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    The Idea To Have An Idea…

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    Whistles.

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    Intentional Brands.

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    Brand Strategy

    Talk About It or Be About It.

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    Steve Poppe
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    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.     

     

     

     

     

    Organized Proof and The C-Suite.

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    Steve Poppe
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    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.

     

    Brand Stalker?

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    Steve Poppe
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    The metaphor is a critical tool of the brand planner. It creates context, clarity and often gives creative people a source of inspiration. Brand planners ask a lot of questions and do a lot of research on their brands.  Planners — the good ones at least — are like dogs on a bone. We immerse ourselves in a category and have a hard time letting go. Even when sleeping. It’s stalker-ish.

    Dare I say, for a one- or two-month paid engagement I often find myself a brand planner for life. Always on the hunt for proof of brand claim. It’s no way to run a business yet it is part of the planning life.

    Strategy is timeless. It never really stops. In as much as I need to dump the cache on past clients, I just can’t. Unhealthy? You decide. But it’s part and parcel of the curiosity that is the brand planner’s world.

    So, me droogies, stalk away on your brands. Find a good strategy and prove it.

    Peace.

    Poster, Pasters and Posers.

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    Steve Poppe
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    Back in the aughts, working at a social media startup, I created a meme Posters and Pasters. Posters were original content creators and Pasters were people who curated and posted others’ content. A ZDNet newsletter dude Jakob Nielsen (I think) thought 93% of the web’s content was the work of Pasters.  My qualitative thinking agreed.

    As a brand planner I love studying Posters: Smart, committed writers and thinkers who share their topic-love on the web – mostly for free. They inspire me. They delivered great grist for the brand planning mill.

    I grew up in the business (ad agencies) reading trade press and insider looks at their respective category. One trick was to religiously read the most respected and talented journalists on a given beat. It helped with sources, interview leads, data and trends.

    We’ve come a long way since those days.  Trade magazines have moved online. Journalism has changed. Influencers have sullied the waters. Some Influencers might even be called Posers. Be careful with Influencers.

    Still, I seek out Posters in my work and you brand planners should as well.

    Peace.

     

     

    A Strategic Welcome To Burger King.

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    Steve Poppe
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    I’m a big Burger King fan.  Flame broiled has long been one of my favorite brand strategy elements. It’s visual. It’s olfactory. And it is an inherent (endemic) product quality. Flame-broiled differentiates Burger King.

    When you drive by a Burger King, even sight unseen, you know you’re nearby. BK has made a wonderfully smart and experiential change to its stores that reinforces its flame broiled strategy – it has replaced traditional door handles with replica BBQ spatulas. With every visit you can’t help but be reminded of the flame broiled advantage.

    This is genius brand management and genius brand strategy stewardship.

    If anyone knows the originator of this idea, please the name.  Big move.

    Peace

     

     

    Starbucks New Dress Code

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    Steve Poppe
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    Building a brand is about everything. Everything a company spends money on.  And if done well, everything employees touch. If done perfectly, it extends to consumers who share brand love and value(s) with other customers. The latter two behaviors are free.

    I read today that Starbucks, in an effort to strengthen brand and bottom line, has instituted a bit of a dress code tweak for baristas beginning May 12th. Under their green aprons, baristas must wear black or dark colors. 

    Starbucks rationale:

    “By updating our dress code, we can deliver a more consistent coffeehouse experience that will also bring simpler and clearer guidance to our partners, which means they can focus on what matters most, crafting great beverages and fostering connections with customers.”

    This is certainly a brand building effort. Consistency of “product, message and experience” is a smart brand-building strategy. Hence, the green apron. And hence the more controlled uniform. As for allowing baristas to focus more on crafting great beverages and fostering connections with customers, that’s a bit of a stretch.  

    One of the best ways to demonstrate commitment to brand values is through deeds. Remembering names, engaging beyond the order (small talk?), discussing the product are process deeds. These are behaviors Starbucks should suggest to baristas if connection is the goal.  

    Brand strategy in “an organizing principle for product, experience and messaging.  This dress code thing is smart. Behavior change is also smart.

    Peace.

     

     

     

     

    Brand Naming is Critical.

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    Steve Poppe
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    Naming is important. It’s central to proper branding. If a brand is an empty vessel into which one pours meaning then a name is the most common representation thereof.

    Way back when, geographical location relied on names to convey information. Delaware Water Gap. Great South Bay. Summit, NJ. Iceland.  My advice for brands is to create names that convey information about the product, E.g., Coca-Cola (as in coca bean), or to a lesser degree convey something about the product’s inherent value. I worked for an owner who named a social media startup Zude because it rhymed with Dude.

    Like naming children, naming a brand is not easy. But as difficult as it is, the best brands convey. Not just in the real estate sense, but in the communication sense. Of course, likeability and pronunciation are critical. (McCann-Erickson once presented a campaign to AT&T in a new business pitch with the tagline “Go Live.” But rather than live, as in live-wire, some pronounced it live as in live your life. Conveying, perhaps, “Get a life?”  Hee hee.

    The chicken and egg problem with naming involves creating meaning out of a new thing; something with no product history. That requires lots planning. But planning is what we do, yes? 

    Naming should be existential.

    Peace.  

     

     

    By-The-Pound or Buy The Pound.

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    Steve Poppe
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    The brand strategy framework at What’s The Idea? can best and most simply described as one claim and three proof planks.  A proof plank being a cluster of evidence, bound by a discrete value label that supports the claim.

    An example: If the claim for an ACO Physician group is “Intensive Primary Care” – ACO refers to a physician model of preventing illness, rather than only treating illness – a proof plank might be Intensive Yearlong Focus. Examples of a proof point beneath that plank might include a contract between patient and doc requiring a medicine compliance agreement and periodic communications with the doc about wellness. Building proofs under a plank is the job of product marketing.

    So, claim and proof. Too much of advertising and marketing today is 95% claim, 5% proof.

    When I think about commodity products and mature markets where brands are often tired, the brand plans often default to a by-the pound or buy the pound media approach.  Think Geico. If we ear-worm enough media, they will buy. This is not how one builds a brand. It’s how one builds a media plan.  The way to build a brand is by constantly creating reasons to buy. Reasons to believe a brand’s superiority.  And that requires proof.

    Peace.

     

     

    What Brand Planners Have in Common.

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    Steve Poppe
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    All brand strategists have their own way of getting to the brand idea and organizing principle.  Followers of What’s The Idea? know I hunt for “proof.”  Existential evidence of superiority. But the means by which each brand planner gets to the brand strategy, varies. Not everyone uses proof. But everyone uses some form of discovery. And discovery really means talking, interviewing, learning, story collection and, yes, data.

    If every brand planner is different (snowflakes?) one thing we all share is the need for new, clean inputs. Not preconceived outputs. The latter is what anthropologists refer to as poor ethnography added to what planners might call poor “businography.”  What sets brand strategists apart from one another is what they do with the inputs. How they are organized. How they are prioritized.  How they are presented. Sold. And rationalized.

    When a brand strategy resonates with the C-suite, when a brand strategy is accepted like family, the planner’s framework is easily forgotten. The story is forgotten. All the other brand-o-babble is forgotten. What is left standing — the strategy — is indelible. Inviolate.

    Peace.

     

     

    Ingles Market Tagline.

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    Steve Poppe
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    Ingles, a successful regional grocery store chain headquartered in Black Mountain, NC, uses the tagline “LOW Prices…LOVE the savings.”  Let’s take a look at the tagline for branding value.

    First, it breaks a cardinal rule. Let’s call it the “Tastes Great! Less filling!” rule. Good brand strategy is about a single claim.  Now all rules are made to be broken but I choose to keep this one sacrosanct.  (That said, if I can get a double meaning out of a word choice, no harm no foul.)

    Second, “LOW prices,” all caps or not, is not a particularly aspirational claim. Low prices, suggests low quality.  That’s not Ingle’s fault it’s the marketing world’s fault. Does your mouth water over a dollar slice of pizza? Does the Dollar Store bring to mind, clean floors, welcoming clerks, and fully stocked shelves?

    Third, “LOVE the savings” is redundant. Saying it twice doesn’t make it so. It only reinforces point number two, reminding you every time you come upon an over ripe piece of produce.

    Fourth, “LOVE the savings” tells the consumer how to feel. Not a cardinal rule but most people already have mom. It’s presumptuous. Don’t tell consumers how to feel. make them feel.  Use a unique claim and carefully curated proof planks.

    Ingles is a family business, it’s nearby, the stores are nearly immaculate, and they are brightly lit!  There’s a lot to work with for a well-honed brand claim. Defaulting to Aldi’s positioning (who really has proof(s) of price advantage) is lackluster, off-piste brand craft.

    Peace.

     

     

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