Most popular

    brand strategy tarot cards

    Brand Strategy Tarot Card Number 4.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

     

     

     

    The fourth tarot card to be turned over during the What’s The Idea? brand strategy demo is the “About” section from the company website. The About page is the most important place to get the brand strategy right, yet it’s often poorly constructed and amateurish. Not so, for large multinationals who have seasoned communications people and PR hands nearby, but it’s often the case among midsize and small companies who tangled in their underwear.

    Here’s an About page from nCipher:

    nCipher Security, a leader in the general purpose hardware security module market, is now an Entrust Datacard company, delivering trust, integrity and control to business critical information and applications.

    Not the worst in the world, but it assumes knowledge of “hardware security modules.”

    The Is-Does is fundamental to the About Section. What a brand Is and what a brand Does. Getting bogged down in where, how many, target and the like only confuses. In technology, you are either in hardware, software or platform (web services). Say that. Once you start piling on things like trust, integrity and control, you start to diminish.  

    In consumer products be what you are first, then and only then add value qualifiers.

    Local brewer Devil’s Foots Beverage Company gets it:

    “Devils Foot Brewing. Asheville, NC Craft Beverage Company. All Natural N/A Bevs made with Organic Roots and Fruits.
    (N/A refers to non-alcoholic, not North American.) Also, I would suggest beverage over brewing, rather than using both.)  

    When you write the About page, don’t get carried away. Tell them what it Is and what it does. Don’t bury it in blather.

    Peace.

     

    Brand Strategy Card Number 2.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0


    Let’s face it, Google has supplemented our brain power like no other tool in the world. Its mission is something like “organizing the world’s information so it’s one click away.”  Every directory ever published, every map, and phone book have passed into oblivion thanks to the genius of Google. And businesses know this because consumers know this. 

    Tarot Card number 2 is a snapshot of the Google results page above the fold (what can be seen without cursoring down) following a search of your brand name. When someone searches for you on Google, with what are they presented?

    If an established brand, consumers are likely to see a large box on the right side of the page with company incidentals — what Google and the algorithm have gleaned, e.g., owner, headquarters, inception date, picture/logo, stuff like that.  On the left side of the page is information more controlled by the user — typically beginning with copy from meta tags and labels associated with the home page.  Other copy is hopefully scraped from paragraphs about what the brand Is and what the brand Does (Is-Does) often included there are some other organizing subheads like: About, Careers, Location. This area can be a mess of copy and bullet — not the best presentation of a brand and its value.

    One can’t organize their brand’s Google results page because it is part machine driven and part human and coder driven. And in many cases the coders don’t even work for the company.

    As all earthlings use Google many times each day, the ability to organize and synthesize your search results page is a key to brand building and brand management.  

    Peace.

    (There are 6 Brand Strategy Tarot Cards. Brand Strategy Tarot Cards is a diagnostic offering of What’s The Idea? For more information write Steve@WhatsTheIdea.com)

     

    Brand Strategy Tarot Card Number 3.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0


    Home pages are tough. As a brand or company landing page, the words, visuals and strategy are the first thing a consumer or searcher sees.  Unless you have the brand recognition of Coca-Cola , Amazon or Taco Bell, I’m a fan of communicating the Is-Does on the home page: what a brand Is and what a brand Does.  The worst thing one can do, leading to a high bounce rate, is not explain the Is-Does on the home page. For a brand, a nice product shot is more than appropriate. If a service, some quick visualization of function. The idea of the home page is to leave no possible confusion as to what one is selling. Of course, naming is important. If the home page says Mission Health System, you can get away with not having doctors on the page. If Blue Point Brewing, you needn’t show the suds.

    Once the Is-Does is covered, the other purpose of the home age is to convey the brand claim. Not claims. Claim. There can be only one overriding value of a brand – with all deference to “Tastes great, less filling.” If a home page offers up multiple values, the brand jig is up. Brands are allowed 3 support planks, but all must directly bolster the claim. It’s simple brand blocking and tackling.

    If your home page scatters values, you don’t have a home — you have multiple homes. Therefore no home at all.

    Peace.

    (There are 6 Brand Strategy Tarot Cards. Brand Strategy Tarot Cards is a diagnostic offering of What’s The Idea? For more information write Steve@WhatsTheIdea.com)

     

    Tarot Card Number 5, Boilerplate.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

     Boilerplate is the paragraph in a press release sitting at the very bottom of the page offering a paragraph of information about the company issuing the news announcement. It contains some selling references but mostly recaps the primary business(es), along with key facts, figures, age, ownership, etc.  Here is some boilerplate from The Kraft Heinz Company:

    About The Kraft Heinz Company

    For 150 years, we have produced some of the world’s most beloved products at The Kraft Heinz Company(NASDAQ: KHC). Our Vision is To Be the Best Food Company, Growing a Better World. We are one of the largest global food and beverage companies, with 2018 net sales of approximately $26 billion. Our portfolio is a diverse mix of iconic and emerging brands. As the guardians of these brands and the creators of innovative new products, we are dedicated to the sustainable health of our people and our planet. To learn more, visit http://www.kraftheinzcompany.com/ or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

    Shelley Spector of Spector and Associates says boilerplate should always remain the same. And it requires a lawyer’s approval at public companies. Good press releases also use a digest of the boilerplate in the first sentence. For instance, Kraft Heinz might start off with “Kraft Heinz, the largest global food and beverage company announced today…”

    (A sure sign of an immature company is one that keeps changing it’s boilerplate with every release. A no-no.)

    Every brand needs to think about its boilerplate. It is an extended, inclusive statement of business purpose, scale and history. It’s a good place for strategists to begin when delving into brand claim and proof.

    Peace.

     

     

    Dashboard or Strategy Board.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    How do you convince someone they need to invest in something they don’t know they need? First you have to educate them about the problem. Then you have to educate them as to the solution. It’s a two stepper. Two steppers are expensive. It’s sooo much easier to offer consumers something they know they need.

    This two-step approach is the life of the brand strategist. My key business development chore is to convey to marketers that a focused and well thought out brand strategy can increase the value of all marketing. Thanks to the variety of marketing channels and tools available today (read: HubSpot, Google Analytics, etc), most marketers are focused on the dashboard, not the strategy board.

    So how does one educate a marketer that a focused brand strategy will elevate the success of their product? The answer is — by sharing a disorganized brand strategy. Enter Brand Strategy Tarot Cards.

    The cards are not really Tarot Cards but might as well be as they can predict brand organization. The cards are actually 7 pieces of select marketing content — all of which are highly visible to the public. By parsing these pieces for key take-aways in real time in front of a marketing team leader a picture emerges. It’s either a Rembrandt or a de Kooning. Clear and understandable or random and interpretive.

    I am tweaking what the 7 pieces of content are but I would love a marketer to help me in my Beta efforts. It’s a freebee. Please write Steve@WhatsTheIdea.com and let’s get started.

    Peace.

     

    Brand Strategy Tarot Cards Offer.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    When a younger man I did a good deal of volunteer archaeology. Enough to want to spell the word with an archaic “a.”  Sitting in the dirt outside the current wall of Fort Michilimackinac, it dawned on me that archaeology was a neat way to experience a town. Sifting through decades of their relics made one truly think about the people and times. A much different approach than reading history in a library. A more existential approach.

    So it’s not a great leap that I look to relics and artifacts to help me understand brands in my current job. To that end, I’ve come up with a little gadget play I call Brand Strategy Tarot Cards. It’s a work in progress but one whose time has come.

    As with much of my brand strategy discovery, it will start out with a plan then evolve it as the conversation does. As it now stands Brand Strategy Tarot Cards asks a marketing director or owner to bring 7 pieces of marketing content (artifacts) for evaluation. Pieces that tend to be seen by customer and prospects the most. Pieces of content that tell the brand story. These pieces I interpret, much like a tarot card reader, for message and implication.   

    To keep the mystery high, I will not today share my list of content pieces but I will offer readers (on a limited basis) a free reading of their so-called cards, through the end of the month of January 2021.

    Please write Steve@WhatsTheIdea.com. Help me bring this idea to life.

    Peace!

     

     

     

     

    Brand Strategy Tools.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    I learned a neat lesson while working at FCB Advertising, which I’ve shared a number of times, worth repeating.  It’s a tool to see how “tight” your ad campaign is. But it has legs for other content as well.  

    Take all your ads from a given campaign and tack them up on a wall. The exercise works best for print ads.  Then review them together in real time. See if, combined, they tell a story. Or do there appear to be outliers to the story. To the main idea. Outliers water down the story mission.

    I once did this for JPMorgan Chase and its corporate website. I printed out 50 pieces of content and randomly placed them on a wall. Content JPMorgan Chase felt worthy of its corporate story. The exercise was to have JPM marketing people re-pin the content pieces into clusters — areas of similar intent and customer value. Quite telling.

    Today as a brand planner I use the same tool to see how tight or loose a company or product message is. In fact, I’ve developed a tool I call Brand Strategy Tarot Cards — a shortcut exercise to identify problems.   (Google Brand Strategy Tarot Cards for a primer.) Or write me, Steve@WhatsTheIdea.com.

    A randomized story is the bane of all brand planners.

    Peace.

     

    Boiler Plate.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    The older I get the more I post about pet peeves.  Hope I’m not getting cranky. Saw this piece of boiler plate used by a company that shall remain nameless. It’s a great example of burying the lead and lack of focus.  If you are Coca-Cola or Google you needn’t remind people of your Is-Does — what a brand Is and what a brand Does. But if you’re new or newish it’s pretty important.

    Here’s the boiler plate:

    Founded in 1998, So and So Company is a purpose-driven company that strives to empower the whole family, including pets, to live happier, healthier lives.

    They believe that the products you put in your body, on your body and use in your home matter.  Popular product lines include premium pet food and supplements as well as clean health and beauty products for the consumer.

    Okay, okay…if you get past the copy about being purpose-drive, you do get what they sell. Albeit, it’s a bit of an all-over-the-place portfolio.  Pet and people?  Products for in your body, on your body and in your home?  That covers some consumer ground. What tethers the products together is the all-natural claim, I guess. It doesn’t even say all-natural, I’m just assuming.

    This company may be successful. In fact, they are growing.  But positioning, as Al Ries and Jack Trout proudly proclaimed, is everything. 

    This boiler plate makes me cringe. In my brand evaluation tool “Brand Strategy Tarot Cards,” boiler plate is one of the first cards turned over.

    Get it right so your consumers don’t have to work too hard.

    Peace.

     

    © Newsmag WordPress Theme by TagDiv