THE BRANDING OF CHOPPER

Hello my Fanimals, Manimal is back to massage your mind with musings of marketing madness! Manimal read something yesterday that had me thinking. Our Commander in Chief, Scott “Sandman” Sanfilippo (Sandman because he is putting the competition to bed) wrote a blog about who/what Solid Cactus is. Somebody had noticed the regularity of the Solid Cactus Hummer at the Wilkes Barre Int’l Airport and asked him, “What is Solid Cactus?”

Now I can understand where this question came from for two reasons. Unless you are Miami CSI Horatio Caine or Wilkes-Barre COO Scott Sanfilippo, you don’t see an H2 up close everyday. Second, the name ‘Solid Cactus’ is catchy enough to pique anyone’s interest. This got Manimal thinking about his dog, Chopper. Now all you Fanimals out there have heard me mention my dogs before, so you know they are no ordinary dogs. But how can I let the rest of this ‘cosmic-quirk’ we call Earth know just how “wet-your-pants-awesome” Chopper truly is… This story is called, “The Branding of Chopper”..

Many, many moons ago, my dog Chopper (government name: Calvin Hopper) was born from champions, Sugar Queen and Sir Catch-22. The largest of a litter of 8, Chopper was immediately shunned as he was born entirely white (AKC standards do not permit the ’showing’ of all-white boxers in competition) . This reverse discrimination took its toll on Calvin, as he felt the cold shadow from his lack of parental love. Barely old enough to open his eyes, Calvin was taken away from his home after Sir Catch-22 lost him in a high-stakes poker game to some mid-level thugs from Haiti. While waiting in the port of Miami to be smuggled out of the country, Calvin saw his chance to escape and climbed into the back of a ‘79 El Camino where he was driven cross country and ended up in South Compton, Los Angeles.

Just a pup, Calvin had to grow up fast on the mean streets of L.A. He adopted his street name, “Chopper” (Calvin+Hopper=Chopper) and started his plan to make a better life for himself and hopefully a family one day. He was basically a good puppy; had a couple run-ins with the law–couple noise violations, trespassing ticket and a racketeering beef (something about collecting protection money for Petsmart…). Although none of these incidents stopped him from keeping his dreams alive; he wanted to make it big as a song writer.

Chopper was blessed with an incredible talent for song writing. From early on, Chopper made his money hustling mix-tapes out the trunk of his car. They loved him in the ‘hood. His music was what the people wanted. Remember Master P’s hit song, “Make ‘Em Say Ugh“? Chopper wrote that. Remember that Celine Dion song about some boat? Chopper’s too. And any Nickleback song. Chopp wrote them all. His success was meteoric, but living a life of hard partying, hard chew toys, fast women and fast cars caught up to him. Never able to escape his street roots and with his fathers gambling-addicted blood coursing through his veins , Chopper lost millions playing back-ally dice games. In one particularly bad beat, he lost $3.4 million to a man, known only as ‘Grits N Gravy’, while qualifying for the World Series of Dice. All he was left with was his collar, a half-empty bottle of banana cognac and a mysterious sore on his lip. Enter Manimal…

I found Chopper while doing a community outreach program to dis-advantaged youth. He had a chip on his shoulder, but through the tough facade, white fur & prison tats, I could see he was special. All he needed was a friend; a friend who can put his story out there to the people and restore the glory that is Chopper. I needed to set him apart from all the other boxers out there. With a back story like his, I knew he was unique and the people would relate to him. I had a plan. Time to brand Chopper..

If Chopper was going to pull a Mickey Rourke and rise from the ashes, I needed to build the Chopper Brand. But how did I build the Chopper Brand through PPC while NOT burning through my budget like a Chicago community organizer with a new job? Here is how I did it:

I started with my PPC campaigns; separated all generic keywords from branded keywords. For example, One campaign will have general keywords that apply to Chopper like “kick-ass dog”, “one sweet dog”, “my dog is better than yours”, etc. The other would be all branded keywords such as “Chopper the Boxer”, “Chopper’s Mix Tapes” or “Chopper Dog’s Songs”. I would also bid on terms and slogans that are associated with Chopper (”The Most Electrifying Dog On Earth”, “Six-Million Dollar Dog”,etc.) These keywords would then pull branded ads with ‘Chopper” throughout it. Starting to see a pattern?

Next I bid on the competition. I bid on terms and variations of terms for Lassie and that St. Bernard Beethoven. People associate those dogs as a brand, and thus I want to show when and where their ads show. This will build a positive association in the customer’s mind with Chopper and these more famous canines (even though they can’t write songs or handle a microphone like Chopper). When bidding on competition, however, make sure that the competition is not trademarked or violates Google terms of service.

Don’t forget to bid on domains, too. Like your keywords, use variations like misspellings or “www Chopper com”. These are typically low CPC’s with high search volume. I would also bid on any awards associated with Chopper (or your company). He has had many Grammy nominations and thus I have bid on those awards so I can build a brand-value association. These are all crucial steps to restoring the Awesome Brand that is Chopper.

My goal (and yours) with branding is to build value for your brand. Your campaigns, ads and landing pages need to be highly targeted. I cannot stress this enough! Your mission is to build the value of your brand; not to throw your brand out there to as many people as possible. Doing that WILL kill your return on ad spend. Now that I have shared how I increased Chopper’s brand awareness, apply my knowledge to your PPC account and watch your brand grow! Look for Chopper’s new album to drop August 23rd, featuring guest appearances by Michael Bolton and the Wu-Tang Clan…