Know-How Exchange : Branding

Identify your buyer.

Begin with the needs (for which read, begin with the desired outcome) of your ideal, highly pre-sold buyer. Shape this person. Name them. Build their world and breathe life into their limp little body.

Only when you know your buyer as if they were kin ought you to begin thinking about selling to them. And once you do, you will not sell: you will educate, you will inform, you will inspire, and you will amaze them with the things your product can do and with the services your call centers offer.

But you will not sell to them.

Are we clear on this?

Do not screw this up.

Be sure your buyers are in an existing niche in which there is no real solution that's like yours.
Or be sure that your product is in an existing niche that's not solving the needs of buyers like yours.

Your widget solves a problem? Good.

Name the problem.

Bring it screaming out of the shadows and into the steely light of day.

Then, vividly and memorably demonstrate how you kick its ass with the solution that only your product offers.

Create eager anticipation.

Generate burning desire.

Stimulate powerful want.

Offer ten times the value.

Only once you've done all this ought you to think about showing the price.

I'll assume that you developed a software specification based on a deeply studied set of needs and value. Your goal is to see the world through the eyes of your target market. What measurable tangible benefits will you provide? Remember it's likely that your product alone won't make your audience's life dramatically better. How will it fit into their workflow? What obstacles will they face adopting the new tool? What's the risk you're introducing into their businesses - and how can you minimize it for them?

To start with visit individuals instead of using focus groups. Watch what the individuals do and talk to them one-on-one because you want the detail of their way of doing things. You can then explore in detail with them how your product is going to be better at solving this problem - brainstorm with them and record what they say. Then when you get back to the office, replay it and write it out to really hear what they are saying and not what you're think they said.

This will tell you where you can make a difference to them. Work up some communications around these strengths and you can then use focus groups to check if the communication works - does everyone interpret the communications and message in the same way.

Focus groups are OK, but it sounds like what you really need is a concept test to find out which of several approaches appeals most to the target audience, and whether there are sub-segments that can be addressed independently. You want to learn what features and benefits appeal most to your target audience and how you can best express those in your communications.

You're obviously on a tight timetable, but if you start immediately, and use the services of a crack market research professional, it may be possible. (You may also decide that it's worth delaying the launch a few weeks to be sure you get it right.)

If you need a recommendation, let me know.

Good luck.

a lot depends upon your budget. If you have the money to spend, there are many companies who can help you.

If you have no money, your job is a lot harder.

If it were me, and I had no money, and if I had freedom of action and enough time to do the job, I would create a positive cash flow program to get to know my market better. For example, set up a venture to sell a competing or complementary product. Use the time to get to know people and to better understand their related needs. Good luck.

Gary's first line covers a lot - "Identify your buyer". Until you weed your target market down to a niche that rally benefits from your product and is willing to buy at a higher price than you are selling at, you can't set your positioning nor messaging. Spend the time to get this right. And be ready to adjust who the target is as you get feedback from beta customers.

I wouldn't do focus groups (unless you are made of money), but would make sure you are up close and personal with the beta customers. Understand the benefits to them. And please don't confuse features with benefits - this is all too common. You need to know why they want to use this - which usually comes down to saving them time or money in doing something they need to do. What pain does this product remove from your customers?

If you have no or little funding for the release:
Ask yourself and other members of the organization some 'why' questions.
Why are we developing this product? (to make money is not acceptable)
Why would anybody buy it?
Why this one and not another brand's? Etc....

You may find an organic path to the answers in creating a positioning and messaging strategy.

All such great advice...I'll add...close your eyes and visualize who your customer is...all the demographics you need are in that vision...once you 'know' who he/she is...find out where
they would purchase your product...then make sure you put it in front of them where they
expect it, and at the right price of course

Maybe I'm missing something. A positioning strategy should be central to the written planning BEFORE sending anything to developers. To say it's "still in concept" doesn't sound like you're really very close to a launch event.

Also, there are customers now. They are the customers of businesses that are solving a problem that, at minimum, is perceptively similar to what you are envisioning. Before there were horseless carriages, customers rode in horse-drawn carriages.

If you're not sure what marketing positioning is, I recommend you read the seminal book, "Positioning, The Battle for your Mind" by Al Ries and Jack Trout. It's a quick read and you will get an understanding of the basics.

Better to slow things down than build on a faulty foundation.