Monthly Archives: August 2025

Talk About It or Be About It.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

A football player on a recent podcast offered up some sage advice. You can “Talk about it or be about it.”  This ladies and gentlemen, is a fundie of great branding. Don’t flood the airways and byways with commoditized claims — scorch the earth with deeds. Deeds not words.

Humans have always searched for truth. Fire burns. Projectiles harm. Being nice to people is better than being mean. Deeds. Not words. Good brand planning begins with actions not words. Evidence, not prose. While “strategy is your words,” to quote Mark Pollard, it is actions and proof that convince customers. That’s what should drive strategy…and builds brands.

Over the years I have interviewed thousands of consumers. I’ve printed out stacks and stacks of paper containing transcribed observations, feelings and opinions. But all I care about is evidence of value. Evidence of product superiority. It is the highlighted evidence buried in the transcripts that the drive brand strategy.

You can tell me Memorial Sloan Kettering has the best cancer care anywhere, but if you show me the statistics of how they treat the toughest cases, that’s proof.

Commodity claims are just that. Brains are desensitized to unsupported claims but they can process proof.

Peace.     

 

 

 

 

Proof and Drama.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Brand strategists like me know that the arrow to the heart of consumers is proof.  Make a claim then support it with proof. Not unsupported superlative.

A Geico radio ad I heard this morning rated Geico with 97% customer satisfaction. That’s proof. All the other stuff in the spot, mostly entertainment and Gecko-ness, was flah-flah-flah.  On one hand I applaud them. It’s a customer-facing proof point. On the other hand, it’s just data. And data alone has become, A.) not really believable and B.) boring. 

Copywriters and art directors once cared about boring. About drama. “Chat GPT, tell a 97% customer satisfaction story with drama.”  I fault the ad agency for this. And the creative directors. It’s lazy ad craft. Tell a dramatic and fun real customer sat. story then say, “Imagine 97 out of 100 people saying this about your product.”  Something.

Let’s find “proof” then deliver it in an exciting wrapper. 

Peace  

 

Organized Proof and The C-Suite.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

C-level executives have been known to devalue brand strategy. Politely, they nod in presentations but deep down they view it as more of a marketing thing than a business thing.  “All altruism, no profit.” 

What’s the Idea? is 100% about making money for clients. Hard stop.  

Here’s how:

Let’s start with some framework background.  At What’s The Idea? brand strategy comprises one brand claim supported by three proof planks. The proof planks are organized to bring the brand story to life, both backward and forward. Proof is the secret sauce of a powerful brand strategy. Proof convinces people.  

And while a small proportion of What’s The Idea? brand claims might come off as altruistic, mark my words the executional planks proving the claim are hard-as-nails selling points. Think of the brand claim as the strategic packaging surrounding tangible slam-dunk reasons to buy. By themselves brand claims — which may never be seen by a consumer– are headline-like. Sometimes pithy, sometimes boring, they are ideally poetic and memorable. When CEO’s, CFOs and Chief Marketing Officers, people steeped in the business fundamentals, hear the claim, the feel it and they get it. It speaks to them. Especially when brought to life by the proof planks.

Proof sells. Organized proof is branding.   

Peace.

 

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