The Thing About Twitter.

By
Steve Poppe
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I have a pal in the wholesale fish business. This dude sells some serious fish. The finest restaurants in NYC use his product and have for years. When the BP oil spill occurred last year, it dawned on me that his hard drive (his brain) probably was one of the few that knew what would become of shrimp prices and avails in the city so I suggested he start to Tweet. My thesis was that NYC chefs indexed high for technology and twitter accounts. And if not chefs, certainly restaurant owners and buyers. Those who didn’t, could easily pick it up if it would save them face and cash. (The beauty of stellar usability.)

The point of this story is that, commercially, Twitter and Social Media are best when providing a meaningful purpose.  For target segments that have an information need, a twitter account or Fotchbook page can be very useful. Once my pal learned the interests and needs of his Twitter followers and hashtag surfers, he could then graduate into a couple of promotional specials. “Bigeye Tuna, $6.00 a pound for the next 2 hours.” But first, he had to understand the need – to do that he had to immerse himself, feel the ebb and flow. And develop a plan.

Twitter is an enabler, not the solution.  Sadly, the majority of people in the ether or on the speaking circuit who talk about social media talk about social media and not the solution. That’s social media 3.0 and I can’t wait. Big eye Peace!

 

Advertising and the commodity slurry.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Advertising agencies have allowed themselves to become commoditized.  In product marketing there are luxury goods, mid-priced challengers and bargain goods, but in the agency business everyone is more or less priced the same. 

Sure, if you hire BBDO or Ogilvy your top line creative people will be more expensive than someone from the no-name middle tier but you get what you pay for and after a year or so the profitability equation seeps in and both type of shops meet in the middle. The commoditized middle.

This is because ad agencies sell labor and stuff (pictures, video, writing, music and coding).  The valuable part – strategy – more often than not is given away.  Strategy and creative win new business but brand strategy often disappears after the contract is signed leaving creative to carry the day.  At that point middle-managers-on-the-rise start to take control.  And tactics take over. That’s when air starts seeping out of the balloon.  Tactics are commodities in the ad business. Apple wouldn’t put up with this. 

What’s the way out?

Ad agencies need to strengthen their commitment to strategy over tactics. They need to build incentives into their contracts tied to the strategic product.  If a client approves work that is off strategy, the client should have to fund a kicker to the fee. A – because it will cause more work.  And B – because the work will be off-piste.  Campaigns come and go…and that’s okay.  But brand strategy should not. Agencies known for their strategic work will emerge from the commodity slurry. Peace!   

Eat Carbon. (Not really.)

By
Steve Poppe
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Yesterday was Blog Action Day and the topic this year is food; another important  topic we all too often take for granted. As we do with air and water.

At the end of this month theplanet’s population will top 7 billion. Most of the growth is coming from countries and areas that are underfed, undernourished and under-watered. These areas don’t seen to have fertility problems. Is it possible that making the body work harder to sustain itself is better for the planet than eating French fries, salted snacks and high-calorie things that come wrapped in paper and Styrofoam?

I am an evolutionist who believes there is a very direct correlation between the man, earth and bio-chemistry.  You grow what you sow, so to speak. 

For too long we’ve been a car and fossil fuel country. It has to stop.  Sadly, even the smartest venture capital companies (Google whatstheidea+kleiner perkins) that have taken a stand and opted to jump start green tech have returned to focusing on social media start-ups.  Carlota Perez, a big picture genius, interviewed by Fred Wilson last week said our future is not in technology but in sustainability. She is right.

But food, how do we fix food?  And what will be the incentive.  How do we eat better. Eat less. Eat things that don’t enable diseases?  President Obama knows fixing these two things is the answer, but like Kleiner Perkins he knows it’s a steep uphill effort.  And long term.

According to Chipotle each week 330 farmers leave their land. Farming is a noble business. Farmers tend to get the whole eat well thing.  We can find a way to combine a healthy eating lifestyle and the reduction of fossil fuel (burning) consumption.  That is the mission. That is the future. That will fix much. Peace! 

Leadership. Digital and otherwise.

By
Steve Poppe
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I often think about leadership.  Understanding how to lead is a marketing fundamental. A life fundamental. Impressionable junior high schoolers watch what the cool kid wears hoping to be led.  Plains Indians of yore, thinking about wintering destinations, follow the chief not the warrior. And to whom do patients with a rare forms of cancer turn when looking for the right doctor and hospital?  A health portal that makes money selling ads, or a doc with humility who takes the time to explain, educate and engender trust?

All forms and flavors of leadership.

Leadership in marketing, trending wise, lies with the “media socialists.” Those who can build Facebook pages. The builders of mobile promotions who use words like “create a Google API that drags content into the site.”  We are all smitten with these pop marketing tactics. They are way less expensive than a page in People Magazine, and can live for months. But folks, many hawking social media and digital media solutions are not leaders. The top 5% may be are, but there are not enough to go around. When the biggest social effort of the last two years is a body wash campaign that has earned more talk than sales receipts, you know we’re pressing. (And please know, I loves me some social media. It is transformational. Just often mishandled.)

As marketers reach out to agency partners and prospective employees, please ask them to talk about digital leadership. What are their firsts? Their onlys? Their big wins…and big losses?  Anyone can win a battle but only those with demonstrated strategic chops can lead into the future. And isn’t that where we’re headed? Peace!

Pepsi. Playgrounds or flavor?

By
Steve Poppe
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0

PepsiCo is managing its broad portfolio and having issues. If you put all the brand managers from all the Pepsi brands (Frito Lay, fast food, etc.) into MetLife Stadium (referred to with a smile as “the snoop”), it might fill the lower level of seats.  With all those people gathering paychecks wouldn’t you think someone might come up with a new line of drink to help grow the soda business which is flat, flat, flat?

Water is done. Orange-flavored drinks done. Energy drinks done-ish. Teas still have some upside, but corporate knows putting the pedal down will cannibalize the sugar water business. So what’s next? Pepsi needs to be as innovative as the tech sector. It needs to travel the world for the next cool flavor. And let’s start with flavor before we delve into the nutritional benefits – which are very important but secondary if trying to grow the drink market.  Pepsi’s CEO Indra Nooyi should empty the building in Purchase, NY and send people packing for 3 months – on global expeditions to find the next flavor. It’s out there, we just forgot to look.  Can you say cola nut?

I enjoy ranting about Pepsi Refresh.  What a mess!  What a lucky marketing tactic for Coke. Could Pepsi have selected anything more non-endemic to the brand?  The only thing endemic is the word refresh, which they stole from Coke. But ironically, they’re using the reboot definition.  Ms. Nooyi find a new flavor!  Don’t build us a playground.  Build us a new drink to grow the category. Peace!

Margaret Mead and Marketing.

By
Steve Poppe
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I was lost at college until I found anthropology:  The study of man.  In college I loved reading how sexually repressed we were and how other cultures found sex with someone other than your spouse healthy.  Primitive?  I think not.  Have I ever cheated on the wifus?  I think not. Freakin’ culture!

Who knew anthropology would end up shaping my career 30 years later?  I certainly didn’t.  My senior year I went to Washington D.C. on Rollins College’s dime to the annual convention of the American Anthropological Association where I had the absolute privilege of seeing Margaret Mead.   I could tell she was one of those special earthlings, but didn’t then conceive she would impact my career, unless I worked in a museum or became a teacher.

After years in account management, I became a brand planner. Planners care about culture. Not brand culture, people culture.  Good planners must assess the product. They need to understand how it’s made, of what it’s made, where and why.  Then they must map that learning into patterns — trying to find the love.  Where culture comes in is delving into how consumers and non-consumers intersect with the product. Deeply understanding the how, when and why. Becoming intimate with the feelings, needs, and the fulfillments. Weighing these intersections, culling, then prioritizing them.  

What comes out at the back end is a brand plan.  A brand plan has two things: A brand idea or claim.  (The claim doesn’t have to be unique, it just has to be true.) And 3 support planks or proof planks.  The organizing principle for proving the claim. When combined, these three planks must be unique.

The brand plan is the way forward. It guides future product development, creates the map for marketing, and allows employees to understand product culture. I’m not sure Margaret Mead would approve of me name dropping in a marketing blog but I bet I could get her to buy something. Peace! (On that she would agree.)

Branding. Business strategy in poetry.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Inside every huge piece of stone is a beautiful sculpture.  Or not.  Upon every blueprint is an architect’s rendering of an amazing building. Or not. On every canvas… okay, you get the idea.

It’s the same way with brand planning.  Any knucklehead with a pencil or keyboard can ask executives, customers and thought-leaders questions. Anyone can fill up a OneNote document (cool Microsoft product) with lots of words, links, quotes and data.  But what makes a great brand plan is what is left at the end.  And how it is organized and integrated. And what can be acted upon for the good of the brand. 

I call this process the boil down.  I like to cook and the metaphor about making a rich sauce through the reduction process works for me.  No matter what you name your process, when going from the massive (discovery) to the reduced and pungent, it is the final product that makes the successful brand planner. Branding is an organizing principle. Most CEOs, CFOs and CMOs know what makes a brand tick; they just can’t always decipher or decode the promise. Not in words consumers can hold dear. Or that employees can understand and live by.  But when a brand planner presents the boil down to C-level execs and sees that sparkle in their eyes — the sculpture is done. And properly conveyed and packaged a brand plan can work for consumers and employees.  This isn’t like approving an ad campaign, this is business strategy… in poetry.  Peace

  

 

Realtime vs. Real time.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Have you ever read a business related story about something that was really important and before finishing it sent it to your boss or client? Perhaps even without a whim of analysis? Later, only to find out that the end of the story didn’t support your view at all?  That’s the power of realtime (one word) communications.  It’s a fast twitch, new curation technique we’ve all picked up — and it’s a bit of a metaphor for marketing today.

Have you ever been in a meeting in which your marketing people or some marketing agents pepper the conversation with words like “authentic” or “transparent?”  I have. Many times. The two pop marketing terms of the day.  Well marketers wouldn’t have to be transparent or authentic if they didn’t spend so much money being otherwise. In other words, not being real.

Realtime is impulsive, focused on very near term result. It’s powerful in play, news and geolocation marketing services. But real time – being true to a marketing plan, and brand plan – is what built Apple and The New York Times and BMW and Coke.  Most marketers talk about “brand” and “culture” but operate with a realtime lens.  Find people that operate in real time and you can start to build something powerful. Peace

 

RIP Steve Jobs.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

A legend, a hero, a man.   In vary degrees, aren’t we all?

For a marketer and especially a brand planner there are two quotes to live by.  One is by Wayne Gretzky, the other by Mr. Jobs.

From today’s wonderful New York Times obituary:

“Mr. Jobs own research and intuition, not focus groups, were his guide. When asked what market research went into the iPad, Mr. Jobs replied: ‘None. It’s not the consumers’ job to know what they want.’ ”  Rest in…

Branding Planning is Reputation Building.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Somewhere on the web is a product called Reputation Builder. It’s a smart web search tool that finds all the negative things people say about you or your brand web so you can do something about it. In this product’s world you build reputation by removing the bad. Kind of a negative way to build a reputation, no?

Rather than remove the negatives, why not build brands by organizing and enhancing the positive?  Advertising most of the time shines light on the positive, but often ads don’t stick out. Or are not believable. Or say things that have been said ad nauseam. More likely, the advertising idea is quite disorganized over a period of time.  If brands were buildings, many would be leaning towers , polished shacks or inverted A-frames.  Too frequently brands don’t have architects. Long term architects.  As crazy as it may seem, some web-based companies change brand strategy by the click. 

So, let’s all think about building brand reputation by answering this question “My company has a great reputation for _________.  Here’s a brand planning URL for you: www.Reputation4.com. Peace.

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