How do you distill the 'WHY' of your brand down into your product value propositions? Any frameworks or exercises to support this process across different market segments?

Verticalization is about keeping one story “spine” and swapping the muscles: jobs, metrics, vocabulary, proof, and partners. So my two cents --> start by getting the main WHY into a sentence you can measure then...Ladder from WHY to segment outcomes (the “WHY→WHAT→SO WHAT” chain) WHY (brand promise) WHAT (capabilities that only you do this way) SO WHAT (customer outcome a CFO would care about) PROOF (evidence: metrics, logos, benchmarks, demos) Repeat per segment. Stop only when each “SO WHAT ...Read More

The biggest thing I see when companies develop a product, service or build a brand, is they get stuck on the “what” of the thing. What the product does? What the company does? This thing. And this thing. And this. And that’s great, but the bigger question is why? Savvy consumers/customers look past what a product does; they want to know what makes it authentic? What’s the backstory? Why should they believe in you? People are not just buying products; they are buying better versions of themselves ...Read More

Call me old school but I think positioning statements do this VERY well. Here's an exercise I've used and seen success with in building alignment on the "Why" of a company or brand. Create list of key stakeholders who have a say in your value prop (think like key sales leaders, product, marketing, etc) Create a meeting for the entire group to get together and work through the value prop. Assign homework in advance: everyone send you a completed version of the positioning statement for your compa ...Read More

For me, there are few types of "Why's." There's the lowercase "why." And the uppercase "Why." Lowercase "why" gets at communicating why a prospect should choose your offering over the competition. For that, I recommend the popular value pillars/differentiation method I mention in another question about corporate positioning/messaging.The uppercase "Why" gets at why should this company exist in the world? How are you making a dent in the universe? How are you improving the world for the better? W ...Read More

Most early to growth-stage tech companies have 1-2 products. For those companies, product marketing and brand have a significant overlap. Their product identity makes up most of their brand identity. For larger orgs we see more distinction between brand and product messaging where there are multiple products, services, and solutions in place. Though my experience has mostly been in startups and growth companies, the approach I have seen work for my peers at larger companies is to start with a co ...Read More