Six questions to help you assess if your value
proposition and marketing plan need a tune-up.
When you introduce
yourself and start talking about your business, do people truly want to hear
more? When your company advertises its
products, do you quickly get more sales?
Does telling your story prompt consumers to try your product? Can your customers easily explain to friends
why your product or service is better than your competitors’? If you answer “no” to any of these questions,
it is likely time to revisit your value proposition – or at least how your are
communicating it in the market. It can
be hard to grow your business if your target customers do not fully understand
your value.
If the concept of a “value
proposition” is new to you, I discussed this important tool in my last blog. I discussed the importance of focusing your
value proposition on the benefit you deliver to your customers rather than just
talking about your product. In this
blog, we will look at how to make your value proposition a more effective
selling tool.
Many companies have a clear
value proposition that they use well to define and drive their marketing
communication and customer engagement strategies. Many other companies are less
effective. How is your value proposition
working for you? Are you as effective as
you can be in engaging, selling and building loyalty with your target
customers? The following six questions can
help you assess if you need to revisit your value proposition and brand
communication.
Is it optimized for your target audience?
If it has been a while
since you developed your value proposition, is it possible that either the
value you deliver or your target audience has shifted? Start with your definition of your target
customer. Is it clearly defined? Have you segmented your market? Have you
established personas to help you clearly define and communicate your target
customer(s) across your organization?
Once you have a clearly defined set of target customers, you can assess
whether your current value proposition communicates the most important benefit
and decision criteria for that target audience.
If your currently defined value proposition isn’t what compels them to
buy from you – and to tell their friends about your product or service – it is
time to work on an update.
Does your value proposition engage your customers’
emotions?
Does your value
proposition do more to inform or engage your customer? If your value proposition does not engage an
emotional response, it likely can be stronger.
Most product decisions include both rational and emotional
components. The emotional components are
not always top of mind for consumers, but they can be powerful drivers. Few will buy a new car, boat, fishing reel,
dress shoe, bottle of bourbon, a meal from a restaurant, or many other items on
a purely factual basis. Even problem-solving
purchases such as a drain cleaner, lawn service, spot remover, or toilet
plunger can trigger emotions related to doing the best job and/or removing the
fear of a poor result.
Doing the right research
with your target customers can uncover the conscious and unconscious purchase
drivers for their purchase decision. If
your value proposition can connect strong emotional benefits with the strong
factual benefits of your product or service, it will be more effective.
Are you translating it to compelling communication?
Some great value
propositions get lost on the way to market.
It is important that your finished marketing communication clearly
communicates your value proposition – not just create a funny or engaging piece
of communication. In other words, the
value proposition should be the core driver of your marketing messages. If your target customer is not able to restate
your value proposition after reading or viewing your communication, you have
work to do. You communication needs to
consistently engage customers and reinforce your value proposition to create a
growing number of satisfied and loyal customers – and to get these customers to
become advocates for your brand.
Ask prospective target
customers what is the key message of your communication. If they do not talk about your value
proposition, you are not optimizing your efforts to grow your business.
Are you engaging people in how you tell your story
or simply sharing information?
Another way value
propositions get lost on the way to market is when they get simplified into
just the facts. Some marketers just list
the features of the product expecting that customers will read the list and buy
the product. They expect this information alone to allow the product to win in
market.
As fewer brands can afford
significant advertising budgets, they rely more heavily on their packaging to
sell their product. Others rely on word
of mouth. For these products and
services, developing a simple, easy-to-understand value proposition will do
much more than just listing product features on your package.
Tell your story on your
package, in social media and other forms of communication. Tell what makes your product a compelling one
to buy – and why customers should buy it from you. Then make sure your product delivers the
value promised, and does so in a way that supports your story.
Are you speaking with one voice in the market?
Too many brands suffer
from schizophrenia. They talk with
different messages, tones and character in different channels. If you use
different messages or different copywriters across different advertising, PR,
social media and other communication channels, your value proposition can
become confused or diffused in the market.
To be most effective, you need to have a consistent brand message, look
and feel across all channels. How your
message is communicated will vary by channel – so your brand team needs to
review each communication channel to ensure that your branding and value
proposition is consistently communicated across all consumer touchpoints.
What are your internal roadblocks?
Sometimes, even the most
effective companies can get in their own way.
Internal roadblocks or constraints will reduce the effectiveness of a
great team. This can happen through a
reorganization that results in a fracturing of a communication team. It can come from a growing lack of alignment
in a senior leadership team over the defined value proposition for the
company. It can come from an agency that
believes it knows better than a company’s brand team about what should be
communicated. It can come from a company
that does not invest the time to develop strong communication strategies or
align its message across media channels.
When a marketing team gets too busy, communication of a clear value
proposition can be a casualty. Don’t let
this happen to you. Keep sight of
potential roadblocks and work to remove them before they disrupt your
effectiveness.
I am hopeful the above
list will be helpful to you. Remember,
having a weakly defined value proposition may not stop you from doing good
business in a market, but it will limit you from achieving as much as you could
with a strong value proposition.
GrowthSpring Group is a unique a strategic
growth and marketing innovation firm that works with clients to accelerate
success by helping them identify and launch new opportunities to profitably
grow sales. www.GrowthSpringGroup.com
