The Cake Method
Have you ever had a delicious piece of cake? Baked to perfection with incredible flavors. A great cake requires quality ingredients, the proper cook temperature and more. How is this even related to marketing and communications? Approaching your project with the cake method helps bring you a good result with stakeholder input at the right time. Below is the cake method for marketing and communications:
What kind of cake are we making? Who is the audience? What is the occasion? Are there any preferences to take into account, for instance, does the guest of honor love chocolate? Our marketing/comms project needs to ask similar questions - audience, occasion, known preferences.
Assemble the ingredients. We need to make sure we have everything to bake a great cake - flour, eggs, spices, etc. In marketing/comms this means having the right tools and tactics for our project.
Bake it. It is time to pop it in the oven at the proper temperature for the right amount of time. In marketing/comms this means the time to execute on the plan while making sure the conditions are right.
Frost it. The cake is baked to perfection, now is the time to make it even better! In marketing and comms, it is time improve and perfect your project by making enhancements.
Why is the cake method important? It is a useful analogy for the creative process that helps prevent confusion and wasted work. There needs to be clarity about what the project is, or it is impossible to assemble the right ingredients (tools and tactics.) There needs to be clarity about the crucial moment of putting the cake into the oven - how sad would it be to throw away a chocolate cake after it is baked because someone wants a spice cake? In a similar way, how sad is it when marketing/comms folks have to scrap a lot of good work because there was not clarity and agreement from the start. For marketing/comms folks, ask the question, “What amazing thing are we going to make together?” and use the cake method.