Yearly Archives: 2009

USA Network’s Character Project

By
Steve Poppe
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0

 

“Characters Welcome” is a strong branding idea used by the USA Network cable channel. It’s straightforward, easy on the ears, makes sense for the programming (most of the time) and is differentiated. When I watch shows like In Plain Sight, Burn Notice or Monk, I get it.   There are characters on these shows unlike characters anywhere else. And the Vincent D’Onofrio character on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, now only available on USA Network, could be TV’s most compelling.  Holly Hunter, on a cable show called Saving Grace, is also an amazing character. So much so, that I thought her show was carried on USA. (It’s actually on TNT.)

 

USA Network, in an effort to bring “Characters Welcome” to life, is sponsoring something called the Character Project.  I read a pretty print insert in Ad Age on the project and though I applaud the effort, it seems a bit misguided. The insert, filled with beautiful photographs of American characters, is quite handsome, but the whole thing is more about the photographs and photographers than the so-called characters. What makes USA interesting is the one-of-a-kind people portrayed in the shows. Their quirkiness, their back-stories, their lives. The Character Project needs to delve into this level of character development. Unfortunately, the idea gets lost in the photography sauce.

Honda Insight — Strategy is Off.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

 

Stuart Elliott, The New York Times advertising writer, did a nice piece today on the Honda Insight hybrid automobile. The Insight will be available in late March, starting at just under $20,000. For all the ad campaign talk about “democracy” and “a hybrid for everyone,” this advertising campaign is about price.  It’s a mistake and a missed opportunity. The campaign is from RPA in Los Angeles.   

 

The allure the hybrid is not the $1,000 above or below the $20,000 price point, it’s in saving fuel, creating less emissions, being forward thinking, and feeling good about it. Hybrid penetration isn’t about the initial car cost – though, if they cost $12,000 they’d be much more common – it’s about making the “late majority” of car buyers believe that driving a hybrid is a normal thing, not an advocacy thing. The late majority wonders if the cars will break down, if their friends will “out” them for being closet liberals, if the cars are peppy enough. These are the big market-moving issues, not price.

 

In a few years the combustion engine automobile will be the cultural equivalent of the turntable. Why would anyone today buy a non-hybrid car? The campaign should focus on the barriers. Peace!

 

Miller Lite Finally Has an Idea!

By
Steve Poppe
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0

 

 

 

So there’s an article in last week’s Ad Age comparing the branding ideas of Coors Light (Cold refreshment) to Miller Light (Great taste). Great Taste, as you know, is half of the long time promise, “taste’s great, less filling.” For a while now I’ve been calling on the advertisers in this category to highlight and dimensionalize product quality and “hammer it home.” Coors Light has, Miller Lite hasn’t.

 

That said, I’ve smirked at the cold train and the frosty positioning of Coors Light. Serve it cold? What kind of a differentiator is that? What I didn’t know was that cold was actually tied to something called cold filtration — a fact lost amongst all the frozen tundra and trains. For all their faults though, the DraftFCB ads delivered 3 consecutive years of share growth. 

 

Miller Lite, on the other hand, did nothing to promote any memorable product taste advantage.  Until today! Someone smart over at Miller Lite (and, hopefully, BBH) has identified “triple hopping” as evidence of MillerLite’s great taste. Applause, applause. No really. Applause, applause. If you’ve ever held hops in you hand you’ll know what I mean. 

 

But if some doofus creates launch ads featuring a track and field athlete I may just take a sharp object to myself. Like a cork screw. 

New Product Launch and the Suit Strategy.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

 

Having worked the last couple of years for an internet start-up and a consumer product launch I can tell you how important the “idea” is when it comes to bringing something new to market.  

 

The web start up was not easy to explain. It was part social network, part web development tool, part web portal. Try ‘spaining that one Ricky. The consumer product was a nutrition and protein drink, boasting the highest form of pure, drinkable protein – highly desirable qualities among the infirm who cannot stomach lactose, sugar and thickness of the shakes currently dominating the market.

 

When a new product is released to market it needs to be easily defined.  The definition needs to resonate with consumer, the media and the product’s sellers.  It requires a single statement of product, value and benefit.  To get to that simple statement requires many decisions about what not to include.  This is the “boil down” process. You boil away the extraneous, and what is left is the most powerful, flavorful truth about the product.    

 

This statement is the “suit strategy” and it is the most critical part of the brand launch. It galvanizes the company, informs the markets and gives creative people the direction for the creative. Once fed and cared for over time, the suit strategy morphs into the “branding idea.” Campaigns come and go, but a powerful branding idea is indelible.

 

Newsday Online

By
Steve Poppe
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0

 

 

It’s time for newspapers to fight back. It’s time for them to make readers pay for the online product. The advertising-supported model is just not sufficient.  If you subscribe to the paper paper, you should get the online edition free. If you want online-only your subscription should be discounted. If you are a subscriber and a poster (a content creator/contributor) your subscription should be further reduced.

 

Newsday, who is owned by Cablevision, who owns the NY Knicks (inside joke), is moving to a “paid for” model which will really tork off some people.  But now is the time to make the move. The free lunch in online news needs to stop to maintain the sanctity of the product. News is important. People pay for important stuff. Newsday just needs to figure a way to charge while dialing up the value of the online property.  It will be a hard road for them, but it’s doable and is the right road. The pioneers take the arrows, as they say. Peace.

 

Ceding control of the marketing conversation.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

 

The new paradigm driving a great deal of marketing dollars today is well summarized in a Sundance Channel print ad appearing in today’s New York Times. It says: “…the only currency that matters is trust; marketing can’t change consumer behavior, but must be a two-way conversation built around engaging content..”

 

Let’s parse this little tidbit.

 

1. Trust is indeed important. Too many marketers and ad agencies have reduced consumer trust by inflating claims and implying things that are just not accurate. (Can you say food stylist?) We have conditioned consumers to question our claims and have therefore made our beds. If you can’t tell the truth, change the product.  

 

2. Marketing can’t change consumer behavior.  OMFG. It may make for good copy and even sound thoughtful, but it couldn’t be farther from the truth. Marketing has, does and ever shall change consumer behavior. Take a dollar off a bag of lettuce and you alter consumer behavior.   

 

3. Marketing must be a two-way conversation built around engaging content. This is the pop marketing tactic of the week and, frankly, it’s dangerous. Allowing consumers to drive the claims, features and benefits conversation is just bad business. Having spent lots of client money modulating messages in the hope of increasing share points, I know how scientific it can be. Ceding that modulation to a bunch of Posters and Paster on the web can be problematic. Moreover, it’s lazy.  I’m not saying don’t allow the conversation; good marketing comes from listening to consumers, but my point is that a two-way conversation can quickly recede to a one-way conversation if not managed. Peace!

 

Brand Planning

By
Steve Poppe
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0

 

Brand planning begins with a question and ends with an idea. What happens in between can be magical.  If the branding idea is powerful enough, it can generate billions. If focused enough, it can alter markets and change corporate structure. If creative enough, it can impact culture and influence language.  Powerful branding ideas can be indelible….but only if understood, operationalized and well managed. 

 

Branding ideas are strategic, not tactical.

Branding ideas are simple, not convoluted.

Branding ideas are inspirational, not congratulatory.

Branding ideas are personal, not global.

 

The art of brand planning is found in the “boil down.” Knowing what not to include.  It is the most important discipline in the craft. Presenting the boil down to clients makes the fur fly. It makes people raise their voices. It is cathartic. The boil down is the money. Peace! 

 

A Car Buyer’s Conundrum.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

 

 

Here’s a conundrum. If you had to go out today and buy an American car would you feel  differently standing on a GM or Chrysler lot than a Ford lot? Ford, during all this economic tumult, has been standing on its own two feet. Sure it has crazy debt, lots of bad contracts, and big dusty trucks sitting on the back of the property, but it is still standing on its own two feet. 

 

GM and Chrysler, on the other hand, are being propped up by the government; each chewing on billions and billions of taxpayer dollars, hoping to stay afloat.

 

So here’s the conundrum, do you want to buy a car from a company – Ford – that has demonstrated a modicum of fiscal responsibility?  A company with enough foresight to hold off the insolvency dogs? Or do you want to reward companies that could not see what was right in front of their faces…companies demonstrating horrible management skills? Remember though, in the latter companies (GM and Chrysler) you are part owner. Your tax dollars are keeping them alive.  If Henry Ford were alive…

 

Consumer targeting everywhere.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

 

Cablevision Inc. is testing a targeted advertising delivery system in New Jersey that will serve up TV ads based on the demographics of specific households. A house at 74 Oak Street, for instance, with higher income than at 72 Oak Street may see a different set of ads. Homes with children may get more sugar-coated cereal ads than homes without. It’s the holy grail of ad targeting.  Should better targeted households outperform the norm in terms of trackable sales, and there’s no reason to believe they won’t, this practice will continue.

 

Consumer data collection has increased in ways that we can’t even imagine. The programs we watch on TV, the products we buy on credit cards, the websites we visit, and the music we download are all gathered.  All this data creates a picture of us that makes predicting our purchasing proclivities easier and easier. This is some seriously big business.

 

This may be good for some consumers but not for me. You see, I am a student of all consumers. It’s my job. I like to see selling strategy and selling messages targeting all consumer segments. How will I be able to opt-out of this targeting? Guess I could start by not moving to Jersey. Peace!  

 

We Need a Digital Rights Management Czar.

By
Steve Poppe
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0


I wrote an article for Newsday a year ago cautioning Lord and Taylor about their take-over of The Fortunoff Company. Today, for posterity, because Fortunoff recently filed for bankruptcy,  I visited Newsday to buy a PDF of the article.  (News should always be free in my book, but that’s a story for another day.) With a few extra minutes to play around thanks to my newly repaired Achilles tendon, I ventured into the Terms of Service section of Newsday.com.  OMG.  It contained 33 paragraphs, 262 lines of text and 2690 words — just about guaranteeing nobody will read it but corporate lawyers and people cloning TOS language for their start-ups.

 

Here’s the paragraph that floored me:

 

“You also grant TI (Tribune Interactive) the right to use any material, information, ideas, concepts, know-how or techniques contained in any communication you send to us for any purpose whatsoever, including but not limited to developing, manufacturing and marketing products using such information. All rights in this paragraph are granted without the need for additional compensation of any sort to you.”

 

Having been involved in a social media start-up and partially responsible for the Terms of Service and lawyer budget, I can tell you first hand this stuff gets very boggy. It’s a legal sink hole.  Had Newsday or Fortunoff taken something from my article and turned it into creative or operationalized it at their stores, do you think my check box TOS agreement would hold up in court?  Not likely. You can drive a truck through most Terms of Service mumbo.

 

Larry Lessig, an amazing mind and founding board member of Creative Commons, has the right idea about this stuff.  Were I Barack Obama, I’d take some of that AIG and GM money and appoint Mr. Lessig Digital Rights Management Czar — then I’d give him some serious legislative firepower and charge him with getting digital rights management right.  A good law in place, protecting all parties, will save the country billions in legal fees. (Don’t tell the lawyers.) Peace!

 

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