There is simply too much noise in the marketplace to try and trade on being a “full-service” and “global” anything that “loves your customers.”
That doesn’t cut it today. It makes you sound like everyone else.
Precisely communicating what you do well, who you do it for, and most importantly – what they get from it – is one of the most critical pieces of your marketing plan.
And you’ve got to do it in as few of words as possible.
Chip Conley, a strategic advisor to home and room-booking platform Airbnb, recommends this hack for finding your brand positioning: gather your team and ask this simple question at least five times.
“What business are we in?”
The first rounds always produce the obvious – “we make custom software” or “we build houses” but the answers get more interesting as the rounds progress.
For Airbnb’s part they don’t just enabling room-sharing, they enable “unique experience sharing” and help you “live like a local.”
For Lyft, it’s about getting a “ride whenever you need one.”
At Google, they “Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
Now those are really big companies with big ideas, and big budgets, but their branding is simple. They communicate value. They speak to their customer.
It’s a brainstorming session to be sure, but it’s the kind of brainstorming session you should be doing on an annual basis.
Make it fun. Record the results. And then edit, edit, edit.
The answers to the question “What business are we in?” may just surprise you – and build your business at the same time.
Have a great week.
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