If there’s any common ground among all strategy, innovation, marketing, and new product development practitioners, it’s that we need to have a compelling and differentiated value proposition. But if we’re all aligned as to the importance of a value prop – are we similarly aligned as to what one is? (No, we are not!) So, just what is a value proposition? Before we can even get started with this discussion, let’s define a “product” broadly to mean more than just…
Taking time to understand customer needs reduces product development time. Ever heard the joke about the optimistic pilot? Before the days of computers, when pilots had to use more elementary tools, a particularly optimistic pilot was flying from New York to Bermuda. To his horror, he noticed that the compass needle seemed to be stuck. Being conscientious, he felt that he should alert his passengers. “Good afternoon. I’m afraid I must inform you that we’re having some instrument problems and…
Positioning is the process of associating a something (product, brand, company) with a desired concept. In other words, the strategy. It’s deliberate. A process of choosing the association that you want. Volvo = safety. Harley-Davidson = the loudest, most American motorcycle. Walmart = low prices. The brand is the “thing” that you want to position. That’s why it makes sense to say that you position the brand, but it does not make sense to say that you brand the position….
“The one who knows the water best is the one who has waded through it.” – Danish Proverb I was once in a product development meeting where product managers and engineers were arguing about the merits of one feature versus another. In order to protect the guilty, let’s pretend that one group was promoting the blue feature, and the other was promoting the red feature. The rhetoric sounded something like this: “If I was a customer, I would want the…
