Analisys. No creative process can do without it.

In previous articles we have already established that creativity is a process, and that certain levels of preparation, critical thinking and analysis are necessary for successful creative production.
Even so, in the ICPP or 7-Step model for Integrated Creative Planning & Production I describe here, analysis (or review) is virtually permanent; present in some form or another at every step of the way.

It starts with the client briefing in step 1, but kicks in at full creative force once data gathering has been completed and the “Intelligence” generation process begins (step 2.3).
From there on to the very end of the process, critical thinking and analysis are necessary – for example – to determine which strategic proposal is likely to be the most successful, which idea or ideas have the most potential, which arguments are the most appropriate to “Sell” and/or “Bullet-prove” the creative product, or which media are the most effective to reach specific target audiences.

Analysis is ongoing even when the creative production cycle has ended in step 7, because after publication, the media- and research departments keep tracking and analyzing the consumer- and marketing data generated by any given campaign.
These data and their respective analysis are not only used to measure the impact and effectiveness of the effort, but also as input for the next campaign cycle, for example to fine-tune or modify strategy.

In advertising the strategic-creative process is a permanent, virtuous cycle, with every next campaign building on the knowledge generated by previous ones, combined with the profundization of the team's knowledge of the brand, product(s) customers and markets.
Contrarily, in many organizations  – even large ones – this permanent feed-back and analysis cycle appears to be rather less habitual, in spite of the sometimes astounding pace of change which can be observed in virtually any marketplace, today.

Models for the Creative Production Process

The creative process consists of a series of identifiable stages, documented in models such as the 5-step model (Wallas - 1926), 7-step models (Rossman - 1931; Osborn - 1953), 3-step model (Creative Problem Solving or CPS; Osborn - 1979), 6-step model (revised CPS model; Isaksen/Treffinger - 1985), and the “Model for Creative Strategic Planning” (Bandrowski - 1985), the latter aimed at achieving a better balance between the creative and analytical aspects of the afore mentioned models.
The existence of many more models – like the Basadur Simplex Process, for example – has been confirmed through desk research, however, none of these appear to contain significant new insights into the processes as described in the mentioned models; they generally either recombine steps from one or more of these, add intermediate steps, or are a combination of process and method, as is the case of TRIZ (Teoriya Resheniya Izobreatatelskikh Zadatch), for example.

The following models are universally recognized by experts and educators as either the most relevant or easiest applicable theories on the subject.
As their names aptly suggest, all consider a series of sequential processes or steps, some of which coincide, while others not.