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Advertising. Where big theater meets little theater.

By
Steve Poppe
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McCann-Erickson’s Robert Cohen used to be the doyen of the advertising economics business. His predictions of spending growth were industry guideposts. When computers cornered the market as presentation vehicles Mr. Cohen used to go onstage with large oak tag cue card, doing his numbers thing on the stages of some of NY’s greatest presentation venues.

During one of Mr. Cohen’s internal McCann presentations in the early nineties, while sharing how yellow page ads were sluggish, I raised my hand and in my strongest Oliver Twist plea asked “Where are the digital numbers sir?.”  Mr. Cohen said they were not large enough to track. He was not dismissive, just in the moment.

The New York Times reported today that digital advertising will pass that of TV in 2016. It took only twenty-ish years for this transformation. Who knew?

There will always be room in marketing for “big theater” advertising or selling. But data analytics and “little theater” is coming on like a dookie. Go check your Google stock.

Every marketing plan I’ve written the last 3 years has included a line item for a part or full-time data analyst hire. It’s what Bob Cohen was — it’s the future of marketing.

Peace.

Brand Strategy and Multiple Targets.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

In the part of my brand strategy presentation where I lay out my framework (1 claim, 3 proof planks), I talk about the many targets a brand must address. With B2B products, the targets tend to be job or function-related. For a healthcare service, as an example, I might want the brand to speak to patients, docs, care-givers and insurance companies. This adds complexity when it comes to finding the claim. On the consumer side of the house, the targets are often consumer segments.

starbucks machiatta

I was reading about a Starbucks barista in Williamsburg Brooklyn this morning and how he is one of group of highly skilled Howard Schultz employees, dialing up the flavor selections of artisanal brews, soon to be released under the “Roastery” name — coffee draughts which may list for as high as $10. The Williamsburg drinkers of this high-end coffee are not the bulk of the Starbucks buyers around the country; they’re not part of the double, double, half hazelnut, half vanilla, two sugars, muffin top set. A group that pays the bills.

So how does one brand cater to both targets with a single Starbucks brand? Without, sorry for the pun, diluting the brew? Well, the brand has to be future proof. It has to have a claim and proof plan array that appeals to all segments. Though I am not privy to the Starbucks brand strategy, I know it’s accommodating. It will handle the Roastery and the mixed coffee drink crowd. Starbucks has a brand strategy that encompasses. That includes. But also focuses. Starbucks has mad blending skills.

Peace.

 

 

Yahoo! Is the exclamation point a gasp?

By
Steve Poppe
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I talk to brand strategy clients in simple terms. Brand strategy — an organizing principle to improve product, experience and messaging — is the result of a bold down of consumer “care-abouts” and brand “good-ats.”

Looking at Yahoo, as it begins what appears to be the final stages of life as we know it, I’d like to suggest a couple of observations. Yahoo customer care-abouts include: communications, digital content (not TV content), immediacy and sports. Yahoo good-ats include: ad sales, consumer reach, brand, fantasy sports and  production.

When care-abouts and good –ats don’t align, you have product failure which leads to brand failure.

I was speaking with a start-up owner recently and told him, when dealing with brand strategy for nascent companies I “follow the patent.” For mature companies like Yahoo! with lots of twists, turns and portal creeps, I suggest go back to care-abouts and good-ats. Make tough decision. Toss a few babies out with the bathwater. And get your olfactory on. Imagine if Starbucks also served garlic bread.

Yahoo may have one last chance. If Ms. Mayer doesn’t focus, her company, a beloved company, will be sold for parts. Peace.

 

 

The Dlugacz Effect

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I wrote the brand strategy for the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System about 15 years ago and it came together thanks to the leaders at North Shore who were kind enough to allow me into their inner sanctums and learn about their rich and diverse organization. No one person helped me formulate the strategy more than Yosef Dlugacz. Yosef was the head of quality and measurement at North Shore.

It’s a rarity that any one person embodies the brand promise of an entire organization the way Dr. Dlugacz does, but it’s always worth trying to find that person. I call that the Dlugacz Effect. Many planners who work in B2B assume the CEO will provide the best brand input direction – and often they do. Oddly, I sometimes find HR people have their fingers on the pulse of the market and provide a key insight. I love talking to the top (and bottom) salespeople. But sometime, the Dlugacz Effect comes from somewhere else. The oldest employee. The busiest. The receptionist. The insight that sets the main brand claim can come from anywhere.

Brand strategists need to always keep their eyes and ears open, because when the Duglacz Effect happen you need to be ready.

Peace.

 

Product Gesture vs. Product Experience.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Experience is hot marketing word these days. It is rooted me thinks in user experience (UX), which started in the early days of the web when sites were hard to navigate and not intuitive. Ad and digital agencies caught on to experience a few years later as a way to create new buildables (content) and garner planning fees It didn’t hurt that “customer journey” and “communications planning” were smart ideas to begin with.

Product experience, some will have you believe, starts with communications and ends with the after-sale. The experience is everything in between. A lot of product experience buildables – designed to follow the AIDA principle: Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action — are online and in-store. But product gesture is different.

Product gesture is not so much about the product journey and surround as it is the “consuming experience.” (See my last blog post.) A product gesture is the olfactory response that occurs when you drive by a Burger King. It’s why “flame broiled” is such a powerful brand asset of BK. For Coke, whose long standing brand idea is refreshment, the moment when your head snaps back after a full swig of a newly opened Coke is induced by the product gesture. Google’s product gesture occurs during search when your problem is solved, you smile and twitch to act.

Every product has a gesture. Man-made gestures like the Stella Artois pour and glass are distant seconds, but they are gestures nonetheless.

Find your product gesture and you will find marketing and branding success.

What is your product gesture?

 

Product Gestures

By
Steve Poppe
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0
Guinness for strength
Guinness for strength

I once Tweeted: “The fastest way to brand loyalty: Don’t take customers for granted and provide them with unexpected, thoughtful product gestures.”

The word in this statement that excites me is gestures. It’s easy to see what a service gesture is, that’s a manmade experience, but a product gesture? Hmm. At the time I’m sure what I meant by product gesture was “service gesture,” or “corporate gesture.” However, now I’m looking at product gesture a little differently. A little more organically.

A rough definition of gesture is: A movement or action that is expressive of an idea, opinion or emotion. So let’s look at that for a second. When you pour a beer, is the head an expression? Of course it is. But of what? Freshness, glass cleanliness, taste? And don’t all beers have head? Indeed they do. Guinness Stout has a head, however that head is richer, fuller, made up of tinier bubbles due to carbonation from nitrogen not carbon dioxide. An organic product expression.  

When brand planners look for differentiation they can start by asking product managers and consumers what gestures derive from the product. Product gestures are part of the consuming experience not the marketing experience.

Tink about it as my Norwegian aunt might say. Peace.

(More on experiences vs. gestures tomorrow.)

Consumer Voyeurism.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

The memeable me is always on the lookout of ways to explain what I do as a brand strategist. I recently sent out something to someone telling them I was “two parts brand strategist, one part voyeur.” Now before you go casting prurient stones, my gratification from watching consumers is not sexual. It is, however, gratifying. I love watching people. I love trying to figure them out. Their tells? What’s on their mind? (And it’s almost always not marketing. Even while shopping.) How are they responding to situations and why? A man shopping for San Marzano tomatoes Saturday evening is not thinking brands, he’s thinking mom and football/crusty bread and rich butter.

Good consumer voyeurism takes into account context, timing, location, visual cues, behavior, facial expressions – not to mention socio-economics. Just as Sherlock Homes assesses a person’s motives by putting them under close scrutiny, so must a brand strategist put consumers under a watchful eye. We hunt, we observe, we process and imply. Then we start again. We look more deeply into people than does a demographer. Soul searching is our MO.

Peace.  

 

The Fish Store.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I was driving through Bayport-Bluepoint, a south shore of Long Island village, over the weekend and passed a relatively new, tall gray clapboard building with a neat flatfish logo, named The Fish Store. By its name and the look I assumed it was an upscale fishing store – a place to by poles, line, fighting chairs. The biggest paper sign in the window said in little letters “Now” and “Orders” with the large word “TAKING” in between. Driving by quickly, I misread the word as “tackle.” Context is everything.

Turns out, after a second drive by, this was a retail fresh fish store and take-out joint.

I often discuss the importance of context in branding; this is a case in point. Poor store design, signage and naming. All rolled into one. A name with seafood in it may have sent a quick message to passing consumers. Or the word “fresh.” Some architectural, lighting or retail signage detail would also have helped. Flounder 7.99/lb, for instance.

For unknowing consumers passing through town, this place broke all the rules.

If it looks like a duck…Peace.   

 

 

Brand Planning Questions.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Part of the secret sauce of brand planning is the interview; be it of customers, prospects, partners, sales people or company management. And the art of the question is in the ability to ask and extract rational information that helps “follow the money” and “follow the preference,” but also emotional interests. Emotional connections with the product, brand or category.

The art of the question also lies in listening and the redirect…taking a path the interviewee establishes and working it is where contextual serendipity takes over. Don’t get me wrong, I have a battery of questions I use as thought starters, but the riffing is always good. It shows the interviewee is interested.

Questions that get people to warm up and open up tend to be less rational. I use one question with company management that goes something like this, “Fast forward one year, after we’ve worked together, and everything has gone beyond your wildest expectation, tell me what we’ve accomplished?”  Here’s a new one I came up with while reading the paper today. It sounds a little goofy and simple but I’m going to try it.  “What are your dreams for this company?” It may be one of those “idea to have an idea” prompts, but in the c-suite, with different department leaders answering, it may prove telling. Stay tuned.

Peace.            

 

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