The Case of the “Skeptical Futurist” – a Persona Exercise February 5, 2010
Posted by mgospe in Integrated Marketing, Persona.Tags: Integrated Marketing, marketing best practices, Persona, personas
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If you are selling to CIOs or IT strategists, you may find this post of interest.
Human perception is a tricky thing, for although teams may share a common understanding of their product portfolio, people often have a different idea of who they are selling to. And these differences may be slight, or they may be substantial. The Persona Exercise is one of the most effective (and fun) ways to ensure team alignment regarding the target audience.
Honing in on the bullseye
Focusing on the bullseye helps marketers avoid the trap of trying to be all things to all people.
I was working with a cross-functional marketing team tasked to launch a new product on a very short runway. During a meeting to discuss messaging I asked about the the target audience. I got 5 different answers ranging from network engineers to CIOs in various size companies and industries. There was no time, nor budget, to entertain multiple target audiences, so we focused our discussion to find the sweet spot.
What target audience subsegment offers the best chance for success? Where will it be easiest to win sales quickly and consistently? By the end of our discussion, we painted bullseye picture similar to that shown in figure 1. The sweet spot was not limited to job title or company size. Instead, the sweet spot focused on people who shared a common responsibility of managing today’s IT network while planning for the future.
Personas go beyond traditional market segmentation
The next step was to build a persona. There was a lot of good discussion that answered questions like:
- What is the persona’s pain point? What keeps them up at night?
- What is the persona actually buying from us? (We know what we’re selling, but what are they buying? Hint: you won’t find this on the itemized price list)
- What 3 words best describe this person?
Portrait of a senior IT manager responsible for the network architecture, who's also afraid of making a bad purchase decision.
By the end of the discussion, we painted the persona shown in Figure 2. We had given life to the “Skeptical Futurist” — the embodiment to senior IT managers who are responsible for architecting their network, and who are troubled by fear of making a bad (or wrong) purchase decision.
Drafting the Skeptical Futurist was an “Aha!” moment for the team.
With the bullseye and persona in hand, 10 sales enablement tools took form — from “How-to-sell” presentations, to the corporate pitch, to the Competitive Quick Reference Guides, to the sales simulation training module.
A Word about Messaging January 5, 2010
Posted by mgospe in Integrated Marketing, Messaging.Tags: Integrated Marketing, Lead Generation, marketing best practices, message box
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In straightening up my office, I ran across a gem buried in my filing cabinet. It was an early “aha!” moment for me in my marketing career.
Marketers need to guide the target audiences up the messaging pyramid. To jump to the close before establishing awareness and relevance will only lead to heartburn.
Years ago while working on a product launch, my team ran into some messaging trouble. Our task: to introduce a new product to a new market segment and steal marketshare. Clear enough. Yet we struggled to understand why our marketing efforts weren’t getting enough traction. After a dismal quarter, we stepped back to do a complete post mortem on our launch activities. The problem we found was with our messaging. Specifically:
1) While our product was well received in market segment A, segment B had no idea who we were (even though we thought they did), and
2) When we did an impromptu segment B focus group, we found they were confused and disbelieving of our messages. Thus, they ignored them.
The team was incredulous. After all, we were one of the biggest companies around. To solve our problem, we had to check our egos at the door and focus (again) on the business problem the prospects were trying to solve. After much gnashing of teeth, we realized that we couldn’t just go for the quick sale. We needed to invest time with the new segments in order to earn the right to sell to them.
We needed to establish awareness (and relivance!) for our company in segment B. Only then would we have a firm foundation on which to compare our new product with the various incumbents. And only then could we showcase our differentiators with confidence.
To keep us on track, we produced a message hierarchy chart similar to the one shown here. This helped keep us humble and helped us to define a winning marketing blueprint that worked. And it worked very, very well!
Features versus Benefits December 10, 2009
Posted by mgospe in Integrated Marketing, Positioning.Tags: Integrated Marketing, Persona, positioning statement, strategy
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A common mistake made by many marketers is the confusion between features and benefits. When developing a positioning statement, one of the key ingredients is in identifying the most compelling benefit relevant to the target audience or persona. Features are related to product attributes: it comes in blue; it’s round; it prints 3 pages per minute. Benefits answer the “so what?” question. Benefit statement may be about saving time, improving productivity, achieving higher levels of measureable success.
Here are five criteria that can help you articulate a good, meaningful benefit. Failure to meet any of these criteria should challenge you to rethink your options.
1) Is the benefit singular and specific?
Many marketers try to “be all things to all people” and in doing so, they confuse the marketplace. It’s better to be focused.
2) Is it relevant?
Just because a benefit is true to you (the manufacturer), it may not be relevant to the target audience. Challenge your assumptions.
3) Is it sustainable?
Is this something you can claim for very long? A benefit related to speed and productivity is only valid until the competition does it faster.
4) Is it believable?
Will the target audience believe your company’s ability to deliver the benefit? How does this compare against current perceptions about your company?
5) Is it substantiable?
Avoid producing marketing hype. Make sure you have data and evidence to support any claims you make.
“Do we really need a positioning statement?” December 8, 2009
Posted by mgospe in Integrated Marketing, Messaging, Positioning.Tags: Integrated Marketing, marketing strategy, positioning statement
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One of my personal “aha!” moments about the importance of having a clear product positioning statement came about during my tenure as a PR manager with HP’s Test & Measurement group (prior to the Agilent spinoff). One of the divisions had just developed a next-generation signal generator and was eager to introduce it. The engineering team quickly drafted a press release with the following headline:
HP Introduces High-performance Signal Generator with New Low Price
Upon first glance, this seemed like a perfectly reasonable headline. Yet, my “spider-sense” always tingled (and still does) when I see primary benefits linked to pricing. I wanted to be doubly sure that I understood exactly what this meant. So, I pulled the engineering team together to talk about their draft.
Their first reaction was something like, “oh great, you’re one of those guys” — meaning that I was an outsider with a sole purpose of upsetting their applecart by asking a lot of nonsense questions. With great diplomacy, I admitted that it was my job to work with them in order to confirm and communicate the product’s truest value related to the claims they wanted to make.
I asked if they had produced a positioning statement for the product.
The Positioning Statement Template
They handed me a 5 page datasheet. Not to be put off, I suggested we take 30 minutes to build a positioning statement for the product.
I explained that this would help us confirm the primary benefit and focus our messaging.
In the course of our 30 minute discussion, we filled out the positioning statement template, and we learned a few key things, especially when we dug into the primary benefit and the differentiator:
- This new signal generator was actually more expensive than competitive alternatives! However . . .
- This one box could perform multiple tests without the need of additional pieces of expensive equipment.
- The upshot: this was really a total cost of ownership (TCO) story, not a component box story.
We quickly wrote a new headline based on this positioning statement:
HP’s New High-performance Signal Generator Reduces Test Costs
So what?
Did this exercise really matter? You bet! Had we proceeded with the original headline, editors (not to mention customers) would have quickly cried “foul!” HP’s reputation would have been hurt by this misleading claim.
Instead, this clarified positioning wove its way through the press release, print advertising, collatoral, and other customer pieces. The resulting press echoed the positioing statement and this product found huge success with new and current customers alike.
And all it took was 30 minutes!
For more information on the positioning statement, read The “Aha!” Factor: Positioning So Your Audience “gets it”
Content & the Buying Process November 5, 2009
Posted by mgospe in Integrated Marketing.Tags: Content, content marketing, Integrated Marketing, Lead Generation, marcom mix, marketing best practices, marketing blueprints, Marketing Campaigns, marketing strategy, strategy
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Last week I attended the TechTarget Online ROI Summit ‘09 West. For me, the highlights included a wonderful panel of CIOs providing insight and perspectives on a) how they search for information, and b) how their purchase decisions are made. Also of interest was a Google/TechTarget Behavioral Research Project that mapped search terms to content types at each stage of the buying process. I’ve paraphrased here three of the key take-aways, but you can find more detailed information on the TechTarget presentations here.
This graphic shows what content types are most valued at each phase in the buying process.
In other words, success with marketing campaigns is all about matching the right content to the right stage of the buying process. The graphic illustrates the point. The Google/TechTarget Research study confirmed that certain types of content are more valuable in certain stages of the buying cycle. Makes sense. However, I was a bit surprised to learn that CIOs and other decision makers are keenly interested in “Comparison Review” data — data provided by vendors or other sources that provide side-by-side solution comparisons. I’ve always been a bit leery of this — after all, why should a vendor promote a competitor’s product? However, the CIOs told us that they would like to see some honest comparisons by key vendors. As was described to me by a CIO, “the IT team will ultimately discover the good/bad/ugly, so vendors can do themselves a favor by being straightforward and honest.” Another CIO told me that if a vendor slams the competition or their assessment appears too heavily one-sided, they will discount the value/honesty of that assessment as well as the sponsoring vendor. On the flip side, vendors who show integrity by showing a few blemishes gain credibility in his book.
Bottom line here is that the #1 organic search link (and even the #1 paid search link) do not necessarily yield the highest traffic. It appears that most searchers will peruse a few pages of search results. However, the determination of what they click on is directly tied to the title/description of the searched item. As an example, CIOs told us that they were more likely to click on a whitepaper with a solutions orientation (e.g. “CIO Strategies: How a Hosted Platform for Unified Communciations Could Save you Millions”) versus a branded whitepaper with a vague description (e.g. “Vendor X Strategies”).
Simply put, if your marketing resources are in short supply and you can only produce a few pieces of relevant content, aim for the considersation phase — as opposed to general awareness or final decision. Assets targeting the consideration phase seem to get passed around the most during the buying process.
Want more info? Check out these additional resources on content marketing:
Your “Customer Advisory Board” (CAB) Resource Center October 26, 2009
Posted by mgospe in Customer Advisory Boards.Tags: CAB, CABs, Customer Advisory Board, Customer Advisory Boards, Customer Council, Integrated Marketing, marketing programs, marketing strategy, strategy, thought leadership
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There’s no question that 2009 has been tough on Customer Advisory Board(CAB) programs and events. Many companies had little choice but to cancel or postpone their events this fall. But good news is on the horizon. The Dow has hit 10,000 and many expect signs of recovery to continue to blossom in 2010. Kicking off or rejuvinating your company’s CAB (or Customer Advisory Council – CAC) program is an excellent way to strengthen customer loyalty and ensure you are on the right (roadmap) track for 2010.
I’ve been facilitating CABs and other executive summits and offsites for more than 10 years. Here is a collection of articles that offer insights, tips, and best practices that will help optimize your program and build stronger executive relationships.
- Are you getting strategic insight from your best customers?
Customer Advisory Boards help you validate and refine your product direction - What Came First, the CAB or the Executive Relationship?
- CAB or no CAB? That is the question
- How Three Collaboration Trends are Reshaping Marketing
- Customer Advisory Boards: Frequently Asked Questions
- Expect More Out of Meetings: Professional facilitators can keep your meetings focused and productive
Demystifying the Marcom Mix October 16, 2009
Posted by mgospe in Integrated Marketing, Marketing Operations, Social Media.Tags: activities & offers, awareness, campaign managers, direct marketing, Integrated Marketing, lead funnel, Lead Generation, marcom mix, marketing best practices, marketing programs, Social Media
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How to read and use the graphic
As leads are generated and prospects are nurtured from "awareness" to "decision", this graphic maps the high-level marcom objectives to a few marcom activities and tactics.
