Poster, Pasters and Posers.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Back in the aughts, working at a social media startup, I created a meme Posters and Pasters. Posters were original content creators and Pasters were people who curated and posted others’ content. A ZDNet newsletter dude Jakob Nielsen (I think) thought 93% of the web’s content was the work of Pasters.  My qualitative thinking agreed.

As a brand planner I love studying Posters: Smart, committed writers and thinkers who share their topic-love on the web – mostly for free. They inspire me. They delivered great grist for the brand planning mill.

I grew up in the business (ad agencies) reading trade press and insider looks at their respective category. One trick was to religiously read the most respected and talented journalists on a given beat. It helped with sources, interview leads, data and trends.

We’ve come a long way since those days.  Trade magazines have moved online. Journalism has changed. Influencers have sullied the waters. Some Influencers might even be called Posers. Be careful with Influencers.

Still, I seek out Posters in my work and you brand planners should as well.

Peace.

 

 

Little Q & Large A.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I was driving through the Beaucatcher Tunnel this morning, listening to NPR (Don’t judge, okay judge.) and knew I was going to lose reception for a few seconds. Upon realizing I would miss the interviewer’s question it struck me the important part was the answer, all things considered. Hee hee.

As a brand planner who has made a modest living asking questions, it was a bit of a slap in the face. Or was it? 

Upon reflection it hit me all my brand strategies are the result of answers. Consumer answers. SME answers. Corporate answers. Market insights built on answers. In fact, many of my best questions are redirects and probes based upon answers. As a quiet self-promoter I will admit it takes skill to set interviewees at ease and get them to truly share.  Tone, interest, humor, self-deprecation, eagerness to learn — in addition to truly listening — are all tools the brand planner needs to generate fruitful responses. No doubt.

That said, were I to weight questions versus answers, I’d have to go with answers every time.

Any answers?

Peace.

 

 

 

 

A Strategic Welcome To Burger King.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I’m a big Burger King fan.  Flame broiled has long been one of my favorite brand strategy elements. It’s visual. It’s olfactory. And it is an inherent (endemic) product quality. Flame-broiled differentiates Burger King.

When you drive by a Burger King, even sight unseen, you know you’re nearby. BK has made a wonderfully smart and experiential change to its stores that reinforces its flame broiled strategy – it has replaced traditional door handles with replica BBQ spatulas. With every visit you can’t help but be reminded of the flame broiled advantage.

This is genius brand management and genius brand strategy stewardship.

If anyone knows the originator of this idea, please the name.  Big move.

Peace

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

Brand Naming is Critical.

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.

 

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