Searching for Dlugacz.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Yosef D. Dlugacz, PhD, Senior Vice President and Chief of Clinical Quality, Education and Research at the North Shore-LIJ Health System was the person I met when working on the North Shore brand brief who had the greatest influence on the strategy.

My first discussion with Yosef was on the phone and didn’t go very well. He offered up a lot of quality-speak. It was hard work getting to interesting truths about Yosef’s work. What he did for a living. His day. Outputs. Influence.  But once I got it, once I was able to wend myself around the quality jargon and statistical answers, a very instructive insight emerged.  When writing a brand brief you are telling (yourself and others) a serial story. If it doesn’t hang together it’s not done. There are gravity points in the brief that are important and create pathways for the strategy.  Sometimes the gravity points come from consumers, other times from the product or service. They can really come from anywhere in the information gathering experience. Gravity points help with the “boil down” – the decisions about what to not focus on.     

What separates great from the good planners are the boil down and the gravity points. With these in hand the story almost tells itself — finishing off with a big ending (claim) and moral (support planks). The moral, BTW, is always influenced by selling more, to more, for more, more times. 

Searching for Dlugacz (pronounced Dlu-Gotch) is how to start. Peace.

Helpful or Private?

By
Steve Poppe
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0

On the web the most helpful people win – not always the smartest. Social app makers have created lots of online social media plays that reward people for providing good information. They get badges, status, followers, elevations in cred and klout.  It’s how the web roles – remuneration for helpfulness. I follow David Brooks, with whom I do not necessarily share political views because he makes me smarter. He’s helpful.

Enter Edward Snowden, Verizon and the govies. And privacy (in this post pronounced priv-ah-cee). Everybody wants privacy.  I don’t want to be served ads for a product I’m doing brand research on. It shows someone’s watching.  Yet I look at Google Analytics every day, hoping for spikes in traffic. I try being helpful online to build readers. So I don’t always want privacy.  Am I a walking conundrum?  Nope, just a human.

I also happen to be one of those people who has never seen a grisly body part. I was nervous riding the railroad under the river to NYC post 9/11. I sign off every blog post with “Peace.”

I’m reading Ben Franklin’s bio and wonder what he would say. Hell, what would I say? I say let’s debate. That’s what American’s do. Let’s compromise. That’s what Americans do. Let’s be helpful.  That’s what Americans should do.  Peace.  

 

Interviews and Brands

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Christine Draeger, VP global marketing at Safeguard World Intenational is a pal and she asked to me to post on how a brand plan can help in recruiting.  

Here goes.  If you are involved in recruiting good people to your company (and who isn’t?), then you know what it’s like to interview someone without a clean presentation of their career arc, career goals, strengths and weaknesses and personality. (As my ad guy father Fred Poppe used to say about the latter, “If you don’t have one, don’t apply.”) When you finish conducting such an interview, the candidate has likely answered all your questions yet the presentation was jumbled — and you don’t have a sense of the person. It would be hard for you to talk about the candidate, save for an accomplishment, previous jobs, age, etc.

This is why a proper brand plan is important for a company. Because people interview brands every day… and they are looking for a clean picture. So when people are introduced to your brand, they understand what it does, how, and why.  A simple organizing principle, codified, shared within the company and lived by employees helps this.  Some call it culture – it’s not culture. Though culture can be derived from the brand plan. A brand plan is an organizing principle, based in product strength and customer need that showcases and leverages both.  Brands without a plan are ingredients and packaging surrounded by dissociated advertising. A plan brings it all together.

Next time you go into an interview and you are meeting with a higher up, ask them to discuss the key elements of the company brand plan. If they look at you funny be weary. Peace.

Brand Ageism.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I saw a picture of Claire Danes in the paper today and realized I’ve grown older with her. From her first role on “My So-called Life” to “Little Women” to “Homeland,” Ms. Danes has had a nice career arc. She has not necessarily reinvented herself — she has just moved along doing the right acting thing at the right time. Patti Smith has aged in her art quite well.

But what about brands? I know they are inanimate and don’t grow up or old, but is that truly the case? Business schoolies will tell you products have life cycles. Growth, maintain, harvest. But brands?

Brands don’t grow old, consumers do…beside them.  Sure a brands may change formulas, packaging or distribution but they don’t degrade. What does degrade is consumers tolerance and affinity. As we get older we like refreshes and newness. Stasis is our enemy. It gives rise to brand ageism.     

Do you remember the first time you heard the word “delicious?” Me either.  But I’m sure it was  pretty meaningful. Today the word is meaningless. Brand managers can deal with brand ageism so long as they have a plan. A brand plan to guide the refresh.  As Inga (my Norwegian aunt, RIP) would say “tink about it.” Peace.

Lens of Strategy.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Here’s an interesting brand planning question. 

“How complicated is your brand?”  I’ll bet 8 out of 10 C-level execs would answer “Not very complicated at all.” 

“We are a network of doctors.

We sell interactive white boards to schools.

We are an ad agency.

We are a tool used to build websites.

We are a consulting company.”

These uncomplicated answers typically focus on the Is of the Is-Does.  The question begs for simple answers. And it asks the C-level to pass judgment.  No one except for coders and surgeons likes to celebrate complexity.

Yet when I get into marketing departments and do a little deep dive, complexity always rears its head.  It is where we get into the Does of the Is-Does.  What the product does for consumers. Rationally and emotionally. We look at targets and segments. Most valued customers. Highest sales customers. Biggest referring custies. We break out the Excel charts. And because marketing is not just about making brochures and ads (though some would argue otherwise), we focus on product experience and price and line extensions and the pulsing of the bank account.

Brands are complicated without a plan. With a plan, not so much. With a plan we look at the complicated things through a lens of strategy. Always through the lens.

So, back to the original question. How does a brand go from “It’s not very complicated” to a mish mash of tactics, spreadsheets, sales reports, channel problems and lax sales. Poor planning. Peace!

Purple ads.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

langone edit

Growing up in the ad business and knowing how hard it is to do well, I often harp on poorly conceived advertising. Especially that of the print variety.  This adverting is done by a good mid-sized agency in New York City, but either the planner or the creative director doesn’t care because week in and week out the execution – the whole campaign, in fact – is just sad. The hospital likes the ads I’ve heard, so at the agency the only one digging this work must be the CFO.

A great litmus for an ad is the idea.  The idea as played back a day after it has been seen.  This ad is “one of those purple hospital ads.”  “The ones with the one word headline.”

I read this ad stem to stern as I have many of the others in the campaign and still haven’t a clue as to the strategy. Or what the brand stands for.

If you spend enough money, people will see your ads. It you buy the right media people will see your ads. If you don’t have an idea, people will see your ads. They just won’t be able to form an opinion about you – other than you have enough money to advertise. You have a name. And in this case, you like the unique color purple. Peace!

PS. I’m sure the women and men at NYU Langone are terrific and save lots of lives. I applaud you, but it’s time to find a brand and brand idea.  

 

 

Brand Plan as Immune System.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

immune system

Always on the lookout for metaphors that help marketers understand branding, I’ve come upon a new one: the immune system.  When a marketing entity has a brand plan (defined in my practice as one claim and three support planks) it has created an immune system designed to deflect all non-essential forces. Maintaining a healthy immune system takes work. It must be cared for and fed.  If the immune system has to work overtime, because the brand is constantly being attacked by outside forces, or it is spending time on off-plan activities, it weakens the immune system.

And let us not forget the immune system is a system. It is not separate unrelated functions or activities. Brand planks, discrete parts of the value proposition working together to increase brand meaning and loyalty, are not always organically aligned. Too much price message might negatively impact the quality message, say. Too much focus on tasty, may impact the healthy message.  Each brand needs its own balance because every brand is different.  But the quick story here is that “a tight, focused organizing principle for product, product experience and messaging” can create an impervious barrier for your brand to ward off evil.  

What are the parts of your brand’s immune system? Peace.   

Brand Therapy.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Is your brand a little scatterbrained?  Does it sometime feel like it lacks direction? Do your brand managers like to keep busy – sometimes just for busy’s sake?  Maybe you brand need a little therapy.

How does one go about getting brand therapy? Well, you need to go to a professional. You might ask “But can’t I do this myself?”  The answer is no. Just like you can’t do your own appendectomy. Some parents can’t see their kids for who they are.  A momma rarely thinks her baby is funny looking. It’s hard to heal thyself when it comes to brands.  You are too close and too invested.

The tools a professional uses and the tools an informed brand manager or CMO uses will often be the same: research, data, demographics, psychographics, competitive analysis, listening, and concept testing.  But it’s what one does with all that information that is therapeutic.  Deciding what must be discarded and what must be kept in the brand plan. What to give away vs. what to cultivate and grow.  This is what will come up in brand therapy and what will drive the client to key realizations. It is the client that has to make the tough decisions. The client that will self-actualize the brand. The therapist facilitates and lays out the issues, but the client makes the decisions.  The process is therapeutic, painful and healthy. 

I wonder why more companies don’t do it.  Brand therapy makes for healthier brands and healthier brand manager. Peace!

Moment of Proof.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

The two most important elements in marketing are claim and proof.  It’s how you build businesses. Simplified and organized, this claim and proof approach is the foundation of branding.  One claim, three support or proof planks.

One of my kids just graduated college and is on the interview circuit. Loaded for bear, somewhat unfettered, he believes a willingness to work hard, learn and focus on achievement are the qualities that will land him a job. He’s not wrong. But these things sound like your average cover letter. When shared face-to-face over a desk, they are a bit numbing.  My suggestion was “don’t forget the proof.”  Follow up each claim with examples. 

This is what marketers often forget.  More often than not marketers and their agents remove proof so they can shoehorn in more claims. It’s claim-apalooza out there. All theater, exposition, and context – no proof.

When a job seeker organizes what s/he wants the interviewer to know about themselves and sells it with stories about real event it can be indelible.  Same with brand building. When the dude jumped out of the capsule up in space and free-fell to earth while drinking Red Bull (JKJK), he evinced an energy rush second to none. 10 million media impressions be damned. That was a powerful moment of proof. Peace.

One Mis-Direction

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Office Depot, according to Stuart Elliott the ad writer for The New York Times, will be conducting an anti-bullying, back to school campaign this summer, using a boy band called One Design (or some such, JKJK). The grab-all idea is: “Live. Love. More” — as in “Live kind. Love everyone. Move together against bullying.” I’m not into 3 word taglines or ideas and the ones that require 8 more words to explain are even more perplaxing but I do love causes. Unfortunately, using causes as a way to break through with your advertising is a fairly common mistake.  They are easy to talk about, easy to surround with quotes, advocates and a powerful narrative. Often though, they are off the brand plan and only slightly tethered to sales — if at all. Plus they are kind of transparent.

That said, bullying is bad so let’s hope this campaign works. The creative idea is a montage too far. It’s almost ad-silly. The idea would be best boiled down to “Live Kind.”  I don’t think Lance would mind (not Lance Stephenson).  You see, if you “live kind,” then you probably try to love all and shun bullying. Live kind is memorable. Familiar, yet unique. It’s also a baby step, not the whole enchilada.  

This campaign is more for parents then kids, I get it. And like aroma therapy, it may provide a nice glow for the brand.  Were I the brand manager, however, I’d do this through the PR group and use my ad dollars to de-position Wal-Mart, Office Max and Amazon.  With a kick-ass, 360 retail effort – trotting out some mobile and twitch point planning tricks. Peace.  

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