Hello again, this is Chris Halliwell, TMC Director, with more on technology messaging...
As a preface to when messages matter, here are my 2 cents on which messages matter. As I write that sentence I am thinking that of course, the core value proposition always matters. Without it sales strategy and productivity drop precipitously, and many technology marketing people just completely miss the boat on the need to establish a quantifiable value proposition before product design and development, not to mention the downstream clueless corollary of trying to make up a value proposition after the fact, but prior to launch. The messages that seem overly tweaked; the ones the consultants consume oceans of your time and money to craft; the ones not built on the firm foundation of value proposition; those are the ones that don't matter in my book.
So, with a business-team-wide grasp of your competitive advantage and your value proposition firmly established, when do the messages that flow from this core really matter, and how does this strategic achievement translate into prime competitive real estate in the customer's mind? I can think of 3 pretty effective tactical approaches to owning the customer's mind and the competitive agenda.
The first is shear volume. Focus, blast, and repeat. Focus, blast and repeat. Focus, blast, and repeat. The guy with the biggest megaphone wins. Early in my technology marketing career the CEO of a technology services company had a clear marketing communications strategy: a press release a week. Being green and idealistic, I thought this was one of the most ridiculous ideas ever. I was wrong. Hugh Hefner was right: it doesn't matter exactly what they say about you as long as you are the topic of the debate.
The second tactic I can think of that works is messianic vision embodied in an executive, the more charming and attractive the better. For you old timers, think Bob Metcalfe (70's, ethernet...) This highly visible person becomes the embodiment of the value proposition -- now we have two very different actors embodying Apple vs. the PC; we need that now because the trade shows pitting Gates against Jobs are a thing of the past.
The last, most appealing to me, and I think more sure fire method is to give the value proposition a back story that inspires industry-wide education initiatives, as in: we, the industry, will all get richer and be better off if we learn how to apply this new technology more effectively. I've posted in the past on the details of market education and the potential for market leadership in Market Leadership DNA.
Next week I'll bring you some anecdotal stories on how it is no fun when the other guy owns the market agenda, the problems it causes in your product road map, not just your sales force, and how others have fought back. Until then...
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