Yearly Archives: 2011

Some Assembly Required.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Biophilia is the name of a just released Bjork art project. An album available only on the iPad, this, by some accounts, is the first consumer controlled piece of music released to the world.  Though it will take some arrows and may not be a world class compilation of music, it’s what excites me about technology. One plus one does sometimes equal 3.

Much will be written about the new album, but one thing that is undeniable is it breaks new ground.

I recently worked on a project in the contemporary art world and Bjork’s project inspires me to wonder if consumer controlled paintings and mash-ups might be in our iPad or online future?  Any person who ever took an art class in college and created a painting knows it is not easy. Though, with the ability to copy and paste art elements from photos, online galleries and stock images together on a screen and create a print or canvases – that’s some cool.  No more pictures of cats next to fruit bowls in the dining room.

Consumer created content is part of the web’s DNA. Art appreciation is part of human DNA. New doors open every day and the doors that open to the art and music world are richer than most. Peace.

CEOs and Faulty Dashboards.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

The thing about corporate leadership is you need to know what you are leading.  Sounds simple right?  If you think you are leading “people” or, worse, “employees” you are toast.  If you are leading “change” more toast.  Throw “turnarounds,”  “team” and “movements” in for good measure. The what you’re leading is the product and product result for which people are paying.  Airlines are in the long distance transportation business.  If they lose sight of that and someone creates a helicopter that gets passengers where they want faster and cheaper the airlines lose.

Only when a leader understand the what can s/he focus on the why — what the company trying to accomplish? Should the why be to make the most money possible, that’s not leadership because it lacks product endemic vision. To take the fast helicopter example further, the why might be tied to the fact that when flying on a plane today one spends more time preparing to fly than actually flying. The why might be to be the most efficient means of long distance transport.

With the what and the why answered a great leader can then govern the chess pieces toward the how – the strategy. Everyone wants to be strategic.  But strategy without plan, without reason is really just a tactic is disguise. A company with a leader who has a dashboard with forty gauges and knows them all, but can’t tell you the what and why gets a B- at best. Peace!

The New York Times Brand.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

The New York Times, one of the top 5 brands in the world (IMHO), is beginning to get with the digital program. And the result? A profitable quarter.

I buy and read The New York Times every day.  When I think about it, what I pay for and what I use are way out of whack.  Let’s say there are 60,000 words in any one issue of which I may read 3,000.  What kind of usage is that?  Yet I’m as loyal as a house cat.  Why?  Because the NYT has managed its brand brilliantly. It offers the world — reported and depicted without bias (save for the editorial pages) in a wonderfully written and presented format.  The Times defines news journalism as Coke defines cola.

With the web collapsing the news cycles and citizens sharing pictures and video in real time, the Times has lost some of its news magnetism.  Until it gets it back.  It has been slow to adopt social media as a tool for tracking and reporting stories but is picking up speed. And once it catches up, it will lap citizen journalism. Someone from the Times could have been in position west of Surt, Lybia yesterday to get some original photography. Instead its photographer were in Surt.   

How the Times gathers, reports and analyses news and stories is changing, but the branded product they serve up remains the same. That culture, that brand, that product is so tight it will never Kodak (verb.)  It has been a bit bumpy, but watching the Times find its sea legs in the digital world is going to be very exciting. Peace!

The Thing About Twitter.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I have a pal in the wholesale fish business. This dude sells some serious fish. The finest restaurants in NYC use his product and have for years. When the BP oil spill occurred last year, it dawned on me that his hard drive (his brain) probably was one of the few that knew what would become of shrimp prices and avails in the city so I suggested he start to Tweet. My thesis was that NYC chefs indexed high for technology and twitter accounts. And if not chefs, certainly restaurant owners and buyers. Those who didn’t, could easily pick it up if it would save them face and cash. (The beauty of stellar usability.)

The point of this story is that, commercially, Twitter and Social Media are best when providing a meaningful purpose.  For target segments that have an information need, a twitter account or Fotchbook page can be very useful. Once my pal learned the interests and needs of his Twitter followers and hashtag surfers, he could then graduate into a couple of promotional specials. “Bigeye Tuna, $6.00 a pound for the next 2 hours.” But first, he had to understand the need – to do that he had to immerse himself, feel the ebb and flow. And develop a plan.

Twitter is an enabler, not the solution.  Sadly, the majority of people in the ether or on the speaking circuit who talk about social media talk about social media and not the solution. That’s social media 3.0 and I can’t wait. Big eye Peace!

 

Advertising and the commodity slurry.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Advertising agencies have allowed themselves to become commoditized.  In product marketing there are luxury goods, mid-priced challengers and bargain goods, but in the agency business everyone is more or less priced the same. 

Sure, if you hire BBDO or Ogilvy your top line creative people will be more expensive than someone from the no-name middle tier but you get what you pay for and after a year or so the profitability equation seeps in and both type of shops meet in the middle. The commoditized middle.

This is because ad agencies sell labor and stuff (pictures, video, writing, music and coding).  The valuable part – strategy – more often than not is given away.  Strategy and creative win new business but brand strategy often disappears after the contract is signed leaving creative to carry the day.  At that point middle-managers-on-the-rise start to take control.  And tactics take over. That’s when air starts seeping out of the balloon.  Tactics are commodities in the ad business. Apple wouldn’t put up with this. 

What’s the way out?

Ad agencies need to strengthen their commitment to strategy over tactics. They need to build incentives into their contracts tied to the strategic product.  If a client approves work that is off strategy, the client should have to fund a kicker to the fee. A – because it will cause more work.  And B – because the work will be off-piste.  Campaigns come and go…and that’s okay.  But brand strategy should not. Agencies known for their strategic work will emerge from the commodity slurry. Peace!   

Eat Carbon. (Not really.)

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Yesterday was Blog Action Day and the topic this year is food; another important  topic we all too often take for granted. As we do with air and water.

At the end of this month theplanet’s population will top 7 billion. Most of the growth is coming from countries and areas that are underfed, undernourished and under-watered. These areas don’t seen to have fertility problems. Is it possible that making the body work harder to sustain itself is better for the planet than eating French fries, salted snacks and high-calorie things that come wrapped in paper and Styrofoam?

I am an evolutionist who believes there is a very direct correlation between the man, earth and bio-chemistry.  You grow what you sow, so to speak. 

For too long we’ve been a car and fossil fuel country. It has to stop.  Sadly, even the smartest venture capital companies (Google whatstheidea+kleiner perkins) that have taken a stand and opted to jump start green tech have returned to focusing on social media start-ups.  Carlota Perez, a big picture genius, interviewed by Fred Wilson last week said our future is not in technology but in sustainability. She is right.

But food, how do we fix food?  And what will be the incentive.  How do we eat better. Eat less. Eat things that don’t enable diseases?  President Obama knows fixing these two things is the answer, but like Kleiner Perkins he knows it’s a steep uphill effort.  And long term.

According to Chipotle each week 330 farmers leave their land. Farming is a noble business. Farmers tend to get the whole eat well thing.  We can find a way to combine a healthy eating lifestyle and the reduction of fossil fuel (burning) consumption.  That is the mission. That is the future. That will fix much. Peace! 

Leadership. Digital and otherwise.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I often think about leadership.  Understanding how to lead is a marketing fundamental. A life fundamental. Impressionable junior high schoolers watch what the cool kid wears hoping to be led.  Plains Indians of yore, thinking about wintering destinations, follow the chief not the warrior. And to whom do patients with a rare forms of cancer turn when looking for the right doctor and hospital?  A health portal that makes money selling ads, or a doc with humility who takes the time to explain, educate and engender trust?

All forms and flavors of leadership.

Leadership in marketing, trending wise, lies with the “media socialists.” Those who can build Facebook pages. The builders of mobile promotions who use words like “create a Google API that drags content into the site.”  We are all smitten with these pop marketing tactics. They are way less expensive than a page in People Magazine, and can live for months. But folks, many hawking social media and digital media solutions are not leaders. The top 5% may be are, but there are not enough to go around. When the biggest social effort of the last two years is a body wash campaign that has earned more talk than sales receipts, you know we’re pressing. (And please know, I loves me some social media. It is transformational. Just often mishandled.)

As marketers reach out to agency partners and prospective employees, please ask them to talk about digital leadership. What are their firsts? Their onlys? Their big wins…and big losses?  Anyone can win a battle but only those with demonstrated strategic chops can lead into the future. And isn’t that where we’re headed? Peace!

Pepsi. Playgrounds or flavor?

By
Steve Poppe
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0

PepsiCo is managing its broad portfolio and having issues. If you put all the brand managers from all the Pepsi brands (Frito Lay, fast food, etc.) into MetLife Stadium (referred to with a smile as “the snoop”), it might fill the lower level of seats.  With all those people gathering paychecks wouldn’t you think someone might come up with a new line of drink to help grow the soda business which is flat, flat, flat?

Water is done. Orange-flavored drinks done. Energy drinks done-ish. Teas still have some upside, but corporate knows putting the pedal down will cannibalize the sugar water business. So what’s next? Pepsi needs to be as innovative as the tech sector. It needs to travel the world for the next cool flavor. And let’s start with flavor before we delve into the nutritional benefits – which are very important but secondary if trying to grow the drink market.  Pepsi’s CEO Indra Nooyi should empty the building in Purchase, NY and send people packing for 3 months – on global expeditions to find the next flavor. It’s out there, we just forgot to look.  Can you say cola nut?

I enjoy ranting about Pepsi Refresh.  What a mess!  What a lucky marketing tactic for Coke. Could Pepsi have selected anything more non-endemic to the brand?  The only thing endemic is the word refresh, which they stole from Coke. But ironically, they’re using the reboot definition.  Ms. Nooyi find a new flavor!  Don’t build us a playground.  Build us a new drink to grow the category. Peace!

Margaret Mead and Marketing.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I was lost at college until I found anthropology:  The study of man.  In college I loved reading how sexually repressed we were and how other cultures found sex with someone other than your spouse healthy.  Primitive?  I think not.  Have I ever cheated on the wifus?  I think not. Freakin’ culture!

Who knew anthropology would end up shaping my career 30 years later?  I certainly didn’t.  My senior year I went to Washington D.C. on Rollins College’s dime to the annual convention of the American Anthropological Association where I had the absolute privilege of seeing Margaret Mead.   I could tell she was one of those special earthlings, but didn’t then conceive she would impact my career, unless I worked in a museum or became a teacher.

After years in account management, I became a brand planner. Planners care about culture. Not brand culture, people culture.  Good planners must assess the product. They need to understand how it’s made, of what it’s made, where and why.  Then they must map that learning into patterns — trying to find the love.  Where culture comes in is delving into how consumers and non-consumers intersect with the product. Deeply understanding the how, when and why. Becoming intimate with the feelings, needs, and the fulfillments. Weighing these intersections, culling, then prioritizing them.  

What comes out at the back end is a brand plan.  A brand plan has two things: A brand idea or claim.  (The claim doesn’t have to be unique, it just has to be true.) And 3 support planks or proof planks.  The organizing principle for proving the claim. When combined, these three planks must be unique.

The brand plan is the way forward. It guides future product development, creates the map for marketing, and allows employees to understand product culture. I’m not sure Margaret Mead would approve of me name dropping in a marketing blog but I bet I could get her to buy something. Peace! (On that she would agree.)

Branding. Business strategy in poetry.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Inside every huge piece of stone is a beautiful sculpture.  Or not.  Upon every blueprint is an architect’s rendering of an amazing building. Or not. On every canvas… okay, you get the idea.

It’s the same way with brand planning.  Any knucklehead with a pencil or keyboard can ask executives, customers and thought-leaders questions. Anyone can fill up a OneNote document (cool Microsoft product) with lots of words, links, quotes and data.  But what makes a great brand plan is what is left at the end.  And how it is organized and integrated. And what can be acted upon for the good of the brand. 

I call this process the boil down.  I like to cook and the metaphor about making a rich sauce through the reduction process works for me.  No matter what you name your process, when going from the massive (discovery) to the reduced and pungent, it is the final product that makes the successful brand planner. Branding is an organizing principle. Most CEOs, CFOs and CMOs know what makes a brand tick; they just can’t always decipher or decode the promise. Not in words consumers can hold dear. Or that employees can understand and live by.  But when a brand planner presents the boil down to C-level execs and sees that sparkle in their eyes — the sculpture is done. And properly conveyed and packaged a brand plan can work for consumers and employees.  This isn’t like approving an ad campaign, this is business strategy… in poetry.  Peace

  

 

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