Netflix for the Older Set.

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August 25, 2015

Netflix is creating content specifically for teens and tweens, a group it feels is being underserved from a broadcast/streaming point of view. Contrarian that I am, I would go the other way. I would attempt to develop programming targeting 70 year olds and older. This is an age segment that probably indexes low for Netflix streaming service and a big opportunity zone. They’re a lot more sedentary, with lots of leisure time and own reasonable, albeit, fixed incomes.

I hooked my mom up with Netflix not long ago and it didn’t work. Too much tech. With her 3 remotes and low patience threshold, it was a poor experiment. But she’s 85. And she is often heard to say “There is nothing on TV.” She has seen every episode of Mad Men.

Netflix should not forget these people — who invented the golden age of television. They should program for them, create a nice (in-home?) service package and growth subscriptions by significant numbers.

Peace.

Sell hard, sell soft.

By

Steve Poppe

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August 24, 2015

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I’m always looking for consumer and marketing patterns, especially those that manifest in larger cultural happenings. I’ve written about the new health care phenomenon whereby we flip the model from treatment to prevention – the goal of the Affordable Care Act.

Today I was reading about a new or retro law enforcement program being tested in Queens and Manhattan, moving away from “enforcement” to “prevention.” Officers are asked to walk the beat more, spending more time talking to people in the community, learning about hot spots, pressure points, personalities and flow – hopefully before bad stuff happens. It’s similar to the healthcare model and I’m sure it will work. There will always be a need for enforcement as there will always be a need for treatment, but a few ounces of prevention — listening and learning — can go a long way.

This got me wondering about selling. Can “hard sell” be allied with treatment and enforcement? The hard sell approach is about getting someone to do something they don’t want to do. With immediacy. Ding dong. Ring, ring. Button holing consumers on the street. Softer sell, is about preparing a consumer the time when they will be ready to buy. It works by making a positive impression. A memorable impression.

Hard sell is expected in advertising. From people, in belly-to-belly selling situations, not so much. A key to marketing is “sell hard, in soft mode.” Effectively, preventing rejection.

Peace.

Context Matters.

By

Steve Poppe

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August 21, 2015

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Look at the picture above. It is one of the most famous paintings in the world. To some, however, it is a simplistic primary color pattern of boxes; childlike in its construction. To art connoisseurs it is rapture. When I saw it in art class in college I fell into the former category. Today, though no connoisseur, I tend to see its virtue. Why?

Context.

This paint by Piet Mondrian is titled “Broadway Boogie Woogie.” Now, I am able to get it. Finally, I understand the painting. My years on the planet have allowed me to see the painting with a new familiarity thanks to the title. The title, for me, makes this painting. Setting my mind afire.

This may not sound like a branding observation; it is. Context matters. Oh does context matter.

Peace.

Words to live by… not promote.

By

Steve Poppe

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August 20, 2015

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I saw a kid walking in a store yesterday wearing an athletic tee-shirt proudly displaying three words on the back: Pride, Integrity, Respect. Oh boy. Whenever I see stuff like this I get the sense that it’s a program in trouble.

When I see these kind of words in a company mission statement, my radar goes off and I suspect a historical lack of pride, integrity or respect. These value promos may be a reaction to the category, a la car dealers, lawyers or ad guys, or may be a reaction to the company itself.

Don’t get me wrong these are all great qualities. But for a business or kid it should be a given. If a company or program has a poor moral compass, it needs to be fixed “in-house.” Fixed through training, role-playing, incentives, deeds and programs. Not external communications.

Live it. Don’t post it.

Peace!

All Things Purchased.

By

Steve Poppe

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August 19, 2015

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I’ve written about the brand diaspora as it relates to Microsoft. Diaspora meaning “the spread or dissemination of something originally confined to a local, homogeneous group, as a language or cultural institution.” It’s a topic about which a very boring branding book could be written.

It will be very interesting to see how Amazon handles branding as it continues to take over the retail world. On Long Island, 52 A&P stores are being sold or closed. Wal-Mart earning have slowed, only being kept positive by international sales. Online commerce accounts for a growing portion of all things purchased and it’s not slowing down. Ask real estate sales people – count the brown paper covered windows in local strip malls.

En masse, retail is changing — and the winner is and will continue to be Amazon. Amazon is getting into the industrial distribution business. Hear that MSC Direct? Hear that Grainger? Do you think Mr. Bezos is not thinking about food distribution logistics? And ways to make locally sourced food products cheaper to purchase and deliver?

The future is not now. But one can see it in blurry focus…and Amazon will def be at its center. Plan ahead defenders.

Peace.

Straight Outta Amazon!

By

Steve Poppe

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August 18, 2015

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When your corporate culture and work practices are skewered on the front page of The New York Times, you have two paths forward: respond defensively or not al all. Jeff Bezos and Jay Carney opted to respond. With a tail lowered a few degrees, Mr.Bezos smartly wrote his employees telling them the characterization of his company as a harsh place to work was, in his mind, inaccurate. And in some of the cases cited in the article, very un-Amazonian. Anyone, said he, who feels they have been wronged should “write me directly.” He also suggested, harsh working conditions and lack of empathy will not be tolerated. Mr. Carney brought this internal memo to the NYT and public. Those mea culpas out of the way he went on to say the story was inaccurate.

The second approach would have been to do nothing. Nothing externally. That’s the approach I would have taken. It’s a big company. Nasty happens. Hard work happens. Has anyone ever worked at an ad agency? Doh! Bad managers are just like bad people, they exist.

By going public, extending the news cycle another day, the NYT ended up gathering more stories to publish. Women Bill Cosby raped began “coming out” when the crimes became topical. Hard work at Amazon is not a crime. Slashing a percentage of workers each year is not a crime – it’s Jack Welchian.

I suspect Jay Carney counselled Mr. Bezos to lay low and he did not abide. Or, it could have been the other way. Either way it was a learning moment. Either way Amazon will rule the world (silly drone idea aside) in 10 years.

Peace be up on (not “upon”) you. (Saw Straight Outta Compton last night. Crazy, crazy great movie!)

5 Hour Energy. When Extra Strength Kills.

By

Steve Poppe

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August 17, 2015

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I was listening to the radio yesterday and heard a spot for 5 Hour Energy Extra Strength. Say what??? This is a business mistake caused by a branding mistake. 5 Hour Energy is already perceived as extra strength. Hell, it’s in the name. 5 hour Energy was a category-busting product in one of the fastest growing beverage areas around, according Beverage Digest. Sure you can improve the flavor and add new citrus punches and the like but by introducing extra strength it neuters the regular brand.

This is not to say product management shouldn’t have been looking for ways to expand sales, they should. Just not at the expense of the master brand. They would have been better off launching a newly named, newly formulated product. Not, though, like Monster who has 30 +brands.

There’s pushing the envelope and ripping her open. I believe Extra Strength is a case of the latter.

Peace.

A Soar Plan in the Craft Economy.

By

Steve Poppe

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August 14, 2015

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The promise of the craft economy is higher quality products. There’s little question that the love that goes into craft beer (or batch beer) is exponentially greater than that going into mass produced brew like Bud Light. Sir Kensington Ketchup is another example of a craft product in search of a sliver of market share. With less sodium and sugar and no genetically modified ingredients, the product has a built in market. So long as the taste is there. Hampton Creek’s Just Mayo is a successful craft product. The craft economy is growing.

Here’s the thing about the internet age. A craft product can go from zero to 3/5^th of a mile in ten seconds like that. Distribution channels aside, if a craft product “hits,” demand can soar in hours. New product producers and manufacturers need to have a “soar” plan.

And not all craft product people want to mass produce (wink wink), but those who do shouldn’t be caught off guard. It takes months and lots of money (in stocking fees) to get consumer packaged goods onto a grocery store shelf. That’s too long. You need a plan. Costco? BJs? Direct to consumer via the web? Options all.

New product people in the craft space – crafty they must be.

Peace?

Teaching Teachers to Teach. Digitally.

By

Steve Poppe

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August 13, 2015

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News Corp. is looking to sell off Amplify after a failed experiment in the education and educational technology business. The coup de grace was a $371M write down announced yesterday. The NYT suggested “the moves highlight the difficulty that has confronted News Corporation and others looking to move teaching into the digital age, relying on the Internet and tablets to update traditional curriculums.”

Moving teaching into the digital realm is, indeed, difficult. But does anyone disagree it’s a bad idea? I understand teachers over 35 are having difficulty getting acclimated to new devises, e.g., interactive whiteboards, assessment clickers, curriculum apps and education software, but passing advanced chemistry in high school wasn’t a walk in the park either. It’s a learning thing.

Professional development in K12 is such a big business because many teachers don’t get the new technology. Layer that with new Common Core standards and you are beginning to see the “perfect storm.”

Amplify will be bought by either Pearson or Google (or a smart super-rich tech spender) who will reengineer how to teach teachers to teach, using a new digital curriculum. It won’t be easy, but when it works (and it will), the results will change U.S. education by leaps.

Ar-ne Dun-can, clap, clap, clap clap clap. (Baseball stadium reference.)

Peace.

Google Trivestiture. Not.

By

Steve Poppe

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August 12, 2015

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I Googled “whatstheidea+google trivestiture” to see when I predicted Google would be split into 3 companies. Seems it was February 2010. According to yesterday’s news, “right pew wrong church.” Google is being reorganized — deconstructed into parts ,actually — but it won’t be at the hands of the gub-ment. It’s Google itself that will separate the company.

Alphabet will be launched as a brand new holding company. Google will continue on with search, YouTube, Android and apps (and Chrome?), all reporting to Alphabet. And smaller unique businesses such as Nest, Fiber, Google Ventures and Google X will stand alone – also reporting to Alphabet.

So divestiture is happening, just not as I predicted it. My trivestiture thought was all about monopoly breaking. This move is about business and accountability.

It doesn’t mean Google still can’t be broken apart, it just makes it a little less likely.

Nice move Messrs. Brin and Page.

I was wrong. Happy to admit it. Tear a stripe of my uniform. And ahead we shall march.

Peace.