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    Claim and Proof…The brand plan.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    As the role of marketing director gets more complicated, owing to all the new tools and arithmetic available to sellers and selling agents, the brand plan grows in importance.  I met with smart strategist Noah Brier a while ago and he asked me “How do you define a brand plan?”  Everyone has a different definition, he added.  Truism that.

    My brand plan is quite simple: One claim, three proof planks. The claim embodies or pays off the Is-Does (what a brand is and what a brand does) and the proof planks (or supports) organize the story – into 3 telling and impactful reasons to believe.  A brand plan is an organizing principle for selling more.

    I wrote a consultant this morning telling her how most companies can save mad money by investing in a tight brand plan. Rather than pay a marketing person $150,000 a year, a company can pay $90,000 per year if the brand plan is definitive.  And if the KPIs (key performance indicators) are correct.  And beyond the annualized salary savings, don’t forget the money spent on wasted tactics each year by marketing organizations — money that could be saved with a brand plan. John Wanamaker’s famous suggestion that only ‘half his advertising was working, he just didn’t know which half,’ can also be applied to marketing tactics today.  We are living tactics-palooza. More cowbell, I mean, more social media!

    My business is called What’s the Idea? for a reason. Most businesses don’t have an idea (a brand strategy) they can articulate without going all mark-babble and tripping over their tongues. One idea, three selling planks.  Pieces!

    Observe, Intuit, Package.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    The work of ad agency David and Goliath speaks to me.  I may not always be in the market for what they’re selling and may not always be the target, but I do know people and these guys and girls can package a message.  David Measer is a head planner at DnG and not long ago I offered him a “free day of planning,” something reserved for friends and family. He said “we are so immersive in our planning work, we don’t believe one day can really generate anything of value.”  And he’s right.  As it relates to the end idea. (But a day can generate some crazy good crumbs.)

    I was reading today about a volunteer park clean up in Brooklyn which brought to mind my archaeology days and how it helped me become a better planner. Archaeologists uncover stuff from the dirt. They plot it, ponder it, and may actually have to wait until winter in the lab to understand it – if they ever do. It’s a slow and thoughtful process, though it does offer some exciting immediate rewards.  Brand planners operate in the same exploratory sphere but with truncated timeframes. We observe and intuit purchase behavior — then package it for creative teams. We don’t have the benefit of waiting for winter or have a long mental gestation period.

    Brand planners need to be able to observe brilliantly. To see and hear only the important. Then they need to intuit the meaning, which requires context and experience. Lastly, it all has to be packaged for an art, copy and design team. In a way that inspires them to “focused” stimulating greatness. Observe. Intuit. Package. David and Goliath subscribes. Watch them grow. Peace.

    Payback is a serious hurtin’.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Chrysler paid back over $7B in loans to the U.S. government yesterday.  Did they just have than money laying around?  That s lot of Benjamins.  Did they just borrow if from a sheik?  No they earned it. Blocking and tackling my friends.  Rekindling old loyalties me droogies.  Fixing the product, getting the right new people in place and fixing the message. When Daimler moved into the Chrysler brand, they tried to do all these things but couldn’t.  Fiat and the U.S. marketing stewards did.  And now they have da monies.

    Good blocking and tackling.  Just like Ford did.  I knew the Fiat move would be a good one…meep meep.  The company is known for stylish small cars, just what the economy ordered. But Chrysler is also making a move with Dodge, which is a bit more of a surprise. Hemis and un-mommy mini vans and a return of the muscle car for real motor heads (Can you say Challenger?).  This is Dodge’s sweet spot.

    Marketers are not talking about Chrysler in terms of cools social programs a la Ford, they are watching the rebirth of a company through focus on the 4Ps. Roots baby.  Eminem baby.  Where’s Kid Rock? GM is blocking, but I’m not so sure they’re tackling.  The foreign value brands are pretty much growing a bit over the pace of the market. Ford may want to look over its shoulder — is it losing its hunger? Is it placating the dealers once again?  Come on Chrysler. It’s pay back time! Peddle down. Peace.

    Earning it Old Skool.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    As much as things change, they also stay the same. Two cases in point:  I worked with a SEO executive who makes a nice living promising companies he can get them into the top 10 in organic search no matter what the company size or standing.  All it takes, says he, is time, smarts and money.  When I asked how he builds his business, his said through referrals.  “I do good job for one customer and s/he refers me to a friend.”  The response I expected was “through search.”

    Case two.  Allstate Insurance (pronounced  IN-surance by my southern in-laws) is undertaking a brilliant cause campaign called Save11. The program is meant to reduce the number of daily teen automobile accident deaths – currently numbering 11.  The program has started on Facebook, though you won’t find Allstate’s name anywhere on the profile page. I learned about the program on the radio.  The program kick off with Blackout week, May 20-27, and Save11 is asking everyone to black out their profile picture to bring awareness to the cause. They are in the awareness building part of the program and to build traction need mass media to spread the word. Old skool.

    (Aside:  Is anyone beside themselves that Haley was voted off last night?)

    TV viewership s building again, more web IPOs are a comin’, and maybe even the Mets will make a run.  I make a living on what’s new and what’s next, but there are some age old axioms that continue to prove themselves and marketing blocking and tackling are still things in which we must invest. Peace Bibi.

    Creeping the product

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    The two most exciting yet frustrating years of my work life were at a web start-up. I was director of marketing at a social media site called Zude.com. The CTO was 7/8ths genius.  A wonderful coder, an infectious and eloquent geekus, he built the world’s first drag and drop web publishing tool.  His object wrappers allowed me to tell consumers “If you can drag and drop, you can build a website.” In a world where we knew people would get tired of templated, database-driven web and social sites like Facebook and MySpace, this free-hand design tool was going to be the haps.

    I remember standing on the back steps of my home telling the CTO that the decisions we made regarding usability and positioning were billion dollar decisions. Well, we burned through $10M and I’m still on those steps. I do love those steps, by the way.

    What came out of this 2 year education was the realization that I’m an engineer whisperer. The CTO heard me, understood me, but he opted to go another route. He continued to build and add features and creep the product. He loved the rush of presenting to Robert Scoble and  Erick Schnofeld and hearing “coooool.”  Though I failed him, our CEO and investors, I learned that not all engineers can be whispered.  And probably shouldn’t be. VCs know what I’m talking about. Peace!

    Brand Planning Process and Targets.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    I was talking with some entrepreneurs yesterday who have a great product.  It shows well when demoed, people who buy it love it and the product has great sales opportunity through both push (channel) and pull (consumer demand) marketing.

    We’re discussing targeting and I am using the bull’s eye metaphor with the whole radiating concentric circle schpeel. The inner ring is the most important target, the second target more populous and very influential, the third circle important, but more expensive to reach, etc. Nod, nod. I’m riffing on each target and getting pumped knowing there are lots of ways to covey and convince, landing big arrows in each target ring. The guys are feeling me.

    I know I can fix the product Is-Does because the name is so descriptive. It’s a touch misleading but still kills the competition. The product fills a need in every home though only purchased every few years.  No brand has top-of-mind awareness. And with the economy what it is, the do-it-yourselfer (DIY) crowd is looking for the solution in what Google Insights for Search calls breakout fashion. “We know, we know.”

    With a good “Is-Does” and descriptive name all that is needed is a strong brand idea that speaks to each ring of the target. To get to that idea I need to spend enough time with each ring understanding their care-abouts, concerns, how they derive pride and a few other things. All that goes into the “What’s the Idea” stock pot ready for the boil down.  This is brand planning product development.  Will it happen with my entrepreneurs? Will they invest in an idea? Stay tuned.

    Growing Markets.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    The best thing that can be said about a marketer or a marketing agent is that s/he has grown a market.  The marketing and advertising mantra “sell more, to more, more often, at higher margins” is a terrific end-game, but one can do that and simply be redistributing market share. Growing markets is what’s up. So here’s a way to grow the men’s apparel market.  (I was at Fashion Institute of Technology yesterday, and tons of kids were walking around classrooms with bolts of fabric a la Project Runway – ergo the fashion interest.)  Replace the tee-shirt.

    I was thinking of all the shopping I do each year and no one’s really making a living off me.  Maybe the grocery and the beer stores.  I buy a two pair of jeans once a year(ish); maybe some mulch for the wifus.  As for dress shirts, I don’t buy them unless I spill coffee on myself before a meeting. And somehow they just appear in the closet or in Christmas boxes.  Tee-shirts, on the other hand, are flowing out of my bottom drawer.  And the drawers of most men.

    The Gap or Amazon or a smart designer with online chops should design a shirt for men that is flattering, comfortable, fashionable and functional.  And I’m not talking about that $70 tee-shirt in expensive fabric.  A new look shirt. Men love their tee-shirts but we’ll give them up if there’s something better, even if it costs more.  Then how will people know I love the Ramones??? Hmm.

    Come on marketers, think about growing your markets. Peace.

    Social Media is Growing Up.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Ladies and gentlemen, we are growing up. In social media, that is.  I sat through a panel yesterday at the Social Upfront in NYC, listening to some really smart skinny jeans from the Barbarian Group, Tribal DDB, Kirshenbaum, Bond, Senecal and Partners, Mekanism, and Co: and did not once hear the words “authenticity” or “transparency.”  Thank you Jeee-sus!

    The event was excellent, save for the elevator (singular). And when I texted my son Nits (nickname) that Q-Tip from a Tribe called Quest was spinning at the after party he was all “that’s cool.” But not as much as I was when James “the Godfather” Brown tunes started bouncing off the West side rooftops.

    Sponsored by Efficient Frontier and Kontera, the event really did show how far we’ve come.  People were comparing where they were when Facebook was 20 million users, the geezers in the audience didn’t stick out, and there were two TV news anchors on stage. Some people actually put away their iPads and started writing in paper notebooks because they preferred the user interface. Grown up.

    Good Stuff.

    • Someone made the point that a viral effort without an activation budget (read promo/media budget) is a bad idea.
    • Jonah Peretti, CEO of Buzzfeed suggested viral efforts are best concocted and propagated when supporting “an idea.”  Find your idea, stay true to it and you’ll have a much better chance of social pass along.
    • Colin Nagy of the Barbarian Group made a funny: “Client come to us asking for something that has never been done before. Then they ask for case studies and metrics.” A sense of humor suggests maturation, no?

    One step back though, some speakers still found it necessary to refer to the Subservient Chicken. What was that, the 80s? Peace.

    Cheesing the Social Web.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Dan Zarrella, who has a neat person brand in social media, posted an interview with rap blogger Eskay providing a smart take on social media. Check it out here. In a nutshell it suggests social media is a good music marketing tool but not nearly as important as the music.  The artist who sits around focusing on his/her Twitter or Facebook metrics is not focused on the art. Not really feeling the audience. Certainly not the way they can by performing.

    Most musicians do care more about their art than the buzz, that’s why they are more effective in social.  They post things that fans care about.  The word “fans” is the operative word.  Bands, performers, artists have fans. Cooking oils don’t.

    Community building and social media is about fulfilling a need. Filtering and organizing a need. It’s not about selling. It’s okay to make your product or service available or one click away in an online community, but stop hawking.  Facebook knows that too much selling on the site will be its downfall. And it hasn’t yet figured out how to deal with that truism as it adds tens of thousands of users each day. Google learned this early, and smartly sequestered the sell from its Adwords program.

    Selling is crawling into social media at a higher and higher pace. And it’s coming to a mobile device near you very soon.

    So what do smart marketers do? Focus on their art. On their product. Use social media for sure…it’s an amazing tool. Enagage. Learn. Most importantly enable.  But stop cheesing the social web. Peace!

    Sports Marketing.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Back in the day, I met my pops at a NYC restaurant his ad agency (Poppe Tyson) worked for…Mike Manuche’s.  Meetcha at Manuche’s was the ad line. My dad introduced me to Red the Bookie.  Red gave me some advice which has saved me lots of money over the years: “Kid, don’t ever bet on anyone but yourself.”

    I had a meeting this week with a high-up marketing executive at a professional NY sports team. The exec asked me if I had any experience consulting in the sports and entertainment business.  I did my normal hominah hominah, told him about work for the St. John’s Red Storm, then jumped into a discussion of the NY Knicks silly marketing line “You. We. Us. Now.”

    But what strikes me about the marketing guy’s inquiry, and what is perhaps part of the problem for this and other franchises, is the notion that they are partly in the entertainment business. Franchises that market like entertainers become so. It’s a trap one falls into when there is a history of losing. Similarly, marketers who talk about ROI all the time are the marketers who aren’t getting any.

    Sport is sport. Ask an excitable parent hollering at a grade school volleyball game. Who else would pay good money to see a circus where the tricks and stunts didn’t work or a Broadway play where the key characters die?  My marketing executive knew his team’s wins and losses define the product, yet he still tried to put fannies in seats using entertainment tactics.

    Sports have changed over the years. Player loyalty is a thing of the past. But sports brands are built — even as living breathing things.  They are competitive in nature and their outcomes are driven by coaching, teamwork and players. If you root for the players as you root for your friends and family and you have a brand. Sports are different. Peace.

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