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    Marketing

    Ya-Who?

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Digital magazines? Search? Buying traffic? Mobile advertising? Alibaba? These are the things discussed yesterday on Yahoo!’s earnings call. A call that announced revenue up 14% but break even earnings.

    A couple of years ago Marissa Mayer developed a strategy I thought was on the right track: Make Yahoo! a daily habit. Well it seems the habit is more like a nun’s head cover than a web business. Mobile apps are a good path but I’m not feeling any results. People with mobile phones have hourly not daily habits — and frankly those habits are wearing thin. How many Facebook and Instagram posts can a body look at during the day. Yahoo needs to find enthralling apps. Mobile apps than haven’t been done before. Content served in ways never seen before.

    Yahoo is chasing TV (Fantasy Football Live) and magazines (Yahoo Food or something) which is just repackaging old stuff with some new sheen. Ms. Mayer needs to innovate. Not cross over. Not repackage. She must start with behaviors that are habit forming. She was on the right track but hasn’t landed on a breathtaking innovation. Keep after it Ms. Mayer. You are probably closer than you know. Peace.

     

     

    Carbon Carbon Everywhere.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    What’s the idea carbon footprints?

    The Coke vs. Pepsi argument has always been about taste and marketing. Some say the taste difference is hard to tell. The difference maker has long been the marketing — the words, songs and colors. Today, Pepsi has found another means to change the game: It is looking into the carbon footprint of its products. First out of the box: Tropicana orange juice.

    Now this may seem irrelevant today and it may even seem a little off-message, but believe me carbon emissions are important and will grow in importance. So much so that Coke will need to match Pepsi very soon in its efforts.

    Carbon emission, it will turn out, are not only bad for the planet but for individuals health. As China and India start selling $2500 cars without catalytic converters, emission will grow at unprecedented levels. And health issues will become quite noticeable. Like asthma in the Bronx. In years the "haves" (have low emissions) will be fighting with the "have nots" (high emissions).  Carbon neutral companies will very much be in favor. Their products will actually seem to taste better and perform better. Peace!

    Are you a poster or paster?

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0
    There are two primary types of people involved in social computing today: posters and pasters. 
     
    Posters generate original content for the Web. Many are bloggers. They write about themselves, their experiences, opinions and values. Posters may create and edit videos. Posters are also artists. They share their photography, paintings, music and other musings. (One of my favorite posters is Brooklyn’s Marie Lorenz of the Tide and Current Taxi http://www.marielorenz.com/tideandcurrenttaxi.php.)  Posters are responsible for the surge in consumer generated content found all over the Web and are the lifeblood of social computing.
     
    Pasters, on the other hand, are the people who search the Web for interesting stuff so they can share it. The first people who sent jokes and video around the Web were pasters. Today’s pasters are Web filters and repurposers — finding, cutting, pasting and mashing up content. They have websites, social networking spaces and are voracious communicators.  Pasters may also be bloggers; they just aggregate and post content others have written. Think of them as reporters. Pasters may not be the lifeblood of social networking, but they are certainly the body. Pasters are the mass in the massively growing social computing phenomenon.
     

    Brand Planner’s Prayer

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Things we remember.

    We remember beauty.

    We remember new.

    We remember rich.

    We remember melody.

    We remember funny.

    We remember nature.

    We remember poetry.

    We remember pain.

    We remember educators.

    We remember warmth.

    We remember charity.

    We remember happy.

    We remember love.

    We remember triumph.

    These are the things we remember.

    (I post this brand planners prayer once a year in January as a reminder.)

    A Challenge to Sharp Solar

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

     
    The city council of Berkley, Ca just passed a program that will allow home and business owners to purchase solar panels to reduce energy consumption from the grid, while it reduces emissions and global warming therms.   The panels will be paid for through monthly property taxes, to the tune of about $180 per month – a number in the neighborhood of the resultant energy savings paid to the local electric company. Many other America cities are watching. Which brings me to solar power and Sharp Electronics. 
     
    Sharp, long been known for its AQUOS TVs, copiers and consumer and business appliances, is not really well known for being the world’s leading solar company, but it is, “providing more solar energy around the globe than anyone else.” Inventors of the LCD and many other breakthroughs, Sharp has an amazing R&D department.   Here’s a business winning challenge to Sharp:
     
    Design the world’s first solar power roofing tile. The tiles needn’t be small like current roofing shingles or large like tin roofs, they just need to capture the rays and heat of the sun, withstand 20 years of weather, and be fairly economical to own and install. 
     
    Sharp Solar, has an opportunity to be the world’s first truly green company…and it already has a mighty head start. Good luck. Peace!
     
     
     
     


    Chase What Brand Strategy.?.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Question: What is a brand strategy? 

    Answer: A brand strategy comprises a strategic idea or claim and three support planks that vivify the claim.  Three planks, because two don’t always allow for a complete, differentiated story. Getting the idea right is key. Selling it to consumers day after day is the heavy lifting…called brand management.

    Chase What Matters.

    JPMorgan Chase has a very identifiable idea: “Chase what matters.”  It’s a consumer directive from a very big company that knows how to make, save and invest money. Something they already get credit for.  The idea has ballast, but so far it is only an idea. Banks have been making promises without backing them up for decades. I’m not getting a read on the Chase support planks yet – the planks that allow me to believe Chase “knows what matters” to me and that they are the bank best equipped to deliver.   

    One of Chase’s neater tactical ideas lately is the “Chase Loan For Hire” program, through which it decreases small business loans by a quarter point for every new employee hired, up to three. Though I have no idea what Chase’s planks are, forensically, I might assume this tactic supports a plank titled “Meaningful borrowing matters.”  I’m not talking buy a hot tub meaningful, I’m talking something that relates to what popular culture views as meaningful. Today that’s jobs.  Nice touch.

    Banking is a tough category. In my bones I feel Chase has an idea, but the jury is still out on the organization of the proof.  I’ll continue to map its planks as they become evident and share them here at What’s The Idea? Peace!

    Brand Strategy is Not Fluid.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    So my friend Mr. X, who is a great ad and idea guy, is telling me about a goob (short for goober) he worked for a few months ago. She had a presumably well-paying job at an ad agency  but he could tell she was an empty suit.  Said boss once mentioned to Mr. X, with whom I’ve had a strategic donnybrook or two, that strategy is not that important.  “Strategy is fluid, Mr. X” she said imperiously. Now Mr. X might stray from the brief every once in a while in an effort to perk up an idea – but he giggles over the fluid notion.

    Strategy is not fluid.  But WTF, I don’t know everything – so I posted the question on the account planners group on LinkedIn.  The response seems to favor the fluidity side of the argument, though primarily in nuance and interpretation. It seems fluid is a pop marketing word these days.

    Marilyn Laurie of AT&T marketing fame once talked about her brand as a bank.  You are either putting deposits in the brand bank or you’re making withdrawals. Well, here’s a fluidity question:  If you don’t have a brand strategy, clearly defined, how will you know what’s a deposit?  Riddle me that. Idea and planks.  Aka claim and proof. The organizing principle of brand strategy. Peace!   

    Measure This

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0
    I finally figured out what business Google will be in 10 years from now: the media measurement business. Google will be the new “data” company known for measuring media habits, advertising effectiveness and purchase predisposition. The company born of search will become the world’s leading marketing analytics company.
     
    Google’s work with the Nielson Company measuring cable TV viewership takes TV advertising accountability to a new level. We already know what Google has done with its AdWords program, which is probably only a few months away from being a lot more timely, powerful and predictive. And should they decide to focus on it, digital radio won’t be far behind. Google’s analytics and algorithms will help advertisers optimize ads, and trust me, that is a sweetspot. The only hiccup I see is if someone high up in the company, responsible for this part of the business, decides to venture off before Google completely believes in the effort. 
     
    I’m no economist and forget what the exact data point is, but advertising and marketing is somewhere over 20% of the U.S. GDP. To be the company known for optimizing that chunk of change is a reachable goal for Google…and a truly focused mission, which it smilingly lacks right now.
     

    i lazy

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0
     
    I think it’s time for AT&T’s iPhone print ads to lose the big and tall picture of the unit with its 17-function button display screen. We get it. It sends pictures, searches the Internet, has a camera, email, text, and makes phone calls. Whenever I look at an iPhone in person, I’m certainly not awed by the start page menu. My jaw drops, though, when I a see something “real” and “surprising” on it.  Often that’s a picture. Now I’m not going all Canon on you, but right now all I see in these ads is a sea of orange (hold-over color from the Cingular days), a cute headline and some retail store location.
     
    This is lazy, retail advertising at its worst. The type of effort where the agency counts how many pages from the front of the paper they are and compares it to Verizon. These are expensive ads. This is a cool product. Bring it to life.
     
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