Several times, I’ve received draft reports from the team offering conceptual recommendations, such as "low awareness needs to be increased," "conversion is lacking, so better communication is necessary," or "the brand image should be more positive to appear modern and innovative." However, the common question that arises is, how do we realize all of this?

Terms like "low," "lacking," and "positive" can be relative and require a shared understanding. For instance, if a brand leader experiences a 1-2% decline, it might not be too worrying if awareness is already above 90%. However, for a new brand with awareness below 10%, such a decline can be significant.

Are these recommendations enough? Not yet! We need concrete steps, clear implementation, and measurable plans. What should we include in the recommendations? We need to focus on things we can control and do. Awareness is often out of our control as it naturally occurs in consumers’ minds. Raising awareness itself is still beyond our control. What we can do is make the brand visible in places or channels where consumers engage. For example, if 80% of our target audience interacts with Instagram daily, we certainly want to reach them there to increase our brand awareness.

So, what can we control and do? Let's go back to the basics of marketing, where marketing activities are divided into three categories: Above the Line (ATL), Below the Line (BTL), and Through the Line (TTL).

These terms may already be familiar to us. ATL refers to marketing activities that use mass media to reach a wider audience, such as ads on TV, radio, and print media (newspapers, magazines). BTL includes more focused and direct approaches to reaching consumers personally; examples of BTL include retail promotions, events, sponsorships, and interactive digital marketing. Meanwhile, TTL is a combination of ATL and BTL, using mass media to build brand awareness while still interacting directly with consumers, such as through social media.

Thus, our recommendations should include strategies we can execute, whether through ATL, BTL, or TTL, or a combination of all three, depending on the characteristics of our target market. It’s not just about choosing the channels, but also how we communicate the message, including the theme, tone, and compelling reason to buy. Only with this approach can we generate actionable insights that can be implemented, rather than just concepts.