Steps 0 to 5, with 3.5
Each step is a full, mandatory stage. No step is optional. Every output feeds the next input.
The Marketing Canvas Method is a sequenced process running from Step 0 through Step 5, with Step 3.5 introduced at v5.0 serving as the Mechanism Analysis bridge between Step 3's diagnosis and Step 4's action design. The 0–5 numbering is preserved for backward compatibility with the existing corpus; Step 3.5 is a fully canonical step that sits inside the sequence.
Before Step 0: two prerequisites
The Business Model Is Defined. What the business model supplies is the answer to what kind of value the company creates, how it captures that value, where its strategic weight sits, and how its cost structure and resources are organised. These are not marketing-strategy questions. They are business-model questions, and they belong upstream of MCM, typically articulated through a Business Model Canvas or equivalent tool.
Practitioners applying MCM should complete the business-model work first. The BMC or equivalent should be stable before Step 0 begins. MCM then takes the business model as a given input and produces the marketing-strategic reading inside it. Running MCM without the business-model prerequisite produces technically correct outputs that may still miss why specific decisions matter at specific moments.
The Operating Baseline Is Captured. What the Operating Baseline supplies is the answer to what the company is currently doing inside the business model: its run-rate spend by stream, the initiatives already in flight, the team capacity available to it, and the decision rituals that govern how new commitments enter its portfolio.
Running MCM without the Operating Baseline produces initiative portfolios that float free of capacity reality and recommendations that are not integrated with business-as-usual. The Operating Baseline is the discipline that prevents this failure mode.
MCM keeps exactly one analytical layer inside itself: the archetype layer. This is a deliberate architectural choice. A one-layer method is teachable, executable, auditable, and cyclical. Additional layers — whether gravity-centre concepts, capability mappings, organisational archetypes, or leadership frameworks — belong in companion methods upstream or downstream of MCM, not inside it. The two prerequisite hypotheses are what make the one-layer discipline possible.
The sequence
Who exactly are we building this strategy for?
Define the five boundaries: ONE company, ONE offer, ONE market category, ONE geography, ONE customer segment
Where do we compete, against whom, and what forces are at play?
Map Market DNA: M1 (Market Definition), M2 (Key Expected Benefits — functional, emotional, sustainable, strategic), M3 (Growth Curve), M4 (Economic Value), M5 (Market Sizing — TAM/SAM)
What do we want to achieve, and which revenue lever will get us there?
Decompose current revenue using the Revenue Equation: Revenue = AOP × NT × ATV × 12
Where is the machine failing (Brakes) and where is it excelling (Accelerators)?
Identify your 10 assessed dimensions from the Archetype × Vital 8 matrix: 2 Fatal Brakes (F), 2 Primary Accelerators (P), 2 Secondary Brakes (S), 2 Secondary Accelerators (T), 2 Growth Drivers (GD)
Why is each below-threshold dimension below threshold, and what would tell us early that an intervention is working?
For each below-threshold F, S, P, T, and GD from Step 3's Gap Analysis: state the causal mechanism hypothesis in one paragraph — what specific operating reality is producing this score?
What exactly must we do to close the gaps and achieve our goal — within our actual operating capacity, against named mechanisms, with falsifiable claims?
Generate Stream 1 — FIX initiatives: address Fatal Brakes (F) and Secondary Brakes (S) using the Mechanism Map from Step 3.5
When do we execute each initiative, how long does each cycle need to be given the deepest Fatal Brake, and how do we allocate resources across time?
Determine Cycle 1 duration from the Mechanism Map: Cycle 1 length equals the documented remediation horizon of the deepest Fatal Brake. If the deepest F is a 4-month remediation, Cycle 1 is 4 months (the v4.0 default); if 9 months, Cycle 1 is 9 months. Document the cycle duration and its anchor explicitly. With no Fatal Brake row in the Map (including an empty Map, MA-1), Cycle 1 length equals the Step 2 goal horizon
The complete chain
Step 0 WHO is this for? → Lead Segment + Customer Type
Step 1 WHERE do we stand? → M1–M10 Context Parameters + Value Map
Step 2 WHAT do we want? → Revenue Lever + Archetype + SMART Goal
Step 3 WHAT is broken? → 10 Role-Slot Scores + Gap Analysis
+ 12-month no-action trajectory for F ≤ 0
Step 3.5 WHY is it broken? → Mechanism Map: causal hypothesis,
leading indicator, evidence anchor
per below-threshold dimension
Step 4 WHAT do we do? → Capacity-anchored portfolio across
3 streams; falsifiable anatomy;
BAU-classified; evidence-staged
Step 5 WHEN and HOW? → 3 Cycles (duration flexed to
deepest-F horizon), 3 Gates,
canonical budget pattern preserved
+ Strategy on a Page (the strategy in words)Every output feeds the next input. Every decision is traceable. The method is cyclical: after Step 5's Efficiency Gate, return to Step 2 to set new goals — which may trigger a new archetype if your context has shifted.
Two profiles: Essential and Evidence
Every application of MCM runs Steps 0 to 5, including Step 3.5, in order. Each Step Test is passed before the next Step starts. Two profiles set the depth:
| Essential | Evidence | |
|---|---|---|
| Who | Entrepreneurs and SMEs with a single offer, corporates offer by offer, students learning the method | Case production and blind validation |
| Step 3 scoring | Mode 1: one statement per role slot, scored on the Maturity Ladder, never 0. No Mode 3: when sustainability is a strategic objective, the Evidence profile applies | Mode 2 in case production: sub-questions, rounded mean (with Mode 3 when sustainability is a strategic objective). Blind production scores each dimension directly (MC-PROD-BLIND) |
| Evidence | Practitioner grades (the Practitioner Evidence Annex) | Q-tiers and Verification Status (the Evidence Tier Convention) |
The Output Core
Both profiles, Essential and Evidence, produce:
- The five boundaries, the Lead Segment, its Customer Type and Job To Be Done.
- M3, M4, the M10 Disruption Level and the Value Map zone.
- The Revenue Equation decomposition, the primary lever with its justification, and the SMART goal.
- The archetype (name and code) with the Strategic Rationale of its selection-CSV row, or a Strategic Mismatch with its resolution.
- The 10 role slots with their rung, remedy and one evidence line each — for a below-threshold slot, the symptom and the operating reality (Step 3, Constraint 4). Fatal Brakes first.
- One mechanism and one leading indicator per below-threshold dimension, and the deepest Fatal Brake remediation horizon.
- The initiatives with dimension, stream, owner, cost and BAU classification.
- The cycles with dates, the budget split and the three gates.
- The Strategy on a Page.