Testing and Brand Strategy

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I was reading a little ditty on the web today about effective marketing which at first glance, seemed quite smart.

Test, then double down or kill.

  • Test everything, your messaging, your creatives, your approach, everything
  • If it works, double down and iterate further to see how far you can go
  • If it doesn’t work and iteration fails, kill it no matter what.

As I thought it through though, I began to see that while this may be good marketing advice – constant learning and positive movement – it is not at all good brand building advice.

Brand building begins with strategy. Ask a hundred people, you may get a 1hundred answers what a brand strategy looks like, but most will agree a strategy is accountable for tactics.  As I read the test, test, test advice I began to think about the whiplash it will cause marketers. And my neck hurt. Testing the brand strategy is absolutely called for.  But once in place, let your un-artificial intelligence drive the program. (Media tests are okay.)

Get your brand strategy right and get your strategy tight to save time downstream. If you test everything, you are testing nothing.

Peace.

 

 

Boil Down.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I write a good deal about the boil down. The function we brand planners do when creating brand strategy — taking all of the fire-hosed information we collect, prioritizing it and illuminating a single claim that poses as the brand strategy.  Anyone can hunt and gather. Taking what is gathered and refining it into a key value that predisposes a target to purchase is the bases loaded swing.

I got some really great exploratory interviews with mega brand planners through emails telling them I had a “good ear” for strategy.  I think I used a dog whistle metaphor or something. It went something like this, “While much said in meetings is blah, blah, blah, I hear business-winning statements, observations, and insights.” Hey, it got me in the door.

The main job of the brand planner is the boil down. The “idea” referred to in What’s The Idea? (my business name) is what we are mining. But the job is not done at the claim or idea level. The “proof planks” are the heavy lifting. They feed and nourish the idea. And nourish the creative teams. The proof planks (3 in total) are, perhaps, even more important than the idea/claim. They are the science. The measurable evidence. Together, the claim and proof array build the brand. With the marketers and creative teams being the carpenters.

Boil down.  It’s what makes a Subaru a Subaru.

Peace.

 

 

Oppo Culture.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

In my strategy practice I borrow occasionallly from the political strategy arena — one such borrow is oppo research, also known as opposition research.  Typical brand strategy discovery for me includes a good deal of customer, stakeholder and SME interviews.  The sausage making uses some proprietary tools but I’m beginning to think I need to add a new tool.  One I’ll trot out an upcoming assignment. Oppo culture.

What’s oppo culture? It’s a clearing of the mind of learned and preconceived notions of ideal consumer behavior.  Then it’s going all Aaron Rogers on the topic.  That is, a one hour sit-in-the-dark “think” to conger up any an all ideas that might be held by consumers not likely to buy. Or even dislike.  Oppo research tries to find leverageable negatives in a candidate and this is not that.  Oppo culture is more like understanding a red stater in you are a blue stater. Or a Yankee fan trying to channel a red Sox fan. Duke fan understanding a UNC fan?   

Its intent is to provide a mental sanity check. A flushing of ones biases.  One hour in the dark should be enough. (How can you type in the dark?  Don’t. And no voice recorder either. Just let it percolate.)

Can’t wait to try it. I’ll share results when I can.

Peace.

 

 

Brand Claim and the Boil Down.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

“How do you know if you have a good brand strategy?  More importantly, how do you know if a brand strategy being presented to you is any good?  

When I present brand strategy, I’m presenting words on paper. No mood board. No customer journey montage. No recorded customer interviews. Just words. And those words, typically presented in serial, near story form, lead to a benefit claim – a single-minded value proposition capturing the emotional and logical reason to buy. Done right, the claim is pregnant with meaning and brand-positive interpretations.  Hopefully, poetic in its memorability, it will often sound like a tagline – but not a campaign tagline.

In addition to the claim I present “proof planks.” Proof planks are the organized reasons to believe the claim. Three in total. Proof planks cement the brand claim. Without proof, a claim is just advertising.  

Back to the “How do you know?” question. Clients know they have a good brand strategy when it captures the essence of the brand’s reason for being. And when the proof supporting that essence (claim) is not only familiar it’s filial. The job of the brand planner is not to rearrange words that make the client nod.  It is to boil down those words into a single, powerful sentence.  Like naming a baby in reverse — after they are grown.

No easy feat.

Peace.

 

We Are Brand Builders Not Gallerists

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Creative people don’t really like rules or incumbrances. Unless they are creating art for a loved-one. This highlights the traditional tension between creatives (in advertising) and strategists.  I recently wrote a brand strategy with a strongly articulated target. A target offering lots of spark. But in my world the target is only one part of the brand brief – is a serial, logic document that drives to a brand claim. The brand claim is the strategic directive.  Creative people, so long as they are happy with the artistic output, often think they’ve done their job if inspired by any part of the brief.

Bullshit.

We are working on building brands not a series of gallery-hangings. We (strategist, creative team, client) are trying to get consumers to buy, then buy again, and again. To that end, we need to find the most compelling care-abouts and good-ats and codify them into a brand strategy (claim and proof array) that will outlast any campaign. “Coke is refreshment.”   

Campaigns come and go, a powerful brand idea is indelible. Creatives need to follow the brand claim. That’s brand building.

Peace.      

 

 

I Am the Brand Strategy.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Since moving to Asheville, NC I’ve had to refocus my business.  There are only a handful of large companies here; mostly mid-size and small.  These latter two classes are not waking up in the morning thinking about brand strategy.

Most small business owners think they are the brand strategy. That is, as the owner, they believe they know everything there is to know about their business. And those savvy enough to think otherwise believe they need to find out the answers on their own, not outsource it. Understanding what motivates consumers to buy from you is just part of an owner’s day job. First they have pay the refrigerator repair man. But managing a business around consumer care-abouts is mission critical. And that’s what brand planners do. The reality is business hardware, inventory, and tools always come before strategy.

In brand planning we call this “the problem.”

So what’s a body to do when a SMB owner incants “I am the brand strategy?”  How do we move strategy up the needs ladder?

It’s some real chicken and egg shit.  All thoughts welcome.

Peace.

 

 

Does Not Impute.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Imputed is my new favorite branding word.  It is what brand planners do.  We impute. In an organized way. In a memorable way.  In ways meaningful to consumers and ownable to brands.  Imputers are we. 

And when the creative/marketing work does not convey our brand strategy values “It does not impute.” Rhymes with “does not compute.”

A key to being able to carve out a memorable position and value in the minds of consumers is simplicity. Combined with cultural-forward currency. And endemic brand/category value. As is, when positioning a beer don’t sell the lifestyle. 

The brand strategy framework at What’s The Idea is one claim and three proof planks. That takes care of  simplicity. As for culture-forward and endemic brand value, those are the heavy lifting of brand planning. That’s where you use your non-artificial intelligence. 

Peace. And Go Julius Randle!

 

A Marketing Conundrum.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Two of the most discussed concepts in marketing today are “authenticity” and “artificial intelligence.”  One is communications advice the other a communications device.

They are diametrically opposed. You can’t be authentic and artificial at the same time. Unless you are Tucker Carlson. Hee hee.

I’m a fan of authenticity albeit, for me, it’s the price of doing business. If you have to speak about it, it must be lacking.  Those who use the word a lot must be steeped in a world of inauthentic-ness.  As for artificial intelligence I much prefer the term machine learning. It’s mote accurate. And more descriptive.   

Dabbling in AI with my blog (e.g., “edit this blog post”) was a fun exercise.  Those who make a living in by-the-pound content love it. It’ generates volume and is a time-saver. However, it’s a bit inauthentic. “AI, edit my blog post in my voice.” Huh?

From time-to-time I use a strategy exercise called The 5 Conundrums where I outline consumer contradictions which need to be addressed before brand strategy can be entertained. It’s a way to focus and clear out some stale air. Authenticity and AI are one such marketing conundrum.

Peace.

 

 

People, Places and Practices.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I was watching an Archaeological Institute of America webinar given by Dr. Sara Gonzalez last week on less intrusive ways to conduct archeological fieldwork on Native Americans.  (For one, she suggested calling artifacts, belongings. Further, after belongings are found, charted, provenanced and catalogued, they should be returned to the ground from which they came; called catch and release.)  Smart, smart stuff.  Anyway, one other idea that struck a chord was her framework — People, Places and Practices. My brand discovery rigor deals with all three but doesn’t categorize them as such.  And in doing so, I might discover more deeply.  

First, a deep dive into the people who use our brands and the people we want to use our brands. That’s an obvious no-brainer. Some might call it targeting.  But target and person can be two different thing contextually.  In my brand brief, I refer to this as the “living, breathing target.”

Next, let us look into the places people use and consider brands. Not just consume brands.  The locations, the dayparts, the consuming behaviors. Current and potential.  A neat tool I leaned from media people at McCann was the DILO, day in the life of.  A mapping of people’s media use, especially as it relates to times they might intersect with media and brand consideration.

And lastly, we need to study the practices. Practices touch upon DILO but actually refer to the behavioral role of the product in the life of the person. This points to ethnographic study. And that goes beyond digging up belongings/artifacts and into cultural study.  How does the brand intersect culturally and behaviorally with the person? Tons of great learning in this bucket.

Peace.

 

 

 

Callous Is the New Black.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

When in the ad business I always wanted to have my own agency.  My dad had an agency, I guess I wanted to walk in his shoes. I was going to name that agency “Foster, Bias and Sales.”  As in, foster consumer attention, create bias toward the product and generate sales for the client.  Even then I was all about the bag, about the balance sheet. At some point advertising became less a creative art and more about brand growth.  

Today in my branding practice, I feel the same way.  But I’m leave much of the foster and bias to the agencies while spending time focusing on positioning and organizing brands for sales.

Many brand planners have a positioning angle.  “Brand transformation for the experience economy” is one I came across today.  “Amygdala branding” is another one (not really, I didn’t want to offend). On my Twitter account I say “Redistributing business wealth through brand strategy.” It’s like you can insert almost any word before or after the word “brand” and jump into the strategist arena.   

Well, let’s cut the art and try a new approach: How about “Callous Branding.”  A straight up sales focus. What does it take to “sell more, to more, more often, at higher prices?” (Thanks Sergio Zyman.)  Why not a callous declaration of customer value and brand value?  One driven by the kind of claim every employee can measure themselves against. And every sales director, CFO and CEO can really, really lay into.

Callous is the new black.

Peace.

 

 

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