Monthly Archives: February 2018

Claim and Proof.

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Claim and proof are the driving forces of the What’s The Idea? brand strategy framework. Find a claim (a simple, endemic idea that sets your product apart from the competition), then array three proof planks beneath. Proof sells the claim. It is evidence. The planning rigor, unlike many, is evidence-based.

It’s not overly complicated. That’s why it works.  Consumers get a consistent brand claim, supported by memorable proof. Without proof a claim is just marketing drivel. (Hey Laura Ingraham “Shut up and drivel.”)

When I turn over the brand brief to content creators, they love that there is direction. Some wonder, however, if they need to espouse all three proof planks in each piece of content. The answer is no. One is fine. One makes for a clean deposit in the brand bank.

A website home page should hit all the planks, certainly the “About” section should. But the claim is always present — across product, experience and messaging.  Again, don’t feel that every ad, every promo, every PR story must hit all three support planks. Do one and do it right. 

Once ensconced in this approach, it’s fun to modulate each plank and see how it impacts KPIs.

Peace.

 

 

Highland Brewing Brand Refresh.

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Highland Brewing is “an original” craft brewery located in Asheville, NC – founded in 1995 by Oscar Wong.  When I moved to Asheville and having becomes a big fan of the Highland Gaelic Ale, I decided to contact president Leah Wong Ashburn for a quaff and chat about branding. Ms. Wong, I learned, was way ahead of me with a re-brand underway, using a shop in TX she had met at a beer tradeshow.  

I’ve seen a little bit of the work – the grand reveal is at the brewery this Friday – and the brand shop and Highland team seem to have hit on all cylinders.

Disclosure: I am a brand strategist who makes paper, not pictures. I deliver an organizing principle for product, experience and messaging. As such, I’m always eager to hear the paper strategy. In the case of Highland the claim seems to be “Pioneers in Craft.” Nice. The phrase doesn’t say “craft beer,” it says “craft.” Love the nuance.  Craft extends way beyond beer making. So it opens more doors for the brand planks – the proof areas that deliver on the promise.

Not being privy to the Highland brand strategy, I’ll have to do some digging to uncover the brand planks. Can you say fatty liver? JKJK.

One minor for me was the mark or logo. Using a compass and letter “H” lacked a little local mountain flourish. Logos are hard. This one is strong and professional… I’ll get used to it.

Bravo Highland. Good stuff. Can’t wait to see more.

Peace.   

  

Brand Planning Interviews: Commerce versus Caring.

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One of the keys to good brand planning is the consumer interview: Getting consumers to open up and share deeper insights.  To start you must do some shallow digging, but you don’t want to stay there too long or the process will feel like an online survey. If you sound like a research survey, you will be treated so.  The goal is to get to conversation as fast as you can, so the notion of an interview and the interview dynamic are quickly forgotten.

When I am on roll, I’m giving as well as taking. I’m sharing ad hominem personal views and stories to fuel the conversational pump. My intent is to connect, share, listen, process and grow the conversation. In a word it boils down to “caring.” About the topic and the person sharing. When the questions feel too “commercial,” the caring quotient goes down. When stories flow, insights flow

By caring and with a good ear for insights and the opportunity for redirection, each interview can be different. There’s nothing worse than hearing the same answers to the same questions. It makes the interviewer care less. And that’s bad tradecraft.

Peace.

 

 

Starbucks and Brand Stasis.

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I went to the Starbucks yesterday, one housed in my local Ingles grocery store, and a nice young women in a non-descript polo shirt came to serve me.  I was looking for an Ingles logo on the shirt, but didn’t see one.  Within a minute another woman walked into the Starbucks retail space with a green apron on – she more befitting the brand experience.

I asked her if they were still called baristas. She said yes.  Then I asked her when telling friends what she did for a living if she said “I’m a barista” or “I work at Starbucks,” she admitted the latter.  Howard Schultz are you listening?

When Starbucks began, the barista was fundamental brand thing. They co-opted the word. Now people just work at Starbucks. When Starbucks first got rid of the hand-crated latte and espresso machines in favor of automated brewing, I thought it might be the beginning of brand stasis. Think I was right. The brand can advertise blonde coffee and all the new flavors it likes, but if it doesn’t tighten up the in-store brand experience, it will suffer.

Peace be upon you, children and parents of Parkland, FL.

 

Claim and Proof in Advertising

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As a brand planner, whose primary concern is developing master brand strategy, my discovery phase is all about finding the right claim and the three most motivating proof planks supporting that claim.   This claim and proof framework is perhaps the simplest most easy to understand means by which to build a brand.

Claim and proof is also a good driver for making effective advertising. Advertising, the biggest chunk of a marketing budget, is one of the weaker arrows in the marketing quiver. Why? Because it is mostly claim and very little proof. Following is an example

UBS is a huge global financial company.  It invests billions of consumer’s retirement savings, mine included. It ran an ad in The New York Times today attempting to convince readers it is expert in the complicated Chinese market (claim). There is lots of flah flah flah about risk and reward in the copy then they break out the big and “proof” of claim: “As the first foreign bank in China…”   That’s all you got? That’s the proof of local knowledge superiority?

Opportunity lost.

Peace.