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    Marketing

    Google, One Step Closer to Trivestiture

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    In February of last year I predicted Google would split into 3 companies.  With its intent to purchase Motorola Mobility, announced this morning, Google is one step closer.  The point of my original prediction post was lost in favor of a searchable sound bite reposted by Steve Rubel: “Google’s culture of technological obesity” but that trivestiture angle may now take on some weight.

    This is a very big move for Google and will continue to blur the lines between hard and soft ware companies no doubt with an expected response from “Guess who?” Microsoft. (Look for a potential full purchase of Nokia within the year.) Mobile is so hinky and malleable right now I think the Android/Moto thing will work. And then open may be out the door — guess we’ll see.

    For all the tech prognosticators this announcement will create some serious buzz and take eyes off of Google+, a half-baked though still tasty cake.

    Como se wow!  September should be an interesting month. Peace! 

    Coca-Cola needs healthier-for-you sales.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    coke

    Sales of the Coca-Cola Company dropped 3.6% this quarter. It seems the tide has turned.  The global sugar water growth that offset the diminished appetite for Coke in the U.S. has brought Coke’s growth back to earth. Pepsi saw this sales ding years ago. Coke has been getting into the healthier-for-you businesses for a while now but it looks as if they must really redouble their efforts. Healthier-for-you is the future.    

    Big data will help Coke figure out where lost sales are going. Big data, used by CMS (Center for Medicare Services), will also show where unhealthy eating and drinking habits are happening. And by sharing this information with doctors and insurance companies it will pave the way for incentives for consumers to eat better. Much the way insurance costs go up for smokers. Gonna happen.

    When you are Coke and your sales are off 3.6%, you need to “refresh” your thinking. (I smell a cold-pressed juice purchase in the near future.)

    Pepsi is holding its own by dialing up salty snacks. What’s the opposite of healthier-for-you?

    Now is the time. There should be and will be a marketing investment shake up in Atlanta. And “happiness,” the Wieden+Kennedy campaign?  Not likely to make it in its current form — not in this climate.

    Peace.

    Apps that Behave…your change (phonetic).

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Behavior change start-ups (as opposed to technology start-ups) are really moving the VC market. Twenty years ago if you wanted to start a new commercial venture you needed real estate, manufacturing equipment, people to run stuff, a banker, insurance and office equipment. That’s where the money went. These days, a smart entrepreneur can develop a behavior changing business, using apps and software, in his/her home. (S/he doesn’t even need to move to the garage.)

    uberUber is one such behavior-changing company. It doesn’t own cars or a drivers. Sure it has insurance and some office workers, but the “there there” is pretty thin. It’s all software. People bring the demand for cheaper transportation and they use their own devices. It is a logistics business, as Elon Musk says.

    The best new products and services meet pent up consumer demand. When marketers find the pent up need and can use apps to deliver it, it doesn’t require a huge up-front cost. All you need is an idea, a couple of football fields worth of code, some Rackspace or Amazon cloud services and a VC with a little love.

    Behavior changing start-ups are the haps now. Just ask Netflix. When you a launching one of these companies, ask yourself the marketing question “Who is going to lose the sale I am winning? And better yet, “What behavior am I changing that consumers are desiring?”Behavior changing start-ups are the haps now. Just ask Netflix. When you a launching one of these companies, ask yourself the marketing question “Who is going to lose the sale I am winning? And better yet, “What behavior am I changing that consumers are desiring?”

    Peace.

    Promises vs. Deeds

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    I’m all about the deeds.  In marketing, promises are like air. Deeds on the other hand are few and far between. Okay, bringing coffees to a sale call is a deed. So is lunch.  But they are not brand-meaningful deeds. For a great reference on meaningful marketing check out Bob Gilbreath’s bookThe Next Evolution of Marketing.  Deeds are about putting your money where your mouth is.  About delivering proof that you care. Words are important. Deeds are marketing currency.  Deeds make one believe the words.

    The first print ads were no doubt all type.  Words. Then came the ability to reproduce pictures in ads so marketers could pair products and usage with the words. Advertising now is in end-benefit land.  Yet it still feels like “me” advertising not “you” advertising. When we market through deeds rather than promises we connect.  We create muscle memory for our brand ideas.

    One good deed can support months and months of promises. And I meaningful it.  Hee hee. Peace!

     

    Culture and Product.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    I just received an email from Nobl a really smart, forward thinking consulting company. The email suggested that the most important advantage a company can have is its culture.  People, products, technology, customers come and go, they say, but a tight culture holds a company together. I’m not so sure this is the most important thing. It is an important thing.

    For me, a great product or service is the foundation upon which a good company is built. That’s what people shell out their hard-earned for. Culture may facilitate and create mastery over a product or service but it’s not why money exchanges hands. Culture is people centric. Brand design is product or service centric. When selling a service (as oppose to a product) the lines blur a bit but I find it always better to focus first on product and service — and the people and culture will follow.

    Now let’s go to the neighborhood bar and get an ice cold draft of culture.

    Peace.   

     

     

    Epigrams.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    I make paper for a living.  People pay big paper (money) for my paper, brand strategies.  Brand strategy is what my mentor Peter Kim would call a “selling idea,” an idea that predisposes consumers to a product or service, e.g., “the world’s information in one click” (Google), “refreshment” (Coca-Cola), “for doers not browsers” (ZDNet). 

    To get to the idea one has to process a lot of information, typically presented on paper in the form of a brief. Briefs are my output to clients. But they are buying an idea. That’s the honeypot.    

    I attribute my ability to craft good briefs to the proper creation and use of epigrams.

    ˈepəˌɡram/

    noun

    plural noun: epigrams

    1. a pithy saying or remark expressing an idea in a clever and amusing way.
    synonyms: witticism, quip, jest, pun, bon mot; More

    saying, maxim, adage, aphorism, apophthegm;

    informalone-liner, wisecrack, (old) chestnut

    “a collection of humorous epigrams from old gravestones”

    o   a short poem, especially a satirical one, having a witty or ingenious ending.

    My briefs are filled with them. Hidden in a narrative, serial story. Clients find meaning and inspiration in my epigrams. They are word plays about them, about their products. They are memorable. It’s how I sell the idea. It’s how I come up with the idea.

    The secret sauce. Epigrams.

    Peace. 

     

     

    A New Model for Messaging

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Innovation in product and service marketing has redistributed wealth for ages. Yet one area where innovation has completely stagnated is messaging. The ads and sales copy developed in the 1880s by Lord and Thomas are the same as today.  Words like “sale, quality, buy, and new” were commonly used then and now.

    Why can’t we innovate the message? Sure, we can sing it, animate it, give it life with video. And tomorrow we’ll add more dimension and experiential verve with virtual reality.  But the real innovation in messaging will not be in copy, art or delivery but in how we craft behavioral cognition.  Rather than tell someone what to do, we need to help them conclude they want to do it. Make if feel more like their choice. Facilitate and stimulate the behavior.

    The old AIDA principle of selling: awareness, interest, desire and action is still a valid construct. Yet most messaging today concerns itself only with the last step action.  Innovations like Twitch Point Planning and other customer journey approaches account for all steps to a sale. Let’s court our consumers appropriately.

    Peace.

     

     

    Coke or GM?

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0
    Coke is Coke because of its strong, concentrated, unique taste. It’s refreshing on a hot day, energizing when one needs a jolt, and a drink that almost reflexively makes you smile. Coca-Cola, the company, suffers from a lack of this same “concentration.”
     
    The Coca-Cola Company (stock symbol KO) is looking into buying Cadbury Schweppes PLCs Motts and Snapple brands and probably will do so soon, as a way to grow sales in the hot non-carbonated drink areas and maintain shareholder value. 
     
    In my book, Coke’s growth has been retarded by the broadening of its portfolio over the years.  Juices, waters, teas, and other non-carbonated drinks are the enemy of Coke, not its sisters. For years Coke has attempted to fend off these competing drink categories by marketing Minute Maid, Nestea, Dasani, etc. But these separate brands in the Company portfolio are diluting Coke’s manpower, womanpower, fiscal resources and strategic focus. 
     
    Coke needs to get Sergio Zyman back…and listen to him. Now before you say “this doofus doesn’t know Coke or the beverage category,” know this, I predicted Mary Minnick’s failure, without having ever stepped foot inside the Coke building. 
     
    Coke should focus its portfolio down to carbonated drinks – albeit healthier drink – and put its best people on the task. Right now, Coke is more like General Motors than Coke.

    Claim and Proof.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Claim and proof are the driving forces of the What’s The Idea? brand strategy framework. Find a claim (a simple, endemic idea that sets your product apart from the competition), then array three proof planks beneath. Proof sells the claim. It is evidence. The planning rigor, unlike many, is evidence-based.

    It’s not overly complicated. That’s why it works.  Consumers get a consistent brand claim, supported by memorable proof. Without proof a claim is just marketing drivel. (Hey Laura Ingraham “Shut up and drivel.”)

    When I turn over the brand brief to content creators, they love that there is direction. Some wonder, however, if they need to espouse all three proof planks in each piece of content. The answer is no. One is fine. One makes for a clean deposit in the brand bank.

    A website home page should hit all the planks, certainly the “About” section should. But the claim is always present — across product, experience and messaging.  Again, don’t feel that every ad, every promo, every PR story must hit all three support planks. Do one and do it right. 

    Once ensconced in this approach, it’s fun to modulate each plank and see how it impacts KPIs.

    Peace.

     

     

    Mr. (Mattel) president.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Talk about public relations nightmares. Mattel keeps hitting the news as its toys are found to be defective. The latest word is, some toys produced in China contain lead paint.

     
    Mattel has issued full-page ads explaining to parents how they’re all over the issue and have made promises to rectify the problems.  
     
    This makes me think of the Reverend Al Sharpton’s 2004 democratic national convention speech, in which he tells president Bush African Americans’ vote “is sacred to us.” Well, you want sacred? Think about the lengths a mother will go to protect her children.   Toys that might injure or make a child sick are not held in high regard, I’m guessing. You want brand disloyalty? You want a brand grudge? Outsource your production to a place where they cut corners to save a buck on toys.
     
    Mattel doesn’t need to create full-page ads telling moms they promise to fix the production processes in China. They don’t need to provide a URL for moms to read up on what Mattel is doing about this problem. (Are they kidding? A URL?)) They need to stop producing in China and tell America’s moms about it. At least until the problem is fixed. They need to really “do” something and bleed a little to prove they mean business. 
     
    Children are sacred to their moms and dads, Mr. Mattel president. This may be an issue you cannot survive. So you had better act quickly.  

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