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Key Brand Indicators.

By
Steve Poppe
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One of my jobs as a brand planner is to help companies focus. When a brand is focused, consumers can focus.

The opposite of focus in brand planning is The Fruit Cocktail Effect. That’s what happens when you try to promote yourself as too many things. With fruit cocktail, the peach tastes like the pear which tastes like the grape and the pineapple and the cherry. There is no differentiation, it’s just one sugary mess. That’s what happens to brands that don’t focus.

Lots of marketers today talk about KPIs or key performance indicators. They are a great way to manage business. (You can’t manage what you don’t measure.) But in brand planning we are not measuring Excel charts of KPIs, we are managing attitudes, beliefs and biases — and a limited few, at that. For the sake of this discussion let’s call them KBIs or key brand indicators.  To avoid The Fruit Cocktail Effect, What’s The Idea? dictates a One Claim, Three Proof Plank brand strategy. Effectively, measuring four things. 

(One prominent phone company understood it could maintain market share if price perception was within 10% of the nearest competitor. That’s a proof plank. That’s a KBI. And that’s a business winning measure.)  

For more information and elucidation, write Steve@WhatsTheIdea.com

Peace.

 

Singularize The Solution.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

The brand framework that has worked for so many of my clients is one built around a single solution.

First an exclaimer, there are two kinds of brand planning: Master Brand Planning, which sets the strategy for all brand activity and Everyday Brand Planning, where strategic planners solve tactical, temporal challenges. Whichever your brand planning approach — mine happens to be in master brand planning — there is a new wave planning rigor that lasers in on the problem.  With the main commercial or attitudinal problem in hand, the thinking goes, the solutions can flow freely.  There’s a famous quote often attributed to Einstein “If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions.”

This hyper focus on the problem is where I take issue — not with the importance of the problem but with the resulting lack of specificity about the solution.

My brand framework focuses on a single solution.  That solution is supported, proven and seeded in the consumer mind by three proof planks. The most famous and lasting brand strategy for Coca-Cola is “refreshment.” The proof planks for refreshment are: 1. unique kola nut taste, which hits the mouth and throat with a jolt, 2. served icy cold as evidenced by sweating bottle pictures, and 3. (still working on that one.) 

The wood behind the arrow at Whats The Idea? is the solution. A codified, constant pulse of a single solution…supported by 3 proof planks.  When a master brand uses this framework, the design of the work is easier, approvals of the marketing simpler, and muscle memory of the consuming public less complicated.

Problem and solution are critical components of brand planning. But I contend singularizing the solution is the critical job of the brand planner.

Thoughts?

 

 

The Brand Planner’s Conundrum.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

The problem with brand planning consultants is that we are not very good at talking about ourselves.  And, unless you have a full-time job in planning, you need to be selling to be making. It’s a conundrum.

Some consultants are egocentric. Others wall flower-ish. And, of course, there are scads of variations in between. But one thing we share in common is the enjoyment resulting from digging in on other people’s brands. We love exploring.

I am most comfortable talking to people about what I do when sharing observations and insights about brand good-ats and customer care-abouts.  (At its most basic level, distilling care-abouts and good-ats is what brand strategists do.)  Though, put us in a room with marketers and ask us to talk about ourselves and it gets ugly.

Brand planning hither rather than thither is a problem. Especially for consultants. Don’t get me wrong, over time I’ve figured out a few sweet selling points. And I crafted a solid framework to deliver strategy. One that’s easy to understand. But that sausage-making is relatively boring. My cross to bear.

So repeat after me, thither rather than hither.

Peace.

                                

 

 

Selling In 30 Seconds or Less.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I was in a meeting yesterday in which mentors were demonstrating techniques to help early-stage companies build sales and teams. The mentee company founder explained his software company as one that monitored employee workflows with the goal of smoothing them out and making things more efficient and productive. My words not his. His explanation was more cumbersome, acronym filled, and, as is the way with coders, rather technical.

One of the questions I use in my brand strategy practice came to mind for the three mentors during this exercise. It has really helped me over the years when interviewing technical people.  The question was born of work for Capgemini many moons ago. 

It was meant to be asked of salespeople but works for founders.  “If you had only 30 seconds with a CFO, what would you tell him/her about your product in order to get a meeting?  Craft the answer as if it were a cold voice mail.”   

If you have ever spoken with CFOs, you know a couple of things about them.  Numbers are their jam.  They’re revenue and expense driven.  They aren’t big students of the FM (fucking magic) or technology undergirding product management.  They also don’t take kindly to marketing bullshit. So, when crafting your 30 second speech, get the Is-Does right – what the product Is and What the product Does. Explain your key benefit — don’t benefit-shovel. And solve a problem with pent-up demand. You just may get your meeting.

Peace.

 

 

Innovation is a Gift.

By
Steve Poppe
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BEVERLY HILLS, CA – FEBRUARY 22: Music producer Rick Rubin attends the 2015 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Graydon Carter at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on February 22, 2015 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic)

One of the greatest living music producers is Rick Ruben.  His genius cuts across all music types: Rap, country, rock, jazz and some yet to be classified. It is his ear that sets him apart.  He hears things others don’t.

I’m not sure he has the same ear for people, however. In the Avett Brothers documentary May It Last, after a perfect and raw recording of one song, where the room was pin-drop silent, the singer completely drained, Rick’s excited voice bludgeoned the room encouraging everyone toward the next cut.  Both Avetts, awoken from their trance, asked for a minute – walking outside to the Blue Ridge mountains to gather their shit. To revive.

That said, it was the perfect cut and Rick’s fingerprints’ evident.

In an interview this week with Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes, Mr. Ruben said “the audience comes last.” “The audience doesn’t know what it wants, it only knows what it’s heard.”  This approach is very Steve Jobsian. I also subscribe to this school of thinking, calling it Beyond the Dashboard Planning.

It’s certainly contrarian.  But Rick Ruben is contrarian.

In Rick’s interview he said about great music “It seems familiar. Yet you don’t know where you’ve heard it before.”

It’s a gift, innovation.

 

Brand. Strategy. Framework.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

One of my favorite definitions of “brand” is “an empty vessel into which we pour meaning.”  It’s a statement about the malleability of brands. But under further scrutiny the definition isn’t 100% accurate — most brands aren’t really empty, are they?  Blaze Pizza has a special crust, sauce, cheese.  Fat Tire beer offers a unique malty taste profile. A Ford Mustang Mach-E is a line extension containing lots of built up and carry-over meaning. Nothing empty about that. And, of course, brand have names. Names which when done right, offer up a view into the product and, hopefully, convey a special value.

It is the job of the brand planner and brand manager to take what exists inside the vessel and enhance it. Refine it. Compliment and strengthen it.  It’s the brand strategy that lets creators and marketers develop and energize the bond between consumers and the brand. It all starts with the brand strategy.

My definition of brand strategy is “an organizing principle for product, experience and messaging.”  And to organize you need a framework. Mine is built upon claim and proof. My framework simplifies decision-making, adds direction to the creative process and informs all four Ps of marketing.

Get yourself a vessel. Get yourself a framework. And land on a brand strategy. Chaos be gone.

Peace.  

 

Smarten-up.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I’m not the smartest guy on the planet. Sometimes it takes me a beat to get a joke. I didn’t get As in college until my senior year.  I can’t finish the NY Times Sunday crossword puzzle (but I do help my wife finish it). This somewhat average acumen serves me well in my brand strategy practice.    

I can tell a story, I have an ear for consumer likes and language, and have good taste in styles – all assets that contribute to my business. So there’s that.

H.L Mencken once wrote:

“No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”

You’ve heard the expression “dumb down?” Well, when crafting brand strategy for the masses, you don’t want to be the smartest person in the room. Brand planners who are off-the-charts smart sometimes overthink and overcomplicate brand strategy. Whether challenging themselves or making points with the client or creative team it hurts the work.  Conversely, other planners who get that 330 million Americans come in all shapes, sizes and aptitudes, work to “dumb down” brand strategy to a lowest common denominator.

I take issue with both these approaches.

The opposite if dumb down is smarten-up. In my planning rigor, I boil down brand strategy to one claim and three proof planks.  The claim may border on common but the proof planks are certainly the “textures of belief” that appeal to consumer smarts.   

So brand people, smarten-up your strategies. And H.L. Mencken be darned.

Peace.    

 

Startups and Pent-up Demand

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Pent-up demand are my two favorite marketing words. I love brand planning on products and services for which there is great unmet demand. And when that demand is pent-up, I’m even more stoked.  Conversely, positioning products that consumers don’t know they need is a two stepper. Much more complicated. And much more expensive.  

I once worked at a social media startup that allowed website building without knowing code. We were funded to the gills. Quantitative research told us there was great demand for our tool, yet we flamed out in less than two years. One woman’s pend-up demand is another woman’s crash and burn. So let’s just say, all pent-up demand isn’t the same. 

There is a difference between pent-up demand in a mature category (lite beer) and that in an emerging category (web authoring). Savvy brand strategy has to account for that. Just as every mother thinks their baby is beautiful, every entrepreneur thinks their startup is beautiful.  Understanding demand, pent-up demand and the alternatives is a critical first step.

 Peace.

 

 

Brand Value Triad.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I was reading some material on a solar panel company recently and through reverse engineering discovered their brand values to be integrity, hard work and customer service. These are all great qualities… but horrible, undifferentiated brand values.  Also note, none of these values are endemic – physically tied to the product or service. As such, any service company could use this triad of values. It’s, therefore, meaningless. In fact, it’s harmful – burying one in a sea of sameness.

Pop Quiz.  Name a solar panel installer known for integrity, hard work and customer service. Name and financial planner known for integrity, hard work and customer service. See where I’m going with this?

I did a brand strategy for a service company in the commercial maintenance business. They clean commercial buildings, mow lawns and remove snow, among other things. Their brand strategy claim was “Navy seals of commercial maintenance” and their values (I call them proof planks) were “fast,” “fastidious” and “preemptive.” Now fast may not sound very differentiated, but when you balance that with fastidious and add the very unique preemptive, you have a value triad that kills. Are these values endemic to a cleaning business? Maybe not, you got me. But they are sure what customers care-about and what the commercial maintenance company is good at. Good-ats and care-abouts.

(When dealing with business-to-business service companies endemic is important but less important.)

Peace.

 

 

Finitie-osity.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Marketing and advertising would be much better if they focused solely on proof.  Proof of value. Demonstration of value. Honestly, you needn’t even be best-in-class, you just need to support your value claim.  But 90% of advertising today tells consumers what to believe but doesn’t show it.   

There was a time when you could sing your product’s praises and it sold. That was the era of “We’re here” advertising.  If you were simply top-of- mind, you won.  It’s a strategy Geico still employs. But ladies and gentlemen, we live in an era of analytics. Of measurement. Of Finite-osity.  There are ways to prove a claim. 

Analytics are the friend of proof. 

If you say you are the best-selling dishwasher detergent, there’s data to prove it.  If you say you are the hotdog eating champ of Brooklyn, there’s a contest. Most snow in Utah? NOAA measuring stick. But for some reason we still prefer to sing the praises of our products.

My job as a brand planner/brand strategist is to rid the business of this horrid and wasteful selling practice. My job is to organize product and service values into groups of proof which existentially (there’s that word again) reflect a product’s superiority.

Love to show you how it works and prove how it has worked for clients.

Write Steve@WhatsTheIdea.com

Peace.

 

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