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Product Naming Fail.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

In my brand strategy presentation to prospects there’s a slide on the “fruit cocktail effect,” what happens when you try to be too many things as a brand. Nobody would argue, in fruit cocktail the pear tastes like the peach which tastes like the cherries, grapes and pineapple.  One boring, sweet syrupy mess.

I was in a BJs yesterday and noticed this little device.  It is a multipurpose snow removal tool.  But who could name it? It offers a brush, ice scraper, squeegee, ice chipper, telescoping handle, detachable handle and a few other odds and ends.  To accommodate all the functionality and utility at a price point attractive to most consumers, the thing is make of cheap plastic. If it lasts two snow storms I’d be surprised. But what should one name this thing so it has a slim chance to live on and evolve into a viable product?  Good names follow the Is-Does rule (what a product Is and what it Does).  There just no way to name this thing. Swiss Army Brush?  Everything starts with the product.

Peace.

 

Embrace Change.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Sound familiar? I may have read it somewhere before.

Does The New York Times executive director Dean Baquet have to embrace change when ad revenue at the paper paper is off double digits? Does Mark Zuckerberg have to change HR bereavement policy to stay more competitive as the “new thing” luster (but not revenue) wears off the Facebook brand? Does Michael Dowling, Northwell Health CEO, have to embrace change when facing an insurance market that has to set prices for 2018 in less than three month?

For a professional that spends a lot of time looking at brand and business heritage, mining the perceptual depths of consumer, one might think I don’t embrace change. That I’m not incentivized to embrace change. You’d be wrong. Tomorrow is the only day I care about.

Sure I look for business proof that feeds the framework of brand strategy. Sure I do some rearview mirror planning. But tomorrow is “beyond the dashboard.” Future revenue is tomorrow. All earthly business delights are to be found tomorrow.

Peace.

 

Rebrand…Best Western vs. Holiday Inn

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I did a little driving this past week and noticed two rebranding efforts in the hospitality sector.  Holiday Inn did their’s a couple of years ago and Best Western more recently.  I wonder what each company paid for their rebrand efforts. If anyone knows, please share with me. It seems a no-brainer that one job was worth its weight in design gold, the other not so much.

Holiday Inn’s logo is contemporary, active, clean and refreshing. It suggests the same approach was taken renovating all the properties.  Though green is not one of my favorite colors, I have to admit the mark, type and name treatment work wonderfully.

The Best Western logo on the other hand, looks like a too-cool-for-type-school designer worked on it and it’s way over our heads, or, it was crafted by the CMO’s daughter who cuts hair in Jersey City.  (Not that there’s anything wrong with beauticians or Jersey City.) The Best Western logo is the opposite of Holiday Inn: Logy, a tad unkempt, colorless and sans any fashion sense. Close your eyes and imagine what the new room designs must look like. That is, if they were done at all.

Logo and style manual design in a rebrand isn’t everything but it’s a HUGE thing.

McPeace.

 

Code and Iron Report.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Alphabet, the holding company parent of Google, just announced earnings and they were amazing. Microsoft, too, announced earnings with which they were quite happy following some tumultuous, leggy years.  I’m no economist so the difference between revenue, net income and post-tax profit are a bit beyond me but I will make one observation, software is back and cloud computing is the haps, to quote Dave Robicheaux’s pal Cletus.

Of course, we still have to make stuff we can sit on (furniture), wear, eat and communicate with (telecoms), but it seems the business of hosting and information access is as profitable as ever. The margins associated with software and cloud computing are killer. The margins on content aren’t bad but a distant second. Companies like Google and Microsoft are closer to “pure play” software and hosting companies than most. Salesforce.com too. Companies like Verizon, on the border of a deal with Yahoo! (content), and Netflix, smitten by Hollywood, are drifting away from their core – software and hosting.

For investors, code and iron are looking more and more attractive.

Peace.

 

Don’t Rage, Out-Think The Machine.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Farhad Manjoo, The New York Times tech writer, wrote today “Thanks to automation we now make 85% more goods than we did in 1987, but with only two-thirds the number of workers.”

Well, automation has had a profound effect on the advertising business too. Specifically Google and programmatic ad buying. The algorithm (Google) and ad buying servers that issue media bids in microsecond have removed thousands of people from the business of creating and placing ads.

These two automation facts are not alternative.

So what must we do to slow the robots?  It’s going to be hard to out-think them. But perhaps we can out-emotion them. Out-strategize them. There’s a saying I like to trot out every once and a while “Just when you think you know something about this business, someone comes along and proves you wrong.” Why is that?  Because intuitive rules don’t always work. Science says they should, but people don’t buy that way. People are people. We’re random.

So don’t worry about the robots, worry about your buyer. Engage them in new and exciting ways, and you will outlive the machine.

Peace.

 

What Sets My “Brand-ar” Off.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I’m not against storytelling. It’s an important part of my business. When collecting information to build brand strategy I hunt for stories and often tell stories to get others to open up. But in and of itself, a story won’t do shit for a brand. Especially, if it’s off-piste.

Storytelling is a pop marketing topic many brand consultants rest upon.  My “brand-ar” goes off when I hear someone use the term; it suggests they’re blowing marko-babble smoke.

Think of storytelling as the code and brand strategy as the app. The app being the meaningful, useful tool.

Brand strategy done right is about claim and proof — packaged into a discrete organizing principle for product, experience and messaging.

Stories and storytelling are communications tools, not strategy tools.

Peace.

 

Always Right.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

No one likes someone who is “Always Right.”  That is, unless you are in a marketing meeting.

I have not worked for many people who earned this sobriquet — they are certainly not legion — but from those who have, I have learned a lot. The Always Right do not cudgel you with their views, they lead you; offering logic and support. And even when they drift into subjective supports you believe them because, well, they believe them.

The Always Right are not flawless. They just seem so. They know the data. They know the science. They understand the business. And they share that knowledge. That said, no one is perfect. It is marketing, after all.

The polar opposite of the Always Right is the “vacillator.” The “consensus builder.”  The “circuitous discusser.”   

Aspire to be Always Right. Listen, learn, process and decide. Don’t spout before you’re ready.  Don’t spout when you are not sure. But have a position.

Peace.

 

Brand Strategy…Plan the House First.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Most brand strategists are insight doctors. Insight detectives.  Consumer behavior and motivation are their daily gruel. It’s a wonderful living. It’s like being a psychotherapist but without all the focus on negatives. I am a brand strategist of a different color. Certainly I can find insights with the best of them. Also I can write actionable projects briefs but my real job is in casting the master brand strategy. I plan the house while most brand strategists decorate the rooms.

A large brand, on any given day, may have 20 assignments in play across 5 agencies. That’s a lot of briefs. It’s not effective to have so many re-inventors and it’s not cost-effective.

I don’t want to put anyone out of work here but with a good master brand brief (aka brand brief) the need for strategy soldiers across agencies is lessened. And the work becomes tighter.

I went to a Conagra meeting on the Banquet brand a few years ago and there were probably 6 different agency strategists in the room. Silly.

Peace.                      

 

 

Helly Hansen’s Impregnable Brand.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Some brands don’t have to work hard. Their product is their brand strategy — and deeply embedded in their DNA. It comes easy because employees know what the product is, what the product does (Is-Does) and why it’s needed.  When that happens consumers/buyers can’t help but parrot that value.

Helly Hansen is one such brand. For them, life is easy.

I’m not exactly sure what the Helly “claim” is, but I can certainly articulate its 3 “brand planks.” They are “warm,” “dry” and “protected.”  These good-ats and the customer care-abouts and both powerful and nicely aligned. A perfect fit.

So long as Helly Hanson spends its marketing money demonstrating warm, dry and protected, the brand can’t help but be strengthen.

This is a great example of product and marketing working closely together. All companies should aspire to this type of relationship.

Peace.    

 

Brand Strategy Metrics Trump Business Metrics.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Two days ago I promised to share some business metrics side-by-side with brand metrics, letting you decide which are more actionable?  I’ll make up a few business metrics and then use real life brand metrics from clients.

Business Metrics:

  • Increase percent of sales of services over hardware.
  • Reduce cost to acquire a customer.
  • Increase topline revenue by 6%.
  • Increase visitors to the website by 10%.

Brand Metrics:

  • Prove improved classroom design increases test scores.
  • Prove that digital security at the root level is more effective than the device level.
  • Prove global security is more effective when private and public sectors work together.
  • Prove commercial building maintenance is less costly when proactive rather than reactive.

Now you might argue that the business metrics seem like objectives and the brand metrics like strategies. But the simple fact is, these brand metrics are measurable. Brand strategy conflates obs and strats. Brand strategy drives the how. It’s a roadmap for the how. When you have a discrete how story (3 proof planks supporting one brand claim) you have clarity of business purpose.  

Brand strategy is not a color palette. Not a logo. Not a campaign. It’s a business winning organizing principle for product, experience and messaging.

Peace.

 

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