Know-How Exchange : Branding

I thought this article from summed it up pretty well too:

https://www.leffingwell.org/Document_Store/ProductManagementMay02.pdf
The Role of Product Management in a Software Products Company, Dean Leffingwell. This article describes the key role the product manager plays in defining and influencing the development of effective software products

Positioning and Messaging
As an acting member of the marketing department, the product manager is also responsible for product positioning. And, as the saying goes in retail, the key to success is “location, location, location.” Your likelihood of success is in large part based on your ability to attract foot traffic into your store. And people will likely go to your store because it was convenient for them to get there, rather than because of any lead generation or promotion mechanism you deployed to drive them to you.

The same goes for software. But as locations in our industry are virtual rather than physical, the concept of position serves as a proxy for location. Your company’s responsibility is to create a location in your customers’ minds—a position that highlights your product’s strengths, minimizes its weaknesses, and ultimately causes customers to select software from your company rather than someone else’s. In other words, positioning is how you differentiate your products and services from others in the marketplace.

No matter what you and your product and marketing teammates think of your product, the way in which potential buyers perceive it will ultimately determine whether or not they will purchase it. If you and your team can agree on this simple statement of purpose, then you will be well on your way to building a solid message platform.

Of course, establishing a position does you no good whatsoever unless you can articulate that position succinctly and memorably to the marketplace. That is the role of messaging. Messaging puts words behind your position and builds a platform that you can use to describe the more detailed aspects of your basic selling proposition to customers and others. The goal of messaging is to help create a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Your message does not consist of just “any old words.” It contains the specific words and phrases, in the specific sequence that you and your extended teams will use to deliver your product message to the marketplace, no matter what vehicle you use (e.g., print advertising, radio, sales presentations). Moreover, in this day of information and communication overload, these are the only words you should allow the extended team to use to describe your company’s products and services. Each member of your company must learn to use the same words, in the same way, when they describe your company to outsiders, whether it be trade press, local press, industry analysts, customers, or partners. Otherwise, your customers will become quickly confused, and your message will be lost in the cacophony and constant bombardment of your competitors’ more effective promotions.

As you come to agreement on your messaging, it is useful to document your messaging in a core message platform. This document summarizes your basic messages, as well as the product or solution features that support it, in a succinct and focused manner. The core message platform then serves as the basic input to all product marketing artifacts, including the Web site, data sheets, demos, and other sales materials.