Facebook Instagram X Youtube
    Latest

    Marketing

    Earth Fare.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    Earth Fare is emerging from Chapter 11 hell with a new ownership org and what hopes to be a bright future. Earth Fare began in Asheville, NC and it will rise from the ashes in Asheville. When it opened, it was branded “Dinner for the Earth.” The current name is head and shoulders better than the original, which to me suggests the earth will eat up the population and return us all to soil. Technically, that isn’t wrong, it’s just not a great brand building strategy.

    (The earth has been a hungry place lately, thanks to Coronavirus, and we’ve all been fighting like crazy to remain on it — not in it.)

    Asheville has a reputation as a crunchy town. We love sustainability, recycling, charity and brother/sister love. In branding? Ahhhh….sometimes we could use a little help. And branding starts with naming. One of my brand strategy discovery questions is “How did the brand get it’s name? And why?”

    I wish Earth Fare all the best. The founding fathers’ hearts were in the right place. But maybe they were a couple of doobies too far down the road the night they picked the original name. Hee hee. Much love.

    Peace.

     

    Brand Discovery Shortcut.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    One of my favorite brand discovery tools is the web. Como se duh? You can go anywhere. Approach anyone. Find almost anyone. And if you have the gift of gab, a conscience and perhaps bit of wit, you can engage anyone.

    Back when blogging was a thing, before Instagram, I coined a term called “Posters” to refer to people who posted original content to the web. (The obverse of Posters is Pasters, those to who paste other people’s content.) Based upon the commitment and communications ability of certain Posters they are easily findable. They also had committed followers. The first real Posters were writers, mostly for the tech press. They were pioneers that crossed the line from paper to digital. Then the unwashed writing masses joined in. Anyone with fingers could post online and hope to become a subject matter expert. Not many did.

    Melting Mama was an early influencer online for research into bariatric surgery patients. Kandee Johnson became a goddess to young women on the topics of personal care and fashion. Bob Lefsetz, analyzes and loves music like few others. Emo Girl posted podcasts about teen culture. The godfather of Posters, Robert Scoble, opens new worlds in tech – living the tech, while creating daily if not hourly content. And danah boyd (lower cases) understood (and understands) online social culture like no other.

    You can do quantitative research for tens of thousands of dollars and it’s a worthwhile pursuit.  But for me, finding the right Posters is the quickest way to the soul of your branding challenge.

    Peace.

     

    Technology During the Coronavirus.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    Americans are resilient. Technology is amazing. Complexity is the bane of both. Nowhere are these statements more accurate than for small businesses seeking help or employees in search of unemployment assistance during the coronavirus business meltdown. Americans, as a people, do not like to ask for help. I guess it’s a declaration of independence thing. But when they do ask they are undeterred. Note the NY women who called Unemployment 300 times a day for days and didn’t get through. Or the line of cars stretching miles to pick up donated food. Or the stick-to-itiveness of mom and pop businesses trying to get Paycheck Protection Program money to keep businesses afloat — burning down servers.

    The holdup is technology.

    If SBA loans were available from banks “in situ,” people would be lined up for miles, sleeping in soccer chairs. The holdup is servers, bad user interfaces, horrible application logic, and poorly connected databases. It’s nice that everybody has “an app for that,” but what about having scalable IT systems that are easy to use, easy to interconnect, and have back-up.

    The SBA (Small Business Administration) brand is quickly losing luster. Steve Mnuchin’s hollow promises of success are killing it. Of course, the SBA will blame it on the banks and the banks will blame it on the SBA. 

    The fact is, we were not prepared. Not to handle the healthcare crisis, not to handle the technological aftermath and fall out. What a shit show.

    The Department of Defense games this stuff out but they didn’t completely foresee how technology was going to be a choke point.

    When all is over, the American brand will be stronger. Of that I’m sure. The SBA, will need a name change. And technology will be a culprit in its undoing.

    Peace.

     

    Coronavirus Conundrum.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    I love to delve into conundrums in the businesses with which I work. For complex business problems it’s a nice way to add an interim step before planning. The process has me identifying no more than 10 contradictions is business, consumer care-abouts, brand good-ats and/or financial drivers. These I then presented to business and stakeholders for a discussion. The results help me with the boil-down.

    One major conundrum in my city of Asheville and across the U.S. for that matter is what to do with employees in the hospitality business who receive paychecks from the Paycheck Protection Program once money starts to flow.

    Let’s say you own a restaurant and had to shut it down. You let 8 people go. The Paycheck Protection Program requires you pay them a salary in order for you to accept the SBA money. But the store (restaurant talk) isn’t open for business. What do you do? I’d suggest getting them out of their houses (safely, and 6 feet apart) and putting them to work. Find a way to cross train them. Have them paint the bathrooms. Clean the storage rooms. Clean behind the stove. From a creative point of view, have everyone (again, safely distanced) rethink the menu. The supply chain. Sourcing of ingredients. Seating arrangements. Have them think about the business in new business-improving ways.

    This is a time to think. To improve. To do. And now you actually have a bit of “think and do” time.

    Peace.

     

    Future of Work, circa. 2011. Final Thoughts.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    Thanks for joining me on this travelogue of posts devoted to the future of work, as outlined in 2011 while on assignment at JWT forMicrosoft. Some final observations about what stuck and what did not:

    I’m not sure working remotely is the future of work. The growth of the Logged and Tagged Economy and the coronavirus works against this observation, however. But to me it seems collaborative and interactive people are best served in the same room — where manners dictate colleagues attention. When alone we are way too likely to participate in Twitch Point behaviors. (Search this blog or the web for thoughts on Twitch Point Planning.) Left to our own devices we become more ADD.

    I’m also thinking Peter Pan Syndrome is overstated. Experience, maturity and life lessons, for many jobs, are more important than facility with code, operating systems or the algorithm.

    As for how Microsoft can best comport itself in the future of work  I’d suggest following consumer behaviors with heightened focus. (With an eye toward ergonomics.) Embed with consumers. Becomes consumers. Windows revolutionized the software user interface (thanks to Apple). More universality in your products and services will help guide you. After all in 200,000 years, we will all be speaking one language and have one skin color. Hopefully.

    Peace

     

    Amazing Things Are Happening Somewhere.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    I’m putting the Future of Work series on pause for a day in order to report a timely example of how brand strategy can help the creative process in advertising and content.

    Back when a brand planner for client North Shore-LIJ Health System, now Northwell Health, we had a well-healed competitor in New York City named NY Presbyterian Health System. Their ad agency was a shop called Munn Rabot.  My shop Welch Nehlen Groome was doing great strategic work for North Shore-LIJ and fine creative. Munn Rabot was doing fine strategic work for NY Presby and great creative.

    The NY Presbyterian’s brand claim was “Amazing Things Are Happening Here.” North Shore’s was “Setting New Standards in Healthcare.” As ad agents, our jobs were to prove those two claims, through communications, every day. It was a dogfight.

    Today, both healthcare systems have grown and thrived but their brand strategies have regressed. Northwell Health is still setting new standards to a degree, recently repurposing BiPAPP machines as ventilators, but ad agency Strawberry Frog is still reinventing the wheel and missing the opportunity. And I’m sure NY Presbyterian, like Mount Sinai, is delving into antibody plasma treatments for the coronavirus but they’re not sharing that or any other “amazing things,” because they are caught in the headlights of this heinous epidemic — and no longer using Munn Rabot.

    If Northwell or NY Presbyterian had marketers at the helm ministering to their legacy brand strategies instead of pumping out one-off ads and web pages, they’d be ahead of the curve sharing the amazing/standards consumers expect of them.

    (That said, props to all the heroes at all health org. doing the work no one else can do.)

    Peace.

     

     

    Future of Work Part Six, circa 2011.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    To Free or not to Free…

    The new economy paradigm:

    • Information and communication should be free. (Internet users bill of rights)
    • Tools cost money. And are worth it.
    • Content should be shared (free-ish.)
    • How should we treat Google? Let’s let them do their thing, they are already going off-piste.

                (Big question – Should service be free? SaS.)

    Implication for FOW: We need to create value and charge for it. If people are will to pay for virtual goods, they should be willing to pay for improved achievements.

    Well I’m not sure virtual goods lasted more than a few months but certainly value is still worth something. I have to admit, though, most of the apps on my phone are free. Ad supported or not the digital world is still filled with free. And I know one particular technology company that is thriving, in part, thanks to giving away IP and code. Often I argue that altruism isn’t a brand plank, but in the case of this company (and client) raising all boats is. It’s who they are — part of their mystique.

    So honestly, to free or not to free is still exists today as a business conundrum. At What’s The Idea? I offer a free day of planning to good prospects. It’s often how I get to fee.

    Peace.

     

    Adopt a Business.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    What do brick and mortar businesses do when the supply chain of money comes to a halt? Effectively it turns into a ghost town economy. No peeps, no money, no products, no services.

    There’s an old Mike Tyson boxing axiom “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Well folks, we’ve been punched in the mouth. What shall we do? Business as usual? Sit back and wait it out? Can’t do the former. Shouldn’t do the latter.

    The government believes the way forward is to keep the money supply chain running. Send out gov’t checks so we can continue paying bills. The only winners then become the banks.

    What if we were to have a bill paying moratorium? Say for 3 months. No mortgages. No electric or water bills. No credit card bills. (But also, no credit card purchases.) What would it free us up to do? It would free us up to isolate and heal. It would free us up to help one another in thoughtful, meaningful ways. It would free us up to innovate. It’s a big idea and one that only the federal government can pull off.

    But since that’s not likely to happen what can we do for our brick and mortar brethren? How about this — Let’s get everyone to adopt one brick and mortar business. Then offer them help as safely as is possible. A little money, paint, food, sweat equity – even a shoulder to cry on. Maybe, even just some new ideas.

    Isolation is great for pandemic, but it’s not the best way to innovate out of a crisis. Let’s help one another, but be safe doing it. It will free up many of the burdens of this illness. But we must do it safely.

    Peace.

     

    My Favorite Interview Question.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    One of the interview questions I used while wording at an ad agency looking to hire junior account managers was “Tell me about me.” I’d wait until the interview was well underway so the candidate had an opportunity to hear a bit from me and look around my office. Also, it let me know if they did any homework prior to the interview. I loved this question. At the time I was an account manager not a brand planner or researcher, so pinging a candidate on their powers of observation was, likely, unexpected.

    It was an out-of-left field question that really separated the wheat from the chaff. On so many levels. Are they bull-shitters? Do they pay attention? Are they multidimensional?

    The last time I used the question was with a young woman whose response made me feel I’d crossed the line. Or said something untoward. She couldn’t process it. And I spent more time explaining and justifying the question than I did interviewing her. (Fail…on both our parts.) She overreacted and I overreacted. I should have just moved on.

    I still love the question, especially as a brand planner, but putting on my empathy hat I can see how it may have been off-putting to someone sensitive to roles, power and need.

    Maybe the problem wasn’t the purpose of the question, but the question itself. Perhaps an edit is in order.

    Always thinking.

    Peace.

     

     

    Story or Proof?

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    “We have got to tell our story, said Mark Reuss, president of G.M., “The story hasn’t gotten out,” he added when talking about G.M.’s electronic vehicle business. Since December Tesla stock has doubled into the $700s. G.M. is down 25% since it’s 52-week high in July.

    Back in the 60s during the NY World’s Fair, the G.M. pavilion showed the future of the automobile. It was an experiential phenomenon the likes of which the world had never seen. And today Mr. Reuss rues the fact that G.M.’s problem is in storytelling; in public relations and Super Bowl ads.

    Where most marketers go wrong and they do so at the behest of their branding counsel is in storytelling. They rely too much on this pop-marketing practice. Ty Montague, of Co-Collective understands this and has morphed storytelling into story-doing. The fact is it’s not about telling a story to consumers, it’s about what consumer play back to you. It’s about what consumers think. Consumers are swimming in an ocean of storytelling, while they should be standing on the terra firma of reality. On experience.

    Elon Musk built an electric car. He didn’t proselytize about it. Ish.

    Proof is how one builds a brand. And proof is how one builds a brand strategy. Not the other way around.

    G.M. has been dormant for so long it has become a marketing company of storytellers. Mary Barra, may just have woken up and decided it’s time to “do.” It’s time to launch a fleet of electronic vehicles.

    Let’s hope so. Peace.

     

     

    1...567...208Page 6 of 208
    © Newsmag WordPress Theme by TagDiv