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    Brand Strategy

    All the Work… in Just a Few Words.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    BOSTON – MAY 19: Author David McCullough received an honorary degree during the Suffolk University commencement ceremony at the Bank of America Pavilion on Sunday, May 19, 2013. (Photo by Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

    I wrote a draft of a novel in my 20s.  It was called Mo Pix about a graffiti artist in NYC.  I started writing and didn’t stop until it was done. No editing. Took months, maybe years. It was a stream-of-consciousness story.  The recent passing of David McCullough got me thinking about how one writes a tome as he did so well. And as I mulled it over, I realized a lot of discovery goes into writing such a book. Not a winger of words, he.

    And guess what?  These thought about McCullough reminded me of my craft today and the discovery process for crafting a brand strategy. Lots of time, research, thinking and effort goes into writing a brand strategy. Lots of discovery. When is the discovery stage complete? Is it when the budget starts to run out? Is it when an indelible and fitting idea surfaces? Or, is it when (in my framework) three support planks emerge? I guess it’s a little bit of each. Sometimes, when I really don’t have a clear picture, I just start writing the brand brief — forcing me into a corner. The brief being a serial story tying brand position to brand objective and built upon a good deal of consumer care-abouts and brand good-ats.

    The huuuge difference between a book and brand strategy in terms of the finished product is the former is a long, long form piece of work and the latter a single-minded sentence. All the work in just a few words.

    Imagine asking David McCullough to capture one of his stories in a sentence. Maybe he’d just give you the book title and subtitle. Hee hee.

    Peace.

     

     

    Imposter Syndrome.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    By definition strategy precedes action. I am not sure General Patton or Sun Tsu really knew their strategies would work. Were they imposters? The best we can do as brand planners is gather facts, array insights, organize and prioritize them then make decisions.

    Do I get butterflies before presenting a master brand strategy? Even after days of self-congratulations for “nailing it?” Sure I do. Doubt can creep in. Worrying about your craft makes you a good planner. Question yourself, it’s healthy. But don’t let it overwhelm you. No one can see the future. But we can be prepared for the future. We can project what we learned and surmised and expect of the future. Then we stick a pin in it and commit.

    All my brand presentations include a pros and cons section surrounding the main claim. Let your client know you’ve thought of all sides. And know your client’s business. Know how money is made so your pros aren’t touchy feelie, they are business-building.

    I’m not a fan of terms like imposter syndrome. But I am a fan of the word doubt. And doubt is universal.  Foundations are what we build on.

    “Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow you house in…” if your foundation is weak.

    Peace.

     

    Strategy and Training.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    I’m a fanboy of Julian Cole of Strategy Finishing School and also Mark Pollard of Sweathead. Julian came out of comms planning and has slid into brand planning. Mark has long been a brand planner. Both are sharers. That is, they post a good deal of social media – free media – in an effort to raise visibility. And both are at places in their careers where they are trying to monetize their wares. Like musicians who make most of their money now touring, Julian and Mark (sometimes together) are charging fees for webinars and in-person training sessions.

    Faris Yakob, a longtime acquaintance, is also in the marketing and branding space. He, too, works for himself and with wife Rosie monetize a business called Genius Steal through paid events, speeches and training.  But he also consults. Faris is a sharer and networker and has been for a long time.

    Giving away intellectual property in social media is a time-tested business builder. And it’s been going on for decades in the regular press and trade press.  Say something really smart to the reading/consuming public and they may reach out for advice. Paid advice. Start by giving it away, then sell it.

    My approach is different. I’ve stayed away from monetizing through paid speeches and training.  I continue to give away my IP. My revenue goal is 100% consulting. I prime the pump with content and do biz/dev to generate leads and engagements.

    One of my clients, Trail Of Bits, has built a crazy successful business giving away IP in the cyber security space.  They share code and tools for free on GitHub. They don’t train, they consult.  And they thrive.

    I’m not knocking trainers and speaker. And as a longtime blogger, I’m all about teaching and learning. But for me the excitement is in the trenches. The excitement is in the strategies themselves.

    Peace!

      

     

    Everything is a brand.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    …and nothing is a brand. Hanging out in social media as I do and with my business proclivities, I often come across people talking about “people as brands.” I scoff. I’m very protective of my turf.

    As an early user of social media in market research, I made some serious money understanding its power to influence consumers.  That said, I like to think I’m an early adopter of the notion that today’s “influencers” are kind of a sham. Especially those who use influence for influence’s sake.

    I do, however, love the early influencers on social.  Those people with key motivations behind their postings: Emo Girl, Melting Mama, Kandee Johnson, Bob Lefsetz, Robert Scoble and dana boyd. They were/are SMEs. And if not exactly SMEs, they were certainly capturers of attention.

    Faris (Is it too soon to use only his first name?) likes to say we live in the attention economy. And, yes, having curators helps. But influencers? To me the title has a bad reputation. Today’s influencers and their acolytes use the word brand too much. To them everything is a brand. And when everything is a brand, nothing is. I like my social media influencers rare. Not medium or well done.

    Share. Not to make money but to make life better. More entertaining. Interesting. Fulfilling. Don’t share your shit to make yourself more commercial.

    Peace.     

     

    UBS and Craft.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    I love multi-page print ads. Often, campaign or brand- launch units, they’re a brand planner’s playground.

    (Full disclosure, UBS is my financial firm and they are great.) 

    This past week UBS launched a 4-page ad in The NY Times.  My brand strategy rigor is simple: one claim, three proof planks.  Reverse engineering this effort, I would have to say, the brand claim is “Banking is our Craft” and the three proof planks are: advice, managing wealth, and investment experience. Each topic gets its own page. The operative word in strategy is “craft.” (Don’t get me started on the word “banking.”)  

    Page one ad copy reads:

    Craft matters. In small ways. Like how a coffee is brewed. How a chair is built. In not-so-small ways. Like, how your money is cared for. It’s a conscious choice in in how we perform our work. At UBS, we elevate our banking to a craft… blah, blah.

    The planner in me says “craft” is not a terrible word. It can be emotionally and logically brought to life as a metaphor for managing money. But not through empty copy. Only through deeds, tasks, processes and evidence can one begin to believe managing money is a craft. As for the proof planks, the ones selected are departments not values. Or as I like to say “good-ats.”   

    As I read the copy, mining for proof, it is de minimis.

    An example: Always delivered with passion, care, unmatched expertise, and meticulous attention to detail. With our clients at the heart it all.”

    This effort does not pass the sniff test.  It’s copy, not advertising. Persuasion requires proof. Craft may be an idea. May be an idea. But this souffle certainly isn’t cooked.

    Not a good investment in branding. Or marketing.  

    Peace.  

     

     

    Symbolic Value and Real Value.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

     

    I was listening to the Sweathead podcast interviewing Ana Andjelic, chief branding officer at Esprit, and she mentioned a branding notion of “assigning symbolic value.” It immediately gave me pause.  My brand-o-babble alert went off. Buttttt, the more I thought about it the more I appreciated the idea.

    I am a brand strategist. I make words. And those words are about positioning products and services in the minds of consumers. Symbols, not so much. Symbols I leave to creative parties.  My business has always been anchored by strategies tied to “real” values. Endemic values. Coke is refreshment. Real and endemic. Swallow a big gulp of cold Coca-Cola and you are refreshed.  

    Butttt…Ana isn’t wrong when dabbling in symbolic value. Symbolic value can be part of an organizing principle. But it’s best worked on a mature brand.

    A strategy I wrote for Zude, a drag and drop web authoring tool, positioned it as “the fastest, easiest way to build a web page.”  The creative/tag line was “Feel Free.” Freedom was ancillary yet endemic inside the category. Freedom was symbolic. For those not experiencing the brand within the category or never having heard of Zude, “Feel Free” was meaningless.

    Branding is first about real value, then about symbolic value.  It’s a serial thing. A less expensive thing. A commercial thing. Nobody knew who Zude was, so “Feel Free” was a bridge too far. Had we $20 million in the budget the bridge would have been closer.

    Build a bridge (to consumers) first with materials then with dreams and symbols.

    Peace.

     

     

    Why Three Proof Planks?

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Yesterday in my post about brand strategy framework (one claim, three proof planks), I said the reason for three proof planks was that was what the mind could process. It’s not like consumers are sitting around parsing advertising and consumer communications all the-live-long-day.  If fact, the opposite is quite true.  With all the pablum being spoon fed to consumers each day on their devices and in the media it’s no wonder people can’t remember any brand values.  Add to that, the need to create so-called creative ads to gather attention — ads that bury product values — and you can see the dilemma.

    If a marketer had a $75 million annual budget, it would be easier to establish three proof planks beneath a brand claim — but most mid- and small business are lucky to have a quarter million in marketing spend. Therefore, 3 proof planks for a brand strategy may seem ambitious. That said, most smaller businesses aren’t national and can make a fine living targeting smaller customer bases, using lesser budgets. 

    Brands are built by owning a space in the mind of the consumer. A brand claim is the fastest way to that space. The proof planks are the way to make that claim believable. To make that claim salient.  To make that claim stand out.

    For more information on claim and proof as a brand strategy framework, please write Steve at WhatsTheIdea.

    Peace.

     

     

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