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Meep meep.

By
Steve Poppe
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No back-patting here (okay maybe a little) but my prediction that the Chrysler/Fiat combination was a smart one has come true.  The car market grew 13% last year and Chrysler sales weighed in at 20%.  Chrysler outperformed the market by 7%.  GM and Ford at 3% and 4%, underperformed the market. Bringing a little European design and smaller car sensibility to America has, indeed, translated into sales and margin. The approach, tempered by some Jeep and Dodge DNA, put Chrysler back on firm ground.

A point of concern, however, is CEO Sergio Marchionne’s comment at the Detroit Auto show.  He feels a U.S. recovery will pave the way for growth of his more heavy metal cars and trucks, like the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Dodge Ram truck. This is just the type of talk that got us into trouble in the first place.  I would expect to hear this from Ford and GM but not Chrysler (Fiat).  Twenty somethings and the emerging car buyer market (read future) will not be demanding guzzlers. And in 10 years a 30 MPG car will be a guzzler.

Don’t fall for this Mr. Marchionne. Keep your eyes on the big prize. Stop the supersizing.  Find beauty in the small. The efficient. Meep meep. This is way forward. Peace.

 

 

Marketing Monetization Musings.

By
Steve Poppe
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Never is a marketing consultant more ill at ease than when a client asks “How much revenue will this tactic generate?”  Or, “If I run this ad campaign, how many inquiries will it generate?” CEOs and CFOs ask these questions because they want to know what the return will be. I’ve often written about the importance of ROS (return on strategy) over ROI (return on investment) which tends to measure tactics. The reality is, all marketers and their agents want to know their marketing efforts pay off.  But just as tech start-ups get away, quarter after quarter, without monetization plans, marketers keep trotting out the old lazy axiom “I know half my advertising is working, I just don’t know which half” and muddle on.  

That’s why we should be measuring strategy, not tactics. Strategy crosses channels and tactics. Strategy informs tactics. Sure tactics can be strong or weak, but graded on strategy delivery creates a third dimension for analysis.

How well does this package design convey the brand strategy?  How well does this retail experience deliver the brand promise?  How convincing is this video at making a prospect believe the brand claim? Grading our marketing work not simply by action but by brand conviction is the way toward marketing monetization.  Measuring awareness, first mention or a porous tagline is not measuring strategy. Nor is measuring time on page.    

When measures become endemic to your business and not generic, you will know you are on the right path. Peace!

Don’t think different, think new.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Have you ever gone back to your old neighborhood and noticed that everything looks smaller?  It’s not because you have gotten bigger, it is because we tend to fill up empty spaces with more stuff: bigger houses, sheds, plantings and more houses.  It’s what man does. We build and we plant.

This is how I view the media world.  Man likes to build more forms of media. And we add clutter and density to the existing ones. Our job as marketers, planners and media agents it to find new ways to share out targeted messages. New exciting ways.  Ways that move customers closer to a sale. Let’s not add clutter, let’s open new vistas.

Think new. Don’t think add-ons or media extensions.  New.

Peace.

Going Comando.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I was thinking about what’s wrong with education and it dawned on me that a teacher could go for decades without changing his/her  lesson plan.  Okay, that might be an oversimplification but bear with me.  So let’s says that happens for an American history teacher…how does that teacher refresh? Well, one might say they focus on the pedagogy – the teaching itself. With all students being different, the lesson may stay the same but the means of getting though, packaging, and connecting the lesson to “this years” student may change. (Let’s hope.) In other words the material doesn’t change the delivery does.

So what does that mean for branding and marketing? Do we use a syllabus to create our marketing approach? I suspect we do. I, for instance, have been using a couple of planning tools over the years that have not changed much: 24 Questions and a battery of Fact Finding questions.  Sounds kind of formulaic, no?  Am I lazy? These rigors act as fishing nets for me and what I catch will vary. What I do with that catch creates the differentiation. Hmm.

But suppose I approached each assignment more like composing a song. Or creating some other form of art?  It would dash the formula don’t you think? This would be a case of getting rid of the syllabus. And going commando. Let’s think about that in 2013 and see if we can blow some doors off our approaches to strategic development. Peace!

 

A boastful new roast.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

One of Starbucks cornerstone brand traits is its rich, hearty, no-nonsense coffee. A brilliant differentiator for the masses. The aroma in the store, the bags of beans the real time brewing all contribute.  It is this rich taste however that has kept some coffee drinkers from being customers. And that is a sales opp. How do we convert a person from a “drive by” to a “drive in?”  And do it while preserving “our thing.”  The answer is by moving the cheese a little. And these cheese is the roast.  Roast gets you credit for rich and flavorful.

Introducing Starbucks new Blonde Roast – a lighter flavored, easy drinking coffee option. Tagged with the line “It’s the coffee we’ve been missing for the people we’ve been missing.”  I haven’t tasted the product, but I like the marketing and positioning. It’s quick, telling, contextual and a focused new product. It’s what consumers, or should I say non-consumers want.  It’s not a tea or a slushy…it’s coffee. And a long time coming.

Turn on the sales steamer, this puppy is going to be hot and bring in  a lot of new faces.  Bravo team!

PS. I’m sure hours were spent deciding to leave the “E” on the word blond or take it off. Interesting choice.

Patience and Pursuit.

By
Steve Poppe
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There is a very special Op-Ed piece in the NYT today by Mark Bittman entitled “Fixing Our Food Problem.”  And so I don’t come off as a Paster (pasting other people’s content) I will leave the main argument to Mr. Bittman but will jump on a point he makes regarding “patience” when it comes to change.  The abolition movement, he noted, was 100 years in the making and began 200 years before civil rights reform.  A women’s right to vote took 75 years. Gay rights, though not complete, so far a 40 year slog.

The interneck (sic) has changed much of this. The ability to use online tools and communities to inform, share, argue, and build consensus — across many divides has collapsed time frames as never before. Governments have been changed in a matter of weeks because of the tool that is the web.  Much in real life has changed for the positive, thanks to the web.  Important, meaningful things. Yes, cyber-bullying, stalking and fraud are bad…but not nearly as bad as what is and will happen as we refine this tool for good and the good of the planet.

Mr. Bittman is right that patience is a virtue as it relates to fixing the mess that is our current U.S. food chain. But let’s not be too patient.  The Yin and Yang of patience and pursuit is an American trait. Let’s make a New Years resolution to burn calories in pursuit this year. In action. And use the tools at hand to do so. Peace!

How to build a brand.

By
Steve Poppe
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bosch ad

Bosch is a brand I’m familiar with on a couple of levels. First I know the name, so that means I’ve seen it on product, in retail and probably advertising.  Second, I have brand associations, but across a couple of types of products: brakes come to mind, automotive products, some speakers.  So it seems Bosch is some sort of conglomerate… like GE. Also they feel European.

But about 2 or 3 years ago, Bosch started advertising in my the newspaper, The New York Times. I don’t recall seeing Bosch on TV, in radio or online, just the Times.  And they have kept up the media pressure. With drumbeats. The ads are all focused on kitchen appliances. I wasn’t aware they were in that business. And the appliances are beautiful.  No skimping on the photography costs here. I cannot recite a headline or copy points, though these ads are burned into my memory. Product as hero, at its best. Here’s what I know and feel thanks to the advertising: the product design is spectacular, the engineering way above average (that’s what good industrial design will earn you) and the appliances quiet and efficient. Most important, they are now in my consideration set where once they weren’t.

I am not a fan of awards ads and today Bosch ran one about customer satisfaction with their dishwashers.  It was a prudent choice to wait so long to do an awards ad.

The seer in me says, Bosch is gaining in market share and the blocking and tackling they are doing – beyond excellent product design – is the cause. Old school. Peace in the New Year.

 

George Foreman as an Accessory.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I was reading today about a New Year’s resolution type of promotion by the people who bring you the George Forman Grill.  It’s not George Foreman, by the way. (He sold out at the right time.) The promotion gives away $2,500 a couple of times a year to a person who loses the most weight using the George Foreman grill. 

Weight Watchers and others in the weigh loss space will tell you this is the time of year to push weight loss, as many diets start after the new year, so for George Foreman it makes sense to do this now.  I refer to this as the pent up demand approach.  What smart about the promotion though, is that the grill is not a weight loss product or program – it’s a weight loss accessory. Something one can buy, unlike a Jenny Craig membership or elliptical machine, that is not a direct part of the weigh loss solution; rather it is part of a behavior change that encourages weight loss. Dieting is perhaps the most common and futile exercise known to man. But behavior change, that’s different.

Grill your food rather than fry it and you are taking a baby step. And it’s not an onerous step, unless the food tastes bad.

Advertised weight loss programs are pregnant with negative overtones. Villainously so believe some consumers.  Dieters need to feel in control. And accessorizing is a smart way to go. Peace.

How To Sell a Brand Strategy.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

How can an consultant come into a company, study data, ask 200 questions, drive around with salespeople, and begin to think s/he can tell a CEO or C (fill in the letters) about the heart and soul of that company?  Or tell the CEO what will make the company grow at an out-pace rate. What customers want — and the best way to sell them.   It’s ridiculous to think a consultant can do that. But that’s what brand planning consultants do.

So how does a brand planner present findings in such an uphill setting?

First, the planner shares data the C-level can’t disagree with. Data doesn’t lie.  Plus, the data often comes from the same executives to whom the planner is presenting. Second, present observations. Who can argue with an observation?  It’s not a recommendation, it’s a carefully selected, important piece of field work. And, if spun with elan and poetry it can become powerful and memorable. “Peter Pan Syndrome,” for instance, is something I shared while working on Microsoft. Not really forgettable.

Third, organize the big picture stuff in a way that allows for leaning moments driving Cs toward a POV or conclusion. A conclusion they will get to before it is presented.

Forth, remove the complexity and contradictions. Oh, and there will be contradictions. (Deciding what not to present is often the hardest part of brand planning.)

Fifth, give them a brand strategy that is brand-familiar, competitive, and with eyes up — toward the horizon. Also, one that makes the Cs feel a little uncomfortable. More often than not, in a great brand strategy there will be a word with which they disagree. The beauty of the word is that is can be changed – by the creative team. The brand strategy is a strategy, not the creative. And even if the “word” is pregnant with creative meaning like, say, the word “reboot,” it is really just stimulus for the creative team. (That’s why Campaigns come and go but a powerful brand strategy is indelible.)  In step five, the C gets to exhibit strength, power and insight (and have the last word) and yet idea détente is still achieved.  We have lift off. Peace!

Well, well, wellness.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

There are all sorts of ad agency segments: pharma, direct response, B2B, digital, CPG, financial, ethnic, entertainment and even a small shop that focuses on baby boomers (AgencyFive0).  What there doesn’t seem to be is an agency segment that focuses on the healthy. 

I am hip deep in the science of health these days and though not a conspiracy peddler there are a great many people who believe a degree of collusion exists in businesses that make money off of disease. (Enough on that, I watch too much television.)  

What I am comfortable talking about is the fact that healthcare is 17-18% of U.S. GDP and a lot of money is changing hands when it comes to medicating, treating and surgically repairing patients.  Don’t hold me to this exact data point, but about 20% of medial costs go to prevention and 80% to treatment.  That’s wrong. And that’s why there are pharma agencies.  Were we to flip that equation, there would be more wellness care and wellness-focused ad shops.  It’s a segment that is unique, growing and discrete — and a segment whose time has come. McTrust me.  Peace.

 

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