our client and their business. “Where are you now?” or “How did we get here?” are the questions that are asked at this stage. Understanding can include a variety of audits from brand, competitive, marketing, and so on. The goal is to nail down an objective view of the current state in order to have a reference point to measure the future state against.

Phase 2: Insight

After laying the foundation and understanding of the current state, you will need to narrow focus and develop specific, measurable goals. This is often the most collaborative phase, commonly including workshops and exercises with stakeholders to gain insight on what they believe about their organization and its challenges. Creating a hypothesized focus and identifying the priorities with the distilled information we collect is the key to creating a roadmap to the ideal future state.

Phase 3: Strategy 

At this stage in the methodology, there is a complete understanding of the extent of the challenge, and the idealized future state. Now looking through a strategic lens, a detailed plan is laid out with the ideal future state always in mind. This plan can include strategic recommendations, budgets, content plans, trial applications, and more. The strategy phase is the roadmap for what is going to happen when during Activation in Phase 4.

Phase 4: Activation 

This is the doing phase. You have an understanding of the challenge, where you want to go, and how you want to get there. Now, you do whatever it takes to get us there. It could be launching a campaign, creating branded assets, or building a website. We become the architects of our own idealized future state through activation.

Phase 5: Elevation 

The last and final phase is a look backward, and a look forward. Assessing how well outlined goals have been met, as well as laying out future opportunities that arose during the previous four phases. This creates room for the conversation to elevate and build upon what has already been accomplished.

Our scalable, 5-phase methodology is the north star of our organization, and it can be found in almost every decision, big or small. It allows us to zero in, think critically, understand deeply, and truly be innovative partners–and we know it can do the same for you.

Have more questions about methodology or want our perspective on the current state of things? Let’s talk.