Presentation Transcript

1. Energize Your Value Proposition

   George Stenitzer Vice President Corporate & MarketingCommunications BMA Milwaukee 2010
2. What It Takes to Develop A Value Proposition Understand what customers need Understand what you have to offer Understand what competitors offer Make the message simple and clear Engage customers with stories BMA Milwaukee 2010
3. Understand What Customers Need Do the homework:Know the customers, market, product/service,company and competitors. Customers/prospects Define the need or problem from customers’ viewpoint Customer demographics and psychographics Buying influencers, decision-makers and practices Corporate culture and language Brand position, promise and personality Distribution BMA Milwaukee 2010
4. Understand What Customers Need Identify what you need to know that you don’t know:Make assumptions explicit. Market research Round up and review existing research Formal market research process: Problem  Information Needed  Gather Data Analyze  Present  Act Primary, secondary Informal market research BMA Milwaukee 2010
5. Understand What You Have to Offer Products and Services Features Benefits, advantages and applications USP: Unique Selling Proposition Brand Position Promise Personality BMA Milwaukee 2010
6. Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats Understand What Competitors Offer BMA Milwaukee 2010
7. Value Propositions in 5 Minutes What’s your product or service? What are its features? What are its physical characteristics? What are its benefits?How will it solve the customers’ problem? What are its advantages?How is it superior to other solutions? What are its applications? What does it do? BMA Milwaukee 2010
8. For Example … What’s your product or service?MP3 player What are its features? What are its physical characteristics?Small size, large memory, good battery life What are its benefits? How will it solve the customers’ problem?Music wherever you go What are its advantages? How is it superior to other solutions?Simple to use What are its applications? What does it do?Music, games, audio/video programs, audio recording, back-up BMA Milwaukee 2010
9. Now, Take 5 Minutes to Sketch Your Value Proposition What’s your product or service? What are its features? What are its physical characteristics? What are its benefits?How will it solve the customers’ problem? What are its advantages?How is it superior to other solutions? What are its applications? What does it do? BMA Milwaukee 2010
10. Test Your Value Proposition Does it address these questions from buyers’ viewpoint:1.) WIIFM?2.) So what?3.) Who cares? Successful value propositions are about benefits, advantages and applications (not features) BMA Milwaukee 2010
11. Make the Message Simple and Clear Simple messages get through We receive thousands of messages a day Value of message to recipient = reward/effort How would you tell a child? Your mom? A neighbor? Clarity and brevity count Killer sound bite Average sound bite is 23 words or 7 seconds 100% comprehend a sentence of 7 words or less BMA Milwaukee 2010
12. Make the Message Simple and Clear Have SMEs and creatives brainstorm together Use power words You, new, now, free, [name], save, win … Use wordplay Alliteration Analogies Resources such as Visual Thesaurus, Phrase Finder BMA Milwaukee 2010
13. Make the Message Simple and Clear Make numbers real How big is 58,000 square feet? How does 99% uptime compare with 99.9999% uptime? Be as specific as possible “Cuts energy usage” “Reduces energy consumption 60%” “Saves you $1 million a year on energy” Tell the truth Underpromise, overdeliver BMA Milwaukee 2010
14. Make Sure the Message IsSimple and Clear For copy, use readability tests Word count: 400 words (2 minutes) Sentences/paragraph: 3 Words/paragraph: 42 Words/sentence: 14 Characters/word: 6 Passive sentences: 0 Flesch Reading Ease: 35 plus Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 11 or less BMA Milwaukee 2010
15. Types of Value Propositions Primary Secondary Businessresults Differentiatorsto helpcustomer’sbusiness CXOLevel Technology/solutionsto addresstechnologyand businesschallenges Differentiatorsfrom competitorsand in valueproduced Engineering,OperationsLevel BMA Milwaukee 2010
16. Framing the Value PropositionAs a Message Map Message map Home base Positive points Positive proof points Points of advantage Differentiating points BMA Milwaukee 2010
17. Framing a Message Map BMA Milwaukee 2010
18. Tell a Story Have a point, find a story Customers, employees can help Use case histories: Problem, [background], solution, result BMA Milwaukee 2010
19. Questions? E-mail: george.stenitzer@tellabs.com Phone: +1.630.798.3800 Snail mail: Tellabs One Tellabs Center 1415 West Diehl Road, Mailstop 10 Naperville, IL 60563 U.S.A. BMA Milwaukee 2010