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Messaging StrategyPremium Member
Posted By: prodmktguy on 11/2/2006 10:27 AM (CST) 750 Points
What process or best practices have you uncovered when it comes to developing a solution/product messaging strategy? Interested in discussing the steps that the Product Marketing Manager undertakes AFTER the Product Manager develops the solution positioning and competitive positioning. For example:

1) Conduct Customer Interviews & Observational Research to understand "jobs" customers are trying to accomplish.
2) Document & prioritize jobs.
3) Develop 'outcome statements' of how a client measures value when performing a job.
4) Group outcomes to identify higher-order themes with specific indicators/metrics.
5) Develop Solution Value Proposition based on Higher-Order Outcome Themes
6) Develop Buyer Specific Value Propositions
7) Use outputs to develop marketing communications & sales tools.

Am I missing anything?

Posted by: proeditor Accepted Answer
11/2/2006 11:24 AM (CST)
Look at what competitors are saying about similar products -- you want to find your own words that differentiate you -- and how your competitors are getting their messages out. Perhaps the Product Manager has already collected this stuff, but now it can be looked at from a marketing standpoint, rather than a product development one.

Also, it seems that your points 1-6 are all the preliminary work you have to do, which is important. But number 7 needs a whole set of sub points, really a whole plan for developing how you will get your message out.
1. Identify audiences (in addition to customers -- such as, media, distributors, stockholders, employees, etc).
2. Develop a budget
3. Develop a plan for how to reach each audience and what messages they want and need to hear.
4. Create a tactical implementation plan -- communication vehicles, timing, responsibilities, etc.
5. Create a means for measuring the success of your communications.

Are you doing all this in-house or hiring creative help? If hiring, deciding on the individual or agency might take time, so factor that into your plans.

Developing sales tools can require another complete plan, depending on your sales model. You'll have more control if your sales people are employees. If independents, you need to find out how to get your product on the top of their recommended list. You'll may need to meet with sales people to find out what they need. How will they be trained -- seminars, web casts, etc? How will you communicate their incentives (bonuses, contests, trips, commission, etc)? How will you distribute customer marketing materials to the sales people?

Hope this helps. If I think of anything else, I'll post again.
 
Posted by: shghosh Accepted Answer
11/3/2006 3:47 AM (CST)
Hi- Your question shows a methodical step by step marketeer so i am going to recommend something that a scientific marketeer can use well.

Your message strategy makes it easier to deliver the same message across all marketing media including Web sites, brochures, advertisements. Consistent execution of the same message is a critical factor.

A great way to do it is by using the House of Quality or Quality Function deployment. House of Quality is a graphic tool for defining the relationship between customer desires and the firm/product capabilities. It is a part of the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and it utilizes a planning matrix to relate customer wants to how your firm (that produce the products) is going to meet those wants. It looks like a House with correlation matrix as its roof, customer wants vs product features as the main part, competitor evaluation as the porch etc

The importance rating at the bottom gives you the most important threads to base your communication/ message on given that its what your customer wants the most and one you are most geared to deliver on.

Check out this one done on a refrigerator:
http://www.isixsigma.com/offsite.asp?A=Fr&Url=http://www.npd-solutions.com/...

Hope this helps.
 
Posted by: bobr* Accepted Answer
11/3/2006 7:02 AM (CST)
You are missing one crucial step.

AFTER you take your step #1 (Conduct Customer Interviews & Observational Research to understand "jobs" customers are trying to accomplish, then . . .

Take the solution/product (or a prototype, if it is a new product), to at least two groups of users who are representative of the potential customer universe. Group 1 is a surrogate for current customers. Group 2 is a surrogate for potential customers.

Let them play with the product and ask them to reflect to you (in a disciplined survey context) what they perceive the benefits to be. Focus in on the most compelling benefits and note how these "testers" describe those benefits. Try to take their own words to the promotional messaging.

Bottom line, you need to see what customers get excited and/or passionate about. If you can translate that (hopefully keeping their own words) into a promise and benefit statements, you will have a very strong message strategy.

Feel free to use me as a sounding board.

Dr. Bob
[email address and URL deleted by staff]
 
Posted by: skoobie99 Accepted Answer
11/3/2006 7:26 AM (CST)
dcmarketingguy,

I agree with Bob - the first thing that struck me when I read your proposal was that all steps listed had an "internal" focus, i.e. there did not seem to be much in the way of correlating your proposals with "real-world" conditions.

Ultimately it is your customers who will make or break what you develop and you need to hear what they are saying early and keep asking for their input and feedback throughout the process. This appears to be common sense, however far too many times it is left out of the planning process.

Hope this helps,
John
 
Posted by: Emi_C Accepted Answer
11/3/2006 12:03 PM (CST)
Hi there,

this is a very scientific approach to communicating a message to your target audience. I had to read it twice to understand it :)

What striked me though, when I was reading is the following...steps that the Product Marketing Manager undertakes AFTER the Product Manager develops the solution positioning and competitive positioning...

I would think that the product marketing manager and the product manager should be working together from the very beginning, communicating every step of the process to the target market, recording their feedback, needs and wants, on which one builds a competitive positioning. No use in developing a competitve positioning if it is not first communicated to the target audience.

Communication with the target audience from the very beginning provides one with the real insight into the markets needs. It is easy to develop a communication strategy once you know this. You just tell them that you have what they told you they want.

Get some representatives of your target market in one room and let them talk about the product. Organise a huge brainstorming like discussion, let them think about it, let them express their views, their comments, their criticism, use their words when addressing the market niche.

I hope this little helps :)
Ciao,
Emi
 
Posted by: prodmktguy Author Response
11/3/2006 12:21 PM (CST)
In the course of researching this topic further, I came across the American Marketing Association's Customer Message Management (CMM) leadership series:

http://www.marketingpower.com/cmm

And also this book on CMM:
http://www.amazon.com/Customer-Message-Management-Increasing-Association/dp...

Anyone know anything about this initiative?
 
Posted by: Stephen Denny Accepted Answer
11/3/2006 3:45 PM (CST)
Very important question posed here! Never rush the wrong message to the market. Here's a process I've used when developing messaging architectures at several companies.

1. Brand attribute brain dump: What does your product or service do? How does it stack up to competitive or alternative offerings? This is an internal excersize -- get your engineers and product managers together and figure this out.

2. Usage patterns: if you have different users who use the solution in dramatically different ways, what are their stories? Write a quick narrative to help you spell this out.

3. Positioning statement development: this is a disciplined approach to defining who you are and who you aren't -- this isn't ad copy. Try this: "____ is the _____ that _____ because ______." Have your team argue over this for a day or so for each of the key user groups. A good way to help define who you aren't is to try this from the vantage point of one of your competitors. If you're launching a new audio device, ask yourself how Sony or Apple would position it. Then compare those answers to how your company positions it. You've now got your positioning statements on paper. Time to take it outside.

4. Validation: I've typically done this in focus groups -- and this is one of the few times where focus groups really help. Take a series of groups through this excersize and have them develop positioning statements organically. Change them on the fly. See what the latter groups come up with. You've probably got a pretty good positioning statement at this point.

5. Metaphor: go for metaphor elicitation while you have your focus group working (after positioning). Good way to do this is with collage development -- have them cut up magazines, make a collage, and then tell you how they feel about your product. Do you see a Swiss Army Knife? A tree in a field? What? They're telling you your product is about safety, or freedom, or feeling alone and wanting someone to help. This is cannon fodder for your ad agency's first creative explorations.

6. Quantify: if you're still standing, put some quantitative research behind it so you're absolutely sure you've got it nailed across user segments. Then, you can take it to the bank.

Do this and you'll have the right messaging. You can do this without spending thousands, but don't cut too many corners.

Good luck!

 
Posted by: KathySmithFilms* Accepted Answer
11/4/2006 3:57 AM (CST)
This is a very interesting read from MIT:
http://sloanreview.mit.edu/smr/issue/2006/spring/06/

And one more,
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/11625.asp

Example: Recognizing that its consumers live out on the Long Tail, Nike Soccer built its own site on MySpace
http://www.myspace.com/nikesoccer in May 2005. The site has 44,000 "friends" and is only one degree of separation from many of the U.S. Soccer team players. What's amazing is that if you look at the sites of these "friends," they've adopted the Nike Soccer logo and feature the soccer video from Nike's JogaTV (part of the Soccer brand).

The result: Nike has become an integral part of its customers' lives, connecting a widely distributed audience with a shared (but personalized) identity.

Hope this helps with the above experts answers.
Kathy
 
Posted by: telemoxie Accepted Answer
11/4/2006 7:33 AM (CST)
Three things strike me about your outline: first, that it seems to deal with a static product or offering, second, you do to mention feedback from Sales, and third, you do not address the varying perspectives of different stakeholders in your target companies.

It would seem to me that things are moving so fast that it is difficult to perform tasks using a rigid timeline. For example, in step 2, you understand the relative importance of product features, as they help your clients do their job. Now that you understand what is important, it would be nice to compare your product vs competitors, or conduct "lost sales" interviews in light of this info, but your product manager had already "finished" the competitive positioning.

Features and analysis and focus groups are great... but if you have a professional sales team, it would be nice to get add some feedback from your sales team on the upcoming requirements from specific prospects, and on their perception of most urgently needed additions to the product line. Again, your outline has a "static" feel to it, the product and market are constantly changing... and part of your marketing communications strategy might be to pre-announce planned product features to assist your sales team in competitive situations... if your primary prospect has a clear need for a feature you do not have, but are developing, clearly this can and should impact your message.

... and the "functions" performed by your solution will have different priorities for various stakeholders: the CFO might view your offering one way, while the Marketing or Sales or Operations department might view it differently... and so in the best of all possible worlds, you could, for example, change the order of product benefits based on the target of a marketing piece. I've created spreadsheets listing product features and benefits, and then added columns for various stakeholders, and in each column I've ranked the benefits by functional area. This is a quick and convenient tool not only for writing targeted marketing pieces, but it is also a valuable tool for sales folks, so they can target their message to the folks they are addressing. It is also a great exercise for a sales meeting.
 
Posted by: mgoodman Accepted Answer
11/4/2006 9:55 AM (CST)
I agree with others that your view seems inward focused. The fact that the product manager has come up with the product before you've talked with individuals in the primary target audience sounds like a product in search of a market. Ideally you'd be delivering a product that satisfies an unmet customer need.

You have to understand that true marketing is about understanding what customers are going to need and then delivering it in a way that will satisfy both you and the customer. It sounds like you are in a situation where the solution has been developed, and your job is to "push" it at the marketplace.

That's a difficult position for a marketing professional. You'll probably have to work with the Product Manager to learn why the product/solution was designed and developed the way it was, and to retrofit the assessment of customer needs and behaviors.

Good luck. Let us know what happens.
 
Posted by: proeditor Accepted Answer
11/4/2006 10:57 AM (CST)
Regarding MGoodman's comments and others, it really depends on the product and the Product Manager's role. Unless I missed something, we don't know what product or services you're about to launch. Your company may have done everything "correctly" at this point. For example, perhaps (1) the Product Manager has done the proper homework before developing the product and/or (2) it's not appropriate to talk to customers beforehand -- product development is necessarily being kept a secret or, as in the case with life insurance for example (my background), it is really the agents' feedback that is most important, because they are selling the product and have the primary contact with the customer and firsthand experience with competitor's products.

Regardless of how you got to this point, you are here now, so what do you do? Your question was about developing a messaging strategy, so focus on those answers here that deal with that issue and determine which of the suggested steps will work with your budget, with your product, with the audiences you need to reach, with your distribution system and with other restraints, such as time and human resources. Again, it depends on the product and your market. If you're selling a consumer product like a soft drink, that takes a very different approach than selling million-dollar customized computer software to businesses.

Many of the suggestions here are "in a perfect world" solutions. Many of us don't have the luxury of such extensive planning. We're handed a product and are told to introduce it to the market in 60 days with X dollars (which is never enough). So we have to be really smart and do the best we can.

One suggestion if you don't have the budget or time to do focus groups and other extensive customer research: Talk to your existing customers and/or distributors. They are often willing to help, especially if they are excited about this new product. If it's an improvement over an existing product, they will readily tell you what they appreciate in the new vs the old. Again, it depends on the product and whether you have a personal relationship with customers, more likely in a B2B situation. If there was a beta testing group, your messaging can include quotes or testimonials from them.

To organize the messaging strategy, I've also used a spreadsheet as suggested by telemoxie. In addition to product features, benefits (which I call "messages") and audience, I add columns for communication vehicle (newsletter, web site, press release, ad, brochure, sales kit, blog, etc) and timing. I can re-sort the spreadsheet by "timing" to help with my tactical plan.

Good luck sorting through all these responses and deciding what's best in your situation!
 
Posted by: Frank Hurtte Accepted Answer
11/4/2006 1:37 PM (CST)
One peice that is missing from your equation is teaching the sales force how to best recognize and speak to the value of the product.

We are at a tipping point as far as sales today. The change is the importance of Value. Sales people (in spite of what you read, think) still need a whole lot of help in putting the value story forward. If you have a product that has several value components, you will need to see that sales, distribution, dealers, etc. all are talking about the right points at the right time.
 
Posted by: diane_emo Accepted Answer
11/7/2006 5:58 PM (CST)
Customer Message Management: Increasing Marketing's Impact on Selling is a marketer's handbook for elevating company-centric product messages to customer-centric solution messages. Tim Riesterer and I wrote and published the book (July 2006, Thomson Southwestern) as a strategy and step-by-step methodology for integrating marketing and sales. Check out www.cmmforum.com for an online community that shares customer examples, articles, and other learning opportunities. As long-time practitioners, we believe that CMM brings a missing discipline to sales and marketing organizations -- and a way for us to drive our brand closer to the customer's decision-making process.

Diane Emo
Co-author, Customer Message Management: Increasing Marketing's Impact on Selling
[URL deleted by staff]
 
Posted by: aspencer* Accepted Answer
11/7/2006 6:12 PM (CST)
I conducted an extensive search for processes and best practices around messaging development and frameworks this past year for a sales and marketing alignment initiative at my orgnanization. I tapped several resources - SiriusDecisions, the AMA, the BMA, ITSMA, etc. A few folks could talk about what we needed to accomplish in theory, but CMM Group was the only organizations that had boiled all those great ideas into a tangible, repeatible process. We engaged their services this summer and we're in the midst of rolling out our new messaging and sales tools this very week. I'm pleased to say that it's going extremely well. The field is responding extremely well, as well as our executive sponsors. The book is definitely worth buying - it's a no brainer. Not only does it nail it, but it's a quick read. You should also check out the workshops they offer. I took one before deciding to engage their services. It confirmed I was on the right track. Plus, they believe in teaching you how to fish. The workshop provides you with everything you need to know to implement the process yourself. So, You don't have to worry about becoming dependent on their services. http://www.marketingpower.com/aevent_event25843.php
 
Posted by: Chrissie Member Response
11/13/2006 11:53 AM (CST)
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