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Frame The Work.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

The Miriam Webster Dictionary defines the word framework as “a basic conceptional structure (as of ideas).” Also, “a skeletal, openwork, or structural frame.” As mentioned before in this blog if you Google brand strategy framework you’ll uncover over 100 million results. Results that comprise charts, diagrams, stair steps, serial thought bubbles and a mish mash of other marko-babble.

Simple man me, over the last two/tree decades I’ve worked to come up with what I believe to be a reductive framework for brand strategy: One brand claim, three proof planks. Some argue this is an over-simplification. I would argue, others are making things too complicated. Somewhere in the Art of War, I’m betting Sun Tsu skewers overcomplicating one’s foray.

Consumers often remember commercials more than they remember the product. Why is that? The entertainment complicates the pitch.  And when the pitch delivered as one claim, and one of three proof planks, it’s easy to focuses.

Moreover, often brand strategy isn’t even strategy.  It’s a bunch or words, insights and emotional directives that open the door to advertising. Advertising sans proof. Sure, it might move ad awareness. Sure, it might win awards and garner press. Or drive some clicks. But does the advertising predispose the consumer to purchase? And for the right reasons?

Don’t misidentify brand planning tools for strategy. More on that next time.

Peace.

Reinvention.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Brand planners are reinventors. Faris Yakob, a leader of the pack, rightly says “all ideas are recombinant.” Meaning, there’s nothing new. Only new packaging. I like to think we are reinventors. Invention being the mother of necessity and all. He just said it better.

Brand planning is like peeling an onion. Layers. And more layers. But at some point you need to put a stake in the ground and deliver a strategy. At What’s The Idea? I deliver a brief and a more operative Claim and Proof array (a single sheeter). The array is a living breathing list of proofs, organized under three key values (planks). The time prior to the strategy being delivered is BS. Before Strategy. Anything after is aftermarket discovery, is AS. After Strategy.

The beauty of my framework (claim and proof) is that all people involved are always on the prowl for more ways to prove the claim. With every proof unearthed we make another deposit in the brand bank. We are also giving the ad agency and agency-ettes fodder for new and exciting work.

Brand strategies are like children to me. Whenever I see a potential new proof point for one of my brands I light up. And pass it on. Brand strategies are 20% BS and 80% AS. And then you die.  Hee hee.

Peace.

 

Wage War on Cliches.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Brand strategists are in a battle against cliches. A great copywriter (Walter Weir?) once wrote “If it sounds like copy, it’s good copy.”  Well, that’s antithetical to brand strategy work. Though brand planners are not in the business of producing creative, we are in the business of inspiring creative. And if a copywriter or art director doesn’t appreciate an inspirational idea, who does?  The problem with brand strategy is it’s often poorly articulated. Poorly evangelized. And cliched.

Consumers, btw, are so used to cliches in advertising they shut down. And today, one trillion ad messages in, that’s a recipe for extinction.  Can you say AI?  

I am of the mind that cliched brand strategies are more deadly than cliched ads. That’s not to say “different for different’s sake” is right.  “Coke is refreshment” – still one the of most powerful brand strategy claims extant — may sound a bit clichéd for a soft drink, but refreshment is so replete with inspirational it crackles off the creative pen.

Cliches are verboten in brand planning work. But tying inherent, endemic brand values to your brand strategy is what success really looks like. Flame broiled. The world’s information in one click.

Wage war against cliches, but always, always mine the endemic values.

Peace.

 

The Is.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I share my brand strategy framework quite often. To the point where my brand planning memes are beginning to take hold on Google. Search “Claim and proof array” as an example. In an open source world this type of sharing is admirable. Back pat, back pat. But where the rubber meets the road frankly is in the actual strategy. Frameworks have to be filled out.  That’s the monies.

All planners do brand discovery, but it’s what you do with the learning that creates the positioning success. We can talk about adherence and creative interpretations and lots of other back-end factors, but getting to the strategy idea is what differentiates one planner from the next. Frameworks help don’t get me wrong, but the decisions to get to the “idea” are the bread and butter.

I use the metaphor of the stock pot on my post-discovery efforts. Everything into the pot then apply heat. After a few days, what’s left in the bottom of the pot is… the is. The bullion. The power. AI ain’t gonna do it. Creative directors aren’t going to do it. The CEO isn’t going to do it.  It’s the brand planner.  And not all planners are created equal.

Peace.

 

A Brand Strategy Pitch Gone Right.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I was pitching a brand strategy to a client a couple of summers ago, using a presentation process which I replicate pretty much each time.  I lead with some pertinent quotes from interviewees and other smart people, then list off the names of those interviewed (stakeholders, customers, prospects and SMEs), and finally present the brand brief, which I read. It’s a serial story with key chapters/headings which leads to the brand claim and proof array.

Since I’m talking about the company, and use more storytelling language than business language, I tend to have the decisionmakers’ ears. I mean, who doesn’t like to hear about themselves.  When the heads are nodding and the poesy flying, the room warms up. In this particular pitch, things were going well until the CEO interrupted mid-brief and asked me to skip to the end. There is always an end. Apparently busy is as busy does. This had never happened before but what the heck. I went off-piste and jumped to the idea (claim.)  A good planner should be prepared for anything.  If I was flustered I tried not to show it…but, hell, I was in the middle of my song.   

Anyway, the CEO made some good points about the claim: It was too focused on the brand “good-ats”, not enough focused on the customer “care-abouts.” So, I agreed to take another pass and worked out the strategy to everyone’s satisfaction – albeit it a couple of weeks later.

A story from the trenches. Things change. Adapt. And don’t fall in love with your anything.

Peace.      

 

Truth and Proof in Branding.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

My brand, What’s The Idea?, offers up the notion that the “idea” is the key to branding. Most people who spend money on marketing will agree creativity is the lifeblood of advertising. Creativity feeds advertising, marketing’s most important tool. Of course, there is nothing wrong with fame and/or as Faris Yakob calls it “paid attention.”  But all the advertising, paid attention and marketing in the world, if disorganized or constantly changing will not build a brand.  It may sell from time to time, from tactic to tactic, but it does not establish a product or service in the mind of a consumer as a brand. That takes an idea — the apex of an organizing principle.

My mission at WTI is to find an idea and an organizing principle that creates indelible positions for brands.

One word that creatives and brand planners use a lot in our business is “truth.”  Product or consumer truths are where planners dabble. A truth is likely a hopefully provable observation that can replicate. I, however, prefer the word “proof.” It’s more to the point…and more scientific. It’s binary. Proof cements belief. Proof undergirds a claim (the idea.)

In a nutshell, the organizing principle used to build brands – at least here at What’s The Idea? – is one claim (idea) and three proof planks. That’s the secret sauce. That’s how the sausage is made. That is the strategy behind brand building. Keyboard drop!

Peace.

 

Purposeful Marketing is an Oxymoron.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Now please don’t think I got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. And I do not want you to think me a crab or branding troll… but I do want to suggest there’s a good deal of talk going around on the role of Mission and Purpose in branding. It’s a bit over-baked.

Mission and Purpose rarely have a place in brand strategy. They belong under the heading of Philanthropy on the website, handled by corporate governance people.

Brand strategy is all about customer care-abouts and brand good-ats: values endemic to the product or service. They should drive product value, shareholder value and loyalty.  What a brand does with its earnings, insofar and mission/purpose, is up to them. True Mission and Purpose companies should be not-for-profit or non-profits. Yeah, yeah, yeah Patagonia. There are always exceptions. But watering the tea is not a best practice of branding strategy.

As Sergio says “sell more, to more, more often and at higher prices.”  Eyes on the prize. 

Sorry if that’s some capitalist shiz, but it’s a truth.

Peace.

 

Language.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

A brand planner is a lot like a chef.  One must amass lots of information, or using metaphor, ingredients and assemble them into a unique, tasty dish.  The brand planner’s ingredients are the language — the spoken or written words assembled by the planner. Listening to customers, prospective consumers, stakeholders, SMEs (subject matter experts) and journalists yield language from which to cull insights and establish key care-about and good-ats.

It is the culling or boiling-down (another cooking metaphor) of those words that moves the planner closer to a positioning idea and strategy. But it is the language that helps the planner get closer.  Specific words resonate. Specific product or service patois. Words and phrases that move the interviewees Galvanic Skin Response — monitored or simply gleaned. This is what we are listening for.  Blah, blah, blah language is just that. Excitement, passion and emotion are the “tells” we seek.

Keywords: listen, language, repeat.

Peace.

PS. No humans were tested for this blog post. Ever.

Brand Strategy Interviews.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

The difference between interviewing an employee at a brand and the brand customer is significant. 

Employees are tough to interview because their answers are often generic.  I once interviewed a cardiothoracic surgeon and department head who was a billion-dollar health system’s key earner and asked what makes his practice one of the best in the country. His answer? “It’s the care. It’s the people.” So, when he is elbow deep in a patient bleeding out, does he ask his assistant, “Pass me the care” or “pass me the people”? I don’t think so.

I can’t tell you how many employees I’ve interviewed have crowed on about “customer service” or “quality” or “our people” thinking they’re being helpful.  It’s as if some employees have been programmed by TV adds. If they don’t have something specific to say about the product value, they default to a generic marketing-speak.

Customers, on the other hand, are way more to the point. More specific. They’re happy to share their likes and care-abouts. Customers don’t water down or default their preferences.

A good brand planner is able to get employees to provide specifics about product and service superiority.  Proof of product superiority are the things upon which strong brands are built. Boiling down and organizing these demonstrable proofs with “what customers want” is the job of the brand strategist. Customer care-abouts and brand good-ats.

Peace.

 

 

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