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Credit Card Brand Craft.

By
Steve Poppe
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“Something Brighter” is the new tagline for the Discover Card.  I heard it on a radio commercial yesterday. It gave the brand planner in me pause. Say what? Ohhh. It has to do with the logo. The sun, thing-a-ma-bob in the word discover. Oy.

I like to believe that most taglines are brand claims. (A brand claim is half the brand strategy; the other half being proof planks.) But this isn’t always the case. Sometimes the company tagline is simply a line from the advertising campaign. Shoddy brand craft, if you ask me. It’s a touch lazy but something the expedient thing to do if the advertising is great.

Something Brighter means what exactly? Better than other credit cards. That’s not much of a positioning; not when you consider most credit cards are trying to convey the same thing. Capital One’s “What’s In Your Wallet?” is an advertising line. It, too, hides the brand strategy.

The credit card category is lacking in brand strategy. American Express used to do a good job, (Membership) but I’m not so sure anymore. Mastercard, whose ad campaign strategy “Priceless” is good, yet somewhat tired, almost has a brand strategy but it’s not an endemic card quality.

There’s a saying in advertising “If you don’t have something to say, sing it.”  Well, this is not the case for brand strategy. They have to be meaningful and product-centric.

Something brighter needs to happen in the credit card industry and it’s not the advertising.

Peace.

 

 

Jab, Jab, Jab.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Brian Morrissey, former editor of Digiday, when guest editing newsletter Why Is This Interesting recently wrote:

“Brevity is more important than ever. There is simply too much content let loose on the world these days. During early Digiday, we did some kind of personality exam that advised people dealing with me to “be brief, be bright, be gone.” Many publications could stand to heed that too. 

I hope this next interaction of digital media becomes more concise. Removing the unnecessary to get to the essence improves products and shows respect for the audience. “Engagement” is too often confused with time spent. The measure is actually just an imperfect gauge of value. Saving people time is always a good product strategy.”

I agree completely with Brian. Tight is might. I recall reading that blog posts, in order to be found by the search engines, need to be at least 400 words, ideally closer to 800. Hell no! Not at What’s The Idea?  This isn’t The New Yorker. I’m not in the click bait business. I’m looking for readers. And it’s tough out there.  I’m hoping they will come back every day or at least weekly, so I need them to think. I don’t need to show that I can think.  And you can’t get there by pontificating and being verbose. Jab, jab, jab.

Peace.

 

Movements, Demonstrations or…

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Strawberry Frog likes to tout its brand and advertising strategy “Creating Movements.”  Movements are a slow burn – so, some might argue it would be more expeditious to “create mobs?”  Well, the difference between a mob and a movement is virulence and no marketer wants their followers to be hostile or spiteful.

The business of branding is to influence in a positive way. To build value appreciation through customer care-abouts and brand good-ats. Research even suggests introducing an element of danger in advertising can cause consumer unease making them less likely to purchase. Sunny day anyone?

Physics reminds us movement from a standing still position causes friction.  And brand people love to talk about tension. They uncover competitive tensions for breakfast.

Most will agree creating mobs around brands is wrong. Stop gun violence. Stop the war. Better pay for nurses. All three of these examples offer the potential for anger but I wouldn’t call them mobs. Yet I also wouldn’t call them movements. Demonstrations might be a better word. Legal. Careful. Pointed.  Plus, I love the word demonstrations. Demonstrations also support the “claim and proof” framework which is the backbone of What’s The Idea? It works two ways.

There is probably a good word between the passive movement and the more animus-infused demonstration. The search is on. Thoughts?

Peace.

 

First Sentences.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I don’t mean to pick on marketers and branders having a hard time articulating their business, but I do find it instructive to read copy designed to convey such.

One example is for a company named InMarket.

Here’s the first sentence from their About paragraph on LinkedIn:

InMarket is the leader in 360-degree consumer intelligence and real-time activation for thousands of major brands.

From their website About page, comes this first sentence and since it’s an About page I’ve included the second sentence:

At InMarket, being best-in-class means providing our customers with access to the most accurate and precise, permission-based, SDK-derived location data available today. It also means creating breakthrough experiences via hyper-relevant, timely messages in the moments that matter, providing transformational 360-degree measurement and delivering consumer intelligence that makes advertisers smarter with every interaction.

Here is the sentence from their Twitter bio: The leader in digital advertising for the physical world.

And lastly, here’s some marketing copy they lock up with the logo in some instances. Let’s call it an advertising line:

Connecting brands and consumers in the moments that matter.

Here’s the question. From any of these individual descriptions, do you know what InMarket Is or Does?  If you work really hard at it, when you add them all together, you may get a sense of their business.

The basis for proper branding is a clear Is-Does. What a company Is and what a company Does.

Strategy first. Copy second.

Peace.

PS. If you would like a look at your first sentences in the form of a free promotion Brand Strategy Tarot Cards, write Steve@WhatsTheIdea.com  (Promo supplies limited.)

 

 

A Thought On Corporate Culture.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Much in branding has been written about corporate culture. Most believe it to be a good thing. I would respectfully disagree.

A company does not need a culture.  In fact, it can be a detriment and lead to group think. Every organization needs outliers, obstructionists and contrarians; otherwise, it can become stale, even boring. Change is good and an overbearing culture may resist change. It may even keep good employees away. That said, what mustn’t be diluted are business objectives. And the brand strategy designed to meet those objectives. Of course, brand strategy (the organizing principle for product, experience and messaging) can change if the product or market changes, but it has been my observation that done right brand strategy can live on for decades.

As for corporate culture, it’s overrated. Our great country was built upon diversity: of thought, religion, culture and political background. Culture cannot be prescribed. It can and should grow organically and change. It must remain fluid. Don’t color by numbers.

Peace.

 

Brand Planner’s Prayer

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Things we remember.

We remember beauty.

We remember new.

We remember rich.

We remember melody.

We remember funny.

We remember nature.

We remember poetry.

We remember pain.

We remember educators.

We remember warmth.

We remember charity.

We remember happy.

We remember love.

We remember triumph.

These are the things we remember.

(I post this brand planners prayer once a year in January as a reminder.)

Offense Defense.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

This is going to be a short post. 

Strategy is offense.

Using dashboard metrics to power your marketing is defense.

Peace.

 

 

Brand Strategy Tarot Cards Offer.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

When a younger man I did a good deal of volunteer archaeology. Enough to want to spell the word with an archaic “a.”  Sitting in the dirt outside the current wall of Fort Michilimackinac, it dawned on me that archaeology was a neat way to experience a town. Sifting through decades of their relics made one truly think about the people and times. A much different approach than reading history in a library. A more existential approach.

So it’s not a great leap that I look to relics and artifacts to help me understand brands in my current job. To that end, I’ve come up with a little gadget play I call Brand Strategy Tarot Cards. It’s a work in progress but one whose time has come.

As with much of my brand strategy discovery, it will start out with a plan then evolve it as the conversation does. As it now stands Brand Strategy Tarot Cards asks a marketing director or owner to bring 7 pieces of marketing content (artifacts) for evaluation. Pieces that tend to be seen by customer and prospects the most. Pieces of content that tell the brand story. These pieces I interpret, much like a tarot card reader, for message and implication.   

To keep the mystery high, I will not today share my list of content pieces but I will offer readers (on a limited basis) a free reading of their so-called cards, through the end of the month of January 2021.

Please write Steve@WhatsTheIdea.com. Help me bring this idea to life.

Peace!

 

 

 

 

Persuasion Trumps Preference.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Last week I wrote about the three levels of brand strategy: Promise, Proof and Persuasion. Promise is easy, everybody understands a consumer promise. Proof is also quite understandable — it refers to any evidence that the promise is true. Tangible reasons to believe. Lastly, there is Persuasion. Persuasion by some reasoning could double as proof because it takes proof to persuade people, but does all proof persuade? Persuasion of a brand’s value is a good thing, however getting a consumer to buy may be quite another.

Not to introduce another P into the rubric, but there is a thing called preference. Many qualitative research studies gauge consumer preference. The thinking being that if one prefers a product, they will buy that product. And it is directionally so. But the real indicator of marketing and brand strength is purchase. Sales. Cha ching. (That’s the sound of a cash register opening for you young ‘uns.) Persuasion trumps preference. It brings a consumers closer to a sale. Persuasion is the goal of the marketer. 

My rigor of brand planning identifies the promise and the proofs, typically arrayed into 3 proof planks. My newly revised rigor will now highlight persuasions as well. Persuasions that take a consumer beyond preference to a committed purchase. But these persuasions also act as something else. A launching pad for creative teams. Persuasions can and should be the domain of creative people. They invigorate consumers. Remember the classic crazy glue ad with worker whose helmet is stuck to the wooden beam, suspending him above the ground? Persuasion.

Peace.

 

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