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A Tale of Two City Websites.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Some projects should never get off the ground. Last year NYC closed down a schools website called ARIS (Achievement Reporting and Innovation System). Parents, by and large, were not logging on to get their kids’ grades and test comments. Amplify, a usually smart education company, was paid $95M over 7 years (development by IBM) to build and maintain this well-intended, but flawed site. In fairness, they stepped in after the project was underway. Someone up front – at the strategy level – should have stopped this project before it started. Once the RFP goes out in instances like this, that’s not likely to happen. Before the RFP goes out — that’s when a business concept need to be vetted. Usually at a price of $1M for a project this size.

Next week a replacement site is launching called NYC Schools. According to the New York Times, the cost was $2M. And note the brand name. If a name needs an acronym, it is probably IBM-friendly not Main Street-friendly. Achievement Reporting and Innovation System? Oy.

Strategy before build. Strategy before investment. Strategy before hiring are all signs of good business acumen. Had Amplify not taken the job in its, then, current state, it would have saved the city time, money and improved educational outcomes. Had it said, “this won’t work” at the beginning, kids in college (or not) would be better off today.

Strategy, be it business or brand, is how smart business works. Invest in it. Peace.

 

 

The Ontogeny of Technology.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Back to the future – here we go. Here’s a thought on the evolution of technol-oyee, as my old friend Tom Wan used to call it when he first came to the states: hardware begets software, begets devices, apps and now, drum roll, chips.

ontogeny recapituates phylogenyThere’s a scientific theory of evolution called ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny. It means that the entire evolution of mankind can be seen in the development of a two cells coming together to eventually form a baby. One cell, two cell, reptile, bird, mammal, man. Pert cool. Anyway, if you follow the hardware, software, device, app and chip advances serially, it takes you to the Internet of Things (IoT). And the IoT is going to need lots of chips. Back in the 90s, chips were also the haps. They had names like The Hobbit and made by important companies like IBM, AT&T, Qualcomm and Intel. The latter kicked some earnings ass until it missed the boat on the ontogeny of tech. Yesterday Intel announced it is buying their way back back by agreeing to buy Altera. IBM is getting back in the chip biz as well having also made a recent purchase. Will Google, Apple and Verizon be far behind?

Chips fab plants are not inexpensive to develop. Start-ups beware.  They require lots of energy and water. Feel me? These plants, at some point, will need to be in the states (don’t ask) so for the IoT to happen, the last of big business moves in chips have not happened…by a long shot. Invest a shekel, make a few.

Peace!

 

Marketing is Politics.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Just talking to my son Derek who works for a political consulting firm about canvasing efforts this past weekend on behalf of a group trying to get a bill passed to ban toxic chemicals locally. The group pays canvassers a nice amount per hour (over the minimum age) to ring door bells and get people to call their representatives. The program supervisors know if people break out their cell phones while the canvasser is there, the calls get made. A couple of hundred call to the local rep. in a weekend are often enough to make an impression in a local pol’s vote.

As someone who grew up in the advertising and marketing world, I know that the best selling outcomes occur when you get someone to “feel something, then do something.” That’s what the canvassers are all about. If the call to the local representative is the “do” then the learning exercise for the canvasser is the “feel.” When it comes to toxic chemicals in the environment the feel shouldn’t be too hard. But how about getting a homeowner to sign a petition for an unknown candidate? Or to vote for a bill that goes against one’s personal politics?  

Dig in and find the feeling you’re looking to tickle…then back out what stimulus is needed to engender that feeling. Heady work. Smart work.

Marketing is politics and politics is marketing.

Peace.

 

Positioning Replacement?

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I’m a big Al Ries fan. His and Jack Trout’s book on Positioning changed my career. I have memories of reading it on a Long Island Rail Road. It’s a great thought piece.

Today however, I take issue with the idea of positioning in branding. 

Positioning is the act of finding a competitive and defensible place for your brand in the consumers’ mind. The search for a position — a position being a noun. Position is defined as “a place occupied or to be occupied; site.”

In my brand consultancy branding is defined as “an organizing principle” for product, message and experience. This approach is much more fluid and alive. It allows for branding as a series of behavioral acts. Ongoing. Making ads, customer care, retail design, and web experience all fall into activities that define the brand and its promise. That prove its promise.

With branding as an organizing principle everything is viewed as an active, a non-machine related sales opportunities.  Built and enforced by people. Not a destination or compass point in the mind of a consumer.

Positioning was way better than anything before it. And barring any real brand strategy (one idea, three planks) it is the next best approach. But I think we can do a little better.

Peace.

 

 

Got a business problem? Me too.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

business problem

Here’s my business problem. When I tell people I’m a brand planner and run a brand consultancy they immediately think I’m trying to sell them a new logo. New design and packaging. They think brand consultants are needed only for repositioning or brand extension.

The big ass fact is most of my work is done on behalf of marketers with existing brands and logos – not in the market for a design makeover. My clients tend to be making okay or good money but are adrift strategically. If they were hemorrhaging they wouldn’t be talking to brand peeps, they’d be engaging blocking and tackling business consultants.

My brand planning rigor is actually closer to that of a business consultancy than a design firm. The work is all about articulating a business winning strategy and the three planks that further that strategy. My “one idea, three planks” approach puts into English an action plan – a decision plan, really – that lets companies and employees know how to sell. From product, message and experience points of view.

Make more money is not a strategy. Make higher margin is not a strategy. Make customers happier is not a strategy. For an example or six of business winning brand strategies, please write steve@whatstheidea.com. And help solve my business problem.

Peace.

 

92 SKUs (What you say? I’m not askin’)

By
Steve Poppe
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0

officejetI was in BJs the other day by the HP ink cartridge area. I counter 92 SKUs for OfficeJet Printers. And OfficeJet is only one brand of HP printers. There’s OfficeJet, LaserJet, DeskJet and more. There were more OfficeJet options than types of gum at a candy store.  While doing fieldwork at BJ’s I observed very few people buying HP ink products. Maybe one or two an hour. And you wonder why HP needs to fix itself?

It wasn’t that long ago when HP was the number one PC manufacturer and killing it at earnings time. Now the company will be split so it can retrench, focus and hit some numbers. Sad, really.

There’s not a person in America (not working at HP) who thinks printer ink for the home is fairly priced. So there’s an opportunity. Develop a new way to transfer words onto paper, or some other surface, that is legible and low cost. A cost that makes consumers smile. Right now it might feel to HP like eating the children, but it’s a smart future play. And one that will restore some luster and earnings potential. Como say patent?

Come on HP. Peace.

 

Coming soon. Mass Communications Atomize.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

There’s a nice piece in the NYT today by Farhad Manjoo about the evolution of luxury apps to apps that end up being affordable over time once scale is created. One example cited is Munchery, who with enough orders and resources, hopes to deliver healthier food to consumers close to the cost of junk food. Ish. The ability for scale to reduce cost is a promise of the interwebs.

In this world, we resource and massify what is produced, yet individualize what is delivered. At scale. Logistics, as Uber likes to say, is a nice living.

Mass communications have for decades been produced and sold in bulk. Direct marketing tried to individualize, but really only segmented. The creators of advertising have never really tried to individualize marketing communications, yet today data collection and analysis and digital content are bringing us many steps closer. The individualized creative product is still pretty awful and way too expensive. Even at retail, belly to belly selling is static; a couple of selling points used for every customer.

We have a long way to go. With new tools like NFC (check out the promise of Invisible Media) and single user identifier not too far away, personalized selling will improve greatly. Then, so will creative. Ad agencies will have to become more fluid.

As this happens selling will atomize – and brand strategy become more important. An organizing principle for a brand built upon what a product does well and what a customer wants most, will be the only staple.

Peace. 

 

Anal about Analytics.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Here’s a marketing infographic without the graphic. And without serious paragraphing. The early 1990s: computers and clunky email clients. The late 90s: laptops, infant web, networked software, and bad banner ads. The early 00s: search, ecommerce catalogs, bad leaderboard ads. Mid 00s: web communes, multimedia handhelds, entrepreneurship. Late 00s: content, thin things from Apple, cheesing the SEO system, Google Adwords. Early teens: apps, streaming, millennials, pay walls for heretofore free stuff. 2014: applications that solve real problems, meaningful use of the web, 3 mobile devices in every house. 2015 and beyond: ANALYTICS.

We are all going to be very anal about analytics; be they used to map the DNA gene sequence of cancer or Alzheimer’s, single user identifier of consumer digital behavior, or the most effective protocols and treatments for wellness and healthcare. Why? Because we can.

The data nerds are coming. It’s what’s next. Marketers and brand planners can smell it.

Peace. 

 

Coca-Cola’s Only Brand Strategy.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

coke and bottle logo

“I’d like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company” were the words Bill Backer scribbled on a napkin during an unscheduled stop in Ireland one morning. Those words eventually gave birth to one of the world’s most memorable TV commercials: Hilltop. In today’s NYT, Mr. Backer recounted the basic idea “to see Coke not as it was originally designed to be – a liquid refresher – but as a tiny bit of commonality between all peoples (angry travelers in an airport), a universally liked formula that would help keep them company for a few minutes.”

An equally powerful Coke commercial, remembered simply as “Mean Joe Greene,” sees an injured, tired, defeated and grumpy football player consoled by a little kid with a Coke. It does not play Mr. Backer’s “company” card. He doesn’t need company, he’s limping to the locker room.

The fact is, both of these spots have plots. Both use different strategies. What they share, whether solving the world’s ills or an individual’s is the need to refresh. The current iteration of Coke advertising, by Wieden+Kennedy, is the “happiness” campaign. It’s some really great work. But happiness is an outcome of refreshment. Coca-Cola is not pot. It’s not Xanax.

Coke ad strategies have changed over time according to its ad agents. According to its taglines. But the brand strategy remains the same: refreshment. There is no escaping it. Don’t reinvent it, embrace it.

Peace.

 

 

 

The future of daily news.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

The Daily News newspaper is up for sale. It is a money losing effort and has been for years but is one of the greatest NYC brands. Sadly, what it means to be a newspaper man has changed over the last two decades. The web has trumped the paper’s ability to share fresh news. Papers have become what old people consume, while young people read and watch digital media. And $.75 for an individual size serving of news isn’t a commercially forward idea anymore.

The Daily News has a lot going against it, related to this contextual point and time in the business. What is shouldn’t lose sight of, however, is the fact that news is still in demand. As is great writing, analysis and curation. The Daily News has to forget about is paper legacy and revert to some killer news collection, reporting and investigating work. Have you seen what passes for entertainment these days on TV and movies? We certainly have the appetite for crime, corruption and mystery.

The Daily News needs to find 10 brilliant news junkies, embedded in the cultures of today, and turn them into journalistic celebrities. Let everyone else at the paper learn from them. And publish. Don’t worry about ink and paper, worry about news content. Who knows a daily paper paper may still work.

This is the craft economy. Great journalism is a craft. The Daily News’ new owner needs to find some new blood for this new age and move the brand forward. It’s new school journalism. But it’s still the news. And in NYC it’s on every corner.

Peace.

 

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