Most popular

    Brand Strategy

    A Strategic Welcome To Burger King.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    I’m a big Burger King fan.  Flame broiled has long been one of my favorite brand strategy elements. It’s visual. It’s olfactory. And it is an inherent (endemic) product quality. Flame-broiled differentiates Burger King.

    When you drive by a Burger King, even sight unseen, you know you’re nearby. BK has made a wonderfully smart and experiential change to its stores that reinforces its flame broiled strategy – it has replaced traditional door handles with replica BBQ spatulas. With every visit you can’t help but be reminded of the flame broiled advantage.

    This is genius brand management and genius brand strategy stewardship.

    If anyone knows the originator of this idea, please the name.  Big move.

    Peace

     

     

    By-The-Pound or Buy The Pound.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    The brand strategy framework at What’s The Idea? can best and most simply described as one claim and three proof planks.  A proof plank being a cluster of evidence, bound by a discrete value label that supports the claim.

    An example: If the claim for an ACO Physician group is “Intensive Primary Care” – ACO refers to a physician model of preventing illness, rather than only treating illness – a proof plank might be Intensive Yearlong Focus. Examples of a proof point beneath that plank might include a contract between patient and doc requiring a medicine compliance agreement and periodic communications with the doc about wellness. Building proofs under a plank is the job of product marketing.

    So, claim and proof. Too much of advertising and marketing today is 95% claim, 5% proof.

    When I think about commodity products and mature markets where brands are often tired, the brand plans often default to a by-the pound or buy the pound media approach.  Think Geico. If we ear-worm enough media, they will buy. This is not how one builds a brand. It’s how one builds a media plan.  The way to build a brand is by constantly creating reasons to buy. Reasons to believe a brand’s superiority.  And that requires proof.

    Peace.

     

     

    Brand Naming is Critical.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    Naming is important. It’s central to proper branding. If a brand is an empty vessel into which one pours meaning then a name is the most common representation thereof.

    Way back when, geographical location relied on names to convey information. Delaware Water Gap. Great South Bay. Summit, NJ. Iceland.  My advice for brands is to create names that convey information about the product, E.g., Coca-Cola (as in coca bean), or to a lesser degree convey something about the product’s inherent value. I worked for an owner who named a social media startup Zude because it rhymed with Dude.

    Like naming children, naming a brand is not easy. But as difficult as it is, the best brands convey. Not just in the real estate sense, but in the communication sense. Of course, likeability and pronunciation are critical. (McCann-Erickson once presented a campaign to AT&T in a new business pitch with the tagline “Go Live.” But rather than live, as in live-wire, some pronounced it live as in live your life. Conveying, perhaps, “Get a life?”  Hee hee.

    The chicken and egg problem with naming involves creating meaning out of a new thing; something with no product history. That requires lots planning. But planning is what we do, yes? 

    Naming should be existential.

    Peace.  

     

     

    Dodge Challenger Video

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    I’m not a car guy.  My sister knows more about engines than I do, not that there’s anything sexist in that statement (maybe there is.)  I asked my son recently “What’s a Hemi?”  That’s the context.  But I do know advertising and marketing and have an ear for what consumers will like. And the president and CEO of Dodge, Ralph Gilles, talking about his brand and the tres cool Dodge Challenger (in this video) is a winning piece of marketing.  Shot and (perhaps?) concepted by Cobrandit’s Owen Mack, this piece made me want to go trade in my Prius for a Dodge anything. Great advertising makes you feel something, then do something.  In my case the “do” was post to the blog.

    Mr Gilles is the absolute perfect salesman for this car and this brand. Just listen to him.  Not a suit, he.  Just a lover of cars and engines and Dodge and, I can tell, people who love cars.  So they will trust him. He’s black, presumably from the motor city, rocking the bald head thing, styling the clothes.  He is very videogenic. And the cars he’s showing are pulsing with power.  As is he — in a very friendly way.

    I worked at McCann for a number of years when they would trot out CEOs to walk through the corporate headquarters and tell America that “the road to the future was paved with GM” or some such.  It was suits selling suity cars. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

    Mr. Gilles can bring back Dodge as long as the cars are good and he keeps talking to the people like this.  Get him on TV and radio.  Show these car designs, spin some Detroit magic, mint some money.  His next Job? The new US Fiats. Peace. 

     

    What Brand Planners Have in Common.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    All brand strategists have their own way of getting to the brand idea and organizing principle.  Followers of What’s The Idea? know I hunt for “proof.”  Existential evidence of superiority. But the means by which each brand planner gets to the brand strategy, varies. Not everyone uses proof. But everyone uses some form of discovery. And discovery really means talking, interviewing, learning, story collection and, yes, data.

    If every brand planner is different (snowflakes?) one thing we all share is the need for new, clean inputs. Not preconceived outputs. The latter is what anthropologists refer to as poor ethnography added to what planners might call poor “businography.”  What sets brand strategists apart from one another is what they do with the inputs. How they are organized. How they are prioritized.  How they are presented. Sold. And rationalized.

    When a brand strategy resonates with the C-suite, when a brand strategy is accepted like family, the planner’s framework is easily forgotten. The story is forgotten. All the other brand-o-babble is forgotten. What is left standing — the strategy — is indelible. Inviolate.

    Peace.

     

     

    Ingles Market Tagline.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    Ingles, a successful regional grocery store chain headquartered in Black Mountain, NC, uses the tagline “LOW Prices…LOVE the savings.”  Let’s take a look at the tagline for branding value.

    First, it breaks a cardinal rule. Let’s call it the “Tastes Great! Less filling!” rule. Good brand strategy is about a single claim.  Now all rules are made to be broken but I choose to keep this one sacrosanct.  (That said, if I can get a double meaning out of a word choice, no harm no foul.)

    Second, “LOW prices,” all caps or not, is not a particularly aspirational claim. Low prices, suggests low quality.  That’s not Ingle’s fault it’s the marketing world’s fault. Does your mouth water over a dollar slice of pizza? Does the Dollar Store bring to mind, clean floors, welcoming clerks, and fully stocked shelves?

    Third, “LOVE the savings” is redundant. Saying it twice doesn’t make it so. It only reinforces point number two, reminding you every time you come upon an over ripe piece of produce.

    Fourth, “LOVE the savings” tells the consumer how to feel. Not a cardinal rule but most people already have mom. It’s presumptuous. Don’t tell consumers how to feel. make them feel.  Use a unique claim and carefully curated proof planks.

    Ingles is a family business, it’s nearby, the stores are nearly immaculate, and they are brightly lit!  There’s a lot to work with for a well-honed brand claim. Defaulting to Aldi’s positioning (who really has proof(s) of price advantage) is lackluster, off-piste brand craft.

    Peace.

     

     

    For-Profit Altruism.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    I bet you never heard those three words strung together. Well, they’re actually the result of some internal brand work I’ve been doing for What’s The Idea?.  A cobbler’s children exercise.  “For-Proft Altruism” is under consideration for my brand claim. (A brand strategy consists of a brand claim and three proof planks.)

    One of the core good-ats at What’s The Idea? is sharing — sharing best practices in brand strategy and branding. Sharing is a brain worm for me.  Generally speaking, giving away free advice and IP is not a smart business idea, yet it’s worked brilliantly Open Source software advocates. In my view if everyone did branding properly marketing would be much more effective…and more people could participate.

    Sharing is altruistic. So, what’s up with this seemingly contrarian “for-profit” notion? Ummm…have you ever presented to a CEO or C-level exec? While brand strategists are talking about “Mission.” “Vision,” “Voice” and “Personality,” the C-level exec is wondering how many basis points interest rates will change next quarter or if the Chinese manufacturing holiday will impact the new order from Walmart.  And while the brand strategist is trying to sell a touchy-feely, culturally savvy position like “work/life balance,” that same C-level exec is pondering more endemic product qualities, tied to phenomenological superiority.

    I spend way too much of my time educating and sharing and not enough providing the for-profit values offered by What’s The Idea?  So, I should heed my own advice and dial up the for-profit. Next step, work up the three proof planks — the three areas of evidence supporting For-Profit Altruism.

    Stay tuned.

    Peace.

     

    Deeds. Comms. And Gun Control.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    A couple of decades ago I wrote my first significant brand strategy.  The client was North Shore-LIJ Health System now known as Northwell Health. The brand claim developed was “A Systematized Approach to Improving Healthcare” supported by the proof planks “leading edge treatments and technology,” “information and resource sharing” and “community integration.”  

    Though it has been many, many years since its creation and I do not have any ties to Northwell today, I like to follow brand strategies to see how they hold up.

    Recently, Northwell and ad agency Strawberry Frog have taken up a messaging campaign around gun violence. A bit of a head-scratcher when I first read about it, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. And here’s how it works under the “systematized” brand strategy.

    If healthcare is heading anywhere today it’s moving in the direction of “preventative” medicine rather than “curative.” The effort to educate the public about gun violence and integrate that message into the community (third proof plank) is not only daring for a healthcare organization it’s life-saving. The big question now is whether or not Northwell and Strawberry Frog will operationalize this beyond communications. Deeds is how we affect change. Deeds and comms.

    So proud of Michael Dowling and the leadership team of Northwell Health. This is a bridge within reach. Can’t wait to see where it goes and how it measures.

    Peace.

     

     

    Brand Identity…or Ornamentation?

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    Wikipedia defines a brand as an identity.  Many years ago, while excavating a late woodland Indian shell midden on Moshier Island for the University of Southern Maine, I came across a piece of deer rib bone I assumed was some type of weaving shuttle. (It wasn’t my day job.)  It had some notches on the bone which gave it a unique appearance and I wondered if they were ornamental or a personal identifier. 

    Outside branding nerds, many in marketing today don’t quite know the difference between identifier brands and ornamental brands.   What’s the Idea? builds and rebuilds identifier brands.  Only then do we allow them to be ornamented.  And that dress up, as beautiful as it may be, must add to the identification story.  Go into a room, turn off the lights and listen to the voices of your friends and family. You can identify them.  But if you feel their clothes, not so much.

    The big girls and boys know this.  Whenever an Interbrand, Landor or Wolff Olin starts a new  logo project they create a brief; one that sets the identity direction.  Recently for a commercial maintenance company I developed a strategy suggesting they were the  “Navy seals” of maintenance.  Preemptive, fast and fastidious.  When the art director went off to do logo designs, he had a directive. When the client reviewed designs, he knew “how to buy” and “what to approve.”  Of course some ornamentation got in the way and he wanted to be a “green” company and, and, and.  But the CEO ran his group with navy seal precision – it was the company. It was his identifier.   The mark and brand organizing principles where hard to debate.  This is how we do-oo it!.  Peace.

    The Web’s Specialty.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    There’s a cool story in today’s New York Times about single-food restaurants. It stands to reason that enterprises of this type can only thrive if the food is excellent and the stores located in highly populated areas.  In NYC you can take out and, in some cases, eat in at a Mac and Cheese store or a meatball store. There are places that sell only mussels, only rice pudding, and only fried chicken. It’s a growing phenomenon. Specialization suggests focus; a focus on quality, ingredients, product and knowledge.

    In mid-town Manhattan, where there are probably a half million lunches served within walking distance of any high-rise, there are lots of options. So why not go to the best option; the place that specializes? The place that eats, breathe and sleeps its specialty. Forget me not that this type of store can scale well and have a supply chain with amazingly fat margin opportunities. That’s gravy at the gravy store.

    This is a key chapter in the story of the Web — and where the web is going.

    I’ve written before about “worldwide pricing” and the ability to search the world for the best prices.  Well, how about searching the world for the best quality? The ability to do so is a web app. And specialization and focus are the tools of that trade.

    We are bound by product and service mediocrity because of geographic and time limitations. And because of supply and demand.  Well, say buh-bye to these barriers.  Ima stop there and let you entrepreneurs ponder that for a while. Ponder, Ponder.  Peace!

    123...37Page 1 of 37
    © Newsmag WordPress Theme by TagDiv