New Brief Against Tobacco

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March 2, 2010

We have spent million of dollars and Euros and rubles around the world trying to get kids to stop or never start smoking. The brief has always been about one thing: smoking will kill you. It will turn your lungs black and you into a seething ball of cancer. After all these commercials and public service efforts kids and adults now know the dangers of smoking. ( I once convinced NY State to make wearing the nicotine patch a fashion statement among African America males — another strategy — but that’s a story for another day.) In France the anti-smoking forces have decided to try a new strategy brief. And it’s a good one.

Corporate Manipulation

The new brief is all about subjugating kids and making them do what corporate tobacco wants. And their print ads do it in a very dramatic way. Some say too dramatic. In fact, the ads have been banned in some places. Beyond the visual idea, the line “To smoke is to become the slave of tobacco” elicits powerful ideas and images. Women’s groups and child porn groups are all up in arms…and that’s okay. They should be. But this advertising is powerful and effective and it needs to run.

Good advertising makes you feels something then do something. In this case, hopefully it will keep kids from doing something. Smoking. Peace!

Screen Grab Retouching for All.

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Steve Poppe

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March 1, 2010

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I suck as an art director but that doesn’t keep me from appreciating art and wanting to play at it. Having looked over the shoulder of some pretty good art directors, watching them silhouette and manipulate images and color, I know what can be done with the right tools. The problem is the tools aren’t ready for mainstream. And they are not free.

Polyvore

Polyvore is a women’s fashion website gets this and has developed a smart application where users drag and drop various clothing and accessories together into “sets” or looks. The UI (user interface) lets you flop things, flip things, enlarge, reduce, change color and purchase. By surrounding that functionality with comments, a community of fashionistas, and smart curating (showcasing Taylor Momsen and Keira Knightly sets, for instance) Polyvore has created a business.

Snagit

Polyvore has tapped into people’s need to art direct or fashion direct and it points to a business I think is ripe for the taking. A company by the name of TechSmith is aware of this and sells a product SnagIt that lets you grab and copy pictures and images via screen grab and do with them what you will. It looks fairly easy and for active users is a deal at $49.95. But the web needs an ad-supported version of this software for free. Think of it as a rudimentary retouching site – much like Flickr was to photo sharing a few years ago. Make it simple and they will come.

Pew Methodology Falters.

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Steve Poppe

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February 26, 2010

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If you were doing a survey on healthy food habits in America would you stand outside of McDonald’s and recruit? That’s kind of what the Pew Research Center did with the sample for its 2010 survey of Millennials (late teens and twentysomethings). Check it out:

Results for the January 2010 Millennial Survey are based on telephone interviews conducted under the direction of Abt SRBI Inc. among a national sample of 2,020 adults living in the continental United States, 18 years of age and older, from Jan. 14 to 27, 2010 (851 respondents were interviewed on a landline telephone, and 1,169 were interviewed on a cell phone, including 538 who had no landline telephone).

Granted, the study polled more than just Millennials since it needed the other generations for comparison purposes but a study about Millennials with half the respondents polled over a land line seems a little silly. Ask any Millennial on the street when the last time they answered a land line or if even if they know what a land line is and watch their expression.

That caveat out of the way, I’m going to admit to not having read the whole report. It’s 149 pages and I shoveling snow this morning, but I did want to comment on a telling question about Millennials. For the important open-ended question “Can you tell me some ways you think your generation is unique or distinct?” Millennials had the highest measure of any in the study with a 24% answering “Technology use.” The next highest measure in the study was Baby Boomers with 17% of respondents saying “work ethic/hardworking/motivated” and Boomers again with 14% for “respect.” For Boomers that hippie ethos is still in tact. (Thanks Jimi, thanks Owsley.) Back to Millennials, the second highest measure upon which Millennials agree as making their generation unique is “music.”

This leads me to believe Millennials define themselves by their environment not their values. One could interpret the technology score as a means of communication (a value), but I’m not so sure. My prediction yesterday that Millennials are the be-all of marketing research was, therefore, questionable. I’ll stand by my point about using them to understand “usability,” but will move off point on studying them for subjects of conscience. That said, remember the sampling caveat. Peace!

Pew Report on Millennials. A Prediction.

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Steve Poppe

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February 25, 2010

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I love testing this raggedy brain when it comes to prognostication, so I’m going to stick my neck out before I read the Pew Research study on Millennials and venture a predition.

People are a little like products. In the lifecycle of a product there are stages just as there are stages in life. In the first stage, infancy, the form is sponge-like, taking in everything and developing on all fronts. In adolescence, there is growth and testing — sticking fingers in electrical sockets – an amazing amount of learning and change. By the time people and products are Millennials they are still open to change but have become invested in their personalities. They’ve been around, yet they don’t always have the resources to do what they want. Let’s leave middle age and the autumn or harvest years for a later discussion.

The Pew Research Center Report on Millennials (the people, not the products) entitled “Confident. Connected. Open to Change.” looks at the demographic: late teens and 20 years old. It’s suitably named, albeit perhaps not completely seen through the steadied lens of our financially challenged times. (My take is that Millennials will be a little less confident, a little less open to change than the report states, but still quite connected.)

Marketing Planner’s Dream

Here’s the prediction: This group is a marketing planner’s dream. Especially so, because they’re amazingly attuned to usability. Millennials are open to new ways, yet judgmental. Product and marketing planners should be studying Millennials for everything: healthcare, energy, clean tech, diet. Everything. There will be some gems in this research report and many ideas to have ideas.

Tomorrow, my take on the report. Peace!

Healthcare Reform. The Brand.

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Steve Poppe

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February 24, 2010

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The brand planner in me looks at the brand “healthcare reform” and sees everything out of control. No wonder we can’t break through the stasis. The Dems have not managed the discussion, argument or conversation well. They have allowed the GOP to obscure the focus on the good: covering more people, more efficiently, with a systematized, measured approach to healthcare improvement.

Smartly, the Republicans have framed the argument in simple terms: healthcare reform = higher taxes and higher debt. In a time of financial distress, this is an effective strategy. They’ve moved away from “the gov’t shouldn’t be making decisions for doctors” rally, but that was a good ploy. It, with a variety of other shots, added confusion to which the Dems felt a need to respond. President Obama and the Democrats are acting like hockey goalies – fending off shots rather than managing the “healthcare reform” brand.

Healthcare Problems

Most every voter would agree healthcare is fouled up. Been to an emergency room lately? Had to call an insurance company to resolve a bill? Noticed all the paper jockeys in the doctor’s office? Know someone paying COBRA? Had to answer 4 page questionnaires at a doc’s office every time you go? (Can you say computer?) Malpractice insurance? Let’s not even go there.

The reality is the Democrats need to manage the healthcare reform brand like a package of cookies. Focus on the positive and put power and focus behind the message. Healthcare reform is about making Americans healthier. It’s easy to demonstrate, discuss, and prove. It just needs to be organized around an idea. Stop playing politics. Stop defending. Start managing the positive (that’s branding.)

Adding Flavor to College Apps.

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Steve Poppe

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February 23, 2010

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Tufts University added a third dimension to its application process recently — YouTube video submissions — and it’s a wonderful idea. Very today. For too long the college application process has been 2 dimensional: grades (SATs and high school GPA) and the essay. Before I sent “Princessa” off to college, I read a book on the process of application approvals from the perspective of the admissions officers. It suggested that the essay was the dimension that really brought the student to life. If the essay does that (or doesn’t and just lies there), think about how a video might add flavor?

Some kids test well. Others write well. Some communicate in yet a third dimension: through humor, visual improve, debate, and/or the more creative arts. Providing a YouTube video as an addendum to the application helps these kids shine. In business, we hire people based upon their resume, experience, writing style and face-to-face interviews. In the case of college applicants, admissions offices and student teachers often put applications in piles A (in), B (out) or C (bubble) without ever having met the student. Tufts University is helping change that. Brilliant third dimension kids who once slipped through the cracks, will no longer. Peace!

Target Posters on Your Media Plan.

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Steve Poppe

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February 22, 2010

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Where do Posters hang out? And once you find them what’s a good way to reach them? Good questions. Certainly Posters (original content creators on the web) hang out online, but the best Posters get out of the building to see and smell the coffee – they need living breathing stimulation. So how to you find and reach them?

On a macro level, you go big. So Vancouver would be a good place to be promoting and spending to reach Posters this week. Davos Switzerland or Park City, UT (home to Sundance Film Festival) would have been good places to promote a couple of weeks ago. Buying radio, outdoor, local web or local TV ads in these cities, well in advance, would have been a smart way to reach Posters in a targeted relatively inexpensive way.

On more of a micro level, if you want to reach technology Posters or music Posters, try buying media in Austin, TX during South By Southwest. How about dialing up your Google campaign in that city for those couple of weeks? If you are trying to reach soccer Posters, look to South Africa for the World Cup soccer finals in a few months.

At McCann-Erickson the media people used to look at targets and do a something called a DILO (Day In the Life Of) to determine appropriate times of day and media choices. While saving money and trying to viral up your message, think about key Poster communities and MILOs (months) or YILOs (year). Target your Posters.

ROI and a Field of Weeds!

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Steve Poppe

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February 19, 2010

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People sometimes jokingly ask me “What is the idea? referring to the name of my consultancy. My answer, borrowed from Sergio Zyman of the Zyman Group, is “sell more, to more, more often, at higher margins.” That’s the ultimate goal of marketing, no? The quadruple crown. Interestingly, unit sales, market penetration, per capita consumption, and higher margins are different measures. Linked, yes, but different.

When writing a marketing plan I typically start out with an exercise called The 24 Questions. It’s traditional marketing, follow-the-money kind of stuff. Who’s buying? When? Who is involved in the decision? Most profitable customers? Margins? Channels?, etc. Once I get the money part of the equation I delve into brand questions — from the points of view of management, employees and customers. Some of the questions are designed to get to the truth and bypass the drama and ass-covering.

Prioritization.

The hard work is in ranking the business objectives. Most of my decks (PPT presentations of findings) array a healthy number of business objectives. Prioritizing objectives leads to prioritized strategies which require someone at the company to put one objective at the top: “On a sinking boat which child would you save?” kind of question. These decisions are the provenance of the brain not the algorithm.

ROS

ROS (return on strategy) is a metric that measures business and marketing strategy. ROI, on the other hand, ties marketing tactics to dollar return. Not to minimize tactics, but you can buy a tactic from any marcom agency on the street. And thanks to the web – the greatest marketing tool since paper money – we’re in the midst of something I call Tactics-palooza. ROS allows you to measure business objectives through a strategic lens. ROS is the way to go. Think of it as a crop-producing farm next to a field of healthy weeds. Peace!

Toyota Needs to Shush.

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Steve Poppe

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February 18, 2010

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And shush its mass communications. At least until it knows the extent of the problems. They can’t offer heartfelt apologies and tell us they’re working “day and night” to fix things and each day break a new recall story. Yesterday, after weeks of apologies (months if you include the Prius floor mats) Corolla came under suspicion.

Toyota needs to go dark with its advertising and put that money into data mining, engineering analysis, added shifts and most importantly finding and identifying “proof” they’re doing something. Proof is good. Talk is bad. Proof might be a visual image or story consumers can relate to. Something that one consumer can tell another proving Toyota is doing something dramatic. (Repairing “up to 50,000 cars a day” is in the neighborhood, but no Rosie the Riveter.)

When AT&T was about to get its lunch eaten by MCI because the government legislated 800 numbers could be moved from carrier to carrier, Joe Nacchio emptied AT&T’s corporate building putting anyone in a suit or skirt on the street calling on customers. AT&T didn’t lose share. He went all Rose the Riveter on them.

Newspaper apology notes? That’s grade school PR stuff.

Alcatel-Lucent Brokerage.

By

Steve Poppe

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February 17, 2010

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The mobile web business is a mess. It’s a mess like the PC business was back in the late eighties and early nineties. The voice side of mobile is working okay but the data side is the problem. Hardware standards are varied (data goes over different switching systems), operating systems are as plentiful as ice cream flavors, apps are being developed in garages, stores, offices and labs — and the telecom carriers are voting with their pocketbooks not their heads.

The only voice of reason today — creating some waves at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona — is that of Alcatel-Lucent. They are acting as an “broker” working to get all parties into the labs to create standards so we will have mobile web data interoperability. iPhone apps will then be able to work on Droids phones, T-Mobile widgets will connect with AT&T widgets, the mobile web will become a single web and prices will come down.

This stuff is really complicated. Hard decisions will have to be made by many. Heed the call. Go to the labs. Write down expenses. Be open!