|
|
| www.1001TopWords.com |
|
|
Product Positioning for Enterprise Software and Information Technology Companies
Good marketing positioning is like good lying. No, we're not suggesting that you lie when creating your company and product positioning. Anything but, in fact. But, it's remarkable how much the properties of good positioning resemble the properties of a good lie. Like an effective lie, an effective positioning statement should be: 1. Believable. A lie that no one believes is rather pointless, isn't it? Well, the same is true of your company or product's positioning. If it's not believable, then it's useless. Ensure that the key elements of your positioning statement are rooted in truth, and that the assertions that you're making about your company's or product's capabilities will pass the sniff test of a jaded observer who has seen it all before when it comes to the outlandish statements that a lot of software and information technology companies insist on making. 2. Consistent. A weak lie won't stand up to scrutiny when judged on its consistency. Internal consistency ? that is, ensuring that the various elements of the lie, or positioning statement, are not in direct conflict with one another - is very important to making sure that the listener won't just turn off their eyes and ears to your message. 3. Simple. Remember being a kid and trying to tell a lie your Mom? You'd concocted a story so convoluted and complex that it was impossible to remember as you recounted it. A positioning statement is the same way. If it's so complicated that even you and your sales reps can't remember it, you're guaranteed that your customers won't either. 4. Compelling. What's the point in telling someone something that isn't interesting and doesn't apply to them? If you're taking the risk of lying, tell a lie that is at least somewhat captivating to the listener. In the case of your company or product's positioning, it should mean something to your target audience. Which means you better have done your homework into their hot buttons beforehand. What's important to them? What's not? What benefits can they not do without? Find out, and ensure that your positioning hits those notes. Keep these caveats in mind when it comes time to position or reposition your company or product, and we can assure you that your audience will sit up and take notice. Ash Seha is a partner at The Launch Factory LLP, a consultancy specializing in marketing, sales, and product management strategy for software and IT companies. Their expertise, garnered from such IT highflyers as i2, webMethods, SAP, and Baan, is focused on breaking the growth bariers that stand between high-growth software and IT companies and their revenue and marketshare goals.
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Creative Branding Increases Sales Through Company Recognition The one thing that everyone has in common is that we are all consumers; we all buy. Every day, from daily small purchases, like your morning coffee and newspaper, to big monthly or yearly purchases, like a television or a car. But what influences your decision on what and where to buy. Surely, you have tastes and preferences but with all the competition for your purchasing power it is often small differences in the product that ultimately influence your decision. Branding Your Business To Make More Money Branding your comapny should be the first thing a company does. You have to convince potential customers to buy from you. Very few people have a monopoly like Microsoft or Ebay, Everyone else need to steer business to their company or product. When people think about your company, what is their impression. For my company, Solutions Ink, I wanted to portray a fresh, professional, ease of use type of company whoose product meets their quality needs while helping their business. I wanted to portray Solutions Ink as always on the fore front of the printing and promotional product industry's. No Logo? Launching A Business Without a Logo Can Sabotage You Initial lack of customers and cash flow often causes a small business to put off designing a logo and marketing materials professionally "until [they] got a few clients" or "until [they] get started." Designing their own marketing materials when they launch their business, instead of having them professionally created, will make getting those initial clients more difficult, and may result in a business that will not succeed. Articles: The Perfect Branding Tool If you own a web-based business, you're probably aware of the need for things like link exchanges, lead-purchasing, SEO copy, banner ads and all of the "traditional" ways to get exposure on the World Wide Web. Build Brand Identity Through Product Branding Building a product into a brand leader is not easy, but I truly believe that you can improve your branding impression if you follow these 2 rules; Passion & Consistency as well as the 4P's of Branding that I have developed, PRODUCT ? PLACEMENT ? PROMOTION ? PEOPLE. These 4 P's will enable you to check the way your brand is interpreted. Each of these very distinct headings has an impact on your brand, and the brand in turn will affect each of these areas. For those of you who have gone through Marketing 101, you will see that the only difference between the 4P's of Marketing and my 4P's of Branding, are People, and people affect the brand more than any other area. Don?t Get Caught In the Trap: The BIG Difference Between Personal and Business Branding When you're all alone in the privacy of your home office, surrounded by your computer, your phone and your business idea, have you ever asked yourself, "Where's the line between me in my business and the business in me"? How a Great Tagline can Help your Business "Just do it." "We try harder." "The Ultimate Driving Machine." "Be all that you can be." Taglines are one of the best ways of branding a product, service, company, or organization for years. Like these: Corporate Branding and Professional Logo Design Any business with the minimum interest to be successful should concentrate on developing their corporate image and when I say "any business", I mean it, absolutely any business-even if it's a mom-n-pop shop. "Corporate image" might be a big word for such small ventures, however, what I meant by that is how the business wants themselves to be perceived by their customers. Irrespective of the size of the business it is very important to determine how do you come across to your potential customers? How do you compare to your competitors? These factors are largely determined by your branding and marketing strategies. Branding tools like logo designs, business cards etc goes a long way in creating your corporate image. Any marketing communication material should ideally have your corporate logo on it, which would give more credibility for your business as well as help your client to perceive your business as a professional enterprise. Business Image One of the most important things in a business is a clean image. I started a small business when I was twelve years old and built it up in a very large small business and then franchised the business. I retired at age 40 after setting up franchises in 23 states and four countries. It is an automotive and cleaning franchise. We always believed in image and cleanliness. How can you sell cleaning services when your equipment is ratty looking, it shows a complete disrespect for the customer. Brand Image - Brand Identity - Brand Strategy - Brand Identity Guru Consumers perceive and accept many brands within a certain trade group in different ways. By personifying a brand (How would you describe brand X if it were a person?) we can find out, that for instance consumers perceive brand A as a young, impulsive, lively, attractive, energetic woman full of ideas. In the same way could brand B be an elderly, conservative and relaxed man. The brand can also have a completely inexpressive and bad image. That is how brand C may not have any real personal characteristics, slim, tall, unnoticeable and calm. Are You Brand Worthy? Are You Brand Worthy? Branding is a one hot topic, although it is wildly misunderstood. To make things even more confusing, branding is often tossed in the same basket as marketing which makes its application to an entrepreneur or sole-practioner even more unclear. Logo-ize For Instant Identification & Increased Awareness The task of creating an indelible impact on the memory of your target market is arduous but can be made much easier with a well thought out logo. The word comes from the ancient Greek where it was used in philosophy and theology to mean "the divine reason implicit in the cosmos, ordering it and giving it form and meaning." The function of a logo in today's business world is much the same ? to make the visual identification of your company implicit by giving it form and meaning. The New Branding Awareness - A Value Based Concept The new branding awareness is about when you take ownership of a commodity, a special talent, concept or product. What is it that you stand for? What you stand for is an experience that your customers feel from you. A good logo vs. a FABULOUS logo If you had a choice, which one would you choose, a good logo or a fabulous logo? Think about it for a second here, although I know the answer is crystal clear. Because many of us settle for a good logo created by a credible logo designer just because he or she is a credible logo designer who charges low prices. For example, I had a client who paid $500 for a normal-looking logo which looked like something anyone else can come up with. A couple of color changes to the logo, alteration of the logo text is inevitable and then maybe changing the alignment of the logo here and there?.THAT'S IT! $500 per pop!!?? Which Of These Words Attract Your Clients Whether it's your business card, tagline, article title, web site title and description or ad, just the difference of a few words can either pull in prospects and clients or push them away. Getting it right can determine whether your phone is ringing off the hook or you are twiddling your thumbs hoping someone will call. Good Logos Make Great Sales Tools Every day, the average person is exposed to millions of visual stimuli including hundreds of company logos. Branding 101: Why Its Critical to Business Success and How to Do It Right What's Your Brand? 7 Branding Secrets: Ready or Not? Every company has a brand (how people think of them) whether they created it through design or accident. By creating your brand through design, you shape the way you wish your company to be viewed by customers and potential customers. This will remove some of the uncertainty concerning what others will expect from you and say about you. The power of a brand can't be over-estimated. The Golden Arches are known worldwide. Blonds Have More Fun! In the book, The Blond Knight of Germany, American authors Toliver and Constable detail the life of the greatest fighter pilot to ever fly, Germany's Erich Hartmann. During WWII, Hartmann recorded 352 confirmed in-flight victories. To put it into perspective, very few American fighter pilots reached 100 in-flight victories. Simply put, Erich Hartmann reached levels of greatness most fighter pilots can only dream about. The Art of Successful Branding Branding: it's a term that carries great weight in the world of advertising. Successful branding is best illustrated by the world's most prominent corporations, but it's no less important to the small business owner. Your Brand is your identity; it's every single puzzle piece, fitted into the big picture of your company. From your name and logo to your business philosophy and corporate mission; from your advertising campaign message to your design elements; from your products and services; all that is owned, produced, stated, sold and marketed by your company falls under the broad heading of your Brand.
|
| © Athifea Distribution LLC - 2013 |