The Game Plan

Last updated Mar 23, 2023

• Marketing
• Plan

The Game Plan is a one page document that you fill out to understand how your customer, their problems and your solution all fit together. It’s at the heart of building a profitable business, the core of your Marketing and the first step in building a Marketing Plan.

I built The Game Plan based on my 15+ years of marketing experience, my Master’s Degree from Manchester Business School, rigorous study of The Hero’s Journey and the study of the way games - particularly roleplaying games, are designed. It is the tool I’ve used to help all my consulting and workshop clients.

The Game Plan reframes your business as an epic adventure.

In this adventure, your customers are heroes trying to escape a broken world and trying to get to paradise. In this context, your job is to be the guide who gives the hero the weapons they need to defeat the monsters in the way.

Though similar frameworks like The Hero’s Journey, Storybrand and The Writer’s Journey exist, I found that they fell short when it came to my needs in marketing and business. They did not factor in the dynamic nature of the business and the changing needs of the customer along the customer’s journey.

You can download The Game Plan from the link at the bottom of this note and follow along.

The Game Plan has 10 elements that each have a corresponding business element. You need to capture your answers to these questions to:

1. Thoroughly understand what your business is all about
2. Be able to tell others about your business (starting with The Epic Story)
3. Proceed with your Marketing Plan

The 10 elements of The Game Plan, and their corresponding business elements are:

1. The Hero: Who is your customer?
2. The Broken World: What is the status quo – the current state of affairs that makes your customer unhappy?
3. Monsters: What are the problems, pains, frustrations, unmet needs and unmet desires that make your customer feel miserable?
4. The Guide: Who are you?
5. The Weapons: What are the content, products, services, systems & other things you can give your customer that will help solve their problems?
6. The Guide’s Superpower: What sets you apart from everyone else who can help your customer?
7. Quests: What are the things your customer needs to do to solve their problems?
8. Level Up: How does your customer transform internally and externally by completing the Quests?
9. Loot: What valuable things does your customer get by completing the tasks and making progress?
10. Paradise: What does your customer’s perfect world look like - a world where they have no problem, pain or frustration?

To download The Game Plan, go here.

• Notes for each element of The Game Plan
• Flesh out content for the free video course