UBS and Craft.

    New Normal.

    Brand Strategy

    An Example of Marko-babble.

    0

    I often use the term marko-babble to describe some of the effluvia being shared on the web about brand craft. Or marketing craft. It’s my mission to get rid of mark-babble. 

    At a panel discussion the other day, I was close to nauseous by the constant use of the word “authentic.” Rather than babble about marko-babble I wanted to cite some content that actually fits the bill.  The brand services company that posted these words will remain nameless.  And I’ve Googled the entire sentences and the posting company name did not come up, so I’m in the clear.     

    Let it rain:

    Brand
    We build modern, digital-first brands designed to lead through market change and create long-term value for shareholders, customers, employees, and wider society.

    Culture
    We build purpose-driven cultures that drive employee behaviour and accelerate business growth.

    Experience
    We develop powerful, multi-channel creative communications, and intelligent, user-centric digital solutions designed to create lasting impact.

    So, do you have a good idea now of what these girls and boys do? Specifically? Uh…they build, build and develop.

    As famous Broadway producer David Belasco once said “If you can’t write your idea on the back of my calling card, you don’t have a clear idea.”

    Peace.

     

     

    Small Batch Brand Strategy

    0

    I am loath to admit it, but What’s The Idea? is a small batch brand strategy consultancy.  The market has been conditioned to think a large corporate brand strategy has to cost $100,000; add another $150k for naming and logo design. Most of my clients don’t have that kind of money. My clients tend to be small and mid-size or start-ups.

    My framework for brand strategy – one claim, three proof planks – is tight and enduring.  But for some larger businesses, helmed by multivariate-obsessed MBAs, it may seem overly simplistic.  And inexpensive. Simplicity is the beauty of the framework, frankly. It mirrors what consumers remember.

    In small batches, with only 40 or 80 hours invested in research and planning, the process has to be relatively simple.  The information gathering metaphor I use is the stock pot. My cognitive approach, the “boil down.”  When you work in small batches, you self-limit your ingredients. You know what not to heap into the pot.

    I’ve done small batch brand strategy for crazy-complicated business lines. A global top 5 consulting company with a health and security practice and a preeminent hacker group who helps the government keep us safe. Small batches both.

    Try the small batch approach. As Ben Benson used to say, “I think you are going to love it.”

    Peace.  

     

    Brand Claim and the Boil Down.

    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.

     

    Brand Strategy Misnomer.

    0

    If I ask a marketing person their ad strategy is, likely answers would be “Increase sales.” Or “increase customer base.” Maybe “generate customer activation.” And were I to ask that marketer to articulate their brand strategy, they’d probably also default to generic functional answers.  Say things like “maintain our graphic standards,” or “design signage, packaging and graphics to clearly convey a unified message.” Possibly “maintain a consistent voice in the marketplace.” When, actually, the question “What is your brand strategy” is not a structural question at all. It’s meant to elicit the idea or value that propels the brand to success – a business-winning claim in the minds of consumers.

    If I ask your name, you’d say Joann or Edward, not “It’s the descriptor people use to identify me.”  But many people either don’t think of a brand strategy as their specific claim for building business — or they just don’t have one.  In the latter case they probably rely on their ad campaigns for brand strategy.

    Either way marketers are not reaping the rewards of brand strategy. It’s a crying shame.

    Peace.

    PS. The definition of brand strategy, here at What’s The Idea? is an organizing principle for product, experience and messaging.

     

     

    Smiles and Purpose.

    0

    I just read a couple of PepsiCo’s strategy statements.  PepsiCo is the $70B master brand for a broad assortment of sugary carbonated drinks and salty snacks, along with some other portfolio products in water, juice, tea and Quaker breakfast foods and snacks.

    It’s hard to do strategy for a massive conglomerate of brands. It’s especially hard when most of those brands are convenience store foods and rather unhealthy. But this is America and where there is demand there’s will be supply.

    Here is PepsiCo’s stated corporate mission: To create more smile with every sip and bite.

    And here is their vision statement: Be the global leader in convenience food and beverage with purpose.

    So to sum up the mega billion portfolio, it’s all about smiles and purpose.  Hmm. Where do I start? Try giving that brief to a creative team at BBDO.

    As I said, conglomerate company strategy is hard. General Motors has tried to do it using advertising and it never worked. Advertising agency holding companies know better. IPG, WPP, Omnicom never try to explain their value. It’s like herding cats.

    Back to Smiles and Purpose. Purpose is something you communicate if you are not known for having purpose…other than, perhaps making money. And Smiles? Well, they are not wrong.  But it’s just hard to own. Smiles are the universal language of enjoyment and as such not very differentiated.

    If PepsiCo really wanted to promote purpose, they would pick one. And only one. Planet. Diversity. Equality. But not all. PepsiCo’s mission and vision deserve better. What’s that story about the cobblers children?

    Peace.

     

     

    Loyalty and Feelings.

    0

    Kevin Perlmutter, a fellow alum of McCann-Erickson NY and now owner the brand consultancy Limbic recently posted about a piece of research suggesting “How your brand makes people feel has the highest correlation to brand loyalty.”  The observation is powerful and quite true, albeit a bit passive. 

    Let’s look at two operative ideas here: feeling and loyalty.

    Feeling about a brand is the result of the product itself and the positioning of that product by brand management. When Coca-Cola moved away from “refreshment” with its advertising and toward “happiness” they were looking a tangential or resulting feelings rather than an endemic feelings. The problem there was that lots of things can cause happiness. And so can lots of products. It’s ownable but only with a billion dollars. It’s a generic value. This was a campaign idea not a brand idea. Refreshment, on the other hand, can cause happiness. Happiness being a by-product of refreshment. One can earn happiness rather than position around it.

    As for loyalty, nobody doesn’t want product loyalty. But one can be loyal by degree and still not have purchase intent. I like to create bias toward product purchase.  Loyalty is a marketing concept that’s been around for decades. But it’s a passive measure. Segmentation studies turn up flavors of loyalty all the time. When a consumer has a bias toward a product or service, they will go out of their way to purchase.

    As much as this research is on track, in today’s analytics world where purchase is the primary measure of marketing success, I’m all for positioning around endemic product feelings/attitudes and creating bias toward purchase. “We’re Here” advertising and branding is no longer viable. Hear that Geico?

    For examples of this type of work in your category please write Steve at WhatsTheIdea dot com.

    Peace.  

     

    The Problem With Brand Planning Tools.

    0

    The world of branding is much like the real world in that there is science and everything else. What does that mean? Science undergirds the physical world, predicting the result of actions. Science repeats itself. Science predicts outcomes. Mathematics, physics, biology are all means to codify the physical world.

    A recent engineering client of mine taught me that tools fix things that are broken, but science precludes what’s broken. Cancer can be cured, we just haven’t figured out the science yet. Global warming can be dealt with, we just haven’t been able to muster the science and will.

    Many brand planners are tool-centric. I am pleading for us to be more science-centric. And that means starting way upstream of any tactical deliverable. Upstream of any buildable. In fact, it may be upstream of addressing a business problem. Because problems beget tools.

    Upstream means planning the master brand strategy. The organizing principle for product, experience and messaging. So many brand planners write briefs in support of a tactic. That’s downstream. Better to begin at the base level. At the foundation. Where the science is set.

    As you move your way up the stack (technology reference) or upstream toward the purchase, toward the tactic, you lose the science.

    Why is this a good approach? Because science is predictable. And predicting marketing outcomes is what is sorely lacking in our business.

    Peace.

     

    Benefit Shoveling.

    0

    What do you do?

    It’s a question that bounces back and forth at cocktail parties, breweries and work events.  There are a couple of ways to answer: a short form, couple-of-word answer, or go in-depth. In branding, I always encourage the former. Hit them with the Is-Does. What a brand product Is and what it does.

    Brands communicators don’t always follow this advice.  They think they need to sell and explain by the pound or by the word. It can leave audiences confused and/or fatigued. Good creative directors know this. They tell a simple story with a beginning, middle and end. A so-called narrative. Problem is, that narrative isn’t often based upon brand strategy.  (Post for another time.)

    So back to simple. Was it Benjamin Franklin who said (I paraphrase)  “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter?” 

    Marketing is made simple through brand strategy.  It’s objective driven. It provides proof of value. It’s measurable. And it leaves consumers with a gravity or gravitas constructed on care-abouts and good-ats.  It is the oppo of benefit shoveling, a meme I like to share which is the bane of marketers worldwide.

    Brand strategy, it’s what’s for dinner.

    Peace  

     

     

    Hey, I’m sellin’ here.

    0

    There is no strategy without tactics. Guys like me who write about brand strategy may seem like we’re above tactics, not wanting to get our hands dirty. (Twenty years ago, Peter Kim a McCann-Erickson mentor told me “Once I’ve sold the brand idea, I want to be done.” Everything after that gets messy, he explained. Approving ads, media, talent and all other things subjective.

    The thing about planners, especially older planners, is we like to understand the big picture first. We like to go big. Once we understand how to solve the category, the deepest pent up consumer need, then we can focus on the specifics. Problem is, marketers aren’t looking to solve the world’s ills, they’re looking to sell shit. Flat out, right away, cha-ching the cash register, sell shit. Today in this fast twitch media world, marketing directors want their chunk of the returns. Big data? Hell no. Little data about my product. Yes. Data that says “more sales.” Period.

    So we planners need to get the pipes out of our mouths and start talking tactics with clients. (Maybe keep the big picture stuff to ourselves a little more.) All my rants about claim and proof? Here’s one: Good branding works. Sales are proof.

    Peace.

    A Lesson in Brand Strategy from Meryl Streep.

    0

    Meryl Streep closed her Golden Globe acceptance speech with “Take your broken heart, turn it into art,” a borrow from Carrie Fisher. As I dried my tears after watching Ms. Streep I thought about my craft and how important feelings are in brand strategy.  When writing a brand brief, I tend to go long form. Creatives say they don’t like this, but it’s how I work. As I work through it, if my brief is flaccid and too business heavy it goes in the trash.  I know when a brief is working because I start to feel something.  

    There’s an old advertising axiom, “Make them feel something then do something.”  It works in strategy too.

    Like all good writing a good brief evokes a response. When my blood pressure changes, when I go flush, giggle or smile, I know I’m onto something. In a zone. More importantly, I know my clients and content creators will feel it.

    Meryl Streep is more than a great actor she a wonderful evoker.  Brand strategy is meant to package or direct how consumers evoke. Those who purchase while feeling are much more apt to remain loyal.

    You feel me?                                                                

    Peace.