Differentiate to outshine big brother

Fortunately or unfortunately, I’m obsessed with differentiation, perhaps because I have two older brothers. They were automatically better at me at everything—school, sports, girls, everything. The only thing I could possibly be better at was being myself, and I have certainly gone all the way with that in my life. When it comes to messaging[…]

Cheap and proud: messaging strategy for being both good and affordable

A while back I was engaged to create a messaging strategy for a SaaS in the education space. Sales were flat and the brand, which had been one of the first to market, had been overtaken by newer competitors. Ownership wanted to update their messaging strategy to win in the current, more mature environment. Internal[…]

Messaging strategy that cuts through the complexity

Marketing is complicated. Because people are complicated. And delivering value to them is complicated. But your message can’t be. Because people have so much complexity going on that their heads will blow up if you add to it. It’s a cause and effect whirlpool you don’t want to get caught in. That’s why you need[…]

Why “Great Service” Is not a Winning Differentiator

It’s not easy to arrive at authentic strategic differentiation, which is what a good messaging strategy should provide. Many viable businesses, including startups, professional services companies and mid and large sized organizations struggle to correctly and strategically identify their uniqueness to their audiences. How is one engineering firm different from another operating in the same[…]

Click Crap: Are your clicks ownable and defensible and how a messaging strategy can help

It’s nice that your digital marketing is getting clicks. But what’s really good is when they’re clicking for something that actually aligns with your strategic message. And what’s even more awesome is when that message is truly ownable and defensible – meaning it’s so authentic to who you are as an organization, so relevant to[…]