You know this: you get a brief from a client, you read it and find nothing unusual about it – all is clear. The project was launched and you cannot stop wondering. On each and every presentation, the client touches up his assignment… The originally plain and clear job has turned into an endless series of rebriefs and presentations.

Or, being a client, you have gone through a presentation of your new campaign, and you read in the documentation you obtained that “the target group are women aged 15 through 80, middle income group, predominantly residents of larger cities…” The media mix features a list of the most diverse women’s magazines with TV spots to be aired in a block of romantic series, and, just to make sure, here and there, in primetime. The online section of the media plan features – you guessed it – similarly focused servers. You may not have noticed the timid sentence jotted down by a Client Service representative: “… what interests us most in the target group is naturally the 25–45 age group.” But why bother – it all looked so perfect. If you did not measure the results of this campaign or if “rememberability” testing was enough for you, and a product launch was not directly contingent to the campaign, there is no need to worry. If, however, the campaign is a condition for some steps you have to take, you are in for some ser

The above situations are, in fact, a logical consequence of the developments in marketing communications. In the 20th century, agencies were trying to make marketing communication as effective as possible. Indeed, the possibilities have been stretched to maximum. However, most researches and data serving to build marketing communication strategies are still based sociologically. The sea room has grown so narrow that in order to achieve significant success in communication, one has to spend ever more money.

F.A.T., too, is based on principles of working with sociological researches. Nevertheless, the focus of this method resides in analysing psychological processes of the target group’s narrowed specimen. In simple terms – the target group may represent potential consumers, but in the end, real consumers make up a small percentage. And it is in these members of the target group that the decision-making process, which preceded the moment of them becoming consumers, can be examined. Data for the analysis may be collected and retrieved through and from CRM, experience of sales department staff, customer support records, information published in the media in the given period, competitive advertising campaigns, current market demand, economic and political situation, etc. Armed with this information, we may put the consumers back among other members of the target group. On the other side, there is the client (brand) with his products, image, distribution channels, staff, existing customers…

Client’s continuous support and cooperation plays an important role within the process. It is necessary to identify all impulses on the consumer’s way – from being a simple member of the target group to becoming a client: what information he received and when, which information was crucial, what was his response, what part of the information he accepted, which crossroads he reached in his decision-making process. This is how one may rather precisely trace down the moments when the consumer was susceptible to accept competitive arguments.

Knowledge drawn from such analysis can be applied to shape the actual marketing communication strategy or to implement a preliminary campaign. This allows a much more effective use of the resources spent. Or, it will allow formulating the communicated message in such a way as to hit primarily the main representatives of the target group.

A precisely formulated message hits the target group in its key spots, which significantly increases the probability that other members of the target group will be pulled along.