Entering the Living Room: Achieving True Brand Relevance with the RM Framework

The Book on the Relevance Methodology: Comprehensive Summary for the Holding Company Website. Authored by Kai Platschke, the book synthesizes his decades of experience in marketing, consulting, and teaching, culminating in the foundational principles of the Relevance Methodology.

The central thesis of the book is: Digitalisation has fundamentally changed marketing. Brands today must focus above all on building a relevant relationship with people—and this is achieved in a different way.

Part I: A New World Arrives

The book begins by setting the stage for the crisis and subsequent transformation in marketing, arguing that the industry failed to adapt to a changing consumer.

The Failure of the Old System:

The author uses the anecdote of an "Agency" man on a date with a "Consumer" woman to illustrate the outdated approach: The agency thinks it controls the consumer with superficial data (age, hobbies), vouchers, and loud declarations (billboards). The consumer, however, feels disconnected, finding the agency’s approach arrogant, noisy, and lacking in dialogue or shared interest. This core conflict—that the old marketing machine is rigid and not aligned with what people actually want—remains shockingly relevant today.

The Societal Digital Revolution:

The primary misconception addressed is the belief that the "digital revolution" is merely a revolution of the advertising industry. Instead, the book asserts: The 'digital revolution' is a societal revolution!

The focus has been mistakenly placed on new internet phenomena—homepages, Google Ads, Facebook pages, Snapchat channels—while too few have genuinely engaged with the element that changed the most: The person. People behave, think, and share differently, and brands must adjust their interaction strategy accordingly, regardless of whether technology is directly involved or not.

Rules for Navigating the New World:

To overcome the widespread fear among industry professionals, the book establishes three core principles:

1. Ignorance is Normal (Unwissen ist normal): Professionals must abandon the notion of "knowing everything." The constant flux of new videos, apps, trends, and content makes this impossible. The key is to accept this and use it as a starting point.

2. Curiosity is the Most Important Thing (Neugier ist das Wichtigste): Curiosity is the true driver for continuous learning. It is what compels professionals to "dig deeper," follow links, and gain a small, but vital, informational advantage. It's not about mastering quantum physics; it’s about engaging with the next relevant brand case, Facebook feature, or revolutionary app (like Snapchat).

3. It’s Not About Technology (Es geht nicht um Technik): The fear of becoming solely focused on technology (programming languages, CMS, etc.) is unfounded. Technology is merely the means to live relationships differently; it does not replace the relationship itself. The role of the strategist is to identify a genuine need (e.g., a recipe app for customers). Specialists are then responsible for the technical implementation. The core principle for the strategy and idea phase is: "Technically, anything is possible!" Great ideas like Nike+, Dropbox, or the iPhone emerged precisely because they pushed technical boundaries. Technology should be an enabler, not a hurdle.

Part II: The Evolution of Marketing 

The book provides a historical context of how the digital world has reshaped the marketing landscape, confirming the shift towards digital media as the future. Key trends and concepts covered include:

• The Age of the Fan: The new power of consumers to become advocates or detractors.

• Multi Platform Distribution & Mobile Marketing: The necessity of presence across diverse channels, especially on mobile devices.

• Tactical Innovations: Review of the application and relevance of technologies such as QR-Codes and Augmented Reality.

• Shifting Focus in Communication:

  • Collaborative Marketing: Working with the consumer.

  • Brand Utility: Providing useful, functional benefit to people’s lives.

  • Brand Content: Creating valuable media that people seek out.

• Technological Shifts: Data Visualization, The Internet of Things (IOT), concluding that Digital Rocks the World.

Part III: The Relevance Methodology

The culmination of the book's insights is the Relevance Methodology, a structural framework designed to help companies discover and define a meaningful role in the lives of their target audience. This method transforms the marketing department’s role from mere advertiser to a key strategic contributor, with the focus shifted from selling a product to enhancing a person's life.

The Relevance Methodology is broken down into a structured framework with key components:

1. Brand Essence & Brand Belief: Defining the core of the brand and its fundamental conviction.

2. People: Deeply understanding the audience beyond demographics—how they live, what they need, and their core motivations.

3. Playground: Identifying the relevant contexts, channels, and moments where the brand can and should interact with people.

4. Role: Articulating the specific, valuable function the brand will play in people's lives (e.g., a helper, an enabler, an entertainer). This is the crucial step.

5. Behaviour: Defining the consistent actions and tone the brand must adopt to fulfill its chosen role.

6. Project & Activation: Developing and launching specific, relevant initiatives and activating them across platforms to deliver on the defined role and behaviour.

The Relevance Methodology (RM) is a comprehensive framework designed to help brands create and maintain relevant, enduring relationships with people. This methodology shifts the focus to the new, critical set of KPIs: mentions, conversations, engagement, and ultimately, genuine relationships.

The RM Workbook is a step-by-step guide through this framework, providing the theoretical background, key exercises, and case studies found in the book "Beyond Digital. A Brand Approach For More Relevance". The methodology is open source and encourages everyone to use it, with the sole requirement of mentioning the Relevance Methodology by Kai Platschke if the work results are published.

The necessity of this approach is driven by the "New Kids on the Block"—Channels, Agility, and Data—which have fundamentally changed how marketing must be done. Relevance is paramount because the old focus on product-level relevance is no longer enough; true relevance involves being interested in the people's lives themselves. The RM is designed to respond to the flipped purchase funnel, focusing on the post-purchase experience to achieve long-term impact on awareness, likeability, and sales. The ultimate goal is to break through the "frequency trap" and achieve real influence by entering the "living room" of the people you want to have a relationship with.

The entire methodology culminates in the Canvas, a master file where the key components—Brand, People, Playground, Role, Behaviour, Project, and Landscape—are brought together in a logical, guided process.-----The Core Modules of the Relevance Methodology

1. Brand 

The journey begins by defining the brand's inner core: its Essence and its Belief.

• Brand Essence: This answers the WHAT and HOW. It is a simple description of what the brand does and offers, and how it executes this with a differentiator or USP versus the competition. Exercises like the Limbic Map® (an association game based on human brain studies) and the IS/NOT-list (identifying fitting and non-fitting nouns and adjectives) help clarify this essence.

• Brand Belief: This defines the brand's WHY. It is the underlying motivation, purpose, and credibility that explains why the brand does what it does. It can never contain the product, category, or money; instead, the belief is the reason for the product's existence. The WHY-WHY-WHY exercise and exploring the Founder Story or Arch Enemy help uncover this foundational conviction.

2. People

In the RM, the term "people" is preferred over "target group," as "you don’t make friends with targets". This section is dedicated to getting to know the core group for the intended relationship.

• The process starts by documenting everything currently known about the target group.

• The Limbic Map® is used again to determine the mindset of the people, and the Limbic Overlap exercise identifies shared values between the brand and its people.

• The Empathy Map is a crucial tool for recording insights from research, interviews, and conversations, covering what people Say, Think, Do, and Feel, as well as their Pains and Gains.

• The Guide To Core exercise systematically narrows the general target group to a specific, emotionally-resonant core.

• The Roadmap then maps the core group's journey: their current START situation, their desired GOAL, and the STEPs needed to bridge the gap. This entire process identifies the EMOTION / INSIGHT that will drive the relationship.

3. Strategy: Playground and Role

The strategy module defines how the brand will engage with its core people.

• Playground: This is the brand's conversation topic—the "door opener" into the people's living room. It must be a topic the brand knows everything about and the core people are very much interested in. Ideas are generated from an overlap of BRAND knowledge and PEOPLE interest, looking at Ex-Playgrounds, exploring The Usual Suspects (e.g., Film, Sports, Music), and conducting Mindmaps. A Decision Matrix is then used to select the winning playground.

• Role: This explains the nature of the relationship the brand wants to have. It defines the brand's function in the conversation, answering why the brand talks to the people about the chosen topic. Possible roles are explored through The Usual Suspects (e.g., alpha, role model), Jungian Archetypes, and Mindmaps based on People's Journey and Playground. The final role is chosen via a Decision Matrix and may be refined into a unique Word Creation (e.g., RedBull's "WINGS-GIVER").

4. Behaviour 

Behaviour converts the strategy into tangible, visible actions that prove the brand's sincerity. It acts as a "code of conduct" to bring the defined role to life.

• The Post-It Battle exercise has three parts:

  1. Collect Verbs: Brainstorming action words describing what someone in the defined Role actually does, ignoring the brand itself.

  2. Bring Them In Order: Arranging the verbs onto a logical timeline.

  3. Build 3 Clusters: Grouping the ordered actions into three distinct, logically-sequenced categories.

• The output is a Behaviour Summary—a concise statement of the three core behavioural clusters the brand must commit to in order to play its role.

5. Project 

The Project is the ultimate way to bring the entire methodology to life, moving beyond short-term campaigns to create visible, relationship-building activity.

• The process starts by crafting a personalized Goal Sentence that synthesizes the Brand, Core People, Playground, Role, and the three Behaviour Clusters into a single brief. This sentence is then rewritten to be more natural and coherent.

• Ideas are then generated through Brainstorming and creative techniques, with the Bullshit Game serving to filter and refine ideas that initially seem too far-fetched.

• The surviving ideas are evaluated using a Decision Matrix against criteria for relationship building, and the final project is elaborated in a detailed description.

6. Landscape

The Landscape is the project planning and realization tool that maps out the project elements. It is a precise framework where only real-life or virtual places and things that can be produced are placed.

The Landscape is split into three zones:

1. Awareness Zone (Left): Elements that make people aware of the project.

2. Core Idea Section (Middle): All elements required to bring the central project idea to life.

3. CPM (Content Per Minute) Zone (Right): Ideas that turn the core idea into a "never ending content machine," ensuring the project lives on and generates content that can also be used as Awareness drivers.

The methodology is not a static process. The workbook is a living document, and users are encouraged to revisit their results often, changing elements until they are completely satisfied with their outcomes and the changes become less frequent. The Relevance Methodology is a commitment to creating meaningful connections, guaranteeing a significant impact on a brand’s standing and its bottom line.

Part IV: Impact at the POS and Future Outlook 

The book dedicates a section to the consequences of the digital transformation at the Point of Sale (POS) and in retail, observing shifts like the focus on the Last Mile, Flip The Funnel (moving from acquisition to customer retention/advocacy), Shopper Centric Retailing, and the crucial importance of Customer Experience and the Mobile Shopper.

A key element in the retail discussion is the diagnosis of German-Retail-Angst (German Retail Anxiety)—a fear and reluctance to embrace digital change. The solution is the principle: Handel sollte Wandel sein (Commerce should be change).

Four Criteria for Digital Tools at the POS:

The book proposes four criteria that any digital tool or initiative in retail must meet to ensure relevance:

1. Added Value (Mehrwert): It must offer genuine, demonstrable benefit to the customer.

2. Trust (Vertrauen): It must build and maintain customer confidence.

3. Relevance (Relevanz): It must be meaningful and timely for the customer's current situation.

4. Clarity/Intelligibility (Verständlichkeit): It must be easy to understand and use.

Looking Ahead:

The concluding sections offer forward-looking perspectives, referencing concepts like Marketing to Cyborgs, Back to the Future, Physics of the Future (Michio Kaku), and The Innovator’s Dilemma (Clayton Christensen). 

These references serve to inspire further thought and discussion on adapting to disruptive innovation and the convergence of technology and human life. The appendix features a detailed Framework and practical Case Studies (including Dove, Levis, Red Bull, Always, and Deutsche Telekom) demonstrating the Relevance Methodology in action.