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    Lens of Strategy.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Here’s an interesting brand planning question. 

    “How complicated is your brand?”  I’ll bet 8 out of 10 C-level execs would answer “Not very complicated at all.” 

    “We are a network of doctors.

    We sell interactive white boards to schools.

    We are an ad agency.

    We are a tool used to build websites.

    We are a consulting company.”

    These uncomplicated answers typically focus on the Is of the Is-Does.  The question begs for simple answers. And it asks the C-level to pass judgment.  No one except for coders and surgeons likes to celebrate complexity.

    Yet when I get into marketing departments and do a little deep dive, complexity always rears its head.  It is where we get into the Does of the Is-Does.  What the product does for consumers. Rationally and emotionally. We look at targets and segments. Most valued customers. Highest sales customers. Biggest referring custies. We break out the Excel charts. And because marketing is not just about making brochures and ads (though some would argue otherwise), we focus on product experience and price and line extensions and the pulsing of the bank account.

    Brands are complicated without a plan. With a plan, not so much. With a plan we look at the complicated things through a lens of strategy. Always through the lens.

    So, back to the original question. How does a brand go from “It’s not very complicated” to a mish mash of tactics, spreadsheets, sales reports, channel problems and lax sales. Poor planning. Peace!

    Brand Therapy.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Is your brand a little scatterbrained?  Does it sometime feel like it lacks direction? Do your brand managers like to keep busy – sometimes just for busy’s sake?  Maybe you brand need a little therapy.

    How does one go about getting brand therapy? Well, you need to go to a professional. You might ask “But can’t I do this myself?”  The answer is no. Just like you can’t do your own appendectomy. Some parents can’t see their kids for who they are.  A momma rarely thinks her baby is funny looking. It’s hard to heal thyself when it comes to brands.  You are too close and too invested.

    The tools a professional uses and the tools an informed brand manager or CMO uses will often be the same: research, data, demographics, psychographics, competitive analysis, listening, and concept testing.  But it’s what one does with all that information that is therapeutic.  Deciding what must be discarded and what must be kept in the brand plan. What to give away vs. what to cultivate and grow.  This is what will come up in brand therapy and what will drive the client to key realizations. It is the client that has to make the tough decisions. The client that will self-actualize the brand. The therapist facilitates and lays out the issues, but the client makes the decisions.  The process is therapeutic, painful and healthy. 

    I wonder why more companies don’t do it.  Brand therapy makes for healthier brands and healthier brand manager. Peace!

    Moment of Proof.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    The two most important elements in marketing are claim and proof.  It’s how you build businesses. Simplified and organized, this claim and proof approach is the foundation of branding.  One claim, three support or proof planks.

    One of my kids just graduated college and is on the interview circuit. Loaded for bear, somewhat unfettered, he believes a willingness to work hard, learn and focus on achievement are the qualities that will land him a job. He’s not wrong. But these things sound like your average cover letter. When shared face-to-face over a desk, they are a bit numbing.  My suggestion was “don’t forget the proof.”  Follow up each claim with examples. 

    This is what marketers often forget.  More often than not marketers and their agents remove proof so they can shoehorn in more claims. It’s claim-apalooza out there. All theater, exposition, and context – no proof.

    When a job seeker organizes what s/he wants the interviewer to know about themselves and sells it with stories about real event it can be indelible.  Same with brand building. When the dude jumped out of the capsule up in space and free-fell to earth while drinking Red Bull (JKJK), he evinced an energy rush second to none. 10 million media impressions be damned. That was a powerful moment of proof. Peace.

    Fighting Overdog Syndrome.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Apple has been on the front page of many metropolitan newspapers over the last couple of years.  The FoxConn story on manufacturing in China under un-American circumstances, the hard looks at Steve Jobs during publication of his biography and passing and now its tax avoidance.  It’s almost as if some in the media have an axe to grind with this darling of American commerce and technology.  Overdogs often are targeted. Yet with all this bad press, most consumers still love Apple.

    apple

    Microsoft used to be the overdog and all consumers used their products — but most skewered them. Many techies loved to kill them on message boards, in offices and around the digital coolers.  The only Microsoft advocates worked at Microsoft.

    So how why does Apple get stink on itself and still maintain the love? Products. And proper brand management. Much of the latter is due to Lee Clow, TBWA/Chiat Day, Steve Jobs himself and the marketing Kool-Aid drinkers.  The Apple ads are fun, funny, sometimes biting, colorful and artful.  And clean like the products.

    I’m hard-pressed to see how the latest tax image problem will be resolved by Apple, but I’m sure it will be. Samsung, Microsoft, HTC and Google Glass will fight Apple for share of wallet. But when it comes to the “love,” they will need to create and manage their brands with grace, insight and focus if they are to beat the overdog syndrome. (Google and it’s agency BBH have a clue. Eye on them.) Peace.

    Listening.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Socially awkward is a term I am hearing more and more these days. Usually it refers to people who are uncomfortable while with other people. The socially awkward, when they communicate, tend to lack social sensitivities. I would add to that definition a new behavior I’m seeing a lot whereby people don’t really listen to one another. That is more awkward.

    A smart web and marketing company up in New Hampshire called First Tracks Marketing has posted about the ability to truly listen in business development and it has paid dividends.  NPR did a piece recently (the wifus mentioned it, think she was telling me something?) in which they cited how America Indians in tribal council allow a person to speak, but then make everyone wait a good amount of time before another speaker goes, creating time to think about what was said.

    The problem with many marketing plans today (and brand plans for that matter) is that they are socially awkward.  They suffer from running their mouths, without really listening. Now I understand advertising is a broad cast medium but ads based-on listening and research score better. Connect better. Also ads that don’t kitchen sink the form. With the web, engagement scores go up as we listen to consumers. Polls were an early marketing winner on Facebook.

    One of my greatest emails ever was to MT Carney, an early owner of Naked Communications. In it I told her I had a great ear. That was pretty much it.  Got the meeting.

    So listen up marketers. It’s not an art – it’s a commerce.  Peace!

     

    Dell’s Future.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Dell needs a facelift. But you don’t invest crazy money in a makeover before your facelift. (I’m projecting here. Hee hee.)  Michael Dell is trying to take the company from public to private and to do so must convince shareholders that $13.00 ish is a good share price.  Some say recent poor earning are a way to get shareholders to agree to sell. Duh. If Mr. Dell does get the company back, he will be able to make the bold moves needed to keep it alive. And perhaps even thrive.  He’s too smart, generated too much revenue and been around too long to stumble again.  And let’s face he, stumble he has. The company has sold millions of machines but still languished.

    Name the last hero product Dell has launched. Describe it for me. The Adamo? Alamo? Whatevs.

    Dell needs to design and launch a tablet that whistles.  Not something boxy with bells and whistles.  Something that whistles. It’s that simple. One killer, hero design will begin to refresh this stagnant brand.

    Here’s a test: Get a bunch of teens and/or tweens in a room and have them draw pictures of a Dell laptops. Better yet hve them use Makerbot and create plastic prototypes. See what you get.  Then have the group do the same for a similar Apple product.  Have them talk about the differences.   This is where the brand is and this is what needs fixing. New product design and vision can fix the brand. It will be interesting to see the plan in action. Peace.

    How do we fix network television?

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    I think the network programming people have to innovate their way out of it. Often we look to shows that are working in the U.K. for inspiration. But alltoo often programmers go back to the comedy, drama, reality, soap and variety show bin. Lately sci-fi and fantasy have caught on.

    Mad Men, a period piece with a vertical angle was a smart new idea – but we all know someone is going to do a remake of the Honeymooners sometime soon.  The variety show is back, but losing steam.  How do we pump new blood into network TV?

    There are only so many J.J. Abrams and Chuck Lorres and Dick Wolfs.  We need some Mark Zuckerbergs.  The network TV show has too long been a middle-aged and geezer-driven from a creative standpoint.  The creative excitement I’m looking for – we’re all looking for – needs to come from tastemakers.  Where is the new music coming from? Where will we find new fashion? New art? Lena Dunham is what I’m talking about.  Let’s find a Lena in Austin or Reno. Let’s spread a little development money that way and see what percolates.  The up-fronts are happening and Tony Shaloub’s next comedy is not the answer.  Peace@.

    Off to college. Online.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Next to a home the largest purchase a person makes in their lifetime is their college education. College tuitions with room and board cost between $10,000 and $40,000.  Multiply that by 4 and add in loans, which may double or triple the amount over the life of the loan and you see where I’m coming from.  Colleges have never been questioned as a pursuit after high school. But there is a generation of students graduating with loans that may not have been obvious to them freshman year, who are looking askance at the higher dot edu price tag. Enter MOOCs. And other online alternatives – which in some cases are free.  In some cases they are taught by Princeton and MIT professors. 

    This is what once might call a market discontinuity.  A market changer.

    Is anyone in higher ed smelling this coffee?  Put your pipes and iPads down people. This online alternative to college is going to create a shizz storm.  University endowments will begin to diminish. Professor pay will stagnate. Dorms will be sold. Teacher’s aids will grow more powerful and though college and universities won’t go away, there will be a lot less of them. It is the future.  Half the kids in college are reading their smart phones in class anyway. And Googling the assignment in class.

    Higher education leaders need to get ready for this one.  They are already behind. See the future. Be the future. Peace!

    Nutrition and Health Education.

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

    govt healthcare

    Got a black eye last night playing hoops.  It was awesome.  I haven’t played basketball for a while, thanks to some back stinging and a little Achilles action. Think I’ve added a few pounds and certainly softened up in the musculoskeletal dept.  But I’m back.

    As a brand planner I’ve been thinking a lot lately about health, healthcare and the role of diet. At this point in time I believe that most Americans want to be healthier but they just don’t want to work at it. We are way too comfortable eating the wrong foods, in the wrong quantities and correcting those behaviors with pills, vitamins and unhealthy diets. (I wonder what would happen – and I’m not advocating it – if all Americans stopped taking their pills for a week.)

    Fast food is convenient.  Conveniently filled with fat, sugar and salt. Carrots and raw green beans are convenient. However they don’t taste as good as French fires. Or do they? Learned behavior.

    The most important person in our government is Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of health and human services. I also believe we can baby-step our way out of the health crisis (where 19% of the GDP goes to healthcare) if we educate children as to proper nutrition and eating habits.  Might we replace a K12 course, say chemistry, with a full year of nutrition?  

    We can’t medicate our way out of poor health and we can’t treat our way out of poor health – we can educate ourselves toward proper wellness.  There will be tons of lobbyists against this approach but that’s okay.  This is America.  Peace!  

     

    What customers want.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    I enjoy coming up with ideas that, as an old mentor once suggested, create market discontinuities.  That’s 60s or 70s speak.  Today let’s just call it ideas the redistribute marketing wealth.  It was reported today that $69 billion was spent in the US last year on mobile phones. The lack of a security app to keep them from being stolen keeps this number high. An app that does so, will cut the market size number significantly. I mean, GDP of Rumania significantly. 

    When consumers save money the market gets smaller – marketers don’t like that too much. Consumers do. And marketers who find ways to save the consumer money build loyalty. And I’m not just suggesting price savings and coupons…heavens no.

    I’ve had  lot off ideas before their time and here’s a fun one. A Kindle Exchange.  I have a 100 books on my Kindle and they just sit there. My neighbor has a 100 books on her Kindle and they just sit there.  Using Sneaker Net, if I were to (ta dah) walk next store and exchange Kindles with her, I would have likely 50 new books for the price of some sneaker tread. If I were to search people of likemind and borrow their Kindles?  I might find some new writers and friends.

    Why doesn’t Kindle come up with this idea?  You know why.  Why doesn’t the book publishers association? You know why.  Amazon, should introduce something like this and even if it  actually sells a few less Kindles it will bring more custies to Amazon love. Peace! 

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