Naming is Important.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I check my blog analytics regularly and one of the search terms that gets me a lot of traffic is “naming.” So playing to the algorithm, I post today on naming. But what to say? Names, like brands, are empty vessels into which we pour meaning. The best names are organically tied to product, feature, function or target. A good name gets you credit for what you do without doing it. My friend’s company Gotham Seafood has a great name.  He sells seafood in NYC and his company has scale.  He sells lots of fish.

I wanted to name a web start-up for which I was marketing director Mashpan.  It was a website creation tool based on drag and drop technology that let anyone design and build a site. It put a wrapper around objects on the web and let anything, yes anything, be dragged and dropped or copied onto a page.  Quite a mash-up. Of everything. A mash pan is also a place to start home brew, but that’s a story for another day.  The boss decides Zude sounded better. No context, not a great name.  Though it did ultimately work (as a name).  Our vessel-pouring was pretty good.   

For those of you with kids, you know how difficult naming can be. It’s even more difficult for companies. Don’t make it easy. Embrace it. Find the perfect name. It’s important. Peace! 

Gillette, Schick and Branding.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I interviewed for a dream job as a brand planner at BBDO on Gillette a couple of years ago.  Had a great non-lunch, the interviewer told me my views were unique and had ballast (my word, it was 2 years ago.)  The next step was to send some planning samples and creative to the boss, which I did.  It was, sadly, a poor digital package.  Not BBDO-like.

Today, I’m reading about a reality web series being sponsored by Schick razors in Andrew Adam Newman’s NYT ad column and all parties are saying the wrong things, so the effort will no doubt be lackluster.  Clean break is the idea. We know they are talking clean break from Gillette, but they suggest the strategy is otherwise.  It got me thing about Gillette’s strategy. And all I can come up with is the word “man.”  And an assortment of new products.  I shave with a Gillette 5 days a week, and I am a man.  Beyond forward thinking expensive product, I haven’t a clue what their idea is.

Since I did not get the job, I’d love a chance to talk to the person who did to discuss and plumb the idea.  Could it be just to let Schick waddle forward?  I doubt it.  Branding is about claim and proof. Organized.  Man, product innovation and I’ll throw in some smooth are okay planks, but without an idea to bind them, they lose muscle memory. Peace.

New HP Tagline.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

“Make it matter” is the new HP tagline.  The first ad I’ve come across with the line appeared in the paper today touting a sub-$900 laptop, wireless printer and Beats headphone package.  Aimed at school-bound kids and their parents, this bundle will matter to kids who typically may ask mom and dad for Apple machines. It will give both parents and students pause.

Meaningfulness is what good marketing and good brand plans mean to achieve — so why not put the idea right in the work? “Make it matter.”  Were I riding point on this idea, I’d make sure every ad served up to the general pop mattered. All product ads would need to provide a definable point of difference with a rational or emotional tug. It’s going to be hard to live up to. 

Make it matter is bi-directional.  It tells the reader to make it matter, but also suggests HP makes it matter. When you tagline is “Setting new standards in healthcare” every ad needs to show a new standard.  Brand ideas matter. Words matter. Good luck BBDO. Your day just got a lot longer.  Peace.  

Hierarchy of Likes.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I was in the Bronx Friday night at the Met Yankee game. Don’t ask.  And for all the falderal it was quite civil. I didn’t fly my Met colors, nor did I instigate.  I just did the late 1960s Fillmore West clap and watched me some hardball.  One thing I took away from the game, though, was an insight that for all of people’s preferences, divides and loyalties – if you find a point of common ground more important, you can create dialog. 

At one point during the national anthem I felt a 9/11 moment resulting from the video.  It brought the entire stadium together as one (in my mind). It pointed to something bigger than a baseball rivalry. And on two other occasions during the game I spoke with a couple of guys  who noticed my Pearl Jam shirt.  We connected on something that was perhaps even more important to us than a baseball game. As I walked along River Avenue leaving the game, a guy quietly said in passing “Yellow Ledbetter.”  I only half heard it until it registered, then I looked back and “peaced” him with a knowing smile. A brother.

The insight is this: You can always ladder up common ground or affinity with someone you don’t necessarily agree with. It takes work, and thought, and open-mindedness.  It’s a hunt worth pursuing. So marketers and planner dig in.  Peace!     

Sitting in Chairs Creative.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Where does creative inspiration come from? Dreams? Brain storming? Pictures and stories? Sure. I find mowing the lawn provides a level of focus for me. Maybe it the repetitive action. If I listen to the radio driving to or from work, I tend to ingest words passively. That said, if the radio is on topic I perk up and it feeds the creative motor.

In the ad agency business, I had seen lots of good creative people flip through art direction magazines and awards books looking for ideas to have an idea. But often they did so in their office. I’m a fan of getting out of the building. Observing the target. Observing the target’s target. Trying to think like they think, or better, feel what they feel.

Creative inspiration results from immersion in the target, dabbling in sights, seeing or projecting patterns… and monitoring your blood pressure. If an idea makes you feel something, you are nearing the zone.  If it bores you push on. 

I was writing a college paper once while on a field trip to see Margaret Mead speak in DC. I was sitting in someone’s kitchen and not moving any ideas.  There was a speed bag in the kitchen so I starter punching. It wore me out but opened the mind.  Sitting in chairs is not the way toward creative stim. Peace! 

Games. Education. Action.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I read recently where kids born after 1995 will average 10,000 hours of videogame playing before their 18th birthdays. If we replaced half of those hours with additional school work, what might happen to the U.S. GDP?

How about we study what it is about video games that makes kids look forward to playing them?  Is it simply to stay away from bullies?  To forget the bad feelings resulting from a less than fulfilling school day? Or is it about things more positive. Skills development. Action. Transporting one’s self to other places? Winning? Losing? Learning how to cope?

Is it possible the game development community is ahead of the educational curriculum development community?  Just a question.  I’ve always thought turning the college application process into a game would be a neat idea.  Get kids thinking about the moves it take to get into a good college. Take kids through the process and see what the potential rewards are. The splat on the flat screens wouldn’t be blood but careers, for those prone to procrastinate.

Gamification is not new.  But interactive gamification is. And it’s rolling into modern life like a freight train. Peace!

Brands as culture.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

As the economy moves away from manufacturing toward service, which it has been doing for 25 years now, the number of people who are actually making things decreases. Desks across America are filled with people whose jobs it is to make decisions and manage others. Sure, iPhones are being manufactured, and cars are being constructed. Sure, food is being processed, packaged, sold and served.  But the number of companies doing it has decreased and the scale of those companies hugely expanded. It won’t be long before Wal-Mart has a house brand that takes over the world.

All these people at desks, tasked with making decisions along the chain of command and trying to add value, can create a leadership nightmare.  Add to that the web offering up the ability for people to collapse the 4Ps into a single P (platform) and one can see why brands are becoming more and more important.  Branding is an organizing principle for marketing.

The best brands are culture. The best brands lead companies. Strong brands show the way.  And align the desks.  If you have a strong brand get to know it.  Peace!   

 

Make happy.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Every morning, I wake up, shave and listen to the news on the radio.  It’s part of my media DILO (day in the life of) – a record of the places and times when I consume media.  For a couple of months, the San Antonio Spurs have been in the playoffs and haven’t lost a game. 20 straight wins.  Not once did I hear an interview San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich.  Last night they lost to the Oklahoma Thunder and he was interviewed. What the??

What is so exciting or newsworthy about losing? Is new not newsworthy when it’s about positive stuff?  Is that why network television is obsessed with cops shows and crime? 

I was in a creative meeting yesterday and conveyed how the best advertising focuses on positives.  Not the negatives of competitors.  Consumers will tell you that almost every time.  And those consumers who don’t agree are probably not the best consumers for your brand.

Positivity with meaning is awesome. Don’t tell happy, make happy.  Puh-eace!

Brand Planners and Geneticists.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

What do geneticists do for a living?  They disassemble genes and DNA strands, figure out what the working or nonworking parts do, how gene relationships are fostered, then they make some assumptions.  They test those assumptions with the hope of doing something smart with the information – like curing cancer.  Or, making chickens disease-free in shmoo infested cages. (Sorry, that was uncalled for.) Once we crack the code on clean tech or green tech, whatever it’s called today, genetics will be the next big thing. It will be cool-ish.

Brand planners follow a similar process as geneticists. But rather than study microscopic things, we study what walks around. That’s why a behavioral science or anthropology degree fits nicely into a brand planner career path.  The study of man is critical. Many planners, though,  stop at observing man and mining behavioral insights.  The good ones take it beyond insights and into the area of marketing stimulus — what gets man to buy.  The good ones know man well enough to understand what selling words are over-used. Which contexts are pregnant with possibility. What emotions are likely to stir response.   

Be you genetic engineer or brand planner, the rubber meets the road with the “do something smart with it” part of the equation. Peace.

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