Starbucks New Dress Code

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Building a brand is about everything. Everything a company spends money on.  And if done well, everything employees touch. If done perfectly, it extends to consumers who share brand love and value(s) with other customers. The latter two behaviors are free.

I read today that Starbucks, in an effort to strengthen brand and bottom line, has instituted a bit of a dress code tweak for baristas beginning May 12th. Under their green aprons, baristas must wear black or dark colors. 

Starbucks rationale:

“By updating our dress code, we can deliver a more consistent coffeehouse experience that will also bring simpler and clearer guidance to our partners, which means they can focus on what matters most, crafting great beverages and fostering connections with customers.”

This is certainly a brand building effort. Consistency of “product, message and experience” is a smart brand-building strategy. Hence, the green apron. And hence the more controlled uniform. As for allowing baristas to focus more on crafting great beverages and fostering connections with customers, that’s a bit of a stretch.  

One of the best ways to demonstrate commitment to brand values is through deeds. Remembering names, engaging beyond the order (small talk?), discussing the product are process deeds. These are behaviors Starbucks should suggest to baristas if connection is the goal.  

Brand strategy in “an organizing principle for product, experience and messaging.  This dress code thing is smart. Behavior change is also smart.

Peace.

 

 

 

 

Naming Brand is Existential.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Naming is important. It’s central to proper branding. If a brand is an empty vessel into which one pours meaning then a name is the most common representation thereof.

Way back when, geographical location relied on names to convey information. Delaware Water Gap. Great South Bay. Summit, NJ. Iceland.  My advice for brands is to create names that convey information about the product, E.g., Coca-Cola (as in coca bean), or to a lesser degree convey something about the product’s inherent value. I worked for an owner who named a social media startup Zude because it rhymed with Dude.

Like naming children, naming a brand is not easy. But as difficult as it is, the best brands convey. Not just in the real estate sense, but in the communication sense. Of course, likeability and pronunciation are critical. (McCann-Erickson once presented a campaign to AT&T in a new business pitch with the tagline “Go Live.” But rather than live, as in live-wire, some pronounced it live as in live your life. Conveying, perhaps, “Get a life?”  Hee hee.

The chicken and egg problem with naming involves creating meaning out of a new thing; something with no product history. That requires lots planning. But planning is what we do, yes? 

Naming should be existential.

Peace.  

 

 

By-The-Pound or Buy The Pound.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

The brand strategy framework at What’s The Idea? can best and most simply described as one claim and three proof planks.  A proof plank being a cluster of evidence, bound by a discrete value label that supports the claim.

An example: If the claim for an ACO Physician group is “Intensive Primary Care” – ACO refers to a physician model of preventing illness, rather than only treating illness – a proof plank might be Intensive Yearlong Focus. Examples of a proof point beneath that plank might include a contract between patient and doc requiring a medicine compliance agreement and periodic communications with the doc about wellness. Building proofs under a plank is the job of product marketing.

So, claim and proof. Too much of advertising and marketing today is 95% claim, 5% proof.

When I think about commodity products and mature markets where brands are often tired, the brand plans often default to a by-the pound or buy the pound media approach.  Think Geico. If we ear-worm enough media, they will buy. This is not how one builds a brand. It’s how one builds a media plan.  The way to build a brand is by constantly creating reasons to buy. Reasons to believe a brand’s superiority.  And that requires proof.

Peace.

 

 

What Brand Planners Have in Common.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

All brand strategists have their own way of getting to the brand idea and organizing principle.  Followers of What’s The Idea? know I hunt for “proof.”  Existential evidence of superiority. But the means by which each brand planner gets to the brand strategy, varies. Not everyone uses proof. But everyone uses some form of discovery. And discovery really means talking, interviewing, learning, story collection and, yes, data.

If every brand planner is different (snowflakes?) one thing we all share is the need for new, clean inputs. Not preconceived outputs. The latter is what anthropologists refer to as poor ethnography added to what planners might call poor “businography.”  What sets brand strategists apart from one another is what they do with the inputs. How they are organized. How they are prioritized.  How they are presented. Sold. And rationalized.

When a brand strategy resonates with the C-suite, when a brand strategy is accepted like family, the planner’s framework is easily forgotten. The story is forgotten. All the other brand-o-babble is forgotten. What is left standing — the strategy — is indelible. Inviolate.

Peace.

 

 

Ingles Market Tagline.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Ingles, a successful regional grocery store chain headquartered in Black Mountain, NC, uses the tagline “LOW Prices…LOVE the savings.”  Let’s take a look at the tagline for branding value.

First, it breaks a cardinal rule. Let’s call it the “Tastes Great! Less filling!” rule. Good brand strategy is about a single claim.  Now all rules are made to be broken but I choose to keep this one sacrosanct.  (That said, if I can get a double meaning out of a word choice, no harm no foul.)

Second, “LOW prices,” all caps or not, is not a particularly aspirational claim. Low prices, suggests low quality.  That’s not Ingle’s fault it’s the marketing world’s fault. Does your mouth water over a dollar slice of pizza? Does the Dollar Store bring to mind, clean floors, welcoming clerks, and fully stocked shelves?

Third, “LOVE the savings” is redundant. Saying it twice doesn’t make it so. It only reinforces point number two, reminding you every time you come upon an over ripe piece of produce.

Fourth, “LOVE the savings” tells the consumer how to feel. Not a cardinal rule but most people already have mom. It’s presumptuous. Don’t tell consumers how to feel. make them feel.  Use a unique claim and carefully curated proof planks.

Ingles is a family business, it’s nearby, the stores are nearly immaculate, and they are brightly lit!  There’s a lot to work with for a well-honed brand claim. Defaulting to Aldi’s positioning (who really has proof(s) of price advantage) is lackluster, off-piste brand craft.

Peace.

 

 

Deeds. Comms. And Gun Control.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

A couple of decades ago I wrote my first significant brand strategy.  The client was North Shore-LIJ Health System now known as Northwell Health. The brand claim developed was “A Systematized Approach to Improving Healthcare” supported by the proof planks “leading edge treatments and technology,” “information and resource sharing” and “community integration.”  

Though it has been many, many years since its creation and I do not have any ties to Northwell today, I like to follow brand strategies to see how they hold up.

Recently, Northwell and ad agency Strawberry Frog have taken up a messaging campaign around gun violence. A bit of a head-scratcher when I first read about it, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. And here’s how it works under the “systematized” brand strategy.

If healthcare is heading anywhere today it’s moving in the direction of “preventative” medicine rather than “curative.” The effort to educate the public about gun violence and integrate that message into the community (third proof plank) is not only daring for a healthcare organization it’s life-saving. The big question now is whether or not Northwell and Strawberry Frog will operationalize this beyond communications. Deeds is how we affect change. Deeds and comms.

So proud of Michael Dowling and the leadership team of Northwell Health. This is a bridge within reach. Can’t wait to see where it goes and how it measures.

Peace.

 

 

For-Profit Altruism.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I bet you never heard those three words strung together. Well, they’re actually the result of some internal brand work I’ve been doing for What’s The Idea?.  A cobbler’s children exercise.  “For-Proft Altruism” is under consideration for my brand claim. (A brand strategy consists of a brand claim and three proof planks.)

One of the core good-ats at What’s The Idea? is sharing — sharing best practices in brand strategy and branding. Sharing is a brain worm for me.  Generally speaking, giving away free advice and IP is not a smart business idea, yet it’s worked brilliantly Open Source software advocates. In my view if everyone did branding properly marketing would be much more effective…and more people could participate.

Sharing is altruistic. So, what’s up with this seemingly contrarian “for-profit” notion? Ummm…have you ever presented to a CEO or C-level exec? While brand strategists are talking about “Mission.” “Vision,” “Voice” and “Personality,” the C-level exec is wondering how many basis points interest rates will change next quarter or if the Chinese manufacturing holiday will impact the new order from Walmart.  And while the brand strategist is trying to sell a touchy-feely, culturally savvy position like “work/life balance,” that same C-level exec is pondering more endemic product qualities, tied to phenomenological superiority.

I spend way too much of my time educating and sharing and not enough providing the for-profit values offered by What’s The Idea?  So, I should heed my own advice and dial up the for-profit. Next step, work up the three proof planks — the three areas of evidence supporting For-Profit Altruism.

Stay tuned.

Peace.

 

Brand Strategy Exercise. The Claim.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

There are two components to brand strategy. That’s right, two. The brand claim and the proof planks. All of which can fit onto a single sheet of paper.

Ideally a claim is an all-encompassing master value which distinguishes your brand. Arriving at a single statement – conjunctions and commas not allowed – is not easy. That said, it’s okay if the claim is pregnant with meaning or a double entendre, but singularity is ideal. (“Sewing Joy” is a claim I used for a market leader in the children’s apparel business.)

Today’s post on the claim is actually more of an exercise.  I encourage brand owners, business owners and/or CMOs to try to find two words that convey their brand’s unique value.  The words don’t even need to work as a meaningful statement, though if they do it’s ideal. The exercise is really about “boiling down” all the good-ats and care-abouts into two words that most efficiently and enthusiastically represent your brand.

Not easy.

I rarely present brand strategy claims that are two words but when I do a la “Sewing Joy,” they can be home runs.  Last point, brand claims are not meant to steal the creative team’s thunder. They are meant to inspire. In ways that governs successful, on-strategy marketing and tactics.

I often say, Campaigns come and go, a powerful brand strategy is indelible.

Try the exercise, you’ll benefit.

Peace.

 

Brand Planning Effluvia.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Many practicing brand planners are well-meaning and talk a good game. But they don’t always deliver the goods. And when I say goods, I mean brand strategy: An organizing principle for product, experience and messaging. A brand strategy’s only measurable job is to win business.

Brand planners who talk about “story” aren’t providing strategy. Those who pepper their brand plans with the words like “mission,” “personality,” “values” and “vision” aren’t delivering strategy. Important planning tools though they may be, they are really the effluvia of the strategy process. CEOs don’t like to sit still for the effluvia, they want the strategy. And the rationale. Not the circuitous route to the strategy.

Strategy is a directive.  One that “sells more, to more, more often, at higher process (Sergio Zyman).  Makers who use brand strategy are charged with creating communications and tactics that helps a brand win in the marketplace. Great makers move markets. But it’s strategist who points the Makers in the business-winning direction. You can give a Maker a story. A voice. Or a vision. But they really need a strategy.  

Peace.

 

 

A Brand Strategy Regret.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

It’s funny when “work stuff” resurfaces years later. Especially in strategy. 

A while back I worked for a reseller of interactive classroom white boards. I trod the halls of many K-12 schools, interviewing teachers, principals, administrators and technology professionals. After much discovery on a once-in-a-lifetime assignment, I landed on a cool brand strategy. “Leading The Educational Spring.” The CEO didn’t buy it.  Timewise it was during the Arab Spring and just after the famous Broadway play Spring Awakening. Contextually and culturally it carried a good deal of meaning. The strategy intent: classroom and learning was in need of reform after 50 years of chalkboard teaching.

The new brand strategy, the one the CEO agreed to, was “Illuminating Learning.” Not bad and certainly endemic. However today, many years later, while reading something in the NYT I’m struck that I may have let the brand down. I should have fought harder.

Movements you see – Strawberry Frog’s Scott Goodson and Chip Walker would agree – are stronger than claims.  If you can keep them. (Thanks Ben Franklin.) And the Educational Spring had a chance to be a movement. A movement with a single brand as champion.

(Caveat: Saying you’re going to create a movement and doing it are two different things.)

Sometimes you need to fight for a strategy. The brand planners’ dilemma. 

Peace.

 

 

 

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