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Buying Versus Selling.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I’ve written before about the marketer’s easiest sale being one where there’s pent up demand for a product, service or function. When people want what you offer, selling is easy. At the polar opposite is selling something people don’t want. Then selling is hard. I don’t want to get sick, so selling remedies beforehand, for instance. I don’t want to buy a condo in the Berkshires, is another example.  Then there is the third approach: selling something a customer doesn’t know about. They may want it, if educated about the product, but the need is not on their radar. This is an expensive marketing challenge because first the seller has to explain the product, then explain the problem/function, and lastly close the deal. It’s a 3 stepper, if you will.

With pent up demand selling you can almost take a “we’re here” approach. There is demand — you are the supply. Like Pearl Jam tickets. With a product that had little demand you are best segmenting your target and focusing on those who do want it or profile closest to wanting it. For the latter group the best way forward is to take an educational approach. Don’t preach-teach. Engage, find common contextual ground, then bait several hooks and learn what works.

If all people were the same, selling would be easy. They are not. Remember, it is buying you should be focused on not selling. Peace.

 

A Bold Long Term Move By CVS.

By
Steve Poppe
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1

In Mark Ames important Pando article “Shillers for Killers” he states tobacco killed 100 million people last century and is on track to kill another billion this century. The point of his article is that PR and third party advocates have greatly furthered tobacco’s cause – the shillers in the article’s title.

It was announced yesterday, CVS Pharmacy has decided to drop out of the Chamber of Commerce because the Chamber is against anti-smoking efforts outside the U.S.  This is freakin’ weeken’ awesome. Que huevos?

When CVS made the decision to drop butts from its store a while back, it no doubt calculated the loss of revenue. But the CVS brand idea “Health Means Everything” means nothing unless they walk the walk. And CVS has walked the walk. These are not only a brand strategy moves they are big ass, newsworthy proofs of claim.  And the payout over time, will way exceed the loss of a million Marlboro Lights sold.

The reality is, Walgreens and others will follow but CVS is doing the hard, dirty work and breaking the new ground. And they will continue to I suspect. The leadership at CVS and the head of marketing/public relations should win the 2015 Ad Age Marketer of the Year Award.

Peace.

 

Brand Planning Memes.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I’m a meme-alist. That’s someone who likes to create memes. In my area of business — brand strategy — I own a few memes. Twitch Point Planning. Posters and Pasters. Brand Planners Prayer. Well actually, no one ever owns a meme, so let’s just say I started them. And they point to What’s The Idea?

My biggest business building meme (or it should be) is Claim and Proof. It’s undergirds every aspect of my work. The idea referred to in What’s the Idea? is the claim. The proof array or proof planks are the reasons to believe. The reasons to remember. 

claim and proof art

If you Google Claim and Proof you won’t find What’s the Idea? You’ll get lots of pages of bankruptcy links about proof of claim (claim and proof inverted). Google “Claim and Proof” in quotes and you will only find a picture from my deck on brand strategy. Above the fold. It will get you to my stuff, but it’s a picture not a link. Seems there’s a paucity of art related to Claim and Proof. Hint, hint.

For my business, the order of claim and proof is important. The words cannot be flopped.

If you Google Claim and Proof Planks you get What’s The Idea? in living color. It’s not as meme-able as claim and proof sans quotes, but it’s a bullseye. As a meme-alist, I help clients find their idea then develop ways to meme-alate it. Hee hee…I can’t stop!!!$%%.

Peace.

 

MSKCC and Proof.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

The new advertising for Memorial Sloan Kettering has great potential yet under-delivers. The idea or promise is “More Science. Less Fear.” MSKCC the CC stands for Cancer Center) is known for its best-in-class cancer outcomes. If ever you have a chance to speak with someone who has been treated there, you know that they understand the science. Intimately. So the promise (brand idea) is dead on. But if you read or listen to ads on the radio you get no science. You get generalities. “We treat every cancer patient differently.” We us a team of specialist.” Flah flah. I was doing ads like that as a kid.

I’m not sure where the breakdown is. MSKCC has the proof. They have the science to educate consumers – they just don’t seem to use it. Perhaps they believe we’re not all science majors and won’t be able to process the info. Not so. The narrative doesn’t have to be in chemistry 401 language.

Branding and advertising is all about claim and proof. MSKCC has the claim…it’s the proof they’re having difficulty with. Proof of more science, should be the easiest part of the equation.

It will get better. There are smart people at the helm. Peace.

 

Brand Culture Vs. Operating System.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I think it was UnderCurrent or Nobl (Bud Cadell’s new consulting effort) who came up with the notion of an operating system for a company. It may be someone else…I need to dump the brain cache. Anyway the metaphor of an operating system for a company or brand is similar to language I use in brand planning “an organizing principle.”

One of the most overused words in business and brand consulting is “culture.” Just as companies that talk the most about ROI are the one’s who don’t have it, companies that speak of culture most often don’t have it. Back in the 90s John Dooner spoke of culture at McCann-Erickson. When I finally got through the blather about “entrepreneurship,” someone finally described it to me as “Do what you want until someone says stop.” Culture needs a motivation. It needs articulation. And it needs behavioral tenets. Culture is like the mama on your shoulder who tells you how to behave and what to do at any given moment.

Brand Culture may be a good way of repackaging what I do as a brand consultant. Brand strategy at What’s The Idea? is defined as 1 idea, 3 proof planks. (I find a motivation or claim — one that customers want most and that the brand does best – and arrange that atop 3 behaviors that are business winning.) Not a particularly sexy or in-demand sale, it works.  Yet it doesn’t often get past the c-suite.  I’m thinking of packaging it as a brand culture exploratory; it may clear up the misunderstandings around the words brand and culture. Operating system ain’t bad, but it’s a little bit like organizing principle.

Stay very tuned. Peace.

 

 

A crafty sneaker company.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I had an amazing girlfriend in college who used to hand-paint socks. They were cooler than cool. Almost still have a pair…it was a long time ago. B Street Shoes is a concern whose founder Blake Barash had made a business out of hand painting kicks or sneakers. His site on Etsy gets more than 140,000 visits a month and his shoes sell for about 2 hundie. Blake, has found the craft economy. I love to read this kind of story.

My college psych profession tried to steer me into “leisure time counseling,” thinking as technology evolved people would have more time on their hands. The craft economy is an answer to that free time. Rather than ingest digits, saturated fats, TV shows and movies, people are finding it exciting to make stuff. And, in the craft economy the stuff we make is meant to last, not hit the landfill. Woodworking for men of a certain age is all the rage. Cooking and gardening are coming back into fashion. In the craft economy, we have a newfound appreciated of goods and services. Keep it coming.

 

Simple. Loveable. And Inspiring.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I scraped this screen grab from Jen van der Meer’s website.

van der meer slide

 

I’ve never met Jen but after reading these two quotes feel we’re sibs from another mother.

In my approach to branding at What’s The Idea? I take these two truths to be self-evident. And many would agree…yet these guiderails are rarely practiced. Was I to add another ingredient it would be “inspiration.” Inspiration creates feelings and action. Ms. Van der Meer is a data analyst.  It seems to me complexity is the domain of the data analyst. And in my mind’s eye they are all a little ADD.  But when Ms. van der Meer speaks of simplicity and “love of craft” it makes me believe she’d be a great marketer to work with. And a great data analyst.

I often tell clients “I’m a simple man.” It’s a way to self-deprecate and also set the stage that this brand strategy stuff, when complete, is organic, understandable and easy to follow. It’s an organizing principle for product, messaging and experience. Done well it is simple, loveable and inspiring.

Peace.

 

 

A Brand Planning Bobble.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

One of my latest brand planning memes is “what customers want most and what you do best.” (Shit, I need to start tagging that phrase.) It almost always drives the work of good marketers…certainly good brand planners. Problem is, most heavy up on one side of the equation. Case in point: A pal came to me recently in a business development situation asking for thoughts on a company he is pitching. He gave me a quick overview and said his agency is already working on some creative ideas. The company being pitched is in the home improvement space.

I asked if he wanted some thoughts on strategic underpinning to help with creative (or selling the creative). He said sure.  I heavied up on the “what you do best” side of the equation by reviewing the website – the only tangible representation of the company I was given beyond the initial 10 minute telephone overview. I neglected to look closely at the “what customers want most” side the house, typically a brand planner’s wheelhouse. (A dive into customer attitudes, motivations and experience.)

This whole exercise was a cursory, non-paid “quickie.” No real rigor. That being said, I dropped the ball by focusing on what was already built — what was already there. My wheelhouse, any brand planners wheelhouse, is the consumer viewpoint. Given the short timeframe, omitting that side of the equation was an error. Lesson learned.

Peace.

 

The hacksaw and the bolt cutter.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

boltcutter

Here’s a little parable about using the right tool. Our cellar door is held secure by a Master Lock. The Master Lock keys are kept in the key cabinet and have been for decades. Last weekend they were not. So I looked for my hacksaw to do what any able bodied homeowner would do (argh argh argh) and began ripping. And ripping. After a few minutes I hadn’t even come close to marring the hardened steel. WTF.

So I used the web. Logging on to Nextdoor.com I asked around the neighborhood if anyone had a bolt cutter. No hits after two days. I went to Ace Hardware, where they had two sizes of bolt cutter, the larger of the two priced at a reasonable $39 dollars. I chose to not invest. At home I emailed a friend in construction who came over with is pair. I snipped that lock like butter. Guns of Navarone!

The point of the parable? The right tool can be a crazy time saver. Most small, mid-size and B2B companies do not have brand strategies. They have logos. Ad campaigns. Website “About” sections. They may even have brands. But they don’t have an organizing principle that governs product, messaging and experience. A brand strategy is a fundamental tool. It help marketing cut though challenges like butter.

For examples of successful brand strategies, please write me (Steve Poppe) at steve@whatstheidea.com.

Peace.

Gap in market intelligence.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

gap commercial

The Gap is closing 175 stores and laying off 250 in its corporate offices. The company has a handle on what’s gone wrong but worked perfunctorily to fix it. It’s the product. Women want a tight silhouette in their pants. Gaps, traditionally, doesn’t do silhouette. When you think of Gap you think boxy and baggy.

Here’s the environmental rub –and what should have been a wake-up call for the Gap design team: BMI. It stands for body mass index. The BMI for Gap buyers when the brand was young isn’t what is it today, especially with the target market. There are cities of wide-waisted, big-assed people out there today and they need to be clothed.  The explosive yoga pants phenomenon is a direct result of this. They stretch, they give a person their slimmest possible profile and they’re inexpensive.

I worked on an obesity project a couple of years ago at which time 78M American’s were classified as obese. It probably has gotten worse.

Gap knows what it has to do. The product needs to change with the times. They need to come up with a cool and witty alternative to yoga pants. Rocking around the clock in their ads with khaki pants aflutter won’t do it today. Gap needs to get back in touch with today’s teens and millennials. Apparently product design is in the hands of 30 and 40 year olds. It’s R&D time.

Peace.

 

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