Some of the latest advances in martech – the tech stack, ABM, AI, market activation, SEO – are stunning and game-changing: they’re so important as to have become “price of entry” to marketing success. At the same time, it becomes tempting to let all the shiny new tech get in the way of nurturing, building and cultivating your brand. Motion is NOT, nor ever will be, substance. Sue Mizera discusses.
Tech cannot replace meaningful, relevant, differentiating, thoughtful, nuanced content.
Do you think this schism is happening in your company? Ask yourself:
- Can everyone in the company give a proper 30-second speech? Is it really 30-seconds? Is it engaging, or do eyes roll when it’s unfurled?
- Do you have a clear, crisp, inspiring “North Star,” or path forward? Does the management team all agree? Or are you, in fact, adrift a “sea of sameness” with your competition?
- Do you have a well-defined and accepted company culture that you actively communicate and that is aligned to company goals?
- Can you, personally, articulate your company’s reason for being? Why anyone should care? Can you affirm your company’s unique place, value and relevance in your category and markets?
Even if your new martech “shines bright like a diamond”, should you not have clear answers to the above, you have a job to do. A substantial job.
The most common problem: differentiation
In our experience, the most significant problem B2B companies, in particular, experience is differentiation, or specifically, lack of differentiation. Technology, and communications about it, are often highly generic, driven by a focus on ‘What?’ with little emphasis on ‘How?’ or, more importantly, ‘Why?’. Reasons are manifold, but much stems from dominant, B2B, product-driven mentalities. Hailing from technical and engineering disciplines, B2B tends to value and trust the “hardware” of products more than the “software” of brands.
In fairness, B2B’s passion for every feature and dimension of their products (What?) drives their excellence. In the classic B2B mindset, branding is not even on radar-scopes: it’s a logo or graphic identity, and once they’re created, branding is done. (As an aside, we wonder aloud if the proliferation of martech will continue to skew the B2B balance towards tech, and away from brand, as all that’s necessary? We hope not.)
Yet, companies can only ride their product technology wave so long. Patents expire. Product excellence is a magnet for quick copying and price under-selling — the greater the excellence, the stronger the magnet. Brand, however, is the ready antidote: the answer to differentiation, to the “sea of sameness,” to Why? As such, it is the source of a company’s long-term loyalty, uniqueness and continuity.
The truth: every company has a brand that, properly developed and nurtured, can deliver a more relevant, robust offering, long-term competitive advantage, and the difference between success and failure.
VPN category: a case in point
Consider the VPN category. I have never worked in it, I have no axes to grind, but as an outside observer, I see on offer only generic, undifferentiated communications and interchangeable, attribute-driven technology. The category, in short, is all What? with little How? and no evidence of Why? That the VPN category, B2B and B2C, is indeed undifferentiated and swimming in a “sea of sameness”, has been documented.
The author, Khoi Vihn, Principal Designer at Adobe, notes that while VPN providers offer a valuable service – keeping you protected while using public wifi with a virtual private network (VPN) — they “basically all do the same thing, with roughly the same level of design quality.” He adds: “the current crop of offerings leaves a lot to be desired in terms of aesthetics, interaction, and overall thoughtfulness in the user experience.”
Vihn suggests “design disruption” as one way to distinguish among the top “tech-driven, commoditized” providers, and this is doubtless valid. But surely prior identification and articulation of a company’s brand – its values, positioning, “North Star”, 30-second speech — is a more immediate solution to differentiation and disruption. Plus, brand differentiation would help to direct exactly what kind of design features a company should be looking to develop to enhance their users’ experience.
Suggestions: brand personality as a start
In our view, VPN players who aim for leadership and preference need to develop proper brands. Let’s look at what the possibility of developing brand personality alone offers them. In a previous blog, we introduced brand archetypes.
Applying the VPN category to the grid:
The whole VPN category is naturally Guardian-driven (protection), but there is surely room for other archetypes:
- a Magician, for channeling all routing in one;
- a Companion, who understands my needs;
- an Explorer: let’s go!
- a Jester, because he can switch among systems;
- a Sage, whose responsibility is to educate and “demystify”.
Even the Guardian has nuances, e.g., he can offer “peace of mind,” or “trustworthiness,” or he can “keep me hidden”.
For VPN first-movers, choosing an archetype as a first step towards branding would drive what kind of “design disruption” they should develop: fast and easy, robust and powerful, tailorable to individual needs. It would go far towards defining the company’s “North Star”, their corporate culture, their positioning and reason for being – a significant task among a reported 1.873M players! It would offer powerful differentiation that arcs to long-term reference, preference, loyalty and leadership among genuinely satisfied customers who value their experience.
Getting started:
- If branding is an issue in your company, we recommend that you begin by honestly answering the questions we began with.
- If you experience gaps, start by using the archetypes grid to plot where you are as a brand vs. competition.
- Explore possibilities with a Core Team of three to five colleagues.
- Stay tuned for how to develop proper Messaging (next blog).
- Remember, brand personality is a significant brand element, but only one among nine.
- Finally, any specific comments from the VPN community? We’d love to hear from you.
