HOW TO PRODUCE EVIDENCE TO PROVE YOUR CASE - Part 2

Here's more on gathering evidence for your marketing "case":

I would suggest that you try and get as much information you can on the front end and deal with the mountain of paperwork later. As a marketer, there is a process of creativity you can follow that would assist you in researching and deciding what types of evidence are useful and appropriate. It is the Directed Creativity Cycle, (Creativity, Innovation, and Quality, Plsek 1997), and here are the steps that relate to the research of evidence:

Observation → Analysis → Generation → Harvesting

Observation: This entails all of your initial work. The basic information about your business, what makes you better. An attorney will have a good idea of the type of case to present after talking with his client. Conduct surveys, really try and see what is going on in the business.

Analysis: As a marketer you need to think, ponder, and reflect over the information you get as a result of the initial stages of your work on the project. You need to look at this from every angle, from your own understanding, putting yourself in John Smith’s shoes as well as the business’ perspective. These differing perspectives will come with their own sets of evidence.

Generation: The results of your thoughts and reflection will be ideas. There will be a time in every project where your ideas will far outweigh the information you are putting in. Record all of them. They will indicate as to what evidence would give purpose and power to your case.

Harvesting: This is the stage that entails the greatest work. From our topic of evidence, you must become a selector; you need to decide what evidence to include. The process provides you with a framework to get and encapsulate all this information. The information should have been directed by the other two levels: sales Points and the next level. The other two levels were analysis of the frustrations and problems prospects deal with. The information is what the business does to solve those frustrations. This information reflects the inside reality of the company. The inside reality can – and frequently is – measured in many different ways.

This is why it’s important you get all the information that you can. The compelling story you are trying to tell is useless without the facts. So here is a partial listing of resources available to you to gain information on your project:

• The Internet

• The library

• Business groups

• Research firms


Start with these. You need to gather as much evidence you can so that the case you build is strong and will produce results.

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