When Arielle Jackson started to develop the marketing and communications plan effectually Cover (the Android app quickly snapped up by Twitter), she brought a lot of firepower to the job. During her almost 9 years at Google, she managed production marketing for Gmail, Docs, Agenda and Vocalisation. She and then moved on to Square, where she led go-to-market plans for new hardware products like the Square Stand. At Cover, she put everything she learned to piece of work to assist make the product uniquely valuable. Today, she does the same as an advisor to multiple startups.

What'southward surprising for many people, she says, is that marketing is actually highly tactical. There are frameworks and singled-out steps founders tin take to ascertain what their visitor is doing, why information technology's of import, and why–higher up all the noise–people should mind to them.

In this exclusive interview, Jackson shares exercises entrepreneurs can use to nail their production positioning, develop the right avails (including a name that strikes the right chord), and make a stunning first impression on the market–whether they're launching a new feature or an entire company.

How to Position Your Concern

At its core, positioning is a argument. It's a sentence or two that clearly defines the problem you're setting out to solve and why your solution is compelling. Your positioning statement should remain internal, but it's critical to everything that follows: Aligning teams, hiring the right people, developing the best production, communicating the value of your work–the list goes on. It all starts with positioning.

"You demand to position your product in the mind of your user," says Jackson. "And that requires taking your potential users into account, assessing the product's strengths and weaknesses, and considering your competition. There are so many products out there, and people are busy. You have to know who you are."

And so what does a positioning statement look like? A lot of adept communication is contained in the foundational marketing guide Positioning, Jackson recommends. But in item, she cites a formula she learned from former Google Head of Marketing and Communications Christopher Escher when she was an acquaintance production marketing manager:

  • For (target customer)
  • Who (statement of need or opportunity),
  • (Production proper name) is a (production category)
  • That (argument of fundamental benefit).
  • Unlike (competing culling)
  • (Product name)(statement of primary differentiation).

Using this framework, you tin explain your product or service in as patently of English language every bit possible. This requires some pre-work. Answering the following questions tin help you lot become to a physical argument:

  • What's different almost the way your product/service works?
  • Why do you do what y'all do?
  • What is your broadest circle of prospective customers? Start with something similar "Android users" or "people without cars," and then try to get more than specific, ending upward with a contour of an individual model user.
  • What hurting points are these customers experiencing? Exist as clear and specific as possible. What emotions exercise customers acquaintance with these pain points?
  • What other companies solve similar bug? Don't only list your competitors but also their strengths and weaknesses compared to what you're doing.
  • Avoid all buzzwords. If there's 1 word that describes your positioning statement, information technology should be "human."

With these factors accounted for, positioning statements can be written for all kinds of companies. Amazon'south early on positioning argument is a prime sample:

  • For World wide web users
  • Who enjoy books,
  • Amazon is a retail bookseller
  • That provides instant access to over 1.1 million books.
  • Unlike traditional book retailers,
  • Amazon provides a combination of extraordinary convenience, low prices and comprehensive selection.

To give an example outside of technology, Harley-Davidson publicly shared their positioning statement:

  • The simply motorbike manufacturer
  • That makes big, loud motorcycles
  • For manlike guys (and "manlike wannabes")
  • Mostly in the United States
  • Who desire to join a gang of cowboys
  • In an era of decreasing personal freedom.

Every bit you can see, the format can exist flexible as long equally you've addressed the key components. The goal isn't to use this argument verbatim in your marketing or advertising, but to get people within the company excited and on the aforementioned page about why your idea is special and going to aid people attain something they want.

Some people mix upwards taglines and positioning statements, but taglines serve a much dissimilar purpose: They're externally-facing catch phrases or slogans that are in line with your positioning. Every bit an example, i of Harley's taglines is: "American past birth. Rebel by choice." It wraps up a lot of the same ideas in a neater, more concise bundle.

"As a rule, it'due south e'er an reward to be first in your market, considering y'all're memorable. If you can be starting time and all-time that'due south great–just that'south as well actually hard, and it's okay if you're non," says Jackson. "Positioning statements help you create the right message for the correct person at the right time."

This is particularly relevant if y'all're launching in a crowded infinite, or if in that location's a clear incumbent. Having a strong positioning statement tin can differentiate you every bit a premium offering, or a discount offering, or as the perfect product for a certain segment of customers. NyQuil, every bit the volume Positioning explains, succeeded by billing itself equally a cough syrup to be used by cold-sufferers specifically at dark.

In Jackson'southward opinion, having your positioning down is fifty-fifty more important than having a name for your company. That name, and somewhen all of your messaging, website re-create, branding, and even product features tin can all spring from your positioning.

"A question everyone hears and asks a lot is: 'Is this on brand? Are we making an on-brand decision?'" she says. "If you accept a stiff positioning statement that everyone believes in, that'southward the best guide for answering those questions. Is the decision you're making in service to the customers yous've identified? Does it strengthen the ways you lot're different from your competitors? It's all more articulate cut."

On top of that, a well-expressed position tin be an incredible asset in fundraising conversations, so it shouldn't be postponed, Jackson says. "I retrieve if you actually include your positioning statement in your pitch deck, people would be impressed with the clarity of thought."

In terms of what comes outset, product or positioning, Jackson suggests that the two should grow upward side-by-side.

"You can't outset positioning before you lot generally know what y'all're edifice, but I think it does inform the product and vice versa," she says.

With Cover, the founders knew that they wanted to build a context-aware layer that would replace the standard Android lock screen and leverage capabilities on Android not bachelor on iOS or other platforms. But that was near information technology.

"We knew some of the basic functionality just not exactly what information technology would look like," says Jackson. "Once nosotros had nailed the positioning, information technology became more clear what features we'd need to build to win over Android users who had tons of apps. Information technology also really shaped the whole website, including the 'about the states' page and the style we talked to prospective candidates."

Ane step that many companies skip is seriously evaluating their contest while drafting their positioning. This is a error, Jackson says. "It's critical that you sympathize how you fit in your space where competitors are operating. Oft, drawing the comparison can be really helpful in explaining your production or service. When the first e'er car came out, information technology was advertised equally the horseless railroad vehicle–and that explained something that could take been impossible to grasp in a style that was compelling for people."

"People empathize what's new and different by comparing it to something they already know."
Simply this blazon of language may only entreatment to a specific audition. Maxim that y'all are "like Uber for X" is probably simply relevant to a narrow, tech-savvy sliver of the populace. While Jackson recommends having i overarching positioning statement for your company or production, she acknowledges that yous may somewhen want to tweak it equally you lot try to appeal to different demographics.

"You may be positioned ane way for an audience of San Francisco yuppies and some other style for a major national campaign, just yous always want to have that 1 dominant statement that everything rolls up to," she says. Identifying what is broken and mostly how your visitor or product is solving it shouldn't exist a moving target.

If you have a difficult time writing a positioning statement that fits the framework above, there might exist something wrong with your product. Especially if yous can't conspicuously define your target market or explain how y'all're doing something distinguishable from others, you should back up and do that homework. "If you lot have a compelling product that people really need, yous should be able to write a decent positioning argument. If you lot're struggling, that's a sign," Jackson says.

How to Proper name Your Company

One of the biggest challenges young startups face is picking a name that reflects the qualities they want to projection, sticks with customers, and allows them to snag a slick domain and social media handles. Seems like an near impossible feat, and Jackson has seen a number of companies get stumped when it comes to choosing a proper name. Today, she has a system for breaking down this roadblock.

At that place are 3 routes y'all tin can take when it comes to naming:

Descriptive: Fairly explicit nearly what your business is and does. Examples include Whole Foods, Toys "R" Us and PayPal.
Suggestive: Evokes or suggests what your business organization or product is about, oft via metaphor. Examples include Amazon, which suggests a behemothic river/huge selection, and Mint, where money is created.
Fanciful: Has naught directly to do with your company's offering. Examples include Adobe and Apple.

"A good fashion to run across the departure hither is to expect at spider web browsers," says Jackson. "Internet Explorer is about as descriptive as you tin can get. Safari is suggestive, connoting this idea of exploration, and then y'all accept FireFox, which has absolutely goose egg to exercise with the internet."

While fanciful names chance beingness also obscure or complicated, they do come with some advantages: They tin can be more memorable, and information technology can be easier to get the trademark, domains and handles. You just take to be willing to practice more than piece of work marketing your product or service. "Y'all have to be prepared to practise a lot of explaining and marketing to get mindshare and really forge the clan betwixt your proper name and your business. Alternatively, a descriptive or suggestive proper name will exercise some of your positioning work for y'all," she says.

According to Jackson, you should also ask yourself the post-obit questions as you decide which i of these roads to go down:

  • What are the names of related or competitors' companies or products? You desire to build differentiation into your name. Specially if you lot are launching into a space like online payments, you lot may want to steer clear of the word "pay," because many companies have the give-and-take "pay" in their names, and it will be also hard for customers to remember you.
  • What brand values do you want to communicate? These might include words like simplicity, security, etc.
  • Do you demand the exact domain name to be available or can you get away with a verb-noun combination like many other companies accept tried? Examples include squareup.com for Square, trycaviar.com for Caviar, and meetearnest.com for lending startup Hostage. These can piece of work.

Guidelines aid, but when information technology comes to actually sitting down and doing the work of brainstorming, naming tin yet seem similar a staggering chore. When this is the case, Jackson advises founders to go dorsum to their positioning argument.

"Beginning, create three buckets for descriptive, suggestive and fanciful names. Let yourself exist open to all three," she says. "You don't know if yous'll happen upon a name you'll fall in love with."

2nd, take your written-out positioning argument and suspension it into nouns and verbs. For every meaningful word you can isolate, create a total list of synonyms. "Go to thesaurus.com and only capture them all. Make a huge list," Jackson says. "Once you take this listing, you can try all kinds of different combinations." She suggests working through this list of options:

Existent words: Repurposed words (Examples: Apple, Gain, Square)

Compounds: Ii words fused together (Salesforce, Facebook)

Blends: Part of one discussion combined with office of some other (Pinterest, Microsoft)

Affixes: Tack something on like -er or -ly (Blogger, Contently)

Truncations: Shorten a discussion or concept (Cisco is a clipped version of San Francisco)

Other languages: Words that hateful or suggest what you desire to convey in other languages (Reebok, Asana)

"You want to do this practice in a group," Jackson says. "A lot of times founders exercise this lonely, or only with their co-founder. That can be a good starting point, but you definitely want to bring in your other employees and even friends and family. Create your short list of options so see how they resonate with a diversity of people."

After this brainstorm, y'all need to await at your priorities when it comes to naming your visitor. In most cases, this is how your ranking should await (for practical and creative reasons):

  1. Trademark and domain availability
  2. Distinctiveness
  3. Reflection of your primal messaging
  4. Sound and ease of pronunciation (more than important than you might think)
  5. Appearance (literally, how pleasing or logical is it to the eye?)
  6. Length (a two-syllable word can exist preferable considering it's non too long but more distinctive than a single syllable)

Some of these sound uncomplicated, but are actually disquisitional to the success of your name. "People often don't retrieve of things like, is this easy to spell? Does it feel natural in your mouth when you say information technology?" She points to used furniture marketplace Movement Loot as an example. While the proper noun might sound similar a tongue-twister at first, the rhyming is actually like shooting fish in a barrel to both say and remember.

Lastly, exist careful when using working or code names in case you get as well fastened. Information technology's easy to get stuck on 1 proper name fifty-fifty if it'due south not platonic. To forbid this from happening, choose a crazy acting name that y'all know definitely won't piece of work or isn't available, Jackson advises.

How to Pull Together Branded Assets

To create a comprehensive brand, y'all demand a logo, landing page, video, etc., and all that starts with something called a artistic cursory.

In a short corporeality of time and space, yous can provide all of the information y'all need to define the look and feel of a whole company or an individual characteristic or product (even something equally small as a new banner ad)–whatever you lot're developing or announcing.

"A artistic brief is really a documented guide to creative work. You can use it to develop the avails you need to go to market," says Jackson. "Some people don't retrieve yous need to write it down–that you can simply have a kickoff meeting with a creative agency or your in-house creative team and exit it at that. But in my feel, it's really helpful to write it down. Non just does information technology help the people you lot may be working with, just information technology helps y'all further internalize how you want to talk almost and express things."

Entrepreneurs working on a smaller budget may demand to do all the creative work themselves or with a small number of contractors. Artistic briefs are equally helpful in these cases every bit when working with big agencies.

In some sense, this brief is prescriptive: You can ascertain targets–the types of people you want to achieve, how many, and the assets you promise to become out of the process (a logo, website, tagline, video, etc.) But you don't want it to be overly explicit in what it's request for, Jackson says. You want to exit room for play and inspiration.

"You should keep your creative brief to one or ii pages–I've literally heard of agencies that won't take ane that is more than a page," she says. "As directly equally possible, you lot want to communicate the background on your product, what y'all're trying to do with it, your perspective on timing and upkeep, and also what the competitive space looks like."

A comprehensive creative brief has the post-obit components:

  • Groundwork: Your visitor or product name, a quick description of what it does and the value it creates, and a rough launch plan.
  • Audience: Your target audition should be divers both by the demographics you are going later on and a profile of your model customer (more on this later).
  • Positioning: Your positioning statement with no frills.
  • Competitive audit: A list of 5 to 10 companies that are playing in the aforementioned space, with your main competitor highlighted. You may likewise include single sentence descriptions of how they overlap with yous and your business.
  • Messaging: The key takeaways you want your audience to internalize about your product or visitor. This may also include your tagline if you lot have one (more on developing messaging beneath).
  • Current perception: If you're already in the market, how do people come across you? What feelings do y'all produce in people? Try to be every bit objective as possible, including whether you want to change this perception.
  • Brand attributes: A list of adjectives that you lot feel accurately depict the personality of your company.
  • Inspiration: Any examples of brands, logos, verbiage, websites or advertizing that yous like. Explicate very rapidly what you like nigh them and/or what aspects y'all might like to see incorporated into your own creative work (clean font, an abstract logo, etc.). This tin assist provide some early on direction.
  • Deliverables: Do yous simply want a logo? Or a full brand identity with fonts, colors and make guidelines? A website? A video? Define what yous desire to become out of the process, even if you're running it on your own.
  • Commitment appointment: Fix a firm deadline for both concepts and terminal deliverables so you know you're on track. Make certain the people doing the work concur to this timeline.
  • Budget: Especially of import if y'all're working with external assistance, either a contractor, agency or artistic firm. Exercise your all-time to stick to information technology.
  • Sign off: Get in articulate who has the authorization to review and approve different deliverables. The cadet should finish with i person.

"A lot of times yous won't see competitors or inspirations included in creative briefs considering clients assume that agencies volition go out and practise that kind of research themselves, but if you lot think almost it, you lot could salve the time and money information technology will have for them to exercise that simply by including them in your brief," says Jackson. "Yous want to encounter at to the lowest degree preliminary results every bit soon every bit you lot can."

Conspicuously identifying your audience and model customer can also help expedite things. "Your target audience is a broad concept of who you want to go later with your product or service," says Jackson. "If you're talking about ZipCar for example, it'll be something like 'urban people who don't own cars.' This is still pretty broad."

There's a lot of benefit to boiling this larger group down to a single, well-fatigued individual.

"In the UX globe, people often talk about 'personas' in this fashion," says Jackson. "You literally say, 'Meet Sally, she'due south 31, lives in San Francisco and cares virtually the environment. She used to own a Prius but the cost of maintenance was too high, so she donated information technology and now relies on ZipCar to get out of the city on weekends.' You want whoever is receiving your creative brief to experience like they know exactly who this person is and what they're motivated by."

This doesn't hateful that the company or production will only appeal to people like Sally, just it will give it an edge with the wider audition that resembles Sally, she says. "You can showtime to inquire questions like, okay then if this is our audience, how practise we go far front of them? How practise we get them to remember u.s.? How do we draw them in?"

How to Prepare for Launch

Launches and campaigns all require key messaging that touches on these questions and explains more about why people should care. To get in at make clean, simple messaging that makes your point loud and clear, you lot should rely on two acronyms:

SOCO (Single Overriding Communications Objective): Whether you lot're developing a brand identity or campaign work or a video, you want to be able to clear the 1 most important thing you want the work to communicate. Just one affair. Know it past heart.

SOCA (Single Overriding Communications Avoidance): The complete opposite of your SOCO, this is the one thing that is the virtually important for you to avert communicating. What is the one bulletin, weakness, problem or liability that you absolutely don't want users or the press to hear? Everyone who may be talking virtually your product for your company should take your SOCA firmly in listen.

A adept example of a SOCO is an early line used by Dropbox: "Information technology only works." It relays all of the simplicity, security and user ease that the brand wants to project, and it'south easy for people to repeat over and over once more.

A good example of a SOCA may be the idea that y'all're but like every other cloud security solution. When Jackson was working on Cover, it was very important that the service didn't seem like it would get in the way or interfere with the way Android users wanted to use their apps. Accordingly, the company'southward messaging largely emphasized how information technology would make life more than user-friendly for these users.

Your other key messages should orbit around your SOCO. For example, if you're giving an interview to a reporter, most of your responses to any questions they ask should bridge back to that one objective or idea that you lot want people to call up.

Jackson recommends compiling all of your messaging–including answers to all possible questions you could get near your company or product–into 1 communications document. At Google, every production had its own corresponding comms doc that anyone on relevant internal teams could dip into to acquire how to talk near the product, who information technology was for, and why it was useful or of import.

"Earlier you launch anything, you want to crowd-source as many questions equally you lot tin from people you lot know and trust. Put all of them and your best answers to them in the doc," says Jackson.

"Then, every fourth dimension you go a question you lot weren't prepared for, add together it to the doc, even after launch. It should be a living document that is constantly evolving and becoming more than refined."

The goal isn't to memorize everything in your communications document before heading into interviews, information technology's simply a report guide, she says. You should review it and then many times that you can hit all of the points without sounding rehearsed. You lot should be able to organically move from topic to topic as y'all field questions. This is how y'all'll be able to stay nimble in interviews or presentations.

"At the end of all of this, you lot desire to feel completely comfortable with the make, the product, and how you talk well-nigh it," Jackson says. "Information technology all starts with nailing down your positioning. Everything stems from that. If you've done it right, you'll be able to tell everyone why what you're doing matters in a way that will make them listen and respond."

This article was originally published in Get-go Round Review and is reprinted with permission.