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Truth or Proof?

By
Steve Poppe
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0

The word “truth” is emphasized a great deal in brand planning and the sale of brand ideas.  It’s a good word. McCann-Erickson was an early proponent putting “Truth Well Told” in its logo.

In my opinion, the word has lost its luster. We have some politicians to thank for that. I believe there are still Standards and Practices departments in network television but with the torrent of social media channels popping up everywhere one person’s truth is another person’s “not so.”  

So with truth on the wane, I reiterate my support for use of the word “proof.”

The marketing world is made up of claims and proof. Make a claim and give a consumer a reason to believe it. Instead, most big spending marketers are “claim-shoveling” also known as benefit-shoveling. A claim without proof is blather. And there is a lot of blather out there in marketing today. Someone smart once said about advertising “If you don’t have something to say, sing it.”

The very smartest of brand marketers understand this and create selling strategies using proof to convey purchase. Easy really.

If you’d like to chat about proof and the mining of proof, send a note. Steve at WhatsTheIdea.

Peace.  

 

 

The Economics of Proof in Brand Strategy.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Presenting brand strategy is always difficult.  The lead-up exposition often kills the mood. It often meanders and doesn’t always offer linear route to the presented idea/strategy.

My brand strategy framework is one claim and three proof planks.  The claim identifies the brand position and key value. It can be a bit tagline-ish but it’s not the creative. Where the real rubber meets the road though is in what I call the “proof planks.” Each plank provides a listing of scientific proofs supporting the claim — organized by topic. Together, the 3 planks support the claim in a way unique to the brand. The planks — derive from key customer needs and brand good-ats — are contained in a tidy package other brands can’t deliver.   

When presenting brand strategy to C-level executives, I always end on a slide about the claim sharing “pros” and “cons.”  But recently, I’ve added a new slide asking a question about proof plank ROI. 

It goes something like this,

“Is a customer more likely to buy from us if (insert proof plank.)” 

If the answer is anything but a definitive “Yes” it needs a rethink. 

Brand strategy is often very often about the feels. The emotions. The cute turn of a phase. Yet, without a solid grounding in the economics of success, we might as well be selling ads.  (And often are.)

Peace.

 

 

Couple two, tree (sic) peeves.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Today I Googled “How much does whatstheidea charge for an initial consultation,” and the answer that came back was “free.” Wrong!  Freakin’ AI. I did the same for a competitor in the insurance space and the answer was also “free.” That one was probably right.

I’m happy to talk brand strategy and sell my wares but consultations are paid-for.  How can I proffer good advice if I don’t know what the brand is good-at and what the consumers care about (good-ats and care-abouts)?

Peeve 2. A long-standing positioning tenet is focus.  “We do one thing,” is a tried-and-true positioning. It works. Yet marketing and branding consultants don’t do just one thing.  They do everything.  Here is one consultant’s capabilities:  B2B Buyer Persona Development, Positioning & Messaging, Go-To-Market Strategy, Sales Enablement, Competitive Intelligence, Customer & Market Research, Brand Identity Design, Website Design & Copy, Sales & Marketing Training, Product Marketing Recruitment.  This type of marko-babble drives me crazy. 

Peeve 3. The constant use of the word “storytelling” in the brandscape.  Story telling is how we sell. It is how we teach and learn. It is a communications tactic. It is NOT how we position. And it is certainly not strategy. Leave storytelling to the creative teams, to the sales teams, and executives.  Leave brand positioning to the brand strategists.

Peace.

 

 

Bottom-up Marketing.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

In my last post, The End of the Marketing Department as We Know It, I promised a follow-up.  The idea seemed worthy of some deeper thinking so I started out as if blocking out a book, using chapters. The first chapter was entitled Bottom-Up Marketing*. Bottom-up is how most brand strategists approach an assignment. That is, they begin with what the buying population knows and thinks of the brand and the category.  It’s a big world out there and addressable buying segments aside, everyone who wears clothes is addressable when it comes to brand strategy. So it’s a lot of work. Of course, there are hacks for efficiency. And there’s quantitative research and data. But talking to buyers is the secret sauce.

(Full disclosure: I always begin with a CEO interview and the 24 Questions, a battery of money-following inquires that provide the color-by-numbers boundaries. That said the real learning, the real buying language comes customers and prospects.)

When we understand the bottom, which as the buying public should really be the top, it’s then time to assemble the strategy. With a brand strategy in hand, the marketing department typically takes over implementation. All the tactics come from their minds. The gray matter of the marketing department – all 12 pounds of it – is supposed to make the magic. And that’s where things break down.

How do we move from a small, centralized group to a massive and powerful assembly of marketing thinkers? That’s a topic of the next post.

Peace.

* Al Ries and Jack Trout wrote a book by this name and I must have read it decades ago. I only realized when looking for free artwork on the web. Al and Jack were competitors of my dad, Fred Poppe, back in the day and Al became a mentor or sorts. Props to Al and Jack’s groundbreaking work. Positioning is a seminal work in branding.

 

 

The End of the Marketing Department…as we know it.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

This is one of those times when I hope nobody reads this post.  It’s controversial. It promotes a potential market discontinuity. And it’s self-servicing. Of course, it came to me while pressure washing the driveway. (Have you ever painted a driveway with a 2 inch brush?  It’s like that.)

The End of the Marketing Department As We Know It was born of a kernel of an idea I’ve had for many years — employees and loyal users are the best marketers. I have never come out and stated it so vehemently, however.

Marketing departments are unnecessary. Not marketing, marketing departments  — in all their depth and glory.

But if marketing is the engine that provides fuel and support to sales, what will take its place?

A well-reasoned, well-shared, and smartly constructed Brand Strategy. One that everyone in a company is committed to activating.

Let me ‘splain.

Every company of some size has the human capital to follow, support and feed the brand strategy.  This last part being the most crucial. The people at a company are the ones who make the product. They design and contribute to the experience of the product. And they are the ones who face the customers. And by face the customers I mean look them in the eye. Hear their voices and values. Collect their money. Respond to their qualms and issues.  People in the marketing department don’t do that by and larger.

Over the next few posts, I am going to share why we are not at the end of marketing — hell no — but we may be at the end of the marketing department writ large.

Stay tuned.

Peace.

 

 

 

 

An Uncomfortable Interview.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

While in the advertising business at a big NYC shop in the 90s I had to interview lots of job candidates. I put together a battery of questions which I used on each applicant — many of which I was quite proud. “Tell me about the best letter you ever wrote.” “Discuss a new process or procedure you developed at you job that made work easier.” Stuff like that.   

Well, one time I asked a question of a young lady that got a weird response. The question asked, a few minutes into the interview was “Tell me a little bit about me.” I wanted to know if she was observant.  Did she look at my desk, my books and pictures. Advertising people have to be curious and intuitive. Also, I wanted to know is she going to blow smoke.

Well, oh my.  She became a bit indignant. She felt I was getting too personal, maybe it was a come on.  It was well before “Me Too,” but certainly not before women and men were being objectified.

After that interview, I changed up my questions a bit. I became the observant one.

 

Peace.

 

 

Small Business Conundrum.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Can brand strategy work for small businesses?  Of course it can. Are small businesses interested in brand strategy? No, not really. 

Small business owners are concerned with business strategy. To paraphrase Sergio Zyman, they want to “Sell more, to more, more times, at higher process.”  The flaw in the approach is these goals are internal or “me” focused.  Brand strategy introduces external factors or a “you” focus to the equation. Small business owners often don’t have time to delve into why customers buy — their thoughts are more binary, e.g., sale/no sale. Let alone all the other things they have to worry about. 

Brand strategy is best done when balancing customer care-abouts and brand good-ats. Part me (seller), part you (customer).  Ironically, business owners are best equipped to understand their customers and prospects.  They’re feet on the ground. Ears in the room. Fingers on the credit card reader. Yet they’re so busy with the day-to-day they don’t have times to plumb customer experience and preference – the things that contribute to brand strategy. And the things that make everyday decision making easy.

It’s a conundrum.

Peace.  

 

 

Ad Mementos.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

A brand strategy conundrum that rears its head quite often in our business is:  Is the brand what brand leaders say it is?  Or what consumers say it is?  

I can make a case for both.  And, frankly, both can be correct.

However, without brand leaders adhering to tight strategies, there is simply no place for planners in the business.

When asked about brands, consumers often play back the advertising campaign they recall. Without a stout strategy driving that advertising, consumers are really just playing back ad mementos. Not organized brand values. Strong brand strategy gives form, muscle and meaning to advertising. Then — and only then — is a brand what the consumer says it is. Because it’s being curated and managed. 

We are farmers. We seed, we plant, we cultivate. Then we harvest. We don’t leave the fields fallow, untilled or simply ornamented.

If we do, it’s confusing to consumers.    

Peace.

 

 

Trouble Ticket Bingo.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I am a man of a certain age. Okay 70. A man who recently spent a stupid amount of money to get WhatsTheIdea.com ported over from GoDaddy (hosted by a reseller) to GoDaddy direct – no middleman.

The salesperson was excellent. ‘Yes, yes, yes.” With the invoice paid and the money still warm, service was great. I expected a couple of after-the-fact add-ons like the need to buy a new WordPress theme, but what-evs…it’s the American way.

After the initial publish I noticed my logo did not move over to the new site. By the time I caught it (and, I had been sent before- and after-publish screen grabs with the logo in place), the service support ticket closed and I had to open a new one. My bad. Cha-ching.

My WordPress Premium Support team were not able to resolve things. The hand-offs were not seamless and though I believe them to be live bodies from another timezone, sometimes my emails bounced back as undeliverable (wpps.services.godaddy.com).   

Why am I writing this? Because it’s not even full-on AI service yet — we are still playing Trouble-Ticket Bingo. And yes, I’m culpable…no doubt. But is this the bright future of customer service?

Meta is laying off 8,000 people (maybe more) while investing $125B (NYT) in AI.

I loves me some technology, but there’s no replacement for a single point of contact firing on all synapses.

Peace!

POSTSCRIPT   Less than 24 hours after this blog post went up and with a little elbow grease on my part, my old logo was published — then, after a quick revision request to the WPPS team my new logo replaced it.  Now all is right with the world. Thank you GoDaddy and Svetomir T.

 

People Not Product?

By
Steve Poppe
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0

My brand planning superpower, such that it is, is the ability to talk to consumers. Really smart planners (and cultural anthropologists) will tell you to be a listener. To have a good ear. To be able to sift the wheat from the chaff in conversations and hear dog-whistle bits and pieces of strategist insight.

All of that is important. But just being an interviewer is not the way to get people to open up.  You’ve got to give a little. You’ve got to entertain a little. You must be human. And the best humans have no commercial agenda. Consumers are inured to commercial agendas. So, when I engage a consumer, or even a C-level exec, I like to show some vulnerability. No need to be the smartest person in the room. I use humor to make a person laugh, it sends signals to their amygdala (Megan Kent?) It says I’m not a marketing predator. Half of interviews are going to be boring so don’t be boring. Be interested in the person what they have to say. Ask the questions but let your consumer direct the discourse. Make it personal. Make it more like a date than a brand exploratory.

Put the consumer at ease. That’s when they tell you stuff.  Stories that enrich discovery. It’s a qual rather than quant endeavor. 

That’s the business of brand planning — people not product.

Peace.

 

 

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