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Follow The Patent.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I’ve done brand work on a number of start-ups and it’s hard. Hard, because there is often no product to evaluate pre-launch. No customers to interview. In the tech world you can work off user experience (UE) of the Beta or demo, but that’s not always real world. So how do you mine “care-abouts” and “good-ats”?

You follow the patent.

To receive a patent you must have a product or service that offers something appreciably different from what currently exists in the commercial world. Something worth defending. For most of my clients I like to follow the money but with start-ups, pre-product, it’s the patent. Start with qualitative, move to quantitative, maybe go back to quant, then get the founders to buy in. If they don’t buy in to the claim and proof planks, and I mean totally, you don’t have a brand strategy. Likely, you don’t have a business strategy.

Peace.

 

 

 

Affordable Marketing Act.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

As someone who has studied the Affordable Care Act and accountable care organizations (I’m hell a parties), I can say with certainty, that we can drive massive cost and fat out of healthcare. We’ve only taken a few steps at this point but we’ve started. A mentor of mine once said “The idea to have an idea is sometimes greater than the idea itself.” (Did I mention, he was the world’s first million dollar a year copywriter and bit of a tippler?)

john wanamker

The whole Medicare thing got me thinking about waste in marketing and advertising. Advertising, the business that celebrates the John Wanamaker quote, “I know half my advertising is working, the problem is, I don’t know which half.”

The fact that marketing programs and advertising are so unscientific is disturbing. So why don’t we do something about it? Who will take up the cause? Not the government, that’s for sure. The AMA? The ANA? They try but their best practices seminars and booklets offer wan counsel. And the nature of the free enterprise business is that once you find a winner you want to keep it to yourself.

So how do we drive cost and fat out of the ad marketing business? Consultants like me offer to do it, but charge for it. Other company’s failings are our opportunities.

There needs to be a big study. And a beginning. It probably should be funded by the top 100 brands. It should take into consideration, digital, mobile, ecommerce, brick and mortar and data science. It should also be global.

Lastly, this effort should have independent leadership. It may take 20 years for good findings, but what’s to lose? Marketers are already pizzling away half their budgets. The Affordable Marketing Act could save hundreds of billions. Peace.

Nfinity’s Tate Chalk on Social Media.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

nfinity logo

Tate Chalk, the founder of footwear and apparel company Nfinity, has built a brand on par with Nike in the minds of teenage girls in the cheer community. He did so by understanding the morphology of women, i.e., feet, long bones, knees and hips, differs from that of boys. He and his designers built cheer shoes accordingly. “Shrink ‘em and pink ‘em” is what competitors did to sell girls footwear; not Mr. Chalk. His business has grown beyond cheer, using the same guiding principle.

I interviewed Mr. Chalk this week because I wanted a look inside his amazing social media program. He has done everything right. There were few surprises, but there was one left hook. It floored me.

Much of my brand planning work deals with the distillation of customer “care-abouts” and brand “good-ats.” Nfinity has a good handle on those. It has constructed its social media program around 7 core values. I can’t tip his hand, but “Rocky Balboa-ness” is one.  

Nfinity takes its deep, deep understanding of its target group, girls age 10-20, and celebrates it every day. Warts and all. The brand knows which buttons to push and which not to – making the brand real. Nfinity understands the highs and lows of the target as well as the drama. Nfinity also never forgets these kids are hardcore athletes.

Nfinity gets communications planning really well. Better than most big agency comms planners. Time-of-day, location, event, family time, hormones – all are drivers. Moreover, the social media program managers get the “digital two-step,” the mobile lifestyle that takes place 2 feet in front of the target’s noses. And a big plus, Nfinity spends money on production: new video technology, lighting, music, and well-heeled post production. Everyone talks about blocking and tackling in social media, few execute this well.

The Left Hook.

Mr. Chalk and the team of millennials running Nfinity’s program do not go to battle the same way across all social vehicles. They stay true to their core values but treat each platform as a different theater of brand expression. Without going too deeply into his approach, he explained:

“I might be a son, a father, a brother. I am one person but must use different voices in different situations.” While What’s The Idea? uses a framework of 1 claim and 3 proof planks and hits all these notes across touch points, Mr. Chalk gerrymanders his strategy by social media channel, letting the aggregate story convey the Nfinity value. This is nuance. This is smart. This is a company with serious social media chops. His followers agree.  

Peace.  

 

 

Mo-Pay.

By
Steve Poppe
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1

Mobile payment, do do do do, the next frontier. Walmart Pay is scheduled to go national early next year. Walmart decided to bypass M.C.X. the mobile pay consortium it entered with Target, CVS and 7-11, in favor of its own offering — presumably because of too many cooks. Apple Pay is having some hiccups. Google wants a piece. PayPal, debit cards, credit cards and even gift card companies are all looking to find the holy grail that will put Fort Knox and the printing arm of the U.S. Treasury on notice.

You just know this is the future; you can feel it.

Technological solutions for digital payment and tracking are our future. Ever wait on a long line at Costco or BJs to have a human check your basket against the paper receipt? Know how many minutes that adds to the shopping experience a year? Know how many purloined goods are missed? That experience is going to soon be like EZ-Pass. All UPC codes will have a tenth of a cent piece of “price and inventory” silica a reader will register as you walk by.

Moreover, when the processing fees of banks, credit cards and other money handling companies are cut from 2-3% down to less than a quarter of a cent, the market will really tip. And more people will be replaced by non-people.

Shopping lines will be no more. Theft and loss will be minimized. Big box stores and their little cousins will be more efficient. Analytics will be off the charts. It’s a winner. We’ll just need to redeploy workers in a smart way. It is the next frontier…and it will be exciting.

Could it be that Walmart will make more money on mo-pay systems than merch? Could be.

Peace.

 

An interview question never asked.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

A job interview question I like to ask is “What is your art?” It’s an open ended question that should not require clarification. When I first started posing it, I found the need to explain it. More recently I just let the person interpret it. If they have no answer, I move on. If the answer is ponderous and all over the place, it suggests a poor self-awareness. No one has ever been asked this question in an interview before so it’s a good way to see how they are on their feet.  It’s also a focus test. It’s an interpretive test. What is art to you? Is it work? Is it skill? Philosophy?

Try it out. It’s a blast.

Peace.

 

 

 

Deeds Are Key To Brand Strategy.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I was reading an ad this morning with the headline “Deeds not words.” If any words define What’s The Idea?, they are these. Alas, it is “words” that I sell. I sell brand briefs. I sell strategic plans. Words on paper. But…

My brand planning due diligence is all about “deeds.” Deeds are the actions that yield outcomes. Outcomes are where many planners spend their time. “We’re number 1. Low cost provider. In business for 35 years.” Outcomes are fine but they are the result of deeds. Once I’ve collected enough deeds, the claim (brand promise) begins to emerge.

I’ve written before about getting to the claim by first finding the proof.  Or assembling proof clusters first. But proof can be a step removed from a deed. Proof can be an outcome or a result.  It’s better to start with deeds. Nothing in marketing (or life) starts without deeds. Physical actions, investments, actualized promises from a brand put money and psychic investment in play. It’s existential.

This is where words stop and how brands are built. Peace.

 

Advertising. Where big theater meets little theater.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

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
-
0

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.

 

 

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