Home Blog Page 48

Adopt a Business.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

What do brick and mortar businesses do when the supply chain of money comes to a halt? Effectively it turns into a ghost town economy. No peeps, no money, no products, no services.

There’s an old Mike Tyson boxing axiom “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Well folks, we’ve been punched in the mouth. What shall we do? Business as usual? Sit back and wait it out? Can’t do the former. Shouldn’t do the latter.

The government believes the way forward is to keep the money supply chain running. Send out gov’t checks so we can continue paying bills. The only winners then become the banks.

What if we were to have a bill paying moratorium? Say for 3 months. No mortgages. No electric or water bills. No credit card bills. (But also, no credit card purchases.) What would it free us up to do? It would free us up to isolate and heal. It would free us up to help one another in thoughtful, meaningful ways. It would free us up to innovate. It’s a big idea and one that only the federal government can pull off.

But since that’s not likely to happen what can we do for our brick and mortar brethren? How about this — Let’s get everyone to adopt one brick and mortar business. Then offer them help as safely as is possible. A little money, paint, food, sweat equity – even a shoulder to cry on. Maybe, even just some new ideas.

Isolation is great for pandemic, but it’s not the best way to innovate out of a crisis. Let’s help one another, but be safe doing it. It will free up many of the burdens of this illness. But we must do it safely.

Peace.

 

The Golden Rule.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Branding with a brand strategy is simple. But it starts with having a brand strategy. At What’s The Idea? framework for brand strategy is one claim and three proof planks. The claim and planks never change; however, the proof points comprising the planks can, do and must. By finding new proofs for your claim you keep your brand fresh, relevant, topical and dare I say social.

By way of example, I’ll share the brand strategy for a commercial maintenance client. The claim was “the navy seals of commercial maintenance.” The proof planks were “fast,” “fastidious” and “preemptive.” When marketing or content creating if the work did not support the claim and at least one element of the proof array, it didn’t get approved.

Branding without a brand strategy and tight framework for same, is difficult. It lacks pragmatism. Branding without strategy is fluid, determined by the artist not the business person, and often ever-changing. Marketing directors come and go, campaigns come and go, agencies come and go, but a brand strategy should be indelible.

To quote David Byrne, “This ain’t no disco, this ain’t no fooling around.” We’re trying to make money here. In good times and bad. The framework for successful marketing starts with brand strategy. Extensible, scalable, replicable and creative brand strategy.

The golden rule. Peace.

 

The Wix Logo Maker.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I was watching TV the other day and a Wix ad asked “Need a professional looking logo for your brand? Then Try the new Wix logo maker.” Oy.

I made a career out of working in emerging technologies. I love the digital age. Google’s brand promise “the world’s information one click away” shows me that digital companies are good marketers and branders too. But marketing and, especially, brand building are not Do It Yourself pursuits. A logo making machine, come on!

Trademarkia has made it cheap and easy to establish a brand name. Wix has made it cheap and easy to create websites. Google Adwords has made it cheap and easy for small business owners to advertise. But building a business or growing and scaling a business is not a just an add water process.

Here’s the strategic input required to create a new Wix logo.

Enter Your Brand Name – Add the name of your brand, business or organization, and tell us what you do.

Tell Us What Your Logo Is For – Describe your business, so our logo maker can create a logo that fits your brand.

Share Your Design Style- Let us know more about your personal style—from colors and fonts, to icons and more.

Customize Your Logo Design – Edit and polish your logo online till it looks exactly the way you want.

Abracadabra, out pops a logo.

This is the most narcistic marketing tools known to man. The business world will be littered with Wix logos in 20 years. Why? Because these logos have nothing to do with the consuming public. It’s all me-centric strategy. And more importantly, machines aren’t designers. They’re machines. Oh, the horror.

Peace.

 

My Favorite Interview Question.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

One of the interview questions I used while wording at an ad agency looking to hire junior account managers was “Tell me about me.” I’d wait until the interview was well underway so the candidate had an opportunity to hear a bit from me and look around my office. Also, it let me know if they did any homework prior to the interview. I loved this question. At the time I was an account manager not a brand planner or researcher, so pinging a candidate on their powers of observation was, likely, unexpected.

It was an out-of-left field question that really separated the wheat from the chaff. On so many levels. Are they bull-shitters? Do they pay attention? Are they multidimensional?

The last time I used the question was with a young woman whose response made me feel I’d crossed the line. Or said something untoward. She couldn’t process it. And I spent more time explaining and justifying the question than I did interviewing her. (Fail…on both our parts.) She overreacted and I overreacted. I should have just moved on.

I still love the question, especially as a brand planner, but putting on my empathy hat I can see how it may have been off-putting to someone sensitive to roles, power and need.

Maybe the problem wasn’t the purpose of the question, but the question itself. Perhaps an edit is in order.

Always thinking.

Peace.

 

 

Unorganized Marketing.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

What is the pent-up demand for brand strategy services? What keeps company officers up at night that a brand strategy can fix? The answer: Unorganized marketing.

The Oxford Dictionary defines organize as “give an orderly structure to, systematize.” Therefore, unorganized means the opposite — not organized or not orderly. Disorganized has a stronger connotation. It means to “destroy the system or order; throw into confusion.” It indicates a chaotic mode.

The fact is, most companies in need of brand help suffer from unorganized marketing, not disorganized. That’s because they never had an organizing principle for product, experience and messaging. They may have a logo, tagline, marketing plan, even a good ad campaign, but not a constant framework that governs everything.

So what is the result of having unorganized marketing? Loss of time developing programs. Loss of money in poorly performing media and tactics. Lack of focus around customer care-abouts and brand good-ats. And poor accountability because marketing doesn’t know what to measure other than sales. With unorganized marketing big data becomes little data.

My job as a brand consultant is to dig deeply into business fundamentals, determine care-abouts and good-ats and create a framework of values for presenting a brand that creates sales and loyalty.

This is upstream planning — and too many marketers are afraid to paddle up. Ergo they lose sleep and sales.

Peace.

 

Brand Strategy and Altruism.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I read on Bright Planning that “People want to connect with brands that are giving back or doing something for the greater good rather than just their bottom line. Figure out how your business fits into that and share the story through your brand identity.”

Most marketing people, especially branders, would agree with this sentiment. I mean, what’s wrong with doing good?

Not to be contrary but this isn’t for everyone. Not doing good – that’s never a bad idea – but to make it part of your brand identity. Unless you are a nonprofit.

At What’s The Idea?, brand strategy framework is one claim and three proof planks. The claim is a value statement built upon care-abouts and good-ats and the planks are the proofs or evidence of the claim…organized into discrete groupings. These proof planks are best when endemic product/service values. A more comfortable children’s underwear. A more fastidious building cleaning service. A healthcare system that integrates better with the community.

Being a good corporate entity is the price of entry. It’s not your day job. It’s not a brand plank. Branding is about currying favor with consumers, meeting their needs, in indestructible productized ways. Do good, be a good corporate citizen. Use your brand wealth to share the good, but don’t make it a bolt on to your identity. Not everyone can be Patagonia.

Peace.

 

The Difference Between Brand Identity and Brand Strategy.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Is there a different between brand identity and brand strategy? Hell yeah. Most everyone has a brand identity. Very few have a codified brand strategy. I say codified because most marketers believe they have a brand strategy but can’t articulate it.

Brand identity comprises the people, places and things presented to consumers to generate purchase and loyalty. Think of it (hopefully) as organized selling. Brand identity components include: logo, packaging, signage, color palette, retail experience, sales people, ad copy and imagery. The cleanest way to see if you have a distinct brand identity is to ask consumers to play it back. Brand identity is the state of your brand in consumers’ minds. All controlled by the various outputs (or buildables), as I like to call them.

Brand strategy, on the other hand, is how you get there. How you get to the perception of what a brand is and what a brand does (Is-Does). Brand strategy must precede brand identity.

The more ingredients to throw into the pot, the less flavor you have. That’s what happens when you create brand identity before brand strategy. Brand strategy is an organizing principle for product, experience and messaging. That how you build a brand from the ground up.

Peace.

 

Story or Proof?

By
Steve Poppe
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0

“We have got to tell our story, said Mark Reuss, president of G.M., “The story hasn’t gotten out,” he added when talking about G.M.’s electronic vehicle business. Since December Tesla stock has doubled into the $700s. G.M. is down 25% since it’s 52-week high in July.

Back in the 60s during the NY World’s Fair, the G.M. pavilion showed the future of the automobile. It was an experiential phenomenon the likes of which the world had never seen. And today Mr. Reuss rues the fact that G.M.’s problem is in storytelling; in public relations and Super Bowl ads.

Where most marketers go wrong and they do so at the behest of their branding counsel is in storytelling. They rely too much on this pop-marketing practice. Ty Montague, of Co-Collective understands this and has morphed storytelling into story-doing. The fact is it’s not about telling a story to consumers, it’s about what consumer play back to you. It’s about what consumers think. Consumers are swimming in an ocean of storytelling, while they should be standing on the terra firma of reality. On experience.

Elon Musk built an electric car. He didn’t proselytize about it. Ish.

Proof is how one builds a brand. And proof is how one builds a brand strategy. Not the other way around.

G.M. has been dormant for so long it has become a marketing company of storytellers. Mary Barra, may just have woken up and decided it’s time to “do.” It’s time to launch a fleet of electronic vehicles.

Let’s hope so. Peace.

 

 

Imposter Syndrome.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

There’s a phenomenon in brand planning called Imposter Syndrome. If I understand it correctly, it’s when planners feel that their work is undervalued and, perhaps, they are imposters in the process of creative content development. Leave it to planners to be so sensitive that they question their own work. Question everything, after all, is our mantra.

I know how this has become a thing. It’s mainly because we give our work product to creative departments who are often beholden to nothing other than their own creative whims. Of course they want input. Of course they want validation from approvers. But foremost, they want to please themselves. Through creativity. The result? The work doesn’t always reflect the strategy. If the work sucks, we tell them it’s off. If it’s good we smile and congratulate.

Here’s the thing: a brief for a project has numerous touchstones for creative. It’s not always the main idea that drives the creative content. It could be a target insight, a needs assessment, an endemic cultural insight. If it contributes to good work, we’ve done out jobs. If it sparks an idea for good work, we’ve done our jobs.

We can’t be too sensitive. If our briefs and insights suck, we get fired. If we continue in our job, then our objective is to learn and get better at providing stimulus every day. “Be in it to win it, like Yzerman.”

Imposter Syndrome be gone. Otherwise it’s therapy time.

Peace.

 

Master Brand Strategy and Me.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I am a self-taught brand planner. The fuel for my business was scores of exploratory interviews with high-level and executive planners from big city agencies. I honed my craft and framework with research, reading books, blogs, newsletters, and by watching interviews and webinars. I have also worked with business consultants.

My two key discovery tools are 24 Questions, business and financial Qs used to understand how money is made and lost, and a battery of Fact Finding questions used with company chiefs, salespeople and customers.

I do master brand planning. That is, I create the organizing principle for product, experience and messaging that governs all marketing work. Every tactic used to build sales and loyalty, no matter the channel, should adhere to the master brand strategy. But it’s a job that eats itself. Once the master brand strategy is done, it needn’t be done again. (Unless, the business model changes.) Of the thousand of brand planner around the world, only a few handfuls actually work on the master brand strategy. Most planners are focused on tactical brand insights. Downstream of the master plan. Both jobs are awesome. But there’s only one master. Hee hee.

Peace.

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