Monthly Archives: September 2019

Words Are Important.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

 As you know, words are important. Unless you use them as marketing effluvia. And that’s a challenge for most copywriters. Many writers think it’s the words not the content that carry the water. So long as the words don’t get in the way in terns of communication and function, the writing itself is not as important as the content.

For a few years now I have been defining brand strategy as “an organizing principle for product, experience and messaging.” I’ve taken a second look at this definition and though “organizing  principle” is, indeed, what a brand strategy is, the word principle can be a bit misleading. And fluid. Part is the problem with brand strategy is it’s a little like interpretive dance.  Creative people like it that way. Open to interpretation is freeing. By replacing the word “principle” with “framework” the dance is still there but the interpretation is removed.

A framework makes it easy for marketing tacticians and builders to make stuff. With a framework you are either on strategy or off. No interpretation.

A framework is tied to brand objectives, which are tied directly to marketing objectives and therefore measurable revenue. Framework is existential. Principle not so much.

Brand strategy: An organizing framework for product, experience and messaging.  Me likey.

Peace.

 

 

Focus Your Roll.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I went to a networking event last night called Mojo Connect. One of those speed dating deals where you sit and talk with people for 5 minutes before moving to the next station.  People aren’t brands but when a brand planner you tend to do discovery on them. Especially, if looking for talent, opportunity and/or to lend some assistance – all brand planning modus operandi.

One person I met stated she was a travel writer.  Then she said she spent a good deal of her career in corporate communications. She added consultant to the list of good-ats. Business consultant. But also a lover of photography, which went nicely with travel writing.  Very nice women mind you. And I’m sure she was good at all these things. But focus was not her strongest suit. The net she cast was wide.

This reminds me of a time when I was a pup in the ad business and asked by my dad to interview a soon-to-be college graduate who happened to be the son of our biggest client Youngs Drugs, makers of Trojan Condoms. Perhaps this foretold of my career in brand planning.  The young man said he was good with people (account). He also liked to write (creative). He added an aptitude for numbers (media) and the list went on. A fledgling myself, I offered up the supreme strategy of focus. Pick a spot.

What goes around…

Peace

 

 

Healthcare Evolution from a Planner’s Perspective.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Two nights ago, my Uber driver told me about an island off the coast of Maine — Vinalhaven was its name — that indexed higher than any place in the country for diabetes. Apparently, there was a little bit of in-family diddling back in the day-day. Island people! The island became a renowned area for diabetes research.

The brand planner in me is reminded that studying discrete geographic areas and cultures can pay big dividends.

I’m a big fan of healthcare brand planning. As we look at healthcare on a broad scale, it helps to first look on a smaller, more controlled scale. Population health is big these days and as data is collected in health problem hotspots, say lead poisoning among children or breast cancer among women, we gain a clearer picture of possible causes, AKA epidemiology.

There’s a regional healthcare organization in North Carolina called Novant Health. Anecdotally, I hear them to be a very connected, integrated provider. Their goal is to consolidate on a single Electronic Medical Records platform and share information seamlessly across many practice areas. When an organization fulfills the promise of complete integration it becomes easier to study. And data becomes more valuable.

Just as Charles Darwin developed his theory of evolution in the discrete geosphere of the Galapagos Islands, healthcare providers can evolve quality when parsing data across a tighter population. 

When (and if) we move to a single payer healthcare system it won’t be long before we standardize and coalesce record keeping, thereby driving cost and inefficiency out of care. We will also become better planners.

Peace.

 

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