Yearly Archives: 2017

Politics, Brands and Focus.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I have borrowed heavily from the political ranks for my brand strategy framework – referring to brand support as “planks.”  Planks are the keys to the organizing principle that is What’s The Idea’s secret sauce.

Smart politicians understand that their day job is to be all things to all people, but brilliant politicians know they must be a few big things to all people.  “It’s the economy stupid,” was one such plank of Bill Clinton’s 1992 election, coined by James Carville.

Ask most politicians or political runners today for their key messages, I’m sure you will get back at least one generic statement like “serving our constituents to make their lives better.”  As well-intended as this may be, it’s not a discrete plank.

Politicians and brand runners need to focus. Find a claim, find your three proof planks, then live your life in their duty.

Peace.

 

Long Live Twitter

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Yesterday I posted on the subject “Twitter Blather Be Gone.” I suggested not using Twitter solely as a business tool to promote oneself…ad nauseam. Yet I post Twitter promoting my blog. Am I breaking my own rule? Nah. If all I did on Twitter was promote myself with 20 tweets a day, that would be different.

I look at all social media channels differently. Facebook is for friends. LinkedIn for work. Instagram for the art director/photographer in you. A blog for your keen interest. And Twitter – as the representation of your total personality. A little bit of everything. I say stuff to on Twitter I’d never share on Facebook.

Twitter can be the best representation of the whole person. As an outbound vehicle, Twitter is the most freeing. The most important. It reflects the daily earthly cosmos, if that’s not a contradiction. Blather be gone. Long live Twitter.

Peace.

 

Twitter Blather be Gone.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

You’ve seen Twitter personalities with an inordinate number of follower. Or those with 100,000 tweets. Are these serious and effective business people or subject matter experts?  Often, no. They are all about creating churn on Twitter. And if they do it on Twitter they’re apt to do so on Facebook as well.

When I see these people, unless they are Kardashian, I know they’re in the business of social media; trying to make a living selling their social media expertise. Twitter is best when it’s not overtly commercial. When the important stuff floats to the top. Not when the important stuff is buried under a bunch of promotional blather. Once something good is under the fold, it’s pretty much gone.

We need to do a better job of filtering out the Twitter blather from our feeds. I plan on removing some Tweeps beginning today. I love Twitter. I follow smart business people, strategists and thinkers. When I hide them among the weeds, it’s a problem.

Peace.

 

 

 

Tactics-Palooza.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

A growing industry is taking hold in the marketing world fueled by one-off new media helpers.  Packaged as consultants, they offer social media, website, email marketing and online advertising tactics to those interested in spicing up marketing returns.  Check your Twitter feed for 140 character posts that contain primary numbers such as “7 steps to, 5 surefire rules, 3 critical digital mistakes…” to easily identify these tactical helpers.  People crave this stuff and it sells.

But I giggle at these tactically focused sales pitches. Tactics-palooza only works if the basic groundwork of brand strategy is set. Brand strategy must be in place for any tactic to be maximized. It’s my experience, especially with mid-size companies, that this is just not happening.  Mid-size and small businesses are studying content marketing, mobile ad buys, Google AdWords, responsive design and the like, without understanding how best to position their companies for maximum result.

It’s a tactical shit show. A shiny, not-so-new thing that has captured marketing dollars with little, if any, effectiveness. It’s ingredient buying without the recipe.

Peace.

 

Brand and De Facto Brand Strategies.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

It’s debatable how many companies actually have brand strategies.  They have brands, products, services, mission statements, taglines, marketing plans and ads. But brand strategies? Organizing principles for product, experience and messaging?  No so much. Many marketers have de facto brand strategies, not codified as “one claim and three proof planks.” They may take the form of a big “idea” with some provable supports. Or a de facto brand strategy may come from an ad, or highly effective promotion. Perhaps a marketing document drawn up during a peak sales period. But often, as can be the case with real brand strategies, de facto versions drift away.

I do a lot of training and it’s my belief that the root cause of powerful brands is training. Everyone at the company needs to know the brand strategy. Not just the brand managers. Geo-technical engineers need to know their brand strategies.  Kitchen remodelers need to know it. Truck drivers who deliver the goods, cardiothoracic surgeons who work for the system. Everybody.

When everyone is trained on brand strategy, when management spends time and money reinforcing it, a brand takes on a life of its own.

Peace.

 

Coke. Care-Abouts and Good-Ats.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Coca-Cola’s key good-at is “refreshment.” There are few, few things better than a cold Coke on a warm day after a workout.  And when the consumer care-about is refreshment, a great product choice is Coke. Remember, brand strategy is about good-ats and care-abouts. 

Refreshment, rather than, longtime advertising attribute “happiness,” is an experiential, product-based proof. It’s a product reality. Coke’s current advertising tagline (brand line) is “Taste The Feeling.” An amalgam of cheerleading and emotion.   It is not a product based care-about or good-at. It’s advertising based.

Don’t get me wrong, I love advertising. Dave Trott teaches me the way to do it well it to connect. But connecting with the art is not the same as connecting with the product. Of course it’s harder to create compelling stories and poetry around products – but that’s the job.    

Brand planners need to focus the work on product-based care-abouts and good-ats. Coke should know better.

Peace.          

 

Product Naming Fail.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

In my brand strategy presentation to prospects there’s a slide on the “fruit cocktail effect,” what happens when you try to be too many things as a brand. Nobody would argue, in fruit cocktail the pear tastes like the peach which tastes like the cherries, grapes and pineapple.  One boring, sweet syrupy mess.

I was in a BJs yesterday and noticed this little device.  It is a multipurpose snow removal tool.  But who could name it? It offers a brush, ice scraper, squeegee, ice chipper, telescoping handle, detachable handle and a few other odds and ends.  To accommodate all the functionality and utility at a price point attractive to most consumers, the thing is make of cheap plastic. If it lasts two snow storms I’d be surprised. But what should one name this thing so it has a slim chance to live on and evolve into a viable product?  Good names follow the Is-Does rule (what a product Is and what it Does).  There just no way to name this thing. Swiss Army Brush?  Everything starts with the product.

Peace.

 

Embrace Change.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Sound familiar? I may have read it somewhere before.

Does The New York Times executive director Dean Baquet have to embrace change when ad revenue at the paper paper is off double digits? Does Mark Zuckerberg have to change HR bereavement policy to stay more competitive as the “new thing” luster (but not revenue) wears off the Facebook brand? Does Michael Dowling, Northwell Health CEO, have to embrace change when facing an insurance market that has to set prices for 2018 in less than three month?

For a professional that spends a lot of time looking at brand and business heritage, mining the perceptual depths of consumer, one might think I don’t embrace change. That I’m not incentivized to embrace change. You’d be wrong. Tomorrow is the only day I care about.

Sure I look for business proof that feeds the framework of brand strategy. Sure I do some rearview mirror planning. But tomorrow is “beyond the dashboard.” Future revenue is tomorrow. All earthly business delights are to be found tomorrow.

Peace.

 

Rebrand…Best Western vs. Holiday Inn

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I did a little driving this past week and noticed two rebranding efforts in the hospitality sector.  Holiday Inn did their’s a couple of years ago and Best Western more recently.  I wonder what each company paid for their rebrand efforts. If anyone knows, please share with me. It seems a no-brainer that one job was worth its weight in design gold, the other not so much.

Holiday Inn’s logo is contemporary, active, clean and refreshing. It suggests the same approach was taken renovating all the properties.  Though green is not one of my favorite colors, I have to admit the mark, type and name treatment work wonderfully.

The Best Western logo on the other hand, looks like a too-cool-for-type-school designer worked on it and it’s way over our heads, or, it was crafted by the CMO’s daughter who cuts hair in Jersey City.  (Not that there’s anything wrong with beauticians or Jersey City.) The Best Western logo is the opposite of Holiday Inn: Logy, a tad unkempt, colorless and sans any fashion sense. Close your eyes and imagine what the new room designs must look like. That is, if they were done at all.

Logo and style manual design in a rebrand isn’t everything but it’s a HUGE thing.

McPeace.

 

Code and Iron Report.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Alphabet, the holding company parent of Google, just announced earnings and they were amazing. Microsoft, too, announced earnings with which they were quite happy following some tumultuous, leggy years.  I’m no economist so the difference between revenue, net income and post-tax profit are a bit beyond me but I will make one observation, software is back and cloud computing is the haps, to quote Dave Robicheaux’s pal Cletus.

Of course, we still have to make stuff we can sit on (furniture), wear, eat and communicate with (telecoms), but it seems the business of hosting and information access is as profitable as ever. The margins associated with software and cloud computing are killer. The margins on content aren’t bad but a distant second. Companies like Google and Microsoft are closer to “pure play” software and hosting companies than most. Salesforce.com too. Companies like Verizon, on the border of a deal with Yahoo! (content), and Netflix, smitten by Hollywood, are drifting away from their core – software and hosting.

For investors, code and iron are looking more and more attractive.

Peace.

 

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