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    Brand Planning

    Learning From the Future.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Ah the future.  Every good brand planner takes it into consideration. And the best look mostly to the future.  I break down the 4 types of strategists this way: rearview mirror planners, sideview mirror planners, dashboard planners and beyond the dashboard planners. What is strategy if not about predicting the future? 

    But the future goes counter to the one thing strategists care most about: Science.  Science is about finding evidence that is replicable so that predictions aren’t predictions, they’re constant outcomes. The future in marketing doesn’t roll that way. Or role that way?? If this sounds a little chicken and egg, it is. That’s why the future is the brand planners’ nemesis. But we need to embrace it. Because that’s what marketing wants.

    I read recently that when the radio was invented, the three NY baseball teams refused to broadcast the play-by-play.  They thought it would cut into attendance revenue. Doh! Today, baseball games are interminable, most lasting three hours plus. So, the powers that be at MLB are considering a pitch clock to shorten the game. But what will happen to hospitality revenue when the games are shorter? There’s incentive for most owners to have longer games.

    A number of years ago I told the director of marketing of the New York Mets he should incorporate social media in home games somehow.  At the time 15% of attendees where head down in their phones during the game…especially the young women. “Nah,” was the answer.

    Those that fail to learn from the future are doomed to repeat it. And you can quote me on that.

    Peace.  

     

    Optimism in Brand Planning

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Many perceive automation as a reducer of jobs. And for plant workers, robot is a bad word – one causing nightmares. As America and Europe begin to change over from a fossil fuel economy to a natural energy economy, folks worry jobs will decline. When 1/3 of all moving parts in a car are lost due to more efficient electric car component, that’s a negative tick mark on the jobs ledger. But this and other automation advances do offer great upside.  Electric cars will not simply be combustion cars with batteries. They will be appliances. Appliances that drive themselves. The appliances market and the things they plug into will generate lots of new jobs. Perhaps more than those lost.

    I’m pretty pumped about the future. Most brand planners are. We have to be optimistic – it’s our job. And a good job it is. A healthy job. The problem is, if there is one, what do we do with all that positive energy when our brand optimism isn’t requited? Or falls short of reality. Well, then we keep on grinding. We keep on proving. And searching. But we don’t give up. (I still sweat brand strategies I wrote 20 years ago.)

    Optimism is our job. The Fear, Uncertainly and Doubt pop marketing gambit of the nineties is not where brands need to play. We needn’t be Pollyannaish, either, but we must always look to the light.

    It’s a brand planning fundie.

    Peace.   

     

    Subtract.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Leidy Klotz recently wrote a book titled Subtract which I heard about yesterday on NPR during a Mother’s Day drive.  The thesis of the book us that we over-encumber ideas and strategies and, yes, our lives by continuously adding extraneous things.  Think hoarding. Mr. Klotz quoted Lao Tzu to make his point:

    “To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, subtract things every day.” Lao Tzu, Quotations, Wisdom.

    Brand planning, at least for master brand endeavors, must follow the same advice. We begin by adding knowledge. And that requires lots of discovery. One takes in information, data, behavioral observation, culture and language and hoards it all up. Enough information to make one’s head spin. But then it’s wisdom time. Time to subtract. Time to create hierarchies of import.

    Only after subtracting the less important, can powerful ideas and strategy emerge. This is the heavy lifting in brand planning. It’s the story of the sinking boat, when things must be thrown overboard to keep afloat. (Too dramatic?)

    In my brand presentation I have a cautionary slide on the “Fruit Cocktail Effect.” When you have too many ingredients, you create a sugary mess.

    Subtract is the essence of good brand planning.   As Robert Hunter wrote and Jerry Garcia sang “Hello baby, I’m gone good bye.”

    Peace.

     

    Brand Strategy Lite.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Yesterday I wrote about shortcutting my normal brand planning rigor, as necessitated by lack of time, budget, client situation or act of God. I don’t like to do it but sometimes an organizing principle lite is better than nothing.

    One of the tools I tend to do without when doing planning lite is the brief. My brand strategy brief, a borrow from the NY office of McCann Erickson, has been slightly modified over time.  It’s a linear or serial document which navigates things like brand position, brand objective, target, key desire, role of the product, reason to believe, the ephemeral brand essence and brand claim. I call this a serial document because when complete, starting at the beginning, the brief tells a reasoned, logical story or path to the claim. That doesn’t mean the components always fit together right away. Sometimes they need to be burnished. Sometimes revised.

    When I do brand strategy lite and overlook the logic ladder (brief), it can still work.  But I kind of feel like I have a hole in my pants and no underwear on.

    Peace.

     

     

    Aspire. Don’t Dispire.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    As a group, I think brand planners are pretty good at delving into feelings and psyches. Reading people. Especially excitements, highs, lows and anxieties.

    The best of our questions when doing brand planning interviews hit personal hot buttons. Not just likes and dislikes but prides and prejudices, favorites and heroes. I personally like to inject my excitement into an interview to trigger others’ enjoyments.  Downer or negative interviews are the wrong footing for good brand planning. We aspire, we don’t dispire (new word). Brand planners do best when shining light.

    Brand strategy done right creates muscle memory around positive attitudes. Attitudes that create brand predisposition.  That’s my secret.  Don’t pass it on.  Hee hee.

    Peace.

     

     

     

    Brand Planning Bracketing.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Let’s face it, every account planner is different. No matter the mentor or the shop one comes from, each planning point of view has to be, like a snow flake, different. But one thing that might bring a cohort of planners together is age. I’m 66. I’ve seen a lot of stuff in marketing. My skin may be thicker than that of a 20 something planner. How could our worldviews not be different?

    I love the idea of putting brand planners of different ages on an assignment. Photographers call it bracketing: the process by which one takes the same shot with different exposures.

    Were I doing new business at a large ad agency with good resources, I’d love to put a 45 year old planner on an insight assignment at the same time as a Gen Z planner — independent of one another.  Not a race or competition, just a bit of bracketing.    

    Ad shops aren’t organized this way. They are organized by hierarchies. Senior to junior. Group director, director, associates. Let’s mix it up a bit. Age perspective might turn up some interesting discontinuities. Or continuities.

    Peace.

     

    Close Your Eyes.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    A good deal of my brand planning discovery is spent delving into brand good-ats.  Things at which the brand or org is good. The other half of the discovery rigor looks into customer care-abouts which, at least with less expansive engagements, get a bit less attention.  For full on branding assignments, we recommend a strong quantitative research component, but many clients choose to pass on that expense.

    Anyway, when looking at the customer side of the brand discovery equation there are lots of tools: customer interviews, purchase analytics, marketing and sales team input, retail observations, secondary research, etc.  And let’s not forget filling out the customer journey templates – a big pop marketing tool. But there is nothing in the world better to finish off your customer care-about research than sitting in a dark room and thinking like a customer. Take the time to place yourself in the life of the consumer. Thinking thought their day. The whole person. The day parts. The family. The leisure. Close your eyes and sit with it. For a while.

    A big “learn” for me in brand planning occurred when I was told how unimportant my product was in the whole life of the buyer. Context creates insight.

    Close your eyes and be the ball.

    Peace.

     

    Voice. Tone. Personality.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    This may be sacrilege in the brand planning community but I’m not a big fan of tone, voice and brand personality.  I believe those are words born of ad agencies not true brand strategists. Tone isn’t a strategy.

    Tone and voice are the domain of the creative agency. Of the campaign.  That’s not to say those things aren’t important, they certainly are. Tactically.  So long as they advance the brand strategy: “an organizing principle for product, experience and messaging.”

    Brand strategy defies what is business-winning in the market pursuit. Creativity in delivering that strategy is what agencies do. Making the claim and proofs original. Interesting. Captivating. And those pursuits may require a change in tone and voice from time to time.

    George W. Bush once used a phrase I loved talking about cowboy wannabes. “All hat and no cattle.” My brand planner take on that when disparaging a marketing campaign would be “all voice no strategy.”

    Peace be upon you.

     

     

    New Normal.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    If we have learned anything as businesses the last couple of years it’s that we have to account for the new normal. And by new normal I mean pandemic and war. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, “padded” and stockpiled money in the face of this new normal, setting aside $902 million dollars in a so-called “rainy day fund.” How many small and mid-size businesses can say the same?

    As a brand strategist who designs business-building guidelines for product, experience and messaging, I understand the importance of accounting for the new normal. Brand strategy informs how a company deals with and responds to the new normal. It goes beyond setting money aside, it provides a framework for action plans and change management plans – all of which are on-brand.

    Brand strategy provides a security blanket in tough times. A place of comfort from which to make difficult decisions.

    Peace.

     

     

    Trust and Story.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    I was reading an article in The New York Times (paper paper) on cryptocurrency this morning and it almost convinced me to buy a Bitcoin.  For $39k.  I index as kind of cheap so this was pretty scary. It got me thinking about how many things I chose to do because it was recommended or reported by The New York Times.  I watched a wacky show on HBO Max last week because a reporter said it might be the best thing on television. I spend money of Amazon for hiking gear I read about on the NYT. Wirecutter has helped me with various purchases. I’ve taken vacations and read books and and and, all because I trust the writers of The New York Times.

    I do not like shopping, but apparently I am an impulse dude when it comes to trusted sources.

    Trust, trusted content, and powerful, clean, articulation of a story are the beacons of commerce. And persuasion.  

    I work in brand strategy. In my work I create an organizing principle for product, experience and messaging. The organizing principle is, by my methodology, one claim and three proof planks. But my work is not the story. It’s not the narrative. Sure, the proof planks are the persuaders. But sans story, they are words and scientifics on paper.

    There is not better feeling than seeing a brand strategy brought to life.  And that is the job of the brand planner. Prompting, coercing and encouraging a great story. From a great creative ad agency.

    Peace.

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