Yearly Archives: 2013

Microsoft Strong.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

God forgive me but I’m going to disagree with Robert Scoble, my technology pundit hero. I do not think Microsoft should be split in two: one side about the enterprise and software, the other consumers and devices.  

Mr. Scoble’s logic, and it seems some Wall Street finaciers agree, suggests the business side is “crushing” it (thanks Techmeme), while the device business growing modestly at 4%. Split the company, they say, and let consumer people handle the devices and business people handle the enterprise. I say bullshit. Together there is way much more to learn. And business and marketing is all about learning. Together there will be tensions that are hurtful, yet hopefully transitional. Brothers and sisters argue but they care about the family. And if the tensions are insurmountable, there is always mother (CEO).

Microsoft has so much cash, so much penetration, and enough smart people that it can continue to innovate and make an occasional misstep.  Como se Kin?  And though Microsoft’s brand diaspora is a problem, it is getting better and is certainly fixable.  Mother?

Microsoft is a living organism. It feeds itself while feeding upon itself, yet it is still better as one. With all deference to Mr. Scoble and the financiers and lawyers, the latter motivated by a pay day, let’s not break apart the machine that is crushing it.

Peace.

Insight Diving.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

dive

Wanna know what I do for a living?  Have you heard of dumpster diving? (Read The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.) Well, I am an insight diver. I submerge myself into the murky waters of product, competition, product usage, experience, data and consumerism and I hunt for important market and brand building insights. 

What’s the difference between an insight and an observation? The latter leads to the former. Insights are scientific, projectable and actionable patterns that can be manipulated into preference or sale.

Many brand planners focus on finding one key insight around which they build a tactical brief, say for an ad or a digital  campaign.  I do that too, but start a bit earlier in the process, doing more foundational work. My definition of brand plan is and organizing principle that directs all marketing: product, place, price and promotion. One claim, three proof planks. One needs to dive deeply to fill this insight vessel.

Peter Kim (RIP) a brand planning mentor of mine often talked about “massifying” when it came to understanding the target.  That is, gather all possible targets then massify them into one target that shares a common trait related to your brand.  The hardest work at What’s the Idea? is taking all the gathered insights and massifying them into one claim — a claim which can be assiduously supported by three selling planks.   

I blind squirrel can find an insight. Creating an organizing principle for selling and loyalty, after you surface from the insight dive, that’s what I do.  Peace.

The Affordable Care Act Image Problem.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

The Affordable Car Act (JKJK), the Affordable Care Act, has an image problem.  Sure the govie website doesn’t work and sure the all the databases that feed the “accept” button are speak different languages — but that’s not atypical in the technology business. The problem is that the masses believe the beneficiaries of ACA are the poor. And that’s an image problem and inaccurate. I know people under economic pressure, without insurance, who would benefit greatly from the program. Some with preexisting medical conditions. One of these people is so anti-Obama, so anti-government that s/hey won’t look at the website. Image problem. Too angry, too proud, too too…

It doesn’t help that the gov’t has allowed the insurance service to be called ObamaCare rather than the Affordable Care Act.  And it doesn’t help that the image of the act is tied to serving the Medi-s (Care and Caid).  In the future, when this thing works (think dial-up service early on rather than broadband), we will have smarter, more efficient, more effective healthcare…in the most advanced country in the world. Not care ranked 23rd or whatever globally. Embarrassment, at that point in time, will come from the people who were gouging Americans for hip replacement devices, not people who shows a government (state or fed) insurance card.  

The government should have seen this coming,  I’m all for fixing the exchanges and the product experience, but maybe we should have dealt with the image up front; made this thing an aspirational American right, not a political football.  Peace.

 

Alarming Marketing Data from Google.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

This just in: Google earnings are up but the price per share dropped. Why?  Because it’s underperforming in mobile. The most interesting fact in the NYT story was this:

  • Mobile ads cost a half to two-thirds more than do desktop served ads, but lead to purchase a quarter to a third less.

Readers who have heard me espouse Twitch Point Planning will perhaps see how the “mapping and manipulating” of consumers closer to a sale with a digital buildable (content seems too flat a term) will outperform an ad the size of a wax bean.

I’ve spoken with some pretty smart people in the business — really smart people — and as much as they all think about “what’s next,” they have a hard time grasping that a twitch point buildable is a better revenue generator than an ad.  For some, I guess, vision is about only what you can see. Where Christopher Columbus is???

Marketers need to think about Twitch Points. Only then should they think about content marketing. Content marketing without a brand plan is typing and recording. Content marketing without understanding (fast twitch) digital media and consumer purchase behavior is what?  Advertising. 

Peace!

UPDATE:  After the market opened today, the share price of Google soared over $1,000 before retreating slightly.  I guess investors think Google will fix the mobile ad problem.

 

The brand is my oyster.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

oyster farm

A few years ago, a pal Chuck started an oyster farm where there was no Foursquare check in. He did it not because he wanted to be a bazzillionaire but because he likes oysters. And he likes building things.  In this case he wasn’t smitten by building oyster racks for his Blue Island oysters (the name he uses with his distributor), he was interested in building a business, a brand, and a little piece of the craft economy. Some are referring to this as the maker movement.

Over a frosty yesterday after a few hours helping in the field, I tried to explain what a brand planner does. He looked at me like cormorant might look at a garbage truck. Huh? Then we got to talking about renaming his oysters; the nearby inlet, the history of Fire Island and the importance of story with muscle memory in creating a brand and our crafts collided and it made sense. 

I love talking to people who love what they do.  All this talk about passion is so 2000 and, frankly, I’m tired of it.  (It’s like ROI — if you have to talk about it, you are not getting it.) Hard work is passion. Members of the craft economy tend to put a little extra into what they make. It’s more about what they make and less about what they do. Think product, not process.

Chuck, I suspect, could work on Wall Street or manage thousands, but he chooses to put on the waders, schlepp oyster seeds, and put the near-market-ready oysters in the tumbler.  When he brings his saline little beauties to market — be that at Le Bernardin, The Dutch or Babylon Fish and Clam (just guessing), he’s putting a product on a plate like no other.  “Take another little piece of my heart now baby.”

Do you love what you do?  Become a member of the craft economy. Peace.

(Pictured is Greg, Chuck’s marine biology-studying employee.)

Water and Human Rights

By
Steve Poppe
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Today is Blog Action Day and the theme this year is human rights.  As a marketer and advertising agent, I’ve done my share of toothpaste selling.  That said, I must admit to enjoying cause-related marketing.  Readers know brand strategies with a cause, or facsimile of a cause, tend to have greater ballast.

I was at the Influx Creativity Conference yesterday in NYC and Paull (two Ls) Young spoke about his organization Charity Water.  It is a wonderful charity whose purpose is to make clean water available to all earthlings. Check them out here.  Where do water and human rights intersect? The root cause of human rights abuses is poverty. Around  Anthropologists will tell you that when hunter gatherers learned how to farm, governance and science accelerated. So when 2 to 4 hours a day are not dedicated to water gathering, there is time for other positive pursuits such as education.  And education is an inoculation against poverty. (You with me?)

Mr. Young suggested that every $1 invested in water and sanitation provides a $13 dollar economic benefit.  Take that marketing return to your CFO.

One of the cool tactical ideas in support of the charitable giving effort was to get people to swear off receiving birthday present for the year. If everyone in your family donates the cash equivalent of your birthday gift to the cause, it turns into a fairly nice sum. Plus it begins a groundswell of participants, who pass on the deed and become invested in it. It’s a feel good tactic with purpose-based virality.

There’s lot to Charity Water and its smart marketing strategy, but it is at its core an anti-poverty campaign. Peace be upon all the Charity Water donors.

PS. Thanks to Ed Cotton, Influx and Butler Shine Stern and Partners for a great Influx Conference. 

Tea-ness.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

teavana

I love this logo. I am not a hot tea guy but the marketer in me sees the tea drinking trend and mad growth potential in the US.  Apparently, so does Starbucks who purchased Teavana last year.  For those unfamiliar, Teavana is a retail chain selling various teas and tea-making accessories.

The block letters of the logo and the word itself, do not make the logo perfectly readable.  The name isn’t particularly poetic or easily mispronounced, but the mark before the name is splendid. It’s Eastern, relaxed, friendly and conveys warmth and goodness.

I’m not sure tea is the Facebook to coffee’s MySpace just yet, but keep your eyes peeled.

I’ve spoken with the CEO of a big ready to drink iced tea brand, which is growing quite nicely YOY, about the “tea-ness” in his brand plan and I am waiting for him to step up.  He’s 65% committed, but not all the way there yet.  When he rolls, he’ll whoosh his volume.  Tea’s, hot then cold, are going to be the haps.  Peace!

Brands and Integration.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

What happens when a brand purchases a warehouse? 

Jos. A. Bank is attempting to purchase Men’s Warehouse. The offer was rejected yesterday but we haven’t heard the last of this story.  Jos. A. Bank, at face value, is a well-managed brand.  Stores in key zip codes, retail space (outside and inside) befitting an up market men’s clothier and the expectation of Jeeves-like service.  Men’s Warehouse, also a well-managed brand, has over 1,100 stores nationwide, sells similar suits at similar value, but is branded and often presented as a lesser frills warehouse. The natty George Zimmer aside.

How would one merge these two similar businesses, each possessing very different brands? I suspect the Men’s Warehouse stores performing most poorly will be closed. Let’s say 300.  That money will be pooled back into redesigning the Men’s Warehouse retail environments, the street-facing first, to look more like Jos. A. Bank.  The Bank name will be picked up for all stores.  Most brand values of the Bank will be kept along with the best of Men’s Warehouse, and I’m sure there are many. You don’t grow to have 1,100 stores by accident.

If the take-over effort continues, and I believe it will, what needs to happen for proper integration is good leadership and making sure the clothes match, metaphorically speaking.  One brand that looks magnificent. Stay tuned. Peace.

 

Data Driven Decision Making

By
Steve Poppe
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0

My first experience with the term Data Driven Decision Making was in the K12 education space. Sharnell Jackson, who helped the Chicago Public Schools improve online student learning, is a leading supporter.  As much as I tried, I couldn’t quite get the concept until she talked about taking student learning data and scrubbing it with outside demographic data, e.g, address, parental situation, income and the like.  For some reason I thought data driven decision making was more deeply based in education, such as learning styles, teaching styles, means and methods. Not demographics.

Data Driven Decision Making is also the rage in marketing.   Here’s some boilerplate from a leader:

Neustar is the first real-time, cloud-based information services and analytics provider enabling clients to effectively promote and protect their businesses. By using our unique, authoritative data combined with our clients’ information, we make data-driven decisions through actionable analytics. We uncover insights for our clients, thus making complex problem-solving easy for Marketers, IT and Operations professionals through our suite of complete, cloud-based workflow solutions.

Whether we are talking about education or marketing this dashboard approach is after-the-fact. It’s execute, automate and monitor, in that order. This is a billion dollar business and counting. It’s tactical, not strategic. It’s Ballmer, not Jobs.

Let’s take some of that billion and invest it in strategy. Start looking “Beyond the Dashboard.” I wrote the brand strategy for ZDNet in the late 90s “For doers not browsers.” It implied browsers were stepchildren of doers. I can see a time not too far off when the “dashboard” is stepchild of strategy. Peace.  

Shopping vs. Buying.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

As I was graduating college my psychology professor suggested I look into “leisure time counseling.” “As the baby boomers reach optimal numbers in retirement they will be bored and need things to do” – hence counseling for those who unfulfilled and unhappy.

I’m reading today about electronic payment companies and a number of trials that allow consumers to use their phones to buy directly from codes on empty cereal boxes and ads in Conde Nast magazines. The words “instant gratification” appear over and over as the key benefit.  These tools are all about “buying” and less about “shopping.”

I’d like to go on record as saying that buying without shopping is bad for the economy, bad for consumers and bad for our health.  

The craft economy is an emerging cultural trend. Two things driving the craft economy are personal pride and preservation of the environment. A nicely crafted dinner, a well-finished piece of furniture, a thoughtful hand-crafted gift take time to create but provide much in the way of personal reward. Psychically and physically.  As for the environment, products that have great shelf life vs. products that go by the curb in 14 months are the new black. Well-built products that require some maintenance also fuel the America economy.  This isn’t all hippy granola shit this is a culture where people take pride in what they buy, consume, build and share. (Perhaps they will watch a little less TV, as well.)

Think about serving and fascilitating the craft economy and be early to market. Peace.

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