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    Brand Strategy

    De Facto Brand Strategy.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Brand taglines are de facto brand strategies. More specifically, they are de facto brand claims.  (An actual brand strategy comprises one claim and three proof planks. (A claim by itself is simply advertising.)

    Yesterday we had a couple of boxes of cat food delivered by Chewy. Smart ecommerce model, yes?  They’re the Amazon of petfood.  On the boxes were the following tagline “Where pet lovers shop.”  It’s a nice, warm and fuzzy advertising line but, frankly, not a powerful brand claim.

    Let’s parse the meaning. Secondly, it tells everybody Chewy is where shopping takes place. Kind of superfluous. Basically this is saying it’s a commercially available product. As for the first positioning Chewy for lovers of pets, all I can say is that the claim doesn’t speak to pet haters. Again, no real there there.

    Brand strategy informs people what a brand Is and what a brand Does. (The Is-Does.)  It also organizes for consumers discreet values derived from customers’ most pronounced care-abouts and the brand’s primary good-ats. Boiling these down to three planks is the heavy lifting of the brand strategist.

    Brand taglines must reflect the brand strategy claim. If not, it is wasted energy.  Off the top of my head, I can offer up a handful of more powerful brand claims for Chewy than where pet lovers shop.  

    My guess is this is a line developed by the ad agency. As a bow atop the end of a commercial.  Chewy and my cat Harry deserve better.

    Peace.

     

     

    New Normal.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    If we have learned anything as businesses the last couple of years it’s that we have to account for the new normal. And by new normal I mean pandemic and war. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, “padded” and stockpiled money in the face of this new normal, setting aside $902 million dollars in a so-called “rainy day fund.” How many small and mid-size businesses can say the same?

    As a brand strategist who designs business-building guidelines for product, experience and messaging, I understand the importance of accounting for the new normal. Brand strategy informs how a company deals with and responds to the new normal. It goes beyond setting money aside, it provides a framework for action plans and change management plans – all of which are on-brand.

    Brand strategy provides a security blanket in tough times. A place of comfort from which to make difficult decisions.

    Peace.

     

     

    Positive Potentialities?

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    I read a lot of blogs and newsletters by brand planners and it seems we index high for mental discomfort. This is not a quantitative observation, just me projecting. We’re good at reading people and their feelings. It helps us be in touch with our own mental well-being.  We are not complainers.  In general, we are willing to share our difficulties with others for the greater good. It helps us by not keeping things bottled up, which in turn can help others.

    Yesterday, I wrote about shining light when creating brand strategy. Aspire rather than dispire (sic). But sometimes it’s important to look at the full spectrum of attitudes and feelings when brand planning. Knowing consumer anxieties and their depth can help with the light. Small business loans can be stressful. Small business loans for the BIPOC community or the under-banked can be really stressful. It wouldn’t be smart to think that all loan customers are looking to build a dream business with their newfound capital. Some are looking to get out from under. Yet most ads about small business loans focus on the positive potentialities. It can be tone-deafening.

    You can still shine light while being real. While understanding the totality of emotions that go into borrowing money. That’s good art. And that’s good brand craft.

    Peace.

     

     

    Benefit Stringing.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    I often rant about advertising that is 90 percent claim, 10 percent proof…a bad ratio. But today I’m going to chat about ads that make a claim but don’t take time to explain the benefit.  They just jump on to the next claim – stringing benefits.

    Mathnasium is a national chain of math tutors. I heard a billboard of theirs yesterday on National Public Radio. Billboards are hard because they are only 15 seconds long. They tend to fall prey to benefit stringing.

    In the Mathnasium billboard they claimed “customized learning plans,” then jumped to something else. Having worked on a brand plan for a math tutoring organization, I know how textured customized learning plans can be. If Mathnasium were smart marketers and wanted to get meaningful attention of parents, they could have used the full 15 seconds on the topic. Instead, they tried to jam as much shallow information into the billboard as they could. And it rendered a “we’re here” ad — nothing more than name recognition and contact info.

    If you are trying to convince parents your math tutoring firm is better than others, you need to educate them.  Customized learning plans unexplained are about as differentiating as “qualified math tutors.”

    The best advertising and the best brand plans understand education is the key to preference not sales copy by the pound.

    Peace.

     

    Meaning.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    About a year ago I developed a brand strategy lite document for a local math tutor I was mentoring through the Venture Asheville Elevate program. Here are the first two slides from that presentation:

    (Slide 1)

    Caveats:

    • The brand claim is not a tagline.
    • (Brand name) is well-named but not well understood. It’s our job to add meaning.
    • Lastly, the work has only just begun. You need to build the brand through deeds, proof(s) and culture…and new service offerings.

    (Slide 2)

    Precis:

    • A brand strategy, carried out effectively, is easily played back in research by customers thanks to its clarity, succinctness and endemic values.
    • Marketing’s job is to deliver the strategy through product and tactics.
    • All tactics and communications should make deposits in the brand bank (not withdrawals).              

    I must have been having a good day because these couple of slides, with the exception of the well-named bullet, apply to all my clients — large and small. 

    (Just to level-set, my definition of brand strategy is “an organizing principle for product, experience and messaging.” And my brand strategy framework is “1 claim and 3 proof planks.”)

    People on Quora often ask what’s the difference between a brand and a product. Someone smart once said “a brand is an empty vessel into which we pour meaning.” Adding meaning is what a brand strategist does. Organizing and prioritizing meaning. How do you do that?  Not through words which is the most common mistake of marketers. You add meaning through deeds, proof and culture (which enables more deeds and proof.)

    The end result of brand work is consumer understanding.  Not awareness. Understanding that is programed in by the brand manager. When consumers play back the specific brand values you promote (via research), you and your agents are doing your job.

    Frankly, it’s quite easy.  Once you have a plan. A brand plan.

    Peace.

     

    Strategy. Tactics. Flow.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    The marketing world is overwrought with tactics. Tactics get budgets and we all know budgets are the oxygen that drive marketing.  

    The total universe of marketing people, including those in allied industries advertising, web development, publishing and retailing, probably amounts to just under 75 million people globally. While I’m placing educated bets, I’d venture to say 98% of those people are involved in tactics – leaving 2% for strategy. If my math is correct that 1.5M strategists worldwide. 

    Of that number what percent of people are mostly concerned with the strategy of tactics? Things like “open rate,” “CTR,” “A/B tests,” and “Advertising-to-Sales Ratio?” The analytics of success and failure? A big chunk is my guess.

    Early in my career while working on AT&T I learned the organizing principle that is brand strategy can be measured scientifically and plotted in a way that explains sales. No really! People’s attitudes, beliefs, and loyalties toward a brand can be tracked directly to sales. Ergo a return on brand strategy (ROBS). Returns on tactics is what concerns most marketers but doesn’t take into account consumers’ psychological proclivities. Return on tactics is all plumbing. ROBS is about the flow.  And flow is what master brand strategists care mostly about.

    Love to chat you up about improving your flow. Contact Steve@whatstheidea.com

    Peace.

     

     

     

    A Powerful Brand Idea is Indelible.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Mining consumer insights and understanding human behavior are the key tools of the brand planner. It’s our day job. How we mine varies from planner to planner. The secret sauce and what we get paid for, though, is using those insights and behaviors to position a product in a way that increases sales conviction among consumers.  

    In my case, positioning is laid out as a single brand claim, supported by three proof planks. That’s my methodology.

    Knowing which insights to develop into a claim and proof array is the money maker.  Most purchasers of brand strategy are looking for a strategic and maybe creative spark to ignite consumer sales conviction.  A pithy line perhaps. A magnetic logo visual. A campaign idea. Or a disruptive retail approach. Metaphorically, many sell the dressing on the salad or the icing on the cake. I sell the base idea. And the supporting science for the idea (the planks).

    There’s a saying at What’s The Idea?, “Campaigns come and go, a powerful brand idea is indelible.”  And that idea is simply conveyed in words.  It’s the result of a boil-down of insights and behaviors stated in a clear but hopefully poetic way.  Steak not sizzle.  For examples please write Steve at WhatsTheIdea.

    Peace.

     

    Every Company Can Benefit From Brand Strategy.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    It has been said, Margaret Mead when CEO of the American Museum of Natural History, required every employee to undergo psychiatric counseling. Her thinking was that all people can benefit from being in touch with their inner selves and that every wo/man can benefit from better mental health.  I love this woman.

    In my opinion, every brand can benefit from being more self-aware and having better brand strategy health. Marketers are hyper-sensitive about their products. As they should be.  In service industries they are sensitive about service delivery.  Large companies have big departments dedicated to product management and product marketing. These people eat, sleep and live the product — from supply chain, to legal, to distribution, competitive position and pricing. But few people are in charge of actual brand strategy. (Large consumer packaged goods companies like P&G are the exception.)

    AT&T Business Communications Services was the first service company I knew that actually managed the brand with a brand strategy. And it worked like crazy.  I have borrower their rigor for brand management and tweaked it a bit for use in my brand strategy practice. And though my clients don’t typically have the marketing budgets and data tracking of AT&T, the theory and practice is alive and well and still very effective.

    Brand strategy, or the “organizing principle for product, experience and messaging” as I like to call it, is every bit as important and predictive of success as is proper product management.

    Write Steve@WhatsTheIdea to begin a discussion of your brand strategy and a health-check of your brand.

    Peace.

     

     

    Imposter Syndrome.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    By definition strategy precedes action. I am not sure General Patton or Sun Tsu really knew their strategies would work. Were they imposters? The best we can do as brand planners is gather facts, array insights, organize and prioritize them then make decisions.

    Do I get butterflies before presenting a master brand strategy? Even after days of self-congratulations for “nailing it?” Sure I do. Doubt can creep in. Worrying about your craft makes you a good planner. Question yourself, it’s healthy. But don’t let it overwhelm you. No one can see the future. But we can be prepared for the future. We can project what we learned and surmised and expect of the future. Then we stick a pin in it and commit.

    All my brand presentations include a pros and cons section surrounding the main claim. Let your client know you’ve thought of all sides. And know your client’s business. Know how money is made so your pros aren’t touchy feelie, they are business-building.

    I’m not a fan of terms like imposter syndrome. But I am a fan of the word doubt. And doubt is universal.  Foundations are what we build on.

    “Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow you house in…” if your foundation is weak.

    Peace.

     

    Strategy and Action.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Strategists sometimes get a bad rap for overthink. And overwrite. My brand briefs created to deliver master brand strategy are often 3 pages. That’s a lot of words. Brand briefs are not meant to provide by-the-pound insights and lovely writing. Nor are they to provide a circuitous narrative that makes a brand manager feel optimistic. They are designed to provide a serial story that builds a logic trail toward a business-winning claim about a product or service. That singular claim – yes, I said singular – is built upon customer care-abouts and brand good-ats.  That’s the strategy component… or the information and data boil-down for which I get paid the big bucks.

    But strategy without action is simply ink. The best laid plans don’t work unless they’re acted upon and to be acted upon they must be advocated from on high, shared throughout the company, and operationalized. You can’t convince consumers unless you convince your workforce. Many practitioners believe brand strategy to be the sole domain of the marketing department. These companies are most likely to fail with marketing – even with $50 million budgets.  Brand strategy must be encultured throughout a company.

    You can’t write an effective marketing plan without a brand strategy. And you can’t write an effective brand strategy without an effective marketing plan. And make no mistake a marketing plan is an action plan. Fully funded. Not piece meal funded. Measured and corrected.

    Strategy and action.

    Peace.                 

     

     

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