Planning Tips: The Five W’s
So, you’ve decided to take your brand mobile, but don’t know where to begin. Here are some planning tips using the handy Five W’s rule:
Who: It’s important to understand exactly who you are targeting with your mobile tour concept: who is your target audience and demographic? Do you want to reach potential customers, current customers, or both? By first understanding who you want to reach, you can then dive into their behaviors, lifestyles, and habits, which can increase the likelihood of bringing the experience to the right people.
What: What will your tour include or what is the experience you want to create? Do you want to go super tech heavy with kiosks and touchscreens or more of a pop-up experience with product displays? Your mobile tour vehicle can be customized to include practically anything you can think up. You’ll want to design your experience to be unique and exciting, but also ensure it fits your tour and audience goals.
Where: Creating an efficient and effective tour route and schedule is imperative to a successful tour. Where are you taking your tour vehicle? You’ll want to first consider where your target audiences are located and the key markets you want to reach most. These will be your anchor events that you can build your schedule around to avoid any tacking back and forth during your tour. Other things to consider are larger events like festivals you may want to attend, places that offer a lot of foot traffic and passersby, etc.
When: It may seem obvious, but seasonality and weather conditions are factors when it comes to planning. To draw the largest crowds and reach more audiences, you’ll want to avoid extreme weather conditions as much as possible or “follow the sun.” Consider spending quality time in the north during summer and visit the south in the winter. Additionally, deciding when to hit the road can correlate with your sales schedule, product launches, buying seasons, etc.
Why: Why do you want to go mobile or what is the goal of your tour? Do you want to expand your audience, promote a new product, conduct market testing, or all the above? Determing the goal of your tour can help to steer you in the right direction for a lot of other decisions in the planning process from vehicle selection to the other four W’s. Having a clear, narrowed in goal can also help focus your tour so you can create the best immersive experience possible.
