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    Brand Strategy

    Nonbinary Selling.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    There are two kinds of selling. Demand selling where people are actively shopping for a product. And interruption selling where the consumer is not shopping just living their life and you attempt to connect and convince them to buy from you. Think having your credit card in hand and your browser open to Amazon (demand) versus eating dinner and having a solar panel salesman knock on your door (interruption).  

    The latter type of selling is harder because first you need get the consumers’ attention. Then you must convince them of the need for the product. And lastly, you have to convince them why to buy your product. A three stepper.

    The toughest job I ever had was as a consumer salesman.  Working for a kitchen remodeling company, I was tasked with intercepting consumers at big box stores and signing them up for in-home free estimates. It took me months to figure out how to get people to stop and talk  — only then after breaking the ice could I begin to sell.  

    A great deal of advertising today is about capturing attention. Think Geico. It’s 90% attention 10% sell.

    Branding strategy is way different than advertising. Brand strategy is totally focused on convincing consumers “why” your brand. Brand strategies that spend time garnering attention or trying to convince consumers to buy a product they’re not shopping for is someone else’s job. The agencies job.

    And brand strategies that promise consumer happiness as a brand value are ridiculous. (Unless selling Xanax.) Brand strategy is about selling product. Not movements. Not emotional outcomes. Not attention. It’s about positioning your product, de-positioning competitors, and as Jack Trout and Al Ries would say, establishing a unique place in the mind of consumers tied to an endemic brand advantage.

    Brand strategy development is nonbinary. Find your single, key consumer benefit and lock it down.

    Peace.    

      

    Shell Life of Brand Strategy.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    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.

     

    Marketing Coach?

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    I often speak about “pent up demand” and how important it is to brand and marketing strategy.  If people are clamoring for your product or service you only have to position it and promote it.  But if people don’t know they need your product or service — perhaps it’s a new category, or a complicated value proposition  — then you first need to educate them. Only then can you sell them.  It’s a two-step approach and much more expensive.

    What’s The Idea? was initially positioned as a band consultancy. Then it was repositioned as a brand strategy firm. The latter position making it clearer I didn’t design logos or websites or collateral. I do strategy. Everybody knows what strategy is. But brand strategy?  Even brand strategists have a hard time explaining it. 

    My problem is brand strategy is not easily explained on the back of a business card. Nor is it something people wake up in the morning thinking about.  It doesn’t directly solve a common problem.  But do you know the problem it does solve?  A problem that most marketers have (pent up demand)?  Poorly performing marketing.

    I’m giving serious conside-ration to another reposition: marketing coach.  Everyone knows what marketing is. Everyone knows what a coach does. Two words, no ambiguity.

    And guess what my key tool will be as a marketing coach: uh huh, brand strategy.  AKA “an organizing principle for product, experience and messaging.”

    Peace.

     

    Brand Strategy and Market Discontinuity.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Whenever there is a market discontinuity, it effects brands. The supply chain crisis is one such discontinuity.  Many American companies, caught with their pants drooping, have made huge investments in reshoring or bringing manufacturing back to the States. Though some industries are addicted to manufacturing overseas, such as clothing, sneakers and electronics, smart large-scale companies have decided to build at home.

    When big changes like this occur brands that invest in reshoring are apt to think about changing elements of their brand strategy.  Made in America will, no doubt, become more prominent. Delivery guarantees more common. Free shipping, quality, and longer warranties are also likely to be used more.  When markets are in transition these values are important. Especially when prices are rising. And not just because of inflation but because we are making higher quality products (hopefully).

    I caution manufacturers not to alter their brand strategies from heritage values as a result of reshoring. I’m certainly open to change, but when change is everywhere, individual brands are best not to follow the wind. 

    Stick to your plan. Stick to your current Claim and Proof array.  Brand strategy is built over time.

    Tactics are fine, strategy finer.

    Peace.

     

     

    Develop a Brand Strategy and Cut Once.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Brand strategy is a unique undertaking.  It’s not many things, it’s one thing. Full stop.

    When done correctly, brands have one strategy.  One “organizing principle for product, experience and messaging” that is sacrosanct. Inviolate.  At What’s The Idea? brand strategy is constructed using one brand claim and three proof (or support) planks. With this construct in place, every tactic thereafter is on strategy or off. It’s simple. Once the master brand strategy is done and done right, everything thereafter becomes additive and brand positive.  Everything thereafter becomes brand management. Not rethink.

    At ad agencies today, departments of brand planners oversee project tactics. They enable creative team to do good work, providing them counsel on interpretations of the strategy.  It’s not necessary. Everyone in marketing is a strategist. Creatives. Project managers, Accountants. In their own little way.  With a brand strategy in hand all team members can officiate execution. No matter their function.

    In carpentry, there’s a saying “measure twice cut once.”  Master brand strategy is the measure and tactics are the cutting.

    Peace.

     

     

    Mutations and Evolution.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    I’m a closet anthropologist and someone who likes to think about evolution. A professor at my alma mater Rollins College explained taught me one of the forces of evolution is gene mutation. Natural selection being another important force. Human evolution takes hundreds of thousands of years and even though my brand strategies are designed to be future-proof, they won’t stand up to that timeframe. Hee hee. So, we should always entertain the notion that brand strategies can evolve. To that end we must always keep an eye out for mutations. 

    Our job as brand planners is to watch out for the signs. One way to do this is to constantly update and refresh the proof plank.  Keep a history or archive of your proof planks over time and then look back to see how they have changed. 

    If the market changes in a way that one of your planks seems less of a care-about or good-at – or if that particular plank is lagging in activity — consider a new plank. Remember evolution is slow. And that can work in your favor. Just don’t assume everything stays the same forever.  

    If you feel a new stronger brand plank coming on, test it. Do not add a new plank to the mix. It will only confuse your target.

    Peace.

     

     

    Be Ambitious With Your Brand Objectives.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    At the end of my brand strategy presentations, I like to make sure the claim is well received.  I offer up slides listing all the pros and all the cons.  At present, I don’t ask C-level management and approvers how they feel the claim will perform against key product objectives. That needs to change.

    Of course, understanding the KPI is critical to this step.

    Much work in brand strategy work focuses on one overarching problem. I like to walk and chew gum.  What’s The Idea? brand strategies are intended to accomplish numerous things. All tied to top company objectives. Not just one.

    A healthy discussion of how key objectives are met by the brand claim and brand planks proves the worth of the strategy.  Presentations meant to simply earn a go/no go decision are weak. Once the strategy is approved the hook has to be set. It has to show its business-winning nature.

    I once worked on a huge healthcare brand and presented 15 plus objectives I believed the strategy could accomplish.  The client was nervous and made me pull back.  He didn’t want to his boss to think we were overly ambitious.  And he didn’t want to fail. Oh my!!

    Peace.

     

     

    Boiler Plate.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    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.

     

    The Biggest Pity.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Nothing pisses off a creative person more than being told a client doesn’t “like their work.”  Nina DiSesa a big-time creative director or yore explained it to me this way “Ads are like our babies.” They are nurtured and coddled over time and can’t just be easily dismissed.

    I’ve often spoken of the “like-ometer”, a fictional device clients use in approving ads. The notion of subjectivity in advertising or any creative pursuit, is real. And in the advertising business it’s super real.

    That’s why top creatives like a good brand strategy. They are devising with a purpose in mind. They have a tight objective.  This helps them in development but also in getting approvals. There’s a basis for arguing for their work. It’s called a brand strategy.

    When a person judging an ad doesn’t like a “color” or “negativity” or “the great outdoors,” the brand strategy can be employed. And the like-ometer shut down. 

    We can’t get to better work without a strategy — the launch pad for all marketing and communications. Most professional ads are developed using a brief.  Few are developed using a brand brief.

    That is the biggest pity of the craft.

    Peace.

     

    Cheerleading

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    I must admit to being a cheerlead for my brands. That’s not to say all brands are worthy, some will actually be clunkers. When that’s the case all you can do as a cheerleader is convey to management the changes that need to be made in order to make them good brands.  Those changes can be in the form of product or product experience. If the brand is underdelivering what consumers “care-about” or what it’s “good-at,” then you can always share with management benchmarks of better competitive products. Cheerleading for quality.  Hopefully management will see your category interest and positiveness not as a slight but as caring and industry insight.

    But let’s assume your product is good. Being a cheerleader and living in the land of milk and honey is a good thing when establishing positioning and brand strategy. Positives beget positives. They give people enjoyment. When you are a cheerleader and constantly praise and mine brand values, if something negative does come about management is more apt to seek out your perspective.

    Brand planning is a positive pursuit. High school cheerleaders are taught to smile. Even when the score is lopsided. Look for the good in your brand and celebrate it.

    It makes everyone’s job easier.

    Peace.      

     

     

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