Brand Strategy
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I love Under Armour. I do. It’s an amazing, important brand. If the company didn’t invent compression shorts, it certainly gets credit for it. The story is great, the product meaningful, and the company with its Baltimore provenance has people rooting for it. Sports apparel is a category alone in its ability to push through the recession and Under Armour is leading that growth. Under Armour owns the “hard body.” But image-wise, it’s operating in a competitive field with players spending a lot more money. Gatorade and Nike were first to hard body. Though all three focus on the flesh, sinew and sweat, Under Armour focus should be on the packaging (of that body).
Women’s Sports Apparel
Now Under Armour is amping up it targeting of women, who account for only 25% of sales. It is doing so by extending with the “I will” and “Protect this House I will” brand idea. Don’t get me wrong, the imagery and music is rousing and I love Lindsey Vonn, but the brand idea is not tight enough to slap a pair of balls on some women’s training footage and make a lasting Under Armour product statement. Were I women watching the spots, I’d be inclined to go out and buy some Gatorade.
Under Amour’s Focus
Under Armour also brand extended into sneakers, cleats and sunglasses — a couple of moves which have hurt serious brand development. There is an amazing, ownable brand idea waiting for Under Armour to claim. It has made to order brand planks, all of which can be mapped to its DNA…and it is unique to the category. Write me for the idea, if you haven’t figured it out already. Peace.
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Tags: brand idea, Brand Strategy, gatorade, I will, Lindsey vonn, nike, protect this house, under armour, whats the idea, whatstheidea, womens sports apparel
Jeff Finkle, the CFO of a company I once worked for, understands the power of a brand strategy. Jeff is an interesting character. His background is in venture capital, direct-to-consumer marketing start-ups, and C-level business and financial management. Plus, with a last name like Finkle…
Anyway, I quote him all the time in meetings when talking about the power of a brand strategy and the need for it to be acculturated throughout the company. In Jeff’s mind, company employees when leaving the building each night should ask themselves “What did I do today to make my company/product more ________ (insert brand strategy.)”
Zappos
A lot has been written about Zappos and its tight brand strategy. Pop Quiz: Which of the following four questions do you think Zappos employees ask themselves while heading to their cars?
1. Did I sell more shoes today?
2. Did I help the company sell more shoes today?
3. Did I increase customer satisfaction among Zappos customers today?
4. Did I help customers feel better about their feet, footwear and sense of style?
I need to get closer to the Zappos brand, but I’m betting they’d say number 3. And they’ve built a successful business with that approach. Personally, I would stretch it to number 4 because “customer sat” is generic. But at least they are asking the question.
Anyone can tap a company slogan as they are heading out of the locker room, but more likely than not that’s just for good luck. It’s up to management and the CMO to make sure employees stop tapping and start asking the tough question. Peace!
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Tags: brand acculturation, Brand Strategy, Jeff Finkle, whats the idea, whatstheidea, zappos
MDC Partners is a marketing services holding company with a brand strategy. That’s right, they have an idea. IPG doesn’t, though back in the day one might have assigned them “entrepreneurship.” WPP, Publicis, and Omnicom don’t have ideas, though perhaps at one point Omnicom might have owned “creative.” At holding companies the powers that be feel brand strategies are not really needed.
MDC Partners owns talent. “Where great talent lives” is their idea. For some, that might be a platitude or poesy but for Miles Nadal, CEO, it’s a real strategy. As a practice, MDC does not own a majority stake in its companies, it owns 49%. This insures that great talent will stick around. Their hands-off approach also insures that the talent stays great. Though I only know Mr. Nadal through his actions and deeds his focus is solely on the leaders he hires, not their output. Any person who has been around this business knows managing people is easier than managing work output. Talent is what drives great marketing. The talent to see what sells, the talent to package it, and the talent to promote it has driven the business since soap suds. Never mind if that talent is traditional, digital, mobile or whatever’s next. (What could possibly be next?)
MDC Partners stock grew last year while every other holding company’s tanked. Campaigns come and go and talent comes and goes, but in the marketing world “talent” is a powerful idea. Peace!
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Tags: advertising holding companies, Brand Strategy, ipg, marketing services, MDC partners, Miles Nadal, omnicom, publicis, talent, whats the idea, whatstheidea, wpp
R/GA is a bold leader in the digital marketing area. As all advertising and marketing shops move toward the middle — toward the strategy — only one digital shop aspires to be the agency of record: R/GA. Most digital shops rue the fact that they don’t get a seat at the big table, R/GA wants the table. And they make quite a case. Their entrée is the “platform.”
In a video by Nick Law, R/GA’s chief creative officer (thankfully, he’s not goofily titled), he says advertising needs to move “from metaphors that romance a brand to seductive demonstrations of a brand platform.” Agreed. Were he to have substituted the word “strategy” we’d be in perfect agreement. The word platform, you see, is a euphemism for website (and other digital stuff residing on the website). Brand strategy is hard to put a price tag on and websites and digital assets are easy estimate.
Mr. Law is correct campaigns come and go. He’s right that tactics need to feed the brand strategy. He’s right that utility and community are the source of sales growth and retention. And he’s certainly not being disingenuous in suggesting that something needs to hold and tie all the brand building work together. So I’m going to cut him some slack and not argue the noun platform and favor a more verb-like version of the word.
In the video Mr. Law refers to one of R/GA’s most famous successes Nike+. “Nike+ is a platform fueled by campaigns” he says. Nike+ was first a product and it’s growing into a branded utility. Is it growing into a platform? You tell me.
These guys are the real deal. And as good marketers they are trying to create a new language for the marketing world. As I said, bold.
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Tags: Brand Strategy, branded utility, marketing platforms, Nick Law, nike, RGA, whats the idea, whatstheidea
Noah Brier once asked me “How do you define a brand plan?” Everyone, he suggested, has a different view of what a brand plan is. My ability to answer in a few words with a simple explanation impressed (I think). A brand plan is really just an organizing principle. In order to create a good brand plan, one must first get the Is-Does right. What a brand IS and what it DOES. The Is-Does is one of the easiest and at the same time hardest exercises known to marketers. For instance, is the iPhone a phone?
Technology companies have a terrible time with the Is-Does. Here’s an Is-Does example from a website:
A global provider of digital advertising technology solutions that optimize the use of media, creative and data for enhanced performance.
Try explaining that to your great aunt.
A video on the same website, presumably created by someone with agency chops, refers to the company this way “A global leader in digital advertising campaign management.” Much better, no?
What Makes a Good Is-Does?
The litmus of a good Is-Does is its ability to be played back by consumers. Ask a consumer what your brand Is and what it Does and they should be in the neighborhood. If they have to use a competing brand to define you, that’s not good. And here’s a tip, don’t put words like “solution provider” in the Is-Does or use marketing poesy or made-up concepts.
If you have some really bad Is-Does examples (usually found on the boiler plate of press releases or the first sentence of the About section of a website) please post in the comments.
My Is-Does? Marketing Consultant (Is) that helps companies find powerful, sales driving brand strategies (Does). What is your company’s Is-Does? Peace!
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Tags: Brand Planning, Brand Strategy, Is-Does, marketing consultant, noah brier, whats the idea, whatstheidea
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that about 90% of the workers in advertising and marketing are consumed by tactics. “I want a new website. We need an acquisition program. Our sales force is up 8% year over year. The innovation team is cranking out some really great ideas.”
We build things, we buy things, we read, write and communicate. We hire and manage, then count the metrics and the change. But are these efforts always undertaken towards a strategic purpose? More often than not the answer is “no.”
Every company needs to have a strategic mission. A brand strategy. And it needs key operating principles: Brand planks. Every employee at the company needs to know the mission and the planks. Go out today and ask a worker what their company strategy is, and with the possible exception of Zappos you are likely to hear “make money” or “be more profitable.” Then probe “What are your company’s three key operating principles?” and you’ll get that look dogs give you when you put the ball behind your back. Try it. Peace!
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Tags: Advertising, brand planks, Brand Strategy, marketing, tactical world, whats the idea, whatstheidea, zappos
On prompt, many company executive will tell you their business strategy is “Make more money.” Some invest to make more money others reduce the cost of goods. There are many ways to invest or cost-cut: alter the product, play with pricing, change distribution, promote in a new way. All are business decisions.
Ask that same company executive what their brand strategy is, though, and you may get a quizzical look. Or the quick parry “To provide customers with the best product, at the best price, with uncompromising service.” But that’s not a brand strategy, that’s the brand marketing equivalent of pasteurized cheese.
A brand strategy is created at a product’s molecular level. It is inherently product-based. A brand strategy grows from the product then gives back over time. And I’m not just talking “deposits in the brand bank,” I’m talking about informing product innovation, brand extension, expansion, even M&A activity.
A brand strategy is deeply rooted in the consumer — the consumer’s environment (physical and emotional) and needs (known and subconscious). Brand strategy is about growth and growth doesn’t happen without nourishment, environment and caring.
A brand strategy is a living thing. Not a business thing.
Business strategies are logical. They are easy to articulate. Brand strategies are psychophysiological. They are harder to articulate but have a pulse. And when right — they quicken the pulse. Peace!
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Tags: Brand Strategy, business strategy, distribution, pricing, product marketing, psychophysiology, whats the idea, whatstheidea
I’ve been meeting with some really smart people this year, most of whom are in the strategy business. Some are brand strategists, others account planers, a good deal digital strategists. Strategy is such a rich word. “I’m working on the strategy for a Belgian beer” said the head of a hot web boutique. On probe, he admitted it was the web strategy. “We handle digital strategy for the world’s largest technology company” said the head of strategy at a very forward- thinking global direct and digital agency. Ads for the tech company are handled by another multinational. At P&G a ranking digital officer suggests: “Brand strategy is in the hands of the consumer.” An insight, also, shared by the chief strategy and innovation officer at a multinational promotional agency.
It’s not war, it’s marketing.
Sun Tzu might have said there are war strategies and battle strategies — and they can be different — but marketing isn’t war. In uncle Steve’s world (that’s me) there is a brand strategy and the tactics used to support it. Campaigns, tactics, analytics and sales fluctuations will always be around. As will smart people. But brand strategy should be the business driver. Of everything. This includes production, product innovation, hiring, etc. Until all the silos and all employees and their agents really understand the company brand strategy and its simple dimensions, we will have branding anomie. Peace it up!
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Tags: Account Planning, Brand Strategy, Digital Strategy, marketing, P&G, Sun Tzu, war, whats the idea
There are two factions in online marketing these days: Cashiers and Conversationalists.
Cashiers
Cashiers care about the sale. They have the small dashboard that tracks click-to-sale and spits out an ROI calculations. Cashiers can’t wait to wake up in the morning to see the new numbers. They are in to usability testing, shopping cart abandonment, media optimization and other measures but their interest and energy pretty much stops at the sale. The buck stops there.
Conversationalists
Conversationalists are a daintier. They immerse themselves in the process. They want to make friends. (Like the kid with the runny nose in grade school, sometimes they just walk right up to you and ask “Do you want be my friend?”) In my world, conversationalists are actually more likely to find truths and insights about their products and win in the long term. All the pop marketing gurus today are into the conversation. They are not technologists, thank God, so they are easy to listen to and learn from but their failing is that they’re a little too caught up in the sausage making, not the sausage tasting.
CMOs
For a CMO it’s great to have both types of people on staff. A Yin and Yang thing. Cashiers are imperative for sales now. Conversationalists care about future sales, and loyalty and sale predisposition. But it’s hard to take predisposition to the bank. Good CMOs have a brand plan in place that gives direction to the factions. A brand plan is informed by the work and findings of both factions, but it drives them. A brand plan helps Cashiers and Conversationalist organize “claim and proof” in a way that creates Return on Strategy near and long term. Peace!
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Tags: brand plan, Brand Planning, Brand Strategy, cashiers, claim and proof, cmo, conversationslists, return on strategy, roi, shopping cart abandonment, whats the idea, whatstheidea
Quick, I say “brand strategy,” what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Okay, let’s try another. “Brand plan.” You say ______? This sort of brand speak is really inside baseball to most businesses. Over the past couple of years I’ve spoken to some really smart people from many different walks of marketing life and they all know the words but, ask them to define or diagram them on paper, they can’t.
Wikipedia “Brand Plan.”
Wikipedia the words “brand plan” and Wiki asks you “Did you mean Brand Play?” The first option under the question is business plan. Wikipedia “Brand Strategy” and it says “You may create the page Brand Strategy.”
Everyone agrees that brands are important…that they have value. Most understand brands need to be managed. What they don’t always get is that brands need to be managed to a tight brand strategy. So they default to managing brands based upon acquisition, sales growth or retention metrics — all of which are measurable. Thanks to the web, we can now even measure clicks and views and engagement and referrals and, and, and. And tie measures to dollar investments. Break out the dashboard and play marketing videogames.
So if brands are important, and we all agree they are, how do we measure the efficacy of the brand strategy? I often use the example that Coke’s brand strategy is refreshment. Today, Wieden + Kennedy and Coke would have you believe it is happiness. Who is right and how to we find out?
Now don’t get me wrong, a powerful brand strategy is only so if it increases sales and margins. Period. But tying sales and revenue increase to a strategy, not a tactic, is what’s what. Peace!
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Tags: brand, brand plan, Brand Strategy, coke, whats the idea, whatstheidea, wieden + kennedy, Wikipedia
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