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    Brand Strategy

    Brand Planning Effluvia.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Many practicing brand planners are well-meaning and talk a good game. But they don’t always deliver the goods. And when I say goods, I mean brand strategy: An organizing principle for product, experience and messaging. A brand strategy’s only measurable job is to win business.

    Brand planners who talk about “story” aren’t providing strategy. Those who pepper their brand plans with the words like “mission,” “personality,” “values” and “vision” aren’t delivering strategy. Important planning tools though they may be, they are really the effluvia of the strategy process. CEOs don’t like to sit still for the effluvia, they want the strategy. And the rationale. Not the circuitous route to the strategy.

    Strategy is a directive.  One that “sells more, to more, more often, at higher process (Sergio Zyman).  Makers who use brand strategy are charged with creating communications and tactics that helps a brand win in the marketplace. Great makers move markets. But it’s strategist who points the Makers in the business-winning direction. You can give a Maker a story. A voice. Or a vision. But they really need a strategy.  

    Peace.

     

     

    Cobbler’s Children Part 2.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    One of the first things one must align in brand building is the brand name with the strategy.  It’s not always possible. In the case of What’s The Idea?, the name came first. Ergo the name has to be an asset that goes into the stock pot (metaphor) to be boiled down into the brand claim and proof array (the framework).  Not ideal but certainly real world. A child needs a name.

    What’s The Idea? suggests locking onto a single business-winning value.  I repeat a single, motivating value. The brand name is not What Are the Many Ideas?. The single idea derives from customer care-abouts and brand good-ats. The baby stays, the bathwater not so much. Sometimes there is informational nuance in the idea; it might be a pregnant idea. As in, say one thing, get credit for more. Typically, this one thing offers an endemic brand quality/value. Coke is refreshment. Volvo about safety.  

    I like to say that the brand claim is an inelegant, non-creative tagline — to be interpreted by the creative agency. All comms should support the claim. The last part of the framework is the proof array, the three planks that support the claim. The planks must be tightly tethered to the claim so as to create believability and logic. Enough about the framework. Onto the actual brand strategy of What’s The Idea?.

    For that tune in to the next posts. The cobbler’s children’s shoe will hit the bench beginning tomorrow.

    Peace.

     

    Cobbler’s Children.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0
    Cartoon shoemaker (cobbler), isolated on white background. Coloring book design for kids and children.

    Have you heard the story about the cobbler’s children? The children in town with the poorest shoes?  The cobbler is so busy he forgets to take care of his family’s footwear. Talk about a bad experiential branding move.  Ironically, it begs the question what is the brand strategy for What’s The Idea?

    You mean to say Steve you have never used your tools to create a “claim and proof array” for What’s The Idea?  You douche! 

    So where do I start?

    Why not with the name? What is the idea?  The name presupposes a lot.  I mean, what cognitive effort is not about an idea?  The reason the question resonates with brand planners and to a lesser extend senior marketing professionals is that there are so many, many ideas in marketing and branding that there are effectively none. It’s like marketers and advertisers are paid by the idea pound, rather than finding a business-winning claim and loading up on it.  Google “Fruit Cocktail Effect.”

    Ergo, the first objective of a What’s the Idea? brand strategy is to educate marketing prospects to stake a claim to an idea. More’s the pity. More’s the pithy.

    Stay tuned for more on the strategy itself.

    Peace.

     

     

     

    Perspicuity.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Perspicuous is an adjective derived from the noun perspicuity, it’s defined by Merriam-Webster as

    : plain to the understanding especially because of clarity and precision of presentation

    In brand planning and brand strategy there’ s not a lot of it going around. Clarity of brand strategy design and presentation are quite lacking. It’s not like it’s string theory or anything, it’s just that most planners are very deep in the roots — deep in the ingredients — and have a hard time ‘splaining what they are actually delivering. Brand strategy is not a bunch of value-laden verses or a brand poetry to be handed off to a client as a muse for creating a brand. It’s not ethereal guidelines for the creation of marketing stuff. It’s an organizing principle for product, experience and messaging. An organizing principle with boundaries, dictates and evidence.

    Boiled down, brand strategy is a framework for marketing work. It’s binary and measurable. Yet it is also creative. Better said, it allows for wonderful creativity.

    And it all starts with Perspicuity. A clean directive.

    Happy to share some samples. Write Steve at WhatsTheIdea.

    Peace.

     

    Reinvention.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Brand planners are reinventors. Faris Yakob, a leader of the pack, rightly says “all ideas are recombinant.” Meaning, there’s nothing new. Only new packaging. I like to think we are reinventors. Invention being the mother of necessity and all. He just said it better.

    Brand planning is like peeling an onion. Layers. And more layers. But at some point you need to put a stake in the ground and deliver a strategy. At What’s The Idea? I deliver a brief and a more operative Claim and Proof array (a single sheeter). The array is a living breathing list of proofs, organized under three key values (planks). The time prior to the strategy being delivered is BS. Before Strategy. Anything after is aftermarket discovery, is AS. After Strategy.

    The beauty of my framework (claim and proof) is that all people involved are always on the prowl for more ways to prove the claim. With every proof unearthed we make another deposit in the brand bank. We are also giving the ad agency and agency-ettes fodder for new and exciting work.

    Brand strategies are like children to me. Whenever I see a potential new proof point for one of my brands I light up. And pass it on. Brand strategies are 20% BS and 80% AS. And then you die.  Hee hee.

    Peace.

     

    Wage War on Cliches.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Brand strategists are in a battle against cliches. A great copywriter (Walter Weir?) once wrote “If it sounds like copy, it’s good copy.”  Well, that’s antithetical to brand strategy work. Though brand planners are not in the business of producing creative, we are in the business of inspiring creative. And if a copywriter or art director doesn’t appreciate an inspirational idea, who does?  The problem with brand strategy is it’s often poorly articulated. Poorly evangelized. And cliched.

    Consumers, btw, are so used to cliches in advertising they shut down. And today, one trillion ad messages in, that’s a recipe for extinction.  Can you say AI?  

    I am of the mind that cliched brand strategies are more deadly than cliched ads. That’s not to say “different for different’s sake” is right.  “Coke is refreshment” – still one the of most powerful brand strategy claims extant — may sound a bit clichéd for a soft drink, but refreshment is so replete with inspirational it crackles off the creative pen.

    Cliches are verboten in brand planning work. But tying inherent, endemic brand values to your brand strategy is what success really looks like. Flame broiled. The world’s information in one click.

    Wage war against cliches, but always, always mine the endemic values.

    Peace.

     

    A Brand Strategy Pitch Gone Right.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    I was pitching a brand strategy to a client a couple of summers ago, using a presentation process which I replicate pretty much each time.  I lead with some pertinent quotes from interviewees and other smart people, then list off the names of those interviewed (stakeholders, customers, prospects and SMEs), and finally present the brand brief, which I read. It’s a serial story with key chapters/headings which leads to the brand claim and proof array.

    Since I’m talking about the company, and use more storytelling language than business language, I tend to have the decisionmakers’ ears. I mean, who doesn’t like to hear about themselves.  When the heads are nodding and the poesy flying, the room warms up. In this particular pitch, things were going well until the CEO interrupted mid-brief and asked me to skip to the end. There is always an end. Apparently busy is as busy does. This had never happened before but what the heck. I went off-piste and jumped to the idea (claim.)  A good planner should be prepared for anything.  If I was flustered I tried not to show it…but, hell, I was in the middle of my song.   

    Anyway, the CEO made some good points about the claim: It was too focused on the brand “good-ats”, not enough focused on the customer “care-abouts.” So, I agreed to take another pass and worked out the strategy to everyone’s satisfaction – albeit it a couple of weeks later.

    A story from the trenches. Things change. Adapt. And don’t fall in love with your anything.

    Peace.      

     

    Truth and Proof in Branding.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    My brand, What’s The Idea?, offers up the notion that the “idea” is the key to branding. Most people who spend money on marketing will agree creativity is the lifeblood of advertising. Creativity feeds advertising, marketing’s most important tool. Of course, there is nothing wrong with fame and/or as Faris Yakob calls it “paid attention.”  But all the advertising, paid attention and marketing in the world, if disorganized or constantly changing will not build a brand.  It may sell from time to time, from tactic to tactic, but it does not establish a product or service in the mind of a consumer as a brand. That takes an idea — the apex of an organizing principle.

    My mission at WTI is to find an idea and an organizing principle that creates indelible positions for brands.

    One word that creatives and brand planners use a lot in our business is “truth.”  Product or consumer truths are where planners dabble. A truth is likely a hopefully provable observation that can replicate. I, however, prefer the word “proof.” It’s more to the point…and more scientific. It’s binary. Proof cements belief. Proof undergirds a claim (the idea.)

    In a nutshell, the organizing principle used to build brands – at least here at What’s The Idea? – is one claim (idea) and three proof planks. That’s the secret sauce. That’s how the sausage is made. That is the strategy behind brand building. Keyboard drop!

    Peace.

     

    Purposeful Marketing is an Oxymoron.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Now please don’t think I got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. And I do not want you to think me a crab or branding troll… but I do want to suggest there’s a good deal of talk going around on the role of Mission and Purpose in branding. It’s a bit over-baked.

    Mission and Purpose rarely have a place in brand strategy. They belong under the heading of Philanthropy on the website, handled by corporate governance people.

    Brand strategy is all about customer care-abouts and brand good-ats: values endemic to the product or service. They should drive product value, shareholder value and loyalty.  What a brand does with its earnings, insofar and mission/purpose, is up to them. True Mission and Purpose companies should be not-for-profit or non-profits. Yeah, yeah, yeah Patagonia. There are always exceptions. But watering the tea is not a best practice of branding strategy.

    As Sergio says “sell more, to more, more often and at higher prices.”  Eyes on the prize. 

    Sorry if that’s some capitalist shiz, but it’s a truth.

    Peace.

     

    Language.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    A brand planner is a lot like a chef.  One must amass lots of information, or using metaphor, ingredients and assemble them into a unique, tasty dish.  The brand planner’s ingredients are the language — the spoken or written words assembled by the planner. Listening to customers, prospective consumers, stakeholders, SMEs (subject matter experts) and journalists yield language from which to cull insights and establish key care-about and good-ats.

    It is the culling or boiling-down (another cooking metaphor) of those words that moves the planner closer to a positioning idea and strategy. But it is the language that helps the planner get closer.  Specific words resonate. Specific product or service patois. Words and phrases that move the interviewees Galvanic Skin Response — monitored or simply gleaned. This is what we are listening for.  Blah, blah, blah language is just that. Excitement, passion and emotion are the “tells” we seek.

    Keywords: listen, language, repeat.

    Peace.

    PS. No humans were tested for this blog post. Ever.

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