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    Brand Strategy

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

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    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.

     

     

     

     

    Small Business Conundrum.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    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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    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.

     

     

    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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    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.

     

     

    Full-Stack Branding

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    I keep reading LinkedIn descriptions and see members use the words “full-stack this” and “full-stack that.”  Pretty savvy turns of a phrase. So I looked up the meaning of full-stack. Apparently, it refers to front-end (user experience) and back-end (supporting tech and execution). 

    As I do with most things, I put on my brand strategy hat and realized brand strategy is front-end and product and corporate management are back-end. Without a full-stack approach to marketing, e.g., brand strategy plus execution and adherence, you have oogatz (Google it).

    Too many purchasers of brand strategy don’t do an effective job with the back-end. It’s not properly enculturated into the business.  It therefore lasts as long as the current ad campaign. Or the current CMO. Or the latest technology fad. AI anyone?

    I like to think I’m a successful front-end brand strategy guy. But I need to make sure clients buy-in beyond the presentation. Northwell Health used to have a new employee breakfast meeting with the CEO every Monday. I suggested to the marketing director at the time that the CEO share the brand strategy at that meeting – a slam dunk. It didn’t get recommended. You’d think I was recommending vaccines. Doh!

    Apparently, I need to work on my technique. Maybe I won’t take the job unless the client shows me how they plan to codify the strategy. Yeah, who am I kidding?

    Peace.

     

     

    Brand Discovery Interview Hack.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    I ask company execs and brand stakeholders a lot of questions during the discovery process.  A new one that hit me while driving the other day (driving, showering and sleeping being fruitful strategy times for me) was this question: “Tell me about the brand’s most common stereotype.”  

    I use a battery called 24 Questions with C-level executives – a follow-the-money set – and use another question-set for salespeople, those who interface with consumers. The stereotype question will work for both groups.

    Can’t wait to use this question!! Give it a try.

    Peace.

     

     

    Brand Strategy Presentations.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Today’s post is on presenting the brand strategy. Presenting the strategy is something that shouldn’t be taken lightly. It’s the crescendo of all the work — the make-or-break moment.

    If, during the presentation, you take too long, people get antsy. If you don’t set the right context, things can go off-track.  Luckily, my brand strategy framework results in a fairly simple presentation. I call my framework a “claim and proof” array.  One claim three proof planks.

    The claim is the macro part of the brand strategy, a stand-in tagline that pays off the proof planks. But make no mistake, the proof planks build the brand. They are the money-makers. While the claim gets a good deal of the branding credit, it is the proof that does the convincing. The proofs organized into planks or buckets are the tangibles.  

    Claim without proof is advertising. Claim with proof is branding.   

    I left out a great deal of sausage making and to be honest, decision makers don’t need it. They need the boil-down of the thinking. In their language. In the consumers’ language. In the accountant’s language.  If you’ve done your homework, answers to the decision makers’ questions come easily. Then they are in control of the “buy” moment, while the sell moment is minimized.

    Peace.

     

    Truth in Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    The dissolution of truth and proof is hurting brand science.  Let me ‘splain. There was a time in American advertising when nationally broadcast TV commercials had to pass before lawyers in Network Television “Standards and Practices” departments.  If you couldn’t prove a claim, you couldn’t make it. It was a truth thing. Lesser media bodies were not so stringent, e.g., you could say stuff on local radio and print ads that weren’t particularly true and get away with it.

    Fast forward to today and our current political environment where prevarication is the art of the day. Our president, for instance, often states that the inflation he inherited was the highest in the history of the United States. (Spoiler alert: I remember in the early 1980s running bank ads with CD rates at 18.5%.)  Saly, the truth today is whatever people say it is.  And that not only erodes national character, it makes marketing unbelievably hard.  

    What’s The Idea? is a brand consultancy built upon creating brand positions and brand value on proof. Proof of what, you might ask?  Well, that’s where the strategy comes in — that’s what clients pay for. But recognize this, it is proof that makes a claim believable. Evidence convinces.

    In the future, we will return to truth once again. Truth in politics and truth in advertising. But for today, those brands that delve into truth and proof will prosper even more. Because in an era of foggy, unsupported claims, the real truth sings like a Robert Plant lyric.

    Peace.

     

    The Idea To Have An Idea…

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    A mentor of mine, Dick Kerr, claimed to be the world’s highest paid copywriter in the 1980s — making more than a million dollars a year.

    Dick’s famous corporate ad campaign for United Technologies was lauded as a wonderful, effective way to communicate shareholder value using simple words. Words not about elevators, jet engines, helicopters or air conditioners, just words about people and values. No pictures in this campaign, just clean type design and cleaner copy.

    Dick was a bit of a drinker. He once offered me counsel saying “The idea to have an idea is sometimes more important than the idea itself.” Huh? Did I mention drinker?

    Anyway, my company What’s The Idea? took this tipple-inspired phraseology to heart. My job is not to get clients nodding to a wealth of ideas. It is to get buy-in to one idea. That idea will frame all arguments to purchase. And those arguments are arrayed in three proof planks. All supporting he brand idea.  

    How does one get to the brand idea? Ahh, the $64 million dollar question. Well, you start with lots of other ideas. Ideas that speak the consumers language. Ideas that lead to consumer preference. Ideas that resonate with corporate decisionmakers and shareholders. H.K. McCann called these truths.  But make no mistake the best brands are built on the clarion call of a single strategic idea.

    Campaigns come and go, a powerful brand idea is indelible.

    Peace.

     

     

     

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