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Monthly Archives: April 2026

People Not Product?

By
Steve Poppe
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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.

 

 

What IS the Idea?

By
Steve Poppe
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0

 

 

 

 

I readily admit that naming is one, if not the most important, parts of branding. Does the name pass the Is-Does test? Does it feel defining? Will it pass the test of time? When looking at the name of my business What’s The Idea? I should be equally critical. And analytical.

I am in the brand strategy business not the idea business. (I used to think I was in the brand planning business but that isn’t what clients buy.  They buy brand strategy. Brand planning is the sausage making. Nobody want to see that.)  So What’s The Idea? doesn’t exactly pass the Is-Does test. (What a brand is and what a brand does.)  It’s kind of a fail. But with a bit of context it makes some sense.  One of my earliest pitch-able themes was: “Campaigns come and go…a powerful brand idea is indelible.”  

One claim and three proof planks, is the framework of What’s The Idea? And the claim is the idea. Hard stop.  It is what clients are buying. Sure, they buy the proof planks – the rational, existential reasons to buy. But the idea, that’s the strategic selling device. It is meant to resonate with brand executive, chief executives and consumers.

If your brand is built upon lots of ideas, you are setting yourself up to fail. You need one strategic idea. It organizes your stories for consumers and employees.

What’s The Idea?  Can you answer that question for your brand?

Peace.

 

 

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