Brand planning, marketing planning, communications planning and account planning are all discrete disciplines — but really, they are also the same. It’s really in the packaging.
If you take the word “planning” away from these labels, what you are left with, truthfully, is marketing. Sergio Zyman once defined marketing as “selling more stuff, to more people, more times, at higher prices.” If the brand plan helps you do that, you win. If the marketing plan delivers. Win. The communications plan? Win again.
Planners, no matter what their title, look at information, data and behavior and key in on selling insights. Then they boil down those insights until left with the most important insight – the most sales-effective insight for the brand. This forms the branding idea. With a powerful branding idea, you can plan and plan and plan. And label it whatever you like. The reality is, it’s marketing.