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    Beating Seth Godin.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    seth godin

    I was at a meeting in the city with one of my mentors Robin Hafitz at a coffee/chocolatier when in walks Seth Godin. Seth’s kind of a hero of mine. I attended a group seminar paid for by client Windham Mountain when Seth operated out of a building next to railroad tracks in Westchester County. Every time a train went by Seth had to stop talking…Zen Master he.

    Mr. Godin has been blogging successfully about branding and marketing for a long, long time. What’s The Idea? has published daily since January 2007. He makes me look like a slacker.

    One morning I decided it might be fun to do a daily dance off with Mr. Godin. That is, I’d like to ask him if we might create a site where side-by-side blog posts are published and readers vote for the preferred post. They might be organized on a similar topic, as determined by hashtags. The results are likely to be similar to that of Food Network show “Beating Bobby Flay,” but what the heck.

    Now I just have to get the nerve up to ask him. I’ve started the email once or twice before and chickened out.

    Peace.                                              

     

    Organizing Principle.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Many people in the advertising, marketing and branding business get tongue-tied when asked to define branding.  Or brand for that matter. We come up with short pithy things such as “A brand is a vessel into which we pour meaning.”  For years, that was actually one of my favorites.   As a consultant with some clients falling into the mid-size business category, I need something more tangible. “Organizing principle” are the two words I use most often now. The extended version is “An organizing principle for product, experience and messaging.”  It’s a nice definition – perhaps the best I’ve come across. It defines branding – the verb for used for manage the brand (noun).

    But an organizing principle as a descriptor doesn’t really provide pay-off or consummation of the act. It’s just the theory. It is the framework of the organizing principle that makes believers out of brand manager. And the frame work at Whats’s The Idea? is “one claim, three proof planks.” These are the parameters of the organizing principle. The tangible guidance.

    Many brand planners love fluidity. They enjoy freedom for their ideas. I enjoy the freedom of a plan, a focus, and a finite value array for doing more business. That’s what an organizing principle does. Peace.

     

     

    Marketing Voice Archetypes.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    There are three marketing voice archetypes. A marketing voice being a conduit that motivates others, convincing them toward thought, position or action. The archetypes are The Smart, The Persuasive, and The Forgivably Charismatic.

    The Smart voice is convincing just on the sheer power of its brains. The recall of facts and figures, the logic with which it presents views, the scientific supports for the arguments, all make believers out of us. You believe the voice and appreciated its calm and comfortable demeanor.

    The Persuasive voice may not come off as brainiac but everything it says, every story it tells, augers toward reason. It lays out a point of view almost musically as it builds toward a crescendo. The persuasive voice brackets the argument from all angles so the listener feels there are no gaps. The persuader voice is great at reading the audience – knowing when to accelerate and/or when to stop.

    The Forgivably Charismatic voice seems smart and is certainly persuasive, but you sometimes know it shines the truth with a special polish. And you don’t even mind. Some examples, apocryphal though they may be, are just storytelling fun. And forgivable. This archetype is the most entertaining. The listener is most engaged with this voice and feels the least manipulated. You may not buy a house from this voice or follow it into battle, but you happily appreciate the point of view and the work that went into it.

    All these archetypes have their place. But they can’t be mixed and matched. Any crossover and the listeners head goes to mush. (What archetype befits this post?)

    Peace.

     

     

     

     

     

    Claim Right, Proof Righter.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Consumers are smart. And inured to marketing claims. Advertising, the home of the marketing claim, has become that guy at the party who talks about himself in glowing terms in order to get the girl. Full of himself, boastful and proud. But consumers have seen so many of these f shallow claims they shut them off.  That’s why good brand planning uses proof as its foundation. Proof is what people remember.

    I have a past client in the healthcare space who has decided to move into the health insurance business. He begins as the rest of the industry is consolidating or retreating. A number of insurers today are pulling out of insurance exchanges fueling the Affordable Care Act. So, the big guys are complaining they’re not making money and one little guy is starting anew.  I like it.

    The CEO is a physician, so I know he’ll take the physicians view of the business. This could very easily be a premium price play, but rather doubt it. The CEO is knows for efficiency, technology and driving cost out of the business (while improving outcomes). So I’m eager to see what he has up his sleeve. I’m eager to see the proof.

    There is a health system insurance program called CareConnect in the NY market with a 10-15% price advantage. Proof or reason to believe that advantage comes from its parent Northwell Health. He will have a tough row to hoe but I’m betting on him. As a physician, he understands proof.

    You have to get the claim right but you have to get the proofs righter.

    Peace.

     

     

    The Lake House

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    There’s a wonderful restaurant in Bay Shore, NY called The Lake House.  Bay Shore is where the Fire Island Ferries take vacationers across the Great South Bay to a number of lovely Fire Island communities.  The Lake House used to be a small, cozy fine dining eatery perched on a lake. The Lake House serves great food and with business being good the owners decided to move to a bigger location. Smart business idea.  

    I’m sure they invested millions to update the old mainland “Flynn’s,” located on a prime location on the Bay — a location that laid fallow for decades. The new building looks great. That said, The Lake House is not on a lake anymore. It’s on a saline body of water the rivals the Chesapeake in its richness and local glory. The Lake House is on the bay.

    I understand brand equity. I really do. But the owners are not looking beyond the dashboard with their brand strategy they are doing rearview mirror planning. I wish the establishment the best, they deserve it. But the restaurant and brand also deserve a new, more fitting name.  Happy to help.  I’ve been known to work for beer and appetizers.

    Peace.

     

     

     

    Competition and the Agency Holding Company.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    The other day I read AT&T was moving all of its advertising business to Omnicom. No doubt the reason undergirding the move was economies of scale. One of the public explanations for Omnicom winning the business was “integration” of programs and ideas. That is to say the new media agency “nuts and honey” or some such and super shop BBDO will work together closely, in an aligned fashion, to insure the ideas they presented as a team in the pitch are structurally recreated IRL (in real life).

    This age old strategy sounds great on paper. And as we get more mature as an industry the strategy will actually work. But there are two conflicting forces against a move like this. Ferocious competition and complacence. When one entity is in charge, time and comfort engender complacence. BBDO will churn out nice work, great work even…Hearts and Science (the media company) will plan and digitize its ass off…to a point. The paranoia, however, that keeps shops on their toes dissipates.

    The energy that has shops like Anomaly, Droga and Preacher slamming, is lost.  Not a fan of the big consolidation move. Competition is what marketers thrive on. So must its shops.

    Peace.    

     

     

    How to Build a Business With One Idea.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    I’ve never really parsed the brand name of my consultancy “What’s The Idea?”  While developing the company, which actually started out just as a blog, I wanted to name it What’s The Big Idea?, but I chose against it for URL and simplicity’s sake.  A big idea is better than an idea, one might think, yet it also seemed a big self-aggrandizing. So What’s The Idea it was.

    What’s neat about the name is that it is a call to action. If a brand manager or stakeholder can answer the question, it probably has an idea. If the idea can’t be put into a succinct explanation, then un-uh.  If you have no brand idea you have no idea how hard it is to convey value to the consumer world.

    Most sane women and men who are captains of industry would respond “How can I maintain a business beneath one idea?” The answer is “By using proof planks.” Proof planks (3 in total) drive business value, consumer value and shareholder value.

    You want metrics, I’ll give you metrics. Write me. Steve at Whatstheidea.

    Peace.

     

    Droning on To a Point.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    I read Farhad Manjoo’s tech piece in the NYT today about Amazon’s drone plans. He seems to be coming around to believing it will happen. Drones will be delivering goods in the next 5 years, reports Amazon in the article. Certainly in the wilds of Africa.  

    I was at a wedding the other day and the bride and groom decided a drone’s eye camera angle would be a nice-to-have during the outdoor vows. Have you ever hiked in the woods on a humid day? ‘Nough said.

    I’m no geeze when it comes to tech but drones over Babylon or Bumpus Mills are not going to happen as envisioned.  For safety reasons (read security, etc.) home deliveries are not in our future. Not for a couple hundred years.  Perhaps there will be designated delivery posts or lots, like PO boxes, where we can pick up drone deliveries but drones will not be buzzing around our hoods and cities at all hours of the day and night. The idea to have an idea will work in this case. Drones will happen. We just haven’t quite figured out how they will contribute to “last mile” delivery. I’m guessing the last half mile will be more like the 1970s paper boy than a drone drop-off.

    Peace.   

     

     

    An Educational Idea for Successful Learning.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    In 2012 I worked on a brand strategy for a company in what I called the “educational development” space.  The company sold classroom technology and professional development – in effect teaching the teachers how to use the technology. It was one of the coolest companies I’ve ever worked for. For those unfamiliar with my brand strategy framework, it comprises one claim and three proof planks. One of the proof planks in the brand strategy had to do with changing the paradigm in the “student-teacher relationship.”

    During the  engagement Mark Zuckerberg announced he was going to donate $100 million to the Newark, NJ school system.  Throwing money at teaching and learning sounded like a good idea at the time; it was not.  As far as I can tell, Newark ain’t no Mooresville, NC.

    Today, Mr. and Mrs. Zuckerberg are championing, along with Facebook, a new learning management system with Summit Public Schools, a charter school partner, to reinvent the student-teacher relationship. It’s a software system and that lets students direct their learning roadmap and pace supported by intense one-on-one mentoring.  It is the student teacher relationship plank in action. And it is already paying dividends in Oakland.

    It seems to me allowing Newark to design its own learning plan with a pot full of money doesn’t work but allowing students to do so, with some newfound supervision and software does. Ms. Carmen Farina, are you watching?

    Peace.

     

    Lose the Walmart.com brand.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    I don’t begin to know the complicated ins and outs of Walmart.com’s business model. Jet’s or Amazon’s either for that matter. But I do know a thing about brands and brand focus.  And it is my opinion that Walmart’s purchase of Jet.com was a smart, smart move, however, the idea to keep the two brands separate is a colossal mistake. Jet CEO Marc Lore will now run both companies, offering him economies of scale and scope which will improve supply chain performance.  But he’ll be doing double duty in his customer facing job. Way too much work.

    Walmart.com has to go away and Jet.com needs to be the face of the single entity. The Walton family needs to let go and allow Jet to really ramp up. Mr. Lore will sleep better at night, he’ll dream better on weekends and his employees will have one team to play and root for.  One of the stupidest things I did as a parent was to think my two teenagers could share a car.  Two brands can’t share a business.

    Rip off the Band-Aid Mr. Lore and Walton family. This is Amazon you’re trying to take share from. This ain’t no Mudd Club, no Sears or Macy’s.

    Peace.                                              

     

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