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    Amazon Brand Strategy Eval.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    I was doing some reading on the Amazon brand strategy and came across a nice piece by Shah Mohammed. Using Shah’s piece, here’s what I’ve come up with related to the Amazon value proposition.  I have organized things into my own framework.

    Amazon’s claim is the “Everything Store.” And the three proof planks are: extraordinary convenience, comprehensive selections, and low prices.

    Reverse engineering in brand strategy is not a fool’s errand but it isn’t really fair; especially since brand strategy is best designed for nascent brands. That said, let’s look at how the proof planks support the Everything Store. Certainly comprehensive selections is perfectly linked.  Extraordinary convenience can be assumed since it’s the only store you will have to visit for all your shopping. Mental imagery might suggest there will be a lot of hunting around for things, but since part of the Amazon’s Is-Does is that it’s an online store, we assume convenience so long as usability is good. (Remember, we are looking at this from Amazon’s beginnings as a brand. The last proof plank is low price. One might infer low price because of the store’s scale. One might also infer low price because the only physical footprint is warehousing and shipping. But assumption and inference are not a brand strategy’s best friend so they may have left some brand bank on the table

    Looking at the brand strategy construct I would have to say Everything Store, though apt and simple, underdelivers as a brand claim. Tune in tomorrow and we’ll see if we can find one a little richer and more exciting.

    Peace.  

     

     

     

     

    Politics, Bias and Branding.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Has “political” become a bad word? If you follow the press these days it has. When something has become politicized it takes on the aura of an agenda. And today a political agenda is either left leaning or right leaning. Moe Davis, running in NC’s 11th district to replace Mark Meadows pointed out recently that the armed services isn’t republican or democrat. Not everything has to be political.

    In branding, the word “strategy” (nice segue, huh?) is not a bad word. Yet brand strategy is all about creating bias. Bias toward your product. The best brand strategies, however, are built upon strengths. Positives. If a positive implies another brand negative that’s fine, but brand building is not brand tearing down of a competitor.

    Brand strategy, unlike politics, is a build-up business. It’s why I love it. We delve into customer care-abouts and brand good-ats and stay away from the blood lust that has become politics. I’ve cherry picked things from the political game to use in my branding practice. There are a lot of similarities. One thing I have not borrowed though is negativism. For me “bias” is a positive. Creating bias toward.

    Peace.

     

     

    Brand Strategy Is Business Strategy

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    I spend most of my waking business hours talking about brand strategy. A topic so obfuscated and buried in marko-babble no one really understands it. It’s tough going. 

    The fact is, brand strategy is business strategy. Simplified. And packaged to be easily undertstood.  It’s business strategy boiled down, memorable and shareable.  One of the drivers of a good brand strategy is that is can be activated by everyone in the company. A good brand strategy in the hands of the receptionist or delivery driver or CEO is one that empowers business-building decisions.   

    If you work at a company where you don’t want anyone else to know how to make business advancing decisions, because you are fearful they’ll make mistakes, you don’t need a brand strategy. You need Xanax and blood pressure meds. But of you want your employees and as a result, customers and influencers, to understand why you are a better company than the competition, thanks to meaningful product and operating values, then you do want a brand strategy. Because it’s good for business.

    Imagine a retail package goods brand that changes its packaging every day. That’s kind of what happens to companies that operate sans brand strategy – AKA “an organizing principle for product, experience and messaging.”

    Peace.

     

     

    Free Day Of Planning.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    I was talking to a brand planner at a big agency in NYC a while back and offered him a “free day of planning,” a way to introduce my skillset. The hope was to pick up some additional work.  His response, and I paraphrase, was “What can anyone learn about a brand in one day?” His firm digs very deep and he couldn’t see any one turning up any value in a single day.  Looking back, I find it hard to disagree with him. Though rules are made to be broken. And if a planner can uncover a key insight in a day, imagine what s/he can uncover in a week.

    Recently, I offered some folks a free day of planning and it worked out just fine. It was a small but complicated business and the stakeholders found it very hard to explain their model in a few words, especially to potential investors. So they explained in paragraphs. Long paragraphs. They agreed they needed focus and a boiling down of their value proposition.

    When I started the clock, I interviewed one of the stakeholders for about an hour and a half. On another day, I interviewed the second stakeholder for an hour and a half. I also interviewed a key software vendor of theirs, someone with hundreds of hours on the street – so as to get an unabashed view of the business. About half an hour. Then I cleaned up all my notes, I’m a horrible typist. Half hour.

    Following a review of some competitor websites, another hour, I slept on it. These efforts took place over the course of a week or so, due to others calendars.

    When time to begin planning, I read all my notes and started to circle any activities, stories or evidence of value. I call this proof of value. As clusters of value became clear I broke out the colored highlighters. Add two more hours.

    Then I slept on in. Early one morning I woke up with an idea. An idea that was the beginning of the brand claim. I can’t count sleeping hours, so this was a freebie.

    Over the next day or so I began to craft a few slides of a PPT presentation while massaging the brand claim. The proof planks, organized while doing the value clusters, in the earlier session already existed.  All totaled about an hour and a half to put the PPT together. Total time was 8.5 hours. A day of planning according to the clock.

    This piece of pro bono work was strong. The clients were effusive in their praise and thanks.  I never wrote a brand brief — a no-no — but time did not allow for it.

    Had I the 3-4 weeks typically needed to do this work it may have been different, certainly more nuanced. And deeper. But is was a job well done. And a brand strategy well received.

    Who said Rome wasn’t built in a day? Peace.

     

    Love. It’s what makes a brand strategy a brand strategy.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Much has been written lately about empathy in brand planning. And there’s certainly nothing wrong with that. Empathy makes us humans. Or good humans, at least.  Without empathy we’re disorganized personalities. The fact that we need to write about dialing up empathy in brand planning suggests there may be a problem somewhere. But I’d like to take, actually, take empathy to the next level. And that is love. Not “It’s what makes Subaru a Subaru love,” for I don’t really know what that brand claim means – and I’m an owner.

    When working on a brand strategy I tell clients that I need to fall in love with their brand. Sounds corny, but it’s true. I work past any and all negatives and search for things to love. It’s only when I find the good in a brand, be they superlatives, great-to-haves, or other endearing qualities, that I can begin to develop an attraction. And then I work to expand that attraction to a kind of love.

    That’s how I work.  It’s not how consumer’s work. In fact, many consumers are more glass half empty, so it is up to the brand planner to position a product or service in a way that fills that half empty glass.  So we must search for positivity.

    If you can’t find a way to love the brand for which you are planning, either don’t take the job or explain to your client what impedes your love and give them their money back.

    Peace.

     

    Walking the Planks During a Pandemic.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Yesterday I spoke of using brand strategy to help mitigate business disruptions associated with the pandemic. Readers know my brand strategy framework comprises “one claim and three proof planks,” the so-called organizing principle to guide business.

    When making tough decisions about cutbacks and reducing business expenses you must stay true to your claim. Back in the day, working with AT&T’s business services, the claim was “creating business certainly.” Much of business then, as now, ran on phones and data line. During a pandemic, this message would still be powerful. The proof planks were network reliability, competitive price, and tech tools to grow your business.  Science suggested these three measures moved positive revenue. When cutting back on personnel, promotion and other during a major business discontinuity, it is the planks that have to give. They all work together, much like a recipe, but some offer more value to customers than others. Managing cutback by plank is how you make business decisions. Don’t invent new planks. Don’t reinvent your claim.

    Stick to the plan. Manage strategically. Manage to brand science.

    Peace

     

     

    Managing a Brand in A Pandemic.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Managing a brand in a pandemic starts with having a brand plan. And at the foundation of a brand plan is a brand strategy.  If you don’t have a brand strategy and you are under financial duress, you are likely flailing at the software books and ledger line items, as if at black flies. Everything is important, financially, but it’s the big line items that can bring your business down.

    With a brand strategy in place your business decisions are at least grounded in the things that are of value to you and of value to your customers. If the pandemic requires that you reduce operations, the brand strategy will help you decide which operations.  It will help you focus.  For one client it was decided to focus on one high-margin area of production, and let scores of other SKUs sit fallow. It was a bit of a re-po (re-position) but helped muster resources.  This small business owner, after furloughing a number of people, scaled down and managed solvency. 

    Companies under duress during the pandemic need to make business-saving decisions almost hourly. And they must do so with frayed nerves.  With a brand strategy to organize their efforts, decisions are based on business value and science. 

    Peace.

     

     

    Your Biggest Business Decision.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Let’s face it, most business decisions are relatively mundane, shaped by the degree to which they affect making money. Will the pay out pay in?  Other’s are rote supply and demand  choices.  But the big decisions are the ones that keep you up at night.  Personnel. Real estate. Infrastructure investments. Marketing strategy. 

    These big decisions haunt small and mid-size business owners because pass or fail the weight comes down on them.  Sometimes the weight is so heavy it keeps decision from being made. And stasis occurs. Insert shark metaphor here.

    Well I’m here to tell you the biggest business decision you can make – one that will make all other tough decision easier – is to have a brand strategy in place.  With “an organizing principle for product, experience and messaging” in place big go/no-go decisions are easier.

    The organizing principle derives from the most important customer care-abouts and the strongest most compelling brand good-ats.  These agreed upon planks (only 3) are the fuel for brands and the fuel that builds businesses.

    Tired of filling in an a lengthy pros and cons Excel chart before flipping a coin? 

    Peace.

     

    Together We Well.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Together We Well is the new tagline for Northwell Health. I get where they’re going but must admit to being underwhelmed. That said, it is way better than the previous ad campaign-derived line “Look North.” Which effectively said “use us.”

    There are two kinds of healthcare: preventative and curative. Hospital systems make their money on the latter. After someone gets sick they are treated. If people stay healthy, they needn’t be treated. Prevention is good for society but not always for the bottom line. That said, Northwell is on board with prevention.

    Giving patients a role in prevention is good – the “together” part. Everyone should be contributing to better health. Practitioners and consumers. And that is what the Affordable Care Act is all about. Under the ACA, doctors are compensated based on the degree to which they keep their patient population healthy. So we are moving in the right direction.

    But population health is a societal issue. It goes beyond Northwell. Don’t get me wrong it is imperative America gets better coverage at better prices. But it’s not a brand position. Strawberry Frog, Northwell’s agency, gets this — and they likes to create movements. Sometimes it works. My bet is not this time.

    I would make the “together we well” idea a brand plank — supporting the claim – not the claim itself.

    Brand claims should add value straight to the bank. In the case of Northwell they need to convince patients the system is better than other systems. When I worked on the Northwell brand (it was called North Shore-LIJ at the time) the tagline was “Setting New Standards in Healthcare,” a line created by Della Femina. It was provable, albeit not easily.  

    “Together We Well” is contemporary. Maybe hip. A big aspiration. And even provable. But what it is not is money in the Northwell brand bank. Not a direct deposit anyway.

    Peace.

     

    Behavior or Attitudes?

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Maximilian Weigl, a strategist at 72andSunny in Amsterdam recently guest curated the Strands of Genius newsletter created by Faris and Rosie Yakob.  Maximillian identified himself with the following descriptor: “I help build brand behaviours that outlast campaigns.”  I loved it.

    One of my memes is “Campaigns come and go, a powerful brand idea is indelible,” so I felt a kinship with Max. Plus I’m a fan of 72andSunny. But the first part of Maximillian’s statement “building brand behaviors” got me thinking. Are brand planners focused on building/changing behaviors or attitudes? 

    My gut says attitudes but let’s take a little quick look.

    Shop, buy, advocate and recommend are behaviors. Who can argue those aren’t important in brand planning? One of my favorite sayings about advertising is “make someone feel something, then do something.” Do is a behavior. Transact. Mic drop.

    Yet prefer, desire, appreciate, and discern are attitudes. And they precede behavior and drive behavior, no?  Unless the choice is truly price driven.

    I’ve been a Hellmann’s Mayonnaise fan all my life. I like the taste and just buy it without thinking. It’s a behavior.  A repetitive behavior. Hellmann’s loves me, they needn’t spend marketing dollars to get my business.  But a competing mayo after my business can’t just change my behavior, they must change my attitude first.

    Or must they?  Perhaps I try another product at the suggestion of a friend and it tastes as good. Or better. That behavior (trial) can lead to attitude change.

    Is this a chicken and egg debate?  What do you think?

    Peace?

     

     

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