brand discovery

    Atmosphere and Brand Planning.

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    Brand planners have to get out of the building. And they should even leave their computers home from time to time.  “Atmosphere” is one of the key tools of the planner. It’s where senses other than the ears take over and instill. You can’t smell fear in an interview. You can’t experience unbridled joy while typing interview responses. Atmosphere creates in situ observations and muscle memory for planners and ethnographers. Where deeds and proof emerge that stick with you when it comes time to write your brief or organize your thoughts.

    Part of my discovery is interviewing people – absolutely with the computer at my fingertips.  I complain about my typing ability to which cohorts ask “Why don’t you use a voice reorder?” My reply: “If it’s not important enough to type, it’s probably not going to make it in the brief.”  If the interviewee is going too quickly to capture everything, I slow them down and ask for a redo. It’s the same with atmosphere. The stuff that flies by isn’t as important as the stuff that sticks. (This ability may be an innate planner good-at.) Observing what’s important versus what’s not. Things the eyes see.  The schnoz smells. The tones the ears compels.

    Staring at a computer screen or paper notes is not atmosphere. Atmosphere is sensual.  Get some before you start organizing.

    Peace.

     

     

    Follow The Money.

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    One of my brand planning tricks is to fully understand a business’s financials before I dive into the more touchy-feely world of the brand.  Back in the day (don’t ask) when working at ad shop McCann -Erikson NY, I was asked to be on a task force of AT&T and McCann people. Our chore was to write marketing plans for a number of emerging business services. Collectively we came up with a rigor called 24 Questions: a follow-the-money guide that helped the team understand the balance sheet and the opportunity.

    I’ve been using the 24 Questions as part of my brand planning discovery rigor for years.  When you understand how money is made, you tend to have more credibility among company executive — which is important when talking strategy. But really important when talking brand strategy.

    When presenting observation about a company’s business, customer base, and sales environment, having data on what is business-winning goes a long way.

    So, there is your tip of the week.  Be artistic in your brand strategy but build it on a foundation of financial understanding.

    Peace.

     

    Needs, Benefits, Care-abouts and Good-ats.

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    There are a number of tools marketing and brand planners use to assist in the development of strategy and plans. One such tool is the Needs/Benefit Analysis. As I understand it this tool, used by P&G, delves deeply into consumer needs and product benefits. No one can go wrong studying the needs of the consumer. The iPhone met consumer needs in aggregate, though Steve Jobs is correct in that no one ever woke up before its invention and said I wish I had a phone that played music, took pictures and made and played movies.

    And as for the benefits, they, too, are all-important, as they’re the rational and emotional deliverables of the product. With these needs and benefits in hand, the job of the brand planner is to boil them all down into a memorable and cogent value proposition that distinguishes the product.

    At What’s The Idea?, our approach is a little different. We are all about the needs, which we call Customer Care-Abouts, but diverge when it comes to Benefits. Though benefits are the outcome of product features, they are consumer centric. And we favor building brands via endemic or built-in product value. We call those Brand Good-Ats. It is quite okay for brands to tout their inherent advantage.

    Brand planners using care-abouts and good-ats are also faced with the challenge of boiling them down into a memorable, cogent value prop.  With two masters, though, this becomes harder.

    But the result is more lasting, powerful and ownable.

    Peace.

     

     

    Art of the Deal.

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    I’m always on the lookout for discovery questions that provoke interesting insights. Because a good deal of my discovery work takes place with corporate management and sales, I use a number of questions about business ideals, including perceived and real good-ats. Knowing what a company thinks it’s good at is critical to effective strategy and sell-in of that strategy.  

    Lester Wunderman’s obit was in the NYT today. Towards the end it spoke of his art collection. African Dogon art was his thing. Though not in the formal arsenal of questions I use for executives, I’ve been known to ask people about their “art.” Though I’ve never asked about an art collection. Hmm.  Mr. Wunderman’s art collection has sparked some wunderment (sic).

    Here’s a new discovery question:

    “Fast forward 20 years and think about a room filled with company artifacts from today – a historic view of accomplishments, milestones, even art. What’s in that room?”   

    Can’t wait to try this one out.

    Peace.

     

     

    Simplify and Organize.

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    I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone into meetings and introduced myself as “a simple man.” Perhaps not where you want to start when trying to convince someone to pay you a nice sum for your services. Most people want insightful, experienced problem solvers for their money. If their problems were simple, they wouldn’t need help. And, the fact is, most marketer’s problems aren’t simple. They are layered. And textured. Multivariate.

    But my job is to take complexity and simplify it. To see through the weeds and prioritize the goods and the bads. Then boil down the complexity into a key value (claim) and three support values (proof planks) that are easy to understand and digestible. Why? Because consumers have more to do than think about your brand all day. Simple and compelling win the day in brand strategy.

    Marketers who spend millions on messaging untethered to a brand strategy are moving targets. They are undisciplined. They are investing in confusion. Conversely, marketers who have a compelling brand strategy, simplifying customer care-abouts and brand good-ats, offer a clear picture to consumers making everybody’s job easier.

    Simple outperforms complex any day. That’s what consumers care about. That’s what a good brand strategist cares about.

    Peace.

     

    Comfortability.

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    When writing brand strategy there comes a point at which you need to profess yourself expert in the topic or category.  No matter our age, we are always young and inexperienced somewhere. Today I was wondering what it would be like to be a young tech executive attending Davos. Would s/he feel comfortable? I would hope not. Were I to go to Davos, I’d be a church mouse. Maybe an occasional chirp about branding but otherwise it would be all listen and learn. For a year or two.

    That’s how I approach a new category.  Listen and learn.  Like Mr. Miyagi’s grasshopper.  When talking to doctors or security analysts, coders or block chain wonks, before putting finger to keyboard comfort with the topic is absolutely critical. Sometimes it requires learn a new language. Until that language flows conversationally, without awkwardness, you’d better not start your brief.

    Maybe this is where the overuse of the word “authentic” comes from. If you don’t know of what you speak, if you are not comfortable, it shows.  In NY we used to call this “speaking out your ass.”  Comfort with content begets strategy. Everything else is copy.

    Peace.

     

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    It’s All About the Questions.

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    Obesity is an epidemic in the U.S. For an assignment I once asked the head nutritionist at a leading grocery store chain how she would approach solving the obesity problem if named the US Secretary of Health and Human Services and given an unlimited budget. Her answer: “I would go door-to-door to every house in America and educate each family about healthy eating.”

    It was a cool question.

    When doing brand discovery, consumers and seller questions are used to uncover the gems. On the seller side, for me, many of the questions remain the same. The seller’s answers always take me down new turns and avenues, but the battery is pretty much static. But it’s when talking to consumers that the brand planner has to be crafty. Because interviewing mothers with toddlers about potty training is not like interviewing a morbidly obese mom about weight loss. You have to move the cheese.

    In order to ask good questions, you need to understand the consumer care-abouts. Not just rationally, but emotionally. And the deeper you go, the more fertile the information. Deeply personal questions are the toughest. Obesity, erectile disfunction, beauty are all hard topics to discuss. That said, which brand of screwdriver to use is also hard to breach meaningfully. It’s too shallow. Both take some thought and preparation. The good news is, a meaningful, caring and sharing conversation can set the direction. Tell a story to get a story often works.

    It’s all about the questions people. If you have a good ear you can ask a good question. Good questions are the touchstone of the successful brand planner.

    Peace.

     

     

    Education and Branding.

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    I’m working on a branding assignment for a K12 tutoring company and feel the need to share my excitement.  I’ve worked in Ed Tech before and fell deeply in love with .edu.  It’s a marketing category like none other.  All these marko-babble people talking about “intentional this” and “intentional that” would do well to spend some time in the K12 space.

    Anyway, this tutoring business is online only… no face-to-face tutoring. As such, they were well-positioned for Covid.

    I’ve always wondered about face-to-face versus remote interviews in my business. I’m a big fan of the former. I want to see their offices. I want to know their taste in clothes and style. Want to feel what’s important to them, how they surround themselves. And I want to look into their eyes, watch them smile, do the whole body language thing. So it got me wondering about online-only tutoring.

    But what’s interesting about this tutoring firm’s approach — at least the way I understand it — is that using online, real time whiteboards allows the tutor into the heads of the students. They can’t hide. “Tell me what you’re thinking” might be a great query for a student with an inactive stilus. Spelling stylus wrong might be telling. Observation by doing.  

    When I interview people remotely for brand discovery, I’m hearing them, perhaps seeing them via video, but not seeing them work and think. Maybe this tutor is teaching me some tricks.

    That’s why I love .edu.

    Peace.