Brand Strategy. Steve Poppe, Founder.

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Advertising

Marmot’s super bowl spot.

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November 11, 2019

(This post originaly appeared February 10, 2016, then was taken down die to a hack.)

I love the Marmot brand. I ski in Marmot, I sleep in Marmot, I do outdoors stuff in Marmot. I want to own more of it. The gear is well-designed, engineered-to-the-max and good looking. They’ve done a wonderful job with branding and marketing. (I have tend pole that bent, and it doesn’t even bother me. Why? Because Marmot is like family.)

Then, before the Super Bowl, I saw a Marmot teaser ad campaign and knew I wasn’t going to like. Super Sunday I saw the real thing. It’s a Goodby, Silverstein and Partners spot, focusing around, you guessed it, a marmot. Were this toilet tissue or insurance, maybe. But cuddly talking Marmot? Oy. I can only imagine the 2 other campaigns the agency pitched to beat this one. It should never have been presented. Lazy ass trade craft. It is so unfitting of the brand.

I can just imagine the engineers in the goose down research center, breathing feathers all day, watching the game on TV with their friends. “A talking marmot, really?” No wonder advertising and marketing people have a bad name in engineering focused companies.

As a brand strategy guy and Marmot fan it was a sad day. Even if the spot tested off the charts with the teens and tweens – the next generation of buyers – it was a brand mistake. A 5 million dollar mistake. And that’s a lot of feathers.

Peace.

Branding: Scorch, drone or look ‘em in the eye.

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September 16, 2011

It was not long ago that advertising was governed by a scorched earth approach. Fire up a message and spray it in every direction. If you bought the top TV show, the best read magazine, the leading radio station and newspaper in the 10 largest cities, you reached everyone.

Extending the metaphor, following the scorched earth approach, thanks to the web, we are now more in drone attack mode. We don’t target those not interested in our products and messaging, that would be wasteful, we conduct due diligence then hover over our targets and bomb the shit out of them. Behavioral targeting, search engines, opt-in vehicles all enable drone attack kills. The problem with drone attacks is that there are often lots of accidental casualties. Drone attacks are not only singularly expensive, they can give a brand a bad name. Drone attacks are preferred to scorched earth because corporate executives feel more in control and can see immediate results.

The reality is, drone attacks do have kills (sales) though as a marketing tools they dilute our brands. Brands today are defined by campaigns, not brand values. Ask a consumer about Old Spice and the first thing they’ll say is “that football player” or the “guy who rides the horse” or “guy with the great pecs.” They rarely play back the human connection to the value of body spray.

What I love about new media – social media – is that corporate executive can tune in to consumers from street level. That’s where it counts. Scott Monty of Ford is tuned-in where it counts. Sure he’s Mr. Twitter and Mr. Fotchbook, but he hears his audience every day. And Alan Mulally, his boss, and the shareholders benefits. Mr. Monty is on the ground listening, not operating a drone remotely. That’s the way to build a brand. That’s how you build a marketing program. With a brand, a plan, and a policy. Not a campaign dashboard. Peace!

Brand in Name Only

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April 12, 2013

Brands are more than names. But don’t tell that to Bethpage Federal Credit Union. Federal credit unions have an advantage over banks. They are not-for-profit. As not-for-profits, people who bank there are members — the rewards of membership being better service and better rates. Were more people to know this, they would sign up in droves, but not-for-profits don’t do a great deal of advertising – to keep costs down for members.

Bethpage has done some good things over the years but creating a brand strategy is not one of them. I look at the body of work and the only things that stick out are spokespeople Beth and Page. They smile a lot, are helpful and sort of goofy, but play absolutely no part in the brand strategy other than their names. Is the TV work showing Beth and Page a campaign? You tell me.

Here’s the point. Just as I suggest to people with social media programs they need a motivation for their social persona, spokespeople need a strategic reason for being. They need to be motivated toward a brand goal. Beth and Page are very nice people I’m sure – but right now if consumers were asked to talk about them all they would say are their names. This is the oldest mistake in the book. And frankly it’s childish. It’s like advertising done by an app. Sorry for my snark, but come on…Peace.

The Idea. The Performance.

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July 3, 2014

Anything Elizabeth Hurley does I like. No really, anything. In this Droga5 ditty for Newcastle Ale, there was an idea, great copywriting and a compelling performance. It made me thirsty.

Great work contains 3 things: an idea, proof of idea and performance. Ideas without proof may take hold but don’t really impact sales. Ironically, ideas without proof are called selling. Claim, claim, claim. When someone is claiming or selling we shut down. Ideas supported by proof have the most sales impact.

In the Droga5 spot, there is an idea: America would be quite different if Britain won the Revolutionary War (#ifwewon). There is proof: the funny examples of what would be different in America today — which makes us smile, nod and even empathize. But the performance of Elizabeth Hurley takes the work to a higher level. The performance of the idea is what brings it to life.

Smart ad agency people understand this — they are paid to excel at it. Performance is a little lacking in the digital agency space, but there, it has more upside. More breadth. And I’m not talking acting here, I’m talking performance of the idea. Performance of the proof.

Think about the performance, don’t stop at strategy, creative and production. Peace.

Insure Product Meaning

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November 6, 2013

Yesterday I Tweeted the question “Does anyone know what the Discount Double Check is?” Everyone has heard of it; it’s all over TV. Especially on NFL football. Aaron Rodger’s who mimes putting on a championship belt after touchdowns has sold the little dance to Allstate Insurance who has paired it with some double check insurance option and uses that as a differentiator. I’m so interested in the humor (or lack of it), I’ve yet to figure out what the product feature means. Perhaps you do. What are we double checking and how does it work?

It only took AFLAC half a decade to move beyond its quacking name-onic brand device until the advertising explained to customers that AFLAC is insurance that pays out if you are hurt on the job.

In both cases we knew what the company IS but not what the product DOES. They both fail the Is-Does test. The first test of marketers, and I know it sounds fundamental and silly, is to get the Is-Does out of the way. So all you self-described lifestyle brands out there, that’s way too inside baseball. It’s too markobabble. Get your Is-Does right.

Peace.

We’re Here!

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October 25, 2010

This is a leader board from AOL that appeared on Adweek.com. It’s a perfect example of “We’re Here” advertising, doing little more than telling users they exist. The creative for this baby could not have taken more than 10 minutes. And that with 3 re-dos. Come on AOL, you can do better than this! Peace!

Wendy’s. Kaplan Thaler. Unreal.

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November 22, 2010

Branding is about owning a discrete idea in the minds of consumers. Find the right idea — something you are good at and upon which you can deliver – then spend your money proving it.

A couple of years ago, Wendy’s, a top 3 fast food burger chain, gave its account to Kaplan Thaler Group. Kaplan Thaler does good ads, great music and creates muscle memory for its clients. It won the Wendy’s business with a neat jingle and neat idea “You know when it’s real.” The idea revolves around a commitment to use more natural ingredients. No one doesn’t want more natural ingredients. So it is a great idea in a category with pent up “bad nutrition” ideals.

We can debate whether the last two year of advertising have delivered on the natural ingredients promise, but there is a $25 million campaign launching for Wendy’s new French fries that has gone off trail. The product uses natural-cut unpeeled Russet Burbank potatoes and sea salt. Presumably they are using a healthier quality of fry oil. The advertising idea – and here is where the disconnect comes in — is about “taste and sharing.” People like the taste so much they don’t want to share. You know when it’s real? When this work is copy-tested people will play back “the fries are so good you won’t want to share.” FAIL. (I’m sure the copy talks about real ingredients, but the idea is about taste and sharing.) This doesn’t put a deposit in the brand idea bank, it makes a withdrawal.

Money into the market will make sale blip up. It will be viewed as modest near-term success. But by now, Kaplan should know how brand strategy works: Get them to sing the strategy, then burrow it into their heads. Props to Wendy’s product people for the product idea. As for the marketing people shame, shame. Peace!

Buick’s Progress. A tale.

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November 16, 2010

I drove a Buick Skylark as a kid and loved it. Though green wasn’t my favorite color, the car offered a little macho and some pep. My friend’s dad owned the Buick dealership from whence it came and when he grew up he, too, owned a Buick Dealership. I went to work at McCann-Erickson in the 90s and we had the Buick account. Market research began to slip out that Buick had become the brand of Q-Tips — little white heads that stuck up from behind the steering wheel. That was the 90s. As much as the client and agency derided the target and tried to go younger, they never really changed the car models.

The decade of the 2000s rolled in and again management talked about aiming younger. Tiger Woods was the spokesperson – young phenom that he was. Some youthful accoutrements were put on the cars, some grilles were youthenized, a new younger nameplate introduced (Lucerne, hee hee), yet the old people car tag did not abate.

Fast forward to today – the 2000 teens. “People still equate us with big, floaty, boxy cars that are driven by people in their 70s and 80s,” said Craig Bierley, director of advertising and sales of Buick/GMC in today’s paper. He added “This is really about position Buick in a progressive marketing space, so that people can think of Buick as a progressive company overall.” This quote, a reference to a new selling application for iPhones and Androids.

Hello? You can market younger but the car designs must appeal so. They don’t yet. See you in 2020. Peace!

Visuals.

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February 29, 2012

There is subtext in every marketing piece. For instance, today there is a big hubbub (and rightfully so) about a Mad Men outdoor billboard showing Don Draper in free-fall high atop a building on the West Side of Manhattan. (The board is 95% white space.) To show watchers it’s an iconic visualization of the show and Don Draper’s life. To New Yorkers and others who lost friends and loved ones 9/11, it’s an insensitive punch in the como se llama.

Visuals, more than words, tell immediate stories. We need to be mindful. Pictures that show danger may be eye-catching but convey danger which research shows can transfer that feeling subconsciously to the brand. Imagery that conveys happy (Coke’s happiness factory) can transmute smiles. Visuals that depict chaos or disorganization similarly hurt an organization story.

Ergo, think before you select a visual. Not everyone sits around a computer for hours trying to select a visualization to match a brief. Most pass marketing pieces with nary a glance. So look up. Stay true. Be sensitive. Peace.

The Marketing Deficit.

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April 11, 2013

Ads are money. At least they cost money. But many people don’t always think of them that way CFOs do. CEOs do…sorta. Ad agents and marketing managers think of budgets as the invisible air they breathe, not as the life sustain force. Not as money. What am I getting at? We have to start treating advertising and marketing related expenses as the money it is. Make that money accountable. What is working? And by what measurable quantification?

When a family goes broke, the debt that keeps getting added to the credit card and credit line, stops. Mommy or daddy cuts up the credit cards. When Social Security and Medicare trend toward an unsustainable level, we need to make changes. We are often operating at a marketing deficit.

We can’t take the art out of advertising and marketing. But let’s remember, branding is not design. And a Super Bowl ad than makes us giggle but sells a competitor’s product is a blight. We can start to treat advertising like the business tool it is. (The web too, for that matter.) These are tactics that need to move consumer closer to a sale – if not directly to a sale. On the show Top of the Lake on The Sundance Channel one of the characters beats himself with a belt before his mother’s grave to rid himself of guilt. Maybe we marketers should smack ourselves around a touch to remind us of our real business purpose. Peace.

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