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    Super Bowl

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    When is funny not funny?

    Was there one Super Bowl commercial  (Am I allowed to use the word Super Bowl without paying a licensing fee?) that wasn’t designed to make people laugh? It seemed that every marketer cared only about creating a humorous imprint on consumers rather than selling a little product. Don’t get me wrong, I love humor. But in the comedy club that has become the Super Bowl I’m afraid consumers are beginning to judge the work, rather than respond to it. The messages are getting lost in the humor. 

    The ad I remember most over the last couple of Super Bowls was the one in which soldiers returning home from Iraq were met with spontaneous applause in the airport. That was powerful. And though I’m not 100% sure it was Budweiser, I’m going to give them credit. While I’m giving Bud (not Bud Light) credit, I’m going to like them a little more as a company, albeit not in any thirst-quenching manner. 

    On what is supposed to be advertising’s finest day, I think we’re losing our way.

    Brand Strategy From the Jump

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Today, more than ever, companies need tight brand strategies. Especially big companies. Most new employees at companies these days are asked to sit through a half day of orientation. They learn about healthcare coverage, HR policy, the phone system, company intranet, etc. These meetings are enough to make you want to quit. Really smart companies have the CEO stop in and share a little vision, but that rarely, rarely happens.

     

    What every company needs to do during orientation is share the brand strategy. Explain the history of the company, discuss founders and founder philosophy, highlight key milestones which create context for product and service decisions. New employees need to understand the culture of the company. They need to be acculturated.

     

    Most importantly, new employees need to understand the brand strategy and have it dimensionalized for them through examples and stories. Only then are they are equipped to go to their desks and make decisions on behalf of the company.  (Leave the telephone systems and HR procedures for day 2.) Peace!

    Brand Strategy From the Jump

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    Today, more than ever, companies need tight brand strategies. Especially big companies. Most new employees at companies these days are asked to sit through a half day of orientation. They learn about healthcare coverage, HR policy, the phone system, company intranet, etc. These meetings are enough to make you want to quit. Really smart companies have the CEO stop in and share a little vision, but that rarely, rarely happens.

    What every company needs to do during orientation is share the brand strategy. Explain the history of the company, discuss founders and founder philosophy, highlight key milestones which create context for product and service decisions. New employees need to understand the culture of the company. They need to be acculturated.

    Most importantly, new employees need to understand the brand strategy and have it dimensionalized for them through examples and stories. Only then are they are equipped to go to their desks and make decisions on behalf of the company. (Leave the telephone systems and HR procedures for day 2.) Peace!

    The Brand Planning “Boil Down.”.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    boil-downThe real art of brand planning is in knowing what not to say. When brand planning, I use something called the 24 Questions to help find the money. Once the money is found, job two is how to position. For this a number of hunting and gathering techniques are used; tools that are now vastly improved thanks to the Web. Information is amassed about the product, the competition, corporate leadership, the market, and current buying culture. Then future buying culture is projected, based upon trends. Only then, does the “boil down” process begin. 

     The boil down is the point at which things are prioritized and edited. Evaporation occurs over time until only a powerful branding idea is left.  By itself, the idea may come off as mundane. But when presented to executive management along with the boil down logic, that’s when the magic occurs.  Marketing executives love logic and strive for simplicity, but are often too close to make it happen. A powerful brand strategy can set marketers free, but it is the logic of the boil down that sells it. Peace!

    Car Companies Lack Ideas

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Chrysler-Logo-old“Chrysler looks beyond BBDO for advertising” is the headline on Ad Age Digital this morning. BBDO has always done great work for Jeep, but Jeep was an iconic brand with a branding idea. The Chrysler brand doesn’t really have an idea. Ford doesn’t have a powerful branding idea. And certainly GM doesn’t. But GM doesn’t really need one because short of GMC trucks, you won’t find a car with a GM name on it. Volkswagen had an idea but let it slip away to the point where when the market was ready for the idea (small, efficient, eco-conscious), they weren’t there. Had they been, they might now be on their way to a defensible position as the world’s largest car company. Even Hummer has an idea.  

     

    When you possess a branding idea — also called a brand strategy — product design and innovation become easy. When you don’t, you change vendors, partners, ad agencies, and management. And that’s not much of an idea. Peace!

    Rubel and Scoble

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    rubel-scobleI’m a big Steve Rubel fan. A social media savant and thought-leader, Steve is on the road for a couple of weeks looking for new media insights. He visited with Robert Scoble yesterday and I’m sure for him is was a moment of truth. Steve has been following and emulating Robert for years because Robert is the heart and soul of social media. Robert’s passionate, thoughtful, encouraging and very juiced. (Not in a Balco way.) Robert is the Vasco De Gama of what’s new.

     While Mr. Rubel is on a cross country trek Mr. Scoble is on a minute-by-minute trek. He and camera man Rocky are probably responsible for 1 point of the U.S. GDP, I kid you not.

     If you don’t know who Robert Scoble is, please check him out. Don’t try to understand what he does or what he talks about (he is a mega geekus), just understand why he does it and how. Robert is an inspiration. Peace! 

    Car Companies Lack Ideas

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    “Chrysler looks beyond BBDO for advertising” is the headline on Ad Age Digital this morning. BBDO has always done great work for Jeep, but Jeep was an iconic brand with a branding idea. The Chrysler brand doesn’t really have an idea. Ford doesn’t have a powerful branding idea. And certainly GM doesn’t. But GM doesn’t really need one because short of GMC trucks, you won’t find a car with a GM name on it. Volkswagen had an idea but let it slip away to the point where when the market was ready for the idea (small, efficient, eco-conscious), they weren’t there. Had they been, they might now be on their way to a defensible position as the world’s largest car company. Even Hummer has an idea.  

     

    When you possess a branding idea — also called a brand strategy — product design and innovation become easy. When you don’t, you change vendors, partners, ad agencies, and management. And that’s not much of an idea. Peace!

    Consulting Faceoff.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    Here’s a faceoff. Holding one hockey stick is the Altimeter Group and holding the other the Dachis Group. Who wins?

     

    Here are their Is-Does statements:

     

    Dachis Group (Dachis Corporation, Inc.) was created to unlock the value of social technologies for large corporate enterprises through its Social Business Design global advisory practice, and technology implementation program.

     

    Altimeter: A consulting firm focused on helping businesses integrate emerging technologies into their strategies.

     

    Similar at first pass, but also different if you look deeper.

     

    Altimeter is a consulting company and will make its money in fees. Dachis, also a consulting company, appears to want to sell technology which had mondo revenue upside if the software/service is replicable.

     

    My guess is Alitmeter will win the faceoff. Their value prop and marketing seem pretty tight. Dachis Corp. on the other hand will skate around for a while, keep practicing, passing and tightening their game plan. When ready, they should score quickly and often.

    A Strong Is-Does

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Back in the day, I was on a McCann-Erickson task force for business client AT&T and we created a tome entitled “Emerging markets? Does advertising drive adoption?” We looked at numerous categories of new products, with a particular view toward technology, and compared units sales to annual advertising expenditures. A statistics nerd then used some formula with a funny symbol the word “slope” in it to prove advertising did, indeed, drive product purchase.

     

    That was then….when people were educated about products and services through TV ads, print ads, radio ads and brochures.

     

    Today, many new products are first introduced to consumers online. The FUE (first user experience) of a product happens above the fold on a home page. A well defined, well thought out brand does a good job with this. Most don’t. Steve Rubel posted today about how poorly, even the top tier social media sites explain their services. Check it out here.

     

    The Is-Does

    A good brand plan articulates what a brand Is and what it Does. And it accomplishes this in a simple, unambiguous, differentiated statement. I call this the Is-Does. A string Is/Does is the most important step toward brand success. Peace! 

    Rubel and Scoble.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

     

    I’m a big Steve Rubel fan. A social media savant and thought-leader, Steve is on the road for a couple of weeks looking for new media insights. He visited with Robert Scoble yesterday and I’m sure for him is was a moment of truth. Steve has been following and emulating Robert for years because Robert is the heart and soul of social media. Robert’s passionate, thoughtful, encouraging and very juiced. (Not in a Balco way.) Robert is the Vasco De Gama of what’s new.

     

    While Mr. Rubel is on a cross country trek Mr. Scoble is on a minute-by-minute trek. He and camera man Rocky are probably responsible for 1 point of the U.S. GDP, I kid you not.

     

    If you don’t know who Robert Scoble is, please check him out. Don’t try to understand what he does or what he talks about (he is a mega geekus), just understand why he does it and how. Robert is an inspiration. Peace! 

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