A Life-and-Death link: How to find the right position of a start-up company

Absrtact: Arielle Jackson spent nearly nine years at Google, in charge of marketing for products such as Gmail,docs,calendar and voice. Then she switched to square, and under her leadership, the new hardware square stand to the market. On her joining Android standby screen

Arielle Jackson spent nearly nine years at Google, running the marketing of products such as Gmail,docs,calendar and voice. Then she switched to square, and under her leadership, the new hardware square stand to the market. After she joined the Android standby screen application vinyl, she continued to work on marketing and communication programs. She drove enough horsepower to take what she had learned, and used it all, and made vinyl a product of individuality and value. Today, she serves as a consultant to many start-up companies to help them solve marketing problems.

As she says, marketing needs to be highly strategic, and many people disagree. For the founders, all work is traceable, with concrete frameworks and steps for their reference, to help them clearly explain what their companies or products are doing, why they are important, and why consumers should pay for them.

Jackson is here to share her experience, telling entrepreneurs how to position their products, how to develop their own corporate assets (including a name that resonates), and how to make a new announcement (whether it's a launch or a product).

(a) Company positioning

The core of positioning is a statement. Just use one or two sentences to clearly define the problems your product solves and why your solution is convincing. The positioning statement (positioning statement) has a significant impact on the following: recruitment, product development, dissemination of the value of the brand and so on. It all starts with positioning.

"You have to consider the user when considering the positioning of the product," Jackson said. "It takes into account your potential users, evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your product, and take full account of your competitors." There are so many products on the market, people are very busy, you must understand yourself. ”

"You can't make everyone happy, but you can try to meet some people's needs." ”

So what should a positioning statement look like? Jackson recommended you to see Positioning, a basic marketing guide that mentions a lot of good advice. In particular, Jackson learned from her director, Christopher Escher, when he was assistant to the product marketing manager at Google:

for (target customer)

In order to (target customer)

Who (statement of need or opportunity),

Those who (the statement of the potential user),

(Product name) * is * * (Product category)

(product name) is a (product category)

That (statement of key benefit).

Is (a statement of the core competencies).

Unlike (competing alternative)

Not like (an alternative competitor)

(Product name) (Statement of primary differentiation).

(Product name) (statement of the main difference).

By applying this framework, you can explain your product or service as clearly as possible. Of course, this requires some up-front preparation. The following questions can help you get a specific positioning statement:

How does your product/service work differently?

Why Choose this way?

What is the maximum range of your potential customers? You can use the definition of "Android user" or "person without car", then try to describe it more specifically, and finally describe the typical user who belongs to you.

What difficulties do these customers have in their product experience? Describe it as clearly and concretely as possible. How do these customers feel about this?

How do other companies deal with similar problems? Instead of simply listing your competitors, compare your strengths and weaknesses.

Avoid words that are so mysterious. If you use a word to describe a position statement, it should be "human (people can understand)".

With the answers to the above questions, all kinds of companies can write their own positioning statements. Amazon's early positioning statement is a good sample:

For Internet users

People who like books,

Amazon is a retail bookseller

Able to deliver more than 1.1 million books instantly.

Unlike traditional book retailers,

Amazon has the advantage of being convenient, inexpensive and diverse.

For example, Harley, the world famous motorcycle brand, has publicly shared their positioning statements:

The only thing that can make a heavy, loud roar

Motorcycle Manufacturers

Mainly for the United States region

Those manly men (and their admirers)

In this age of lack of personal freedom

They want to relive the Western cowboy dream.

As you can see, the format is flexible, as long as you capture the key content. We are not asking you to use this field verbatim in the marketplace or in advertising, our goal is to inspire people within the company to keep them in line with your ideas, so they will be more willing to help their customers to meet their needs.

Some people confuse the tagline (propaganda word) with the positioning statement, in fact, the promotional words have different purposes: they are facing the external, but the meaning of expression and positioning statement is consistent. Harley has a propaganda word: "Anglo by birth." Rebel by choice. (born in the United States, choose Treason) ". The same meaning is packaged in a simpler and more refined language.

"In general, the first to enter the market will occupy a certain advantage, because it will give people a memory point." If you can do the first and the best one at the same time, that would be great, but it's too difficult. So if it's not, it doesn't matter, and positioning statements can help you deliver the right message to the right people at the right time, "Jackson said."

This is especially useful if your product is in a market that is saturated, or if a dominant competitor has emerged. A powerful positioning statement can help you find the right space for you: it has more added value, or offers a larger discount, or is a perfect product for a particular category of customers. Like NyQuil, he has successfully positioned himself as a cough syrup to be taken by a cold patient at night.

"From the beginning to clear your position, with less effort." ”

Jackson pointed out that the company's positioning is even more important than the company's name. The company's name, and ultimately the information you transmit, including websites, brands, and even product features can be derived from positioning.

The most important thing is, in the communication fund-raising, good positioning can provide great help, so should be finalized as soon as possible. As Jackson said, "I think people will have a clear impression of everything about your company if you mention the positioning statement in your fundraising speech." ”

As for products and positioning, which should be a priority, Jackson's answer is that these two parts should be parallel.

"You can't be positioned before you know what you're doing, but I think positioning will penetrate the product and vice versa." ”

The founding team of vinyl from the beginning to replace the traditional Android lock screen, and to play Android has, and iOS or other platforms do not have the ability to use. So much.

"At that time, we only identified a few basic functions, but what the whole application will look like, ignorant." But once you've identified the location, what you need to build to help us get to the target audience-the Android users who have installed countless apps, become very clear. It also affected the construction of the site, making it a makeover. ”

Many companies often skip one step in drafting a position: critically assess their competitors. This is wrong. As Jackson said, "It's important to find your place in a competitor's cloud environment." Usually, a good metaphor can help you better describe your product/service. When the first car appeared, it was advertised as a horse-free carriage, and it explained in a reliable way what was difficult for the people at the time to understand. ”

"People can learn something new and different by comparing it to what they've seen before," he said. ”

But some specific languages can only be targeted to a specific audience. For example, "Like Uber for X (Uber in the field of X)" may only be understood by the scientific and technological people. So when you make an overall positioning statement for your company/product, you may need to adjust when you try to develop a new customer base.

"You can make a positioning statement for the hippies in San Francisco and take another approach for other customers, but you always want a one-size-fits-all statement." "Let your company/product find a breakthrough in the market, should not change to go."

With the above framework, it is difficult to draft a positioning statement, then your product may have a problem. Especially if you're not clear about your target market, or if it's hard to explain what you're doing differently from others, then you should go back and get ready to do it. "If your product catches the eye of the customer and does meet people's needs, a proper positioning statement will flow out naturally," he said. If you scratch your ear, it's a warning to you. ”

(b) Company name

One of the challenges for young startups is to choose a good name, to reflect the quality of the product/service, to attract customers, to successfully register to the domain name, and to receive media recognition. It was like an impossible task, and Jackson had seen many companies scratching their heads when naming their names. And she has a system that can break the myth.

The name has three routes to choose from:

Descriptive: Express your business clearly. For example whole Foods,toys "R" US and PayPal.

Suggestive: A metaphor is usually used to elicit your business or product by implication or association. Amazon, for example, refers to a huge river (with a very rich product) and mint, which means mint.

Utopian: There is no direct contact with the company's products. such as Adobe and Apple.

"To understand the difference, look at the well-known web browsers." Internet Explorer is a straightforward description of what it does. Safari has the meaning of hunting, is a hint, meaning to explore this idea. Then there is Firefox, completely without any connection to the Internet. ”

It may take some risk to take a fancy name, but they also have some advantages: memorable and easier to register with trademark domain names. It's just that you have to be willing to take on more work to sell/promote your products/services. "You have to be prepared to resonate with a lot of explanations and marketing to create a connection between the name you take and the company's business." By using other methods, descriptive or suggestive names, you can share a portion of the positioning work. ”

According to Jackson, when you decide which naming scheme to take, you should ask yourself the following questions:

What is the name of the company/product of the relevant enterprise or competitor? You would want to differentiate them. For example, if your company is paying for it, you will want to avoid the word "pay" because too many companies use the word in their names, which makes it difficult for customers to remember you clearly.

What brand value do you want to convey? may be like simple, safe words.

Do you want to have a domain name that is exactly the same, or can you use a verb and noun as a combination of many companies? For example, Square's Squareup.com,caviar trycaviar.com, and Earnest's meetearnest.com.

These principles can help you, but really sit down and brainstorm, naming is still a task to toss people around. In this case, Jackson suggested that the founders return to their positioning statements.

"First, prepare three barrels, labeled ' descriptive ', ' suggestive ' and ' novelty ' three, respectively." Open your mind. You may fall in love with a name you might find by chance. ”

Second, divide the positioning statements you write into nouns and verbs. Create a complete list of synonyms for each word that has an independent meaning. "You can go to the thesaurus.com query. So you have a big list. Then you can try a variety of different combinations. Jackson has the following suggestions:

Real-Life words: New use of old words (e.g. Apple, Gain, Square)

Compound word: Two words fused together (Salesforce,facebook)

A part of a word that combines another word (pinterest,microsoft)

Affix: Add the suffix of er or ly to the end of some words (Blogger, Contently)

Truncation: Intercepting part of a word (Cisco is taken from San Francisco)

Other languages: Express the meaning you want to convey in other languages (Reebok, Asana)

"You would want to brainstorm. Most of the time, the entrepreneur does it alone, or only their co-founder can discuss it. This is a good starting point, but you will certainly want to bring together your employees and family and friends to make up your ideas. Take out your options and see how different people react. ”

In this brainstorming, there are also the following that you should consider in turn (based on practical and creative reasons):

Trademarks and domain names are available

Uniqueness

Can reflect the key message to be conveyed

Good or not, pronunciation is easy or not (more important than you think)

Appearance (means to look not uncomfortable, good-looking)

Length (two syllable words may be better because it is not too long, but more characteristic than monosyllabic)

It sounds simple, but it's actually the key to success. "People tend not to think, easy to spell?" Is it easy to get catchy? She pointed out that the second-hand furniture market move loot is a good example. The name sounds a bit awkward, in fact the two words are easy to pronounce and easy to remember.

Finally, it is sometimes easy for a person to tend to a name, even if it is not ideal. To put an end to this situation, Jackson suggested that you choose an exaggerated name as a transition, which you know will never be adopted.

(iii) Integration of brand equity

To create a comprehensive brand that requires logos, Web pages, videos, and so on, it all starts with a creative newsletter (creative Brief).

In limited time and space, it can provide all the information you need to help define the overall image of the company, or a particular function/product.

"The creative presentation will document the content of the creative work." You can use it to develop your assets and help companies move to the market. Some people think it doesn't have to be written down, as long as it's simple to have a meeting with a creative agency or a creative team within the company. But in my experience, it's really useful to write it down. It is not only helpful to those who work with you, but also helps you to further develop the things you want to express. ”

Entrepreneurs tend to have fewer budgets and may need to outsource all their creative work. In this case, the creative newsletter is more useful, with it is tantamount to finding a good creative agent.

In a sense, "briefings" are normative: Define Target Customers: The people you want to impress, and the power (logos, websites, promotional words, videos, etc.) that are needed to achieve this goal. But as Jackson said, you don't want your expression to be too straightforward, you want to leave room for fun and inspiration.

"The creative newsletter should be like this--short! ”

"The creative presentation should be one to two pages, and I've heard that some agencies have made it clear that they will not accept more than one page of documents." Communicate as directly as possible: the background of the product, the things you want to do, your time and budget, and the competitive environment. ”

A comprehensive creative presentation should include the following:

Background: The name of your company or product, a brief description of what it can do and what value to create, and a simple startup plan.

Audience: Your target audience should include two parts: the characteristics of your appeal and a portrait of a typical client.

Positioning: A positioning statement without modification.

Competition statistics: A list of 5 to 10 competing companies, marking the most important competitors. You can add a sentence that simply describes how they overlap with your business.

Information: The key point that you want your customers to know about the product/company. If you already have a good promotion, you can include it.

Current perception: What do people think about it if your product is already on the market? Be as objective as possible, including whether you want to change that view.

Brand attributes: List the adjectives that you feel can accurately describe the character of your company.

Inspiration: List any brands, logos, promotional words, websites or ads you like. Quickly explain why you like it and what you want to incorporate into your creative work (such as clean fonts, abstract patterns, etc.). This helps provide an early direction.

Deliverables: You only want a logo? Or a complete brand image that includes fonts, colors and brand guidelines? A website? A video? Identify what you want in order to get through the process as quickly as possible.

Delivery Date: Set an exact deadline for copywriting and final delivery to ensure that everything is under control. After communication, make sure that the person who executes agrees with this timetable.

Budget: Particularly important, especially if there is external collaboration, whether it be a contractor, agency or creative company. Stick to your budget.

Signature: Find out who is responsible for reviewing and approving the various deliverables. This should be a unified responsibility of one person.

"Most of the time the creative newsletter doesn't include competitors ' information because customers think the agency will do the research, but if you can provide the information, you can save the time and money they spend on doing it," he said. You want to see the first draft as soon as possible. ”

A clear definition of your product audience and typical customers can also help speed up your pace. "Your target audience is a broad concept that they are the object of your product or service." If you take Zipcar as an example, the people who live in cities without cars. This is still a very broad concept. ”

There are many advantages to further subdivide the larger ethnic groups.

"Portray your perfect user specifically." If you're right about everything, you should be a shoo-in for them. ”

"When it comes to the user experience, people often refer to" personas (personas). For example, you said, "Sally, she's 31 years old, lives in San Francisco, and she cares about the environment." She used to have a Prius, but the maintenance cost was too high, so she donated it. Now she's going to rent a car out of town on a Zipcar weekend. ' This way, people who see your creative presentation will know exactly what the person is and what drives them to make a choice. ”

This does not mean that the company or product will only suck on people like Sally, but it does have an advantage that attracts more people such as Sally. "You can start asking yourself these questions: So is this our audience," Jackson said. How do we introduce ourselves to them? How do we get them to remember us? How can we attract them? ”

(iv) Preparation for launch

Both launch and promotional activities require critical information to explain the issues raised above. To get a pure and concise message that will help you express your opinion more loudly and clearly, you can rely on the following two abbreviations:

SOCO (Single overriding Communications objective, the most important communication goal): whether it is to improve brand recognition, or simply make a promotional video, you will want the most important information clearly spread out. This information will only be one, to keep this in mind.

SOCA (single overriding Communications avoidance): Contrary to Soco, this is the most important thing you want to avoid in the process of transmission. You don't want users or journalists to know, whether it's information, weaknesses, problems or debt. Everyone who represents your company to introduce products to the outside world should firmly remember your soca.

An example of Soco is Dropbox, which promised early on: "It ethically works." It expresses the hope of the brand: simplicity, security and reassurance to users, but also catchy.

A good example of soca is that you are no different from other cloud security solutions. Jackson recalls that in vinyl, the problem is serious if the service they provide interferes or interferes with Android users using apps on their phones. Therefore, the company's external information is mainly to emphasize the use of users can be more convenient.

Your other key messages should revolve around your Soco. For example, if you have an interview with a journalist, no matter what questions they ask, your answers should be linked to goals or ideas that you want people to remember.

Jackson suggested putting all the information into a file, including questions and answers that might be asked. At Google, each product has its own corresponding comms doc (communication document), and any member of the internal team can point in, learn how to talk about the product, who its audience is, and why it is useful or important.

"Whatever you launch, brainstorm and collect as many questions as you know and trust people." Put them in the file with the answers you've conceived. Then, each time you ask a question, if you encounter a problem that you haven't prepared, add it to the file, even after the company starts, to continue doing so. It should be an increasingly rich document that is constantly being updated. ”

The goal is not to remember everything before the interview, but to make a simple learning guide. You should always review it so that you don't have to be prepared every time and hit the point. Be flexible about switching topics to what you're good at.

"Finally, your brand, your product, the way you introduce it, should make you feel absolutely comfortable and natural." And to do all this, first of all to clear your positioning. It all comes from this. If your approach is right, there is reason to believe that you will listen and respond positively. ”