Brand Marketing Tips by Steve Poppe » marketing dashboard

Beyond the Dashboard.

Steve Poppe — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:43:37 +0000

The dashboard metaphor came to me recently when looking for the antithesis of what I have long been calling “rearview mirror” marketing strategy. Those who look through the rearview and side view mirrors to guide marketing decisions are likely to make only incremental advances. This school of marketers asks questions such as “Where have our sales come in the past? Where have our competitors’ sales come from in the past? Who is gaining marketshare and what is their strategy?” I’m a fan of history but I don’t advise clients to be stifled by it.

The Marketing Dashboard

The dashboard is something you hear about repeatedly in corporate management circles. Data a la carte. A single computer interface with dollar sales, unit sales, segment sales, regional sorts, YOY, month over month, sale by channel, A to S ratio, cost per click, etc. The dashboard can be mesmerizing, but what lies ahead of the dashboard? The answer is the future. The horizon. And, more importantly, what’s beyond the horizon. Can you say iPod?

Incrementalists

I’m not going to go all Henry Ford on you but the future is where the big money is. Doing what everyone else does, even in messaging, is where the incrementalists play. Don’t be an incrementalist. Look forward. People are people and their needs are predictable. Don’t over think. Understand simplicity, usability, and human nature…and you should be able see beyond the dashboard.

Happy Holidays and a big fat PEACE!

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Branding and the New Marketing Dashboard.

Steve Poppe — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:07:59 +0000

Marketing is not a once-a-year phenomenon. But it used to was (a little Cajun phraseology). Marketing once revved up around September when corporate budgets had to be forecast. Production began in November and December with budgets finalized in January. Media money was allocated around the first of the year and ad campaigns launched in Q1, maybe the beginning of Q2. Then they were put to bed until planning started again the following September. Marketers tended to follow this hallowed media and marketing calendar religiously and everything was very campaign driven.

Then the Web arrived – the malleable, measureable, tactical Web. Not only a way to send messages to the market, but a way to sell directly to customers and eliminate the middle man mark-up. The Web became a game changer. Lately, marketers have learned something new about the Web — it provides them an ear to the marketplace which previously was the domain of research companies. Game changer number 2.

Cutting edge marketers are now using the measurable messaging, direct sales, and research capability to dashboard (verb) their marketing efforts, dialing up sales and competitive advantage on a more timely basis. It’s very exciting when done well.

There is one downside however: brand strategy takes a hit. With so much on the dashboard (noun) many marketers are getting caught up in all the dials and lights and forgetting brand strategy – forgetting their brand idea. Modulating the dashboard behind a powerful brand (and brand planks) will be the heavy lifting for marketers the next couple of years.

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Simplicity out of Complexity

Steve Poppe — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:15:00 +0000

I’m moving my blog over to a more grown up platform thanks to some friends at UnReal Web Marketing and one of the first posts they selected for the test site was titled “Dashboard My Ass.” Dashboards are the rage for senior executives today, putting all the important business metrics at their fingertips. And as we know, metrics are Nirvana (sorry Kurt) in marketing today. I love metrics, don’t get me wrong, but in my work they can’t fuzzy the judgment.

Taking 10 or 20 sales measures off a dashboard and building market segments, salesforces, ad campaigns, and new products teams around them is complex business. At a big company, this work may take scores of people. (Think Yahoo.) But how do you make sense of all that dashboard data and product planning activity in a way that is simple, easy-to-digest, and meaningful for consumers? How do you create a simple branding idea out of all that complex data?

Well, you don’t do it with a dashboard. It’s a brains and hearts thing. When the Galvanic Skin Response of the executive team starts to perk, that’s when you know you have an idea. I never saw a dashboard buy soap powder. Peace.

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Simplicity out of Complexity

Steve Poppe — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:13:34 +0000

I’m moving my blog over to a more grown up platform thanks to some friends at UnReal Web Marketing and one of the first posts they selected for the test site was titled “Dashboard My Ass.” Dashboards are the rage for senior executives today, putting all the important business metrics at their fingertips. And as we know, metrics are Nirvana (sorry Kurt) in marketing today. I love metrics, don’t get me wrong, but in my work they can’t fuzzy the judgment.

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Dashboard my ass.

Steve Poppe — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 02:15:51 +0000

The pop marketing term of the last couple of years has been “dashboard.” As a brand planner who advocates “windshield” planning rather than the more common “rear view mirror planning” approach, I get the dashboard metaphor.

The marketing dashboard contains dials and gauges that monitor the performance of marketing programs. These metrics are valuable for sure but if one doesn’t look out the windshield and truly see what’s coming, they are driving with their head down.

Great marketers don’t wait around for consumer behaviors to be measured, great marketers decide what consumers will like…before they like it. They see in front of the dashboard. The future is a beautiful place.

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Dashboard my ass.

Steve Poppe — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 14:18:00 +0000

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