Random

    Brand Strategy

    Strategy is Your Muse.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    I don’t know about you but I do some of my best work when in a group setting. Riffing and recontextualizing other’s ideas.  Group think can be messy if the group is too big and unstructured, but when the numbers are small enough for conversations to take place, ideation can soar.

    In advertising, known as a creative business, most creative teams have a visual person and word person.  Both understand each other and their respective crafts and a chemistry results. They present ideas to a creative boss, who helps them focus, refocus and finesse. A team.

    Problem is, business people and marketers we aren’t always in a position to work in groups.  Sometimes is just you and your computer. Or you and a research report.  You and the inventory. It’s lonely having to make decisions in a vacuum.  That’s why strategy is so, so important.  Strategy becomes one’s muse. It’s both a starting place and an endpoint.  It gives you a catalyst for what must come in the middle. The thinking.

    Brand strategy is an organizing principle for marketing. It’s delimiting and inspiring.

    If you don’t have a brand strategy, you will waste a lot of time and have a lonely time doing it.

    Peace.

     

    Brand Strategy Targeting.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    Brand strategy should speak to all targets. And, in a perfect world, all people.  Once we segregate a target and prioritize sub-targets (for maximization) we are moving beyond branding. Segmentation goes counter to brand craft. Segmentation is an important function but it’s a marketing function.

    Let’s start at the beginning. When creating a brand strategy, the planner wants to look at all targets that come in contact with the brand. As an example, let’s look at a recent What’s The Idea? engagement for a math tutoring company. The most important target was the parent. The payor. Another important target was anyone who might recommend a tutor, such as a teacher or friend in academia. The tutee (Is that a word?) AKA the student, is also important. And, of course, prospective math tutor employees are important. All these targets have different motivations and care-abouts, albeit math improvement is an ultimate goal.   

    To make it more complicated, it’s possible to further parse the parent target. That is, are they up-scale moms and dads? Price-conscious?  Professional or blue collar? Is the tutoring remedial or preparatory, for say college testing? All of these things must be factored in. But for proper brand strategy, with everything factored in, the value prop/brand claim must appeal to all. Everyone must be treated as a prospect. A news reporter, without kids, might break a huge story on your brand, while never being part of the target.

    Brand strategy isn’t code, it should speak to everyone.

    Peace.

     

     

    Attitudes and Evidence.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    When it comes to brand strategy, most say it is hard to measure. I beg to differ.  With the proper brand strategy framework – claim and proof — measurement is easy. Albeit expensive. There’s a fairly common research methodology called Usage and Attitudes. Well, when measuring brand strategy, I suggest an Attitudes and Evidence Study is more appropriate.  Leave usage for more product specific work.

    Quantitative research into consumer attitudes about a brand and key competitors is part one of the A and E Study. Part two is the evidence that forms those attitudes – the memorable proofs underlying those attitudes. Diving into the “whys” attitudes are formed is the domain of the brand strategist.

    When one hospital is believed to offer superior cariology care to another, it is the evidence is that sets the bar. It’s not marketing words like “innovation” or “caring doctors” or “cardio procedure” gobbledygook.  When a restaurant is deemed to have superior flavors, it is the evidence that provides the proof. James Beard Awards. Nationally renowned chef. Unique technique.

    Research that uncovers the evidence behind the attitude is what is measurable. It’s the science behind the strategy. Once these metrics are established and logged, then usage and sales can be overlayed. And the real fun begins.

    Brand strategy measures are primordial. They shouldn’t be add-ons.

    Peace.

    Red Lobster’s New Brand Strategy.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    I was just reading in The New York Times about Red Lobster’s new ad campaign.  The campaign idea “Sea food differently,” is a little off-piste and perhaps a bit too creative.  The ads introduces a new logo with some locked-up words “Fresh Fish, Live Lobster” which is nice.  But the good news is, the traditional Red Lobster advertising that everyone can play back in their sleep — the big lemon squirt over a lobster tail and some superimposed pricing — will be replaced by ads with real people (people test well) talking about Alaska’s cold waters or oak used for grilling.

    This is a no brainer improvement for the work out of Grey, NY.  Advertising is all about claim and proof. The lemon squirt work was “we’re here” retail advertising at its best, which isn’t saying too much. The new work has a strategy.  If advertising is about claim and proof, branding is about claim and delimited, organized proof.  My take on the new brand plan for Red Lobster is that the proof planks are roughly: fresh fish, grilling, and lobster.

    Stuart Elliot’s article spends a lot of time talking about the people in the ads, but the reason the ads will work is not because of the fisherman with the beard from Ahh-rass-kahhhh (Alaska), but the storied proof and pictures that demonstrate the strategy.  People deliver the strategy, they aren’t the strategy.    

    Campaigns come and go but a powerful brand strategy is indelible. Sounds like Red Lobster has a tight brand strategy.  I smell some sales! Good job Darden and Grey. Peace!

    Shell Life of Brand Strategy.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    Brands grow up just as people do. Company employees change. Products change. Consumer behaviors change. And brands mature. It is the job of brand strategy to hold it all together but also to keep the brand relevant. Well-crafted, the deeply identified values of a brand strategy live on as a brand matures. A good master brand strategy keeps a brand from aging.

    Brand strategy defeats the aging process by offering brand managers a way to constantly revive and make more exciting an evergreen handful of product or service values.  And lest we think these values are rules which impede creativity, think again. Creativity is as deep or shallow as the purveyor allows. Brand strategy provides an ownable lingua franca, in an overly confusing world of salesmanship.

    The best brand strategies live forever. The brand strategy written for ZDNet nearly 25 years ago “For Doer’s Not Browsers” can still be seen in the current line used as a tag on the website “Tomorrow belongs to those who embrace it today.” Sounds like doers to me.  Brands should never dull. They should stand as pillars to the values they impart to consumers. And hang tough.   

    Peace.

     

    UBER brand strategy. ‘sup?

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    charger strom trooper

    UBER is doing a really neat promotion in NYC, tying in to the new Star Wars movie. It is making 8 Dodge Chargers, painted to look like Mattel Hot Wheels Star Wars Storm Trooper cars (white with distinctive black striping), available for free for the day, providing you use the appropriate promo code. It’s really cool for Dodge, whose cars become roving brand billboards, and it’s a nice way to get UBER some excellent pub.

    The promo made me wonder though about UBER’s brand strategy. I’m not sure I know what it is at this point. And that’s often okay for a first-to-category company. Your Is-Does becomes the brand claim a la “Your Ride, On Demand.” But without a brand strategy (1 claim, 3 proof planks), it’s hard to decide if a promotion is making a deposit in the brand bank or a withdrawal.  So this seems to me a promotion for promotion’s sake, not for strategy’s sake. Though I don’t know the Dodge Charger brand strategy, I’m feeling a proximity to it with this promotion. Storm troopers charge, no?

    Start-ups and category pioneers need brand strategies. VCs should encourage this. It helps everyone make decisions about product, experience and messaging. UBER should have one.

    Peace.          

     

    Yahoo’s new brand strategy?

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    On Sept 7, 2011 I predicted Carol Bartz, CEO of Yahoo! would be out within a year. It happened in July 2012. I’ve followed and blogged about Yahoo since the beginning of What’s the Idea? and was internet raised on Yahoo.  I want it to succeed, but it has been a messy go the last 5 years. Perhaps that is changing.

    According to new CEO Marissa Mayer in an article from today’s New York Times, Yahoo’s top priority is to “Make the world’s daily habits inspiring and entertaining.”  I smell a brand strategy.

    Over the years, Yahoo has had many leaders, many missions and many goals: Become the Internet starting point for the most consumers. Become a ‘must buy’ for the most advertisers. Become an open technology platform for developers.  Become an innovative content company. A mobile leader. And and and…

    “Make the world’s habits inspiring and entertaining” is a brand strategy that has ballast.  Remember it’s not the creative, it’s a strategy. Support it with three endemic and meaningful brand planks and you have the start of something – a brand plan. 

    I’m not going to parse the sentence yet and frankly a brand strategy with a conjunction (“and”) is a bit of a weasel, but the exciting keywords are: world, habits, daily, inspire, entertain.  Were I a Yahoo brand manager, CMO, or VP and if someone brought me a new mobile app or content idea, I could easily use this strategy as a litmus test for approval.  It’s still broad and in need of refinement but it’s a start. As my daughter used to say “I yike it!”  Peace.

    One Story.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    Brand planning is like painting. In fine arts painting there are lots of strokes, lots of paints, colors, brush techniques, time and effort. Repeat. When the canvas is filled (or not) the painting is done.  Granted with painting, art is in the eye of the beholder and in brand planning strategy art is in the eye of the strategist — but the layers and layers of effort are not dissimilar.

    In brand planning there are interviews, research (primary and secondary), field work and consumer observations. Also lots of stakeholder interviews, so as to get the motivations of the brand people right.  All inputs are considered for development of the brand strategy. A lot of strokes. But I’ve found more often than not, that one particular story from all the interviews sticks out. The touchstone story. It’s one example that speaks most loudly about the product or experience and drowns out all the others. For me, this one story is the fulcrum of brand strategy development. The most valuable vein of ore. Metaphorically, it’s when the finished painting comes into focus.

    As you are doing brand discovery, seek out that one story. Keep hunting until you find it. It will feed the fine art that is brand planning.

    Peace.

     

     

    Brand Claim and the Boil Down.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    “How do you know if you have a good brand strategy?  More importantly, how do you know if a brand strategy being presented to you is any good?  

    When I present brand strategy, I’m presenting words on paper. No mood board. No customer journey montage. No recorded customer interviews. Just words. And those words, typically presented in serial, near story form, lead to a benefit claim – a single-minded value proposition capturing the emotional and logical reason to buy. Done right, the claim is pregnant with meaning and brand-positive interpretations.  Hopefully, poetic in its memorability, it will often sound like a tagline – but not a campaign tagline.

    In addition to the claim I present “proof planks.” Proof planks are the organized reasons to believe the claim. Three in total. Proof planks cement the brand claim. Without proof, a claim is just advertising.  

    Back to the “How do you know?” question. Clients know they have a good brand strategy when it captures the essence of the brand’s reason for being. And when the proof supporting that essence (claim) is not only familiar it’s filial. The job of the brand planner is not to rearrange words that make the client nod.  It is to boil down those words into a single, powerful sentence.  Like naming a baby in reverse — after they are grown.

    No easy feat.

    Peace.

     

    Thanks and Giving.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    Fresh off a really neat brand strategy assignment, I wanted to share a few “tings” (as my Norwegian aunt Inger would say) for which I am thankful. Over the years I’ve probably met with a hundred people in the brand planning business who didn’t know me from Adam. These planners were kind enough to have a coffee with a needy planner-wannabe and toss me enough knowledge and crumbs to keep me on the trail.  I learned my craft from all of you. I made a living because to you.

    The planning community is really a curious and friendly lot. It’s a community that likes to teach and learn. You all inspired me in one way or another.

    Then there are the friends and colleagues who kept up the lines of communication. One, a co-worker from 20 plus years ago, recently introduced me to his son who partook of the What’s The Idea? planning rigor. Learned a lot from that young ‘un.

    I’d like to thank friends with ad agencies who used my services and reupped from time to time. Also, those who used me once. I worked on some of the most amazing brand because of you. And I’d like to thank the little guys who entrusted me with their brands and budgets. Also thanks the pro bono brands from whom I learned tricks and ways to plan on a shoestring.

    Since I started brand planning under the sobriquet What’s The Idea?, I’ve worked with scores and scores of brands and interviewed thousands of people. The key to success is — and it may sound hokey – allowing myself to fall in love with each brand. That’s how you care enough to invest.

    To all the peeps who invested time in me. I thank you. Paying back your kindness, passing it forward, is and will continue to be my greatest pleasure.

    Happy Thanksgiving Megan, David, JoAnn, Kevin, Bob, Pat, Amber, Faris, Sean, Heidi, George, Marianne, Tom, Peter, Cory, Eric, Ty, Jonathan, Scott, Jane, John Durham …

     

    1...131415...34Page 14 of 34
    © Newsmag WordPress Theme by TagDiv