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    brand strategy hacks

    God Is In The Detail.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    “Nothing matches the holiness and fascination of accurate and intricate detail.”   Stephen Jay Gould

    Great historical fiction pays attention to cultural and environmental detail. I eat that stuff up. It fires the synapses and slaps me awake — learning about different era’s behaviors and adaptations to environs. As a yout (youth), I flexed my creative muscles writing fiction by making up things. It was fun.

    Today, I counsel marketers on brand strategy…which is mainly brought to life in the form of content. Sadly, much content today is delivered at the hands of copywriters unattached to the products they’re selling. They are attached to words and grammar, maybe even selling poesy, but it’s rare to find one more than a few inches down in the dirt when it comes to product and service detail. Therefore, their words ring flat. Think writing a historical Roman novel from your Brooklyn condo with sirens and horns blaring outside.

    Details, intricate details, are what get attention. Details reinforced truth. They convince. If the word “authenticity” weren’t so over-used in branding today, I’d say details deliver authenticity.

    Storytelling is a pop marketing tool today; but stories are only as good as the details they bring to life. My brand strategy framework is all about claim and proof. Detail your proof, me droogies. God is in the detail.

    Peace.

     

    Brand Planner Hacks.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    Before there was an internet, brand planners had to leave their offices to find insights.  Before Google and the social web, you couldn’t watch buyers engaging sellers from your desk.  Even so, there were time-saving hacks. One of mine was trade journals. Business-to-business magazines that covered the beat.  Magazines for the business side of the industry you were studying: Beverage Industry, Communications Week, Architectural Digest.  Back then you could read a few issues, speak to some editors, track down big customers, find some SMEs (subject matter experts), gather market data and jump- start your learning and discovery. The trades aren’t so viable today.

    Windshield time was another hack for planners. (Still is.) Sitting in a car with a sales person, tagging along on sales calls.  The crucible for learning is where buyer meets seller.  Interestingly, windshield time today can take place behind a desk. If your client uses “Live Chat” on the website, brand planners can monitor Care-abouts and Good-Ats with ease.

    Agile business and efficiency are important values in American businesses consultants will tell you. Anything that makes business faster and cheaper is worth considering. But I’m still a fan of watching buyers meet sellers live. Smell the fear, taste the joy, experiencing the experience.

    Get your bones and all of your senses out of the office.

    Peace.

     

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