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    Software Hard. Hardware Soft. Microsoft.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    The amount of learning Microsoft has done over past 25 years is Hard to fathom.  The company MO was to hire the best and brightest out of school and set them to work to change the world.  The company created a culture of achievers, many of whom felt they were the smartest people in the room — and when the room was all softies they competed with one another. Vigorously.  Many were smart enough to understand what it meant to be an overdog. They understood the concept of humility. But not all.

    Hence the products and services they envisioned were overly complicated. Over-engineered. And frankly, over-visioned. You can do that with software and get away with it, but you can’t with hardware.  Microsoft learned those lessons with the Zune and Kin.

    Lately, Microsoft has mellowed. Like a fine wine.  They developed feelings and more of a human instinct. That is why I believe their Surface tablet will succeed.  Hardware is hard to over-complicate and this product design is a good move for Redmond.  Its success will provide balance for the company. Even the name Surface suggests a cultural change for a company that has otherwise prided itself on being deep. A breath of fresh air, this. Peace.  

    New HP Tagline.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    “Make it matter” is the new HP tagline.  The first ad I’ve come across with the line appeared in the paper today touting a sub-$900 laptop, wireless printer and Beats headphone package.  Aimed at school-bound kids and their parents, this bundle will matter to kids who typically may ask mom and dad for Apple machines. It will give both parents and students pause.

    Meaningfulness is what good marketing and good brand plans mean to achieve — so why not put the idea right in the work? “Make it matter.”  Were I riding point on this idea, I’d make sure every ad served up to the general pop mattered. All product ads would need to provide a definable point of difference with a rational or emotional tug. It’s going to be hard to live up to. 

    Make it matter is bi-directional.  It tells the reader to make it matter, but also suggests HP makes it matter. When you tagline is “Setting new standards in healthcare” every ad needs to show a new standard.  Brand ideas matter. Words matter. Good luck BBDO. Your day just got a lot longer.  Peace.  

    Sitting in Chairs Creative.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Where does creative inspiration come from? Dreams? Brain storming? Pictures and stories? Sure. I find mowing the lawn provides a level of focus for me. Maybe it the repetitive action. If I listen to the radio driving to or from work, I tend to ingest words passively. That said, if the radio is on topic I perk up and it feeds the creative motor.

    In the ad agency business, I had seen lots of good creative people flip through art direction magazines and awards books looking for ideas to have an idea. But often they did so in their office. I’m a fan of getting out of the building. Observing the target. Observing the target’s target. Trying to think like they think, or better, feel what they feel.

    Creative inspiration results from immersion in the target, dabbling in sights, seeing or projecting patterns… and monitoring your blood pressure. If an idea makes you feel something, you are nearing the zone.  If it bores you push on. 

    I was writing a college paper once while on a field trip to see Margaret Mead speak in DC. I was sitting in someone’s kitchen and not moving any ideas.  There was a speed bag in the kitchen so I starter punching. It wore me out but opened the mind.  Sitting in chairs is not the way toward creative stim. Peace! 

    Make happy.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Every morning, I wake up, shave and listen to the news on the radio.  It’s part of my media DILO (day in the life of) – a record of the places and times when I consume media.  For a couple of months, the San Antonio Spurs have been in the playoffs and haven’t lost a game. 20 straight wins.  Not once did I hear an interview San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich.  Last night they lost to the Oklahoma Thunder and he was interviewed. What the??

    What is so exciting or newsworthy about losing? Is new not newsworthy when it’s about positive stuff?  Is that why network television is obsessed with cops shows and crime? 

    I was in a creative meeting yesterday and conveyed how the best advertising focuses on positives.  Not the negatives of competitors.  Consumers will tell you that almost every time.  And those consumers who don’t agree are probably not the best consumers for your brand.

    Positivity with meaning is awesome. Don’t tell happy, make happy.  Puh-eace!

    Brand Planners and Geneticists.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    What do geneticists do for a living?  They disassemble genes and DNA strands, figure out what the working or nonworking parts do, how gene relationships are fostered, then they make some assumptions.  They test those assumptions with the hope of doing something smart with the information – like curing cancer.  Or, making chickens disease-free in shmoo infested cages. (Sorry, that was uncalled for.) Once we crack the code on clean tech or green tech, whatever it’s called today, genetics will be the next big thing. It will be cool-ish.

    Brand planners follow a similar process as geneticists. But rather than study microscopic things, we study what walks around. That’s why a behavioral science or anthropology degree fits nicely into a brand planner career path.  The study of man is critical. Many planners, though,  stop at observing man and mining behavioral insights.  The good ones take it beyond insights and into the area of marketing stimulus — what gets man to buy.  The good ones know man well enough to understand what selling words are over-used. Which contexts are pregnant with possibility. What emotions are likely to stir response.   

    Be you genetic engineer or brand planner, the rubber meets the road with the “do something smart with it” part of the equation. Peace.

    DIY learning and marketing.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    There is an interesting technology and pedagogy push today that dabbles  in the reinvention of teaching and learning.  With some of our most revered entrepreneurs noted for dropping out of school, a number of students are wondering if they can DIY (do it yourself) their education, starting their careers earlier and minimizing higher ed. debt.  Online courses, video to supplement courseware, and spending time in digital subject matter communities are free options and often a lot more hands on than facing a blackboard, a text book and number 10 pencil.  It’s a thing. Trust me.

    Similarly, the web has spawned a number of people who consider themselves DIY marketers. The old axiom that marketing requires Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action (AIDA) – all of which use to require separate marketing tools – today, can all be accomplished on a single website.  One website properly organized can fulfill the entire continuum of a sale. Ergo, many people in small businesses and start-ups are trying to do their own thing. Those will stellar products are making do.  Those without, not so much.

    Marketing and learning cannot be automated. Or hacked. That’s not to say hands-on educators and marketers are always efficient and effective; they are not. Learning and marketing are done best when full-duplex. Bi-directional. Doc Watson never would have been the picker he was as a DIYer. Peace to Doc’s family. 

    HP and Vision

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    I’m fascinated by HP. I really am.  There’s a scientific theory “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny” that, if memory serves, suggests the evolution of man can be seen and sequenced from the evolution of two cells to fetus to baby. We started as cells, the theory goes, became fish-like, birdlike, quad- and bi-pedal and finally man. 

    I think HP is a good metaphor for the evolution of technology.

    The company started in a garage, slowly evolved into computer powerhouse, bought a bunch of companies and digested them.  The company has dabbled in software, built a huge services business, played and purchased its way into mobile.  It has had good years, bad years, amazing years and evolved leadership in a number of ways.  In prime time TV ways, sometimes. 

    Leo Apotheker tried to make a daring left turn into business software and was tossed out (in my opinion due to poor PR advice). Meg Whitman, with web chops and B-school cred is here to move the company into the cloud – but her headlines today are about slashing 27,000 jobs.

    I’m not sure I know into what form the HP organism is evolving. It seems an evolution strategy is and has driven them.  But this is business. Business needs vision. Business needs to lead that vision.  Evolution is passive. Vision is active. Jury is still out on HP if you ask me. Peace.

    The Moisture Plank.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Not too long ago I wrote a brand brief for a young woman with an artisanal cookie company.  The company will remain nameless since every brand strategy is a business-winning pursuit. Part of the promise of these absolutely delicious cookies is their all natural ingredients.  No preservatives. No additives for color or taste…just natural stuff, sourced from wholesome places.

    One of the negatives associated with all natural though, especially when it comes to cookies and other baked goods, is that they tend toward the dry. After years of those foil-wrappered rectangular health bars, many people get a dry-mouth reflex just thinking about health bars. So one of the planks for this brand of cookies is moisture.  It’s as much a visual plank as a message plank. If a hand held cookie isn’t flexing in a picture (drooping wouldn’t be good), it should not be shown.  If a paragraph of copy block doesn’t include a reference to the science of moisture, usually tied to coconut oil, the next one should.

    Brand plan planks can take on many forms and “moisture” isn’t one P&G might use, but in this category it’s a context breaker. To my cookie making friend I say “keep those natural cookies pristine and tasty – and make sure your art and copy teams stay away from all things dry.” Humor excluded. And please remember cookie responsibly. Peace.

    Your art.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    A favorite question of mine when interviewing candidates is “What is your art?  I don’t use it all the time because candidates more often than not either give a blank stare or say “What do you mean?”  If faced with that bounce back I might suggest “Define it as you will.”

    What is your art? 

    It’s a personal assessment but I guess it’s also part public assessment. Interviewees might default to song, or drawing or writing, though since I’m often interviewing in a business setting, that tends to set the context.  Try it sometime.  And don’t lead the witness.  You know that look you get from a dog when you hide the ball behind your back – the quizzical look – you may get that.  However some people thrive.  The question is disarming yet alarming. It probes things that might be hidden. And if it doesn’t work and breaks the mood, you can always blame me. When it works though, it can be magical. Peace.

    Journalism on the way back.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Warren Buffett just bought 63 newspapers, saying a tight community needs a good local newspaper. I can’t disagree; Warren knows a thing.  The proper presentation of news and analysis (content) is always in demand.  Journalists get this. Bloggers and media socialists have for a few years taken the spotlight off paid journalists but the successful ones are few and far between.  More importantly, bloggers have made journalists more focused, faster and hungry.

    This is not to say you can’t get depth out of blogs, or news or analysis – you certainly can.  But sometime the writing gets on the way, and the fact checking. When I first started blogging somewhere in the neighborhood of 7 million blogs a day were coming online.  That’s a lot of words.  I assume that number has slackened, but with China’s growth, who knows?

    As words on the web become as numerous as atoms, we only have time to read a scintilla. Finding the best words will often fall to the professionals. I think Mr. Buffett gets that. Peace!

     

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