brand strategy tips

    Strangers Rock

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    I had a neat conversation with a dear friend of mine yesterday who shall remain nameless. He’s an alcoholic, sober for decades now.  One of the things that has kept him on the straight and narrow over the years is being a sponsor at AA.  My dude loves to help others. It gives his life big-ass purpose.

    Yesterday he told me the people he speaks to in AA and those he deals with at work – he works with disabled veterans, making their homes more accessible – is that they are all strangers to him at first. And as such, they feel a freedom to open up to him. When he is dealing with peoples’ truths and important issues he can be most helpful. In fact, he joked, some of the things that come out of his mouth are advice he himself should take.  

    I identified with his talking-to-strangers notion as that’s what I do in my brand strategy work. Yeah I’m mining for insights, yeah I’m studying data, yeah I observe and hypothesize consumer trends, but first and foremost I talk with people. People who are the buyers, potential buyers and influencers of buyers.

    I make it easy on those strangers to tell me the truth. I never position myself as someone who needs to be impressed. I don’t judge, in fact I try to disarm with a personal numb-nuts story or two. Then shoot quickly past the niceties and jump into the work of listening and learning.

    I tell truths and I expect my interviewees to tell the truth.

    Strangers rock.    

     

    Follow Das Money.

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    One of my brand planning tricks is to fully understand a business’s financials before I dive into the consumerism of the brand.  Back in the day, when working at McCann -Erikson NY, I was asked to be on a task force pulled together by AT&T and McCann to help write marketing plans for a number of emerging new business services.  Collectively we came up a rigor which I have refined over the years and renamed 24 Questions — all of which are follow-the-money questions to help understand the balance sheet and the opportunity.

    I’ve been using the 24 Questions as part of my brand planning discovery for years. When you understand how money is made, you have credibility with the chiefs of a company. And that is critical when discussing strategy. And justifying strategy choices.

    Don’t ever forget to follow the money when brand planning. Plumbing the depths of brand voice, purpose, personality and narrative are but brand strategy tactics.  Money is the composition.  

    Peace.

    PS. For a copy of the 24 Questions, write Steve@WhatsTheIdea.com

     

    A Marketing Conundrum.

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    Two of the most discussed concepts in marketing today are “authenticity” and “artificial intelligence.”  One is communications advice the other a communications device.

    They are diametrically opposed. You can’t be authentic and artificial at the same time. Unless you are Tucker Carlson. Hee hee.

    I’m a fan of authenticity albeit, for me, it’s the price of doing business. If you have to speak about it, it must be lacking.  Those who use the word a lot must be steeped in a world of inauthentic-ness.  As for artificial intelligence I much prefer the term machine learning. It’s mote accurate. And more descriptive.   

    Dabbling in AI with my blog (e.g., “edit this blog post”) was a fun exercise.  Those who make a living in by-the-pound content love it. It’ generates volume and is a time-saver. However, it’s a bit inauthentic. “AI, edit my blog post in my voice.” Huh?

    From time-to-time I use a strategy exercise called The 5 Conundrums where I outline consumer contradictions which need to be addressed before brand strategy can be entertained. It’s a way to focus and clear out some stale air. Authenticity and AI are one such marketing conundrum.

    Peace.