INBOUND15

BRAND POSITIONINGHow To Tell Your Story

Michael TroianoCMO, Actifio

1. What is a brand?

2. Why emotion?

3. Reflect on your customer.

4. Simplify your promise.

5. Deliver it consistently.

AGENDA

Where’s the brand in this picture?WHERE’S THE BRAND?

? ?

The Brand is out here.In the hearts and minds

of the audience.

INBOUND15

• The world’s collective emotional response• Envelope for your product’s rational benefits• Emotional value proposition, guides people toward or away

from what you’re selling• If you think it doesn’t matter, you don’t understand how

people make decisions…

WHAT’S A BRAND?

4

INBOUND15

• Antonio Damasio, Neuroscientist• Studied seemingly normal people with

a specific type of brain damage that made them unable to feel emotions.

• All had something peculiar in common: they couldn’t make decisions.

WE USE EMOTION TO DECIDE

5

INBOUND15

EVEN BIG DECISIONS

6

INBOUND15

WE SIMPLIFY THE WORLD

7

badasssuccess cool racist rapist

INBOUND15

WE GO DEEPER OVER TIME

8

*

15 seconds

15 minutes

*

INBOUND15

BUT EMOTION COMES FIRST

9

emotional

rational

INBOUND15

If you want to change what someone does, you need to change what they feel,

and not just what they think.

HUMAN TRUTH

INBOUND15

• Disclose the recipe.• Destroy the factories.• Fire the team.• Rip up the contracts.• Burn every hard asset of the Coca-Cola Company.

BRAND VALUE IS REAL

• BORROW $79.2 BILLION AGAINST THE VALUE OF THE BRAND, REBUILD IT ALL.

INBOUND15

SO IS BRAND FAILURE

12

If you don’t create a brand for the market, the market creates a brand for you.

DOUCHEBAG

INBOUND15

It starts at the top. The failure to apply the right level of executive leadership to define and deliver on an emotional value proposition is the first place brands fail.

BRAND FAILURE POINT

INBOUND15

“OK. SO WHAT DO I DO?”

REFLECT ON YOUR CUSTOMER

SIMPLIFY YOURPROMISE

DELIVER ITCONSISTENTLY

INBOUND15

NOT A PERSONA. A PERSON.

PERSONA PERSON

INBOUND15

1. Who is she?

2. What does she care about?

3. What does she really want?

4. Why does she want that?

5. How does she feel when she gets it?

QUESTIONS

INBOUND15

• Business traveler unhappy to be away from home.

• Moms who feel bad about getting groceries delivered.

• Technicians who feel undervalued and under-appreciated.

• Bosses sick of paying for storage.

• Teens with stage 5 FOMO.

Examples

INBOUND15

“OK. SO WHAT DO I DO?”

REFLECT ON YOUR CUSTOMER

SIMPLIFY YOURPROMISE

DELIVER ITCONSISTENTLY

INBOUND15

WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?

What is theR A T I O N A L

reason I should care about this?

What is theE M OT I O N A Lreason I should care about this?

INBOUND15

1. Brainstorm a bunch of ideas with some smart and creative people.2. Pick one that seems right based on the criteria above.

3. See how a few customers respond to your hypothesis.4. Refine, confirm, and anoint the imperfect. 5. Focus on it, explicitly and exclusively.

ACTION PLAN

Express your choice clearly and simply, as something you and everyone on your team can remember, share,

and deliver in the details of every customer touch point.

INBOUND15

• Enjoying the road a little more.

• Confidence of delivering the best to your family.

• Recognition of solving a real business problem.

• Freedom from the hassle and expense of 20th century tech.

• Joy of feeling you’re a part of the group.

Examples

INBOUND15

“Stain-Fighting Power”

INBOUND15

Not deciding on a single, simple brand promise that is true, relevant, motivating, and distinct from those chosen by your competition.

BRAND FAILURE POINT

INBOUND15

“OK. SO WHAT DO I DO?”

REFLECT ON YOUR CUSTOMER

SIMPLIFY YOURPROMISE

DELIVER ITCONSISTENTLY

INBOUND15

CONSISTENCY BEGETS LIKING

=

=

✗✔

INBOUND15

REPETITION BREAKS THROUGH

INBOUND15

HOW IT WORKS

INBOUND15

HOW IT WORKS

“Being on the road sucks… I feel and look like shit, I really need to get my act together.”

Affluent, middle-aged business traveler

INBOUND15

WESTIN “BE WELL” PROGRAM

“PlayWell”

“WorkWell”

“FeelWell”

“SleepWell”

“EatWell”

“MoveWell”

INBOUND15

INBOUND15

Lack of communications discipline in the delivery of the same brand promise at every point of contact with the customer.

BRAND FAILURE POINT

INBOUND15

• If your product sucks, your brand will not save you.

• Brands live on the emotional plane of customer experience.

• Built on foundation of executive leadership, customer understanding, insight on potential to add emotional value, and product quality.

GROUNDING IN SUBSTANCE

INBOUND15

1. Your brand is out there, in the hearts and minds of the people you care about.

2. It works on the emotional plane that drives behavior in all people.

3. Your brand is grounded in the substance of your product, insight, and leadership.

4. Pretend your target audience is a person. Talk to them like they are.

5. Engage them with a clear and simple expression of your emotional value proposition.

6. Deliver that message, consistently and relentlessly, at every touch point with the market.

HIGHLIGHTS

INBOUND15

"If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

FINAL THOUGHT

INBOUND15

THANK YOU.Michael Troiano・CMO, Actifio

@miketrap