CMS335 Learning Objective 1:
Create positioning statements
and value propositions.
Clients sometimes have difficulty distinguishing between a value proposition and a positioning statement, and often don’t feel the necessity for both until they are put into practice. I have always explained the key difference as brand persona versus product or service attributes. The value proposition explains the unique value a product or service offers its customers. The positioning statement explains how the brand, and thus its products or services, claims its unique place in the market, and how that unique position differs from its competition.
Totus Lighting Solutions (2004)
Totus Lighting Solutions was a new company offering outdoor LED lighting and security systems that were adaptable and scalable to the needs of customers in the retail, manufacturing, and government sectors. Their modular design accommodated both LED lighting and a variety of security cameras and infrared devices, and were remotely monitored and programmable. Working directly with company principals, I developed the following:
Positioning statement:
Totus Solutions is a leading provider of advanced lighting solutions that integrate significant energy saving and cost-effective LED lighting systems with highly sophisticated and innovative security solutions delivered through a single platform.
Value proposition:
Our “smart” lighting products utilize high-grade, low power LEDs together with our patent-pending intelligent power supply to provide superior photometric, longer life, and a unique, scalable platform that can incorporate safety and security network options.
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The Siegfried Group (2007)
This accounting and contract staffing firm in Wilmington, Delaware, requested a complete upgrade of their marketing for the two major business units - accounting staffing, and professional recruitment. This presented a unique situation; how to claim a consistent brand position value while adapting the value proposition to their key audiences - industry-specific clients (including other accounting firms) and accounting professionals.
Staffing positioning statement:
The Siegfried Group specializes in providing ready access to high-caliber accounting and financial professionals, extending your in-house capabilities, flexibility, and productivity.
Staffing value proposition:
Siegfried professionals possess experience in all areas of accounting, including general accounting, financial reporting, forecasting, internal controls documentation, evaluation and testing, and audit preparation. We understand our role is to support your objectives. And with a national presence, we are able to deploy high-caliber professionals whenever and where ever needed to help meet your critical objectives.
Recruitment positioning statement:
The Siegfried Group is a unique professional services firm focused on the positive growth of our clients and our employees.We offer employees many ways to meet personal objectives and enrich professional growth, all while advancing the objectives of the firm. In this way, we become a united team of professionals bound by - and committed to - a common set of values.
Recruitment value proposition:
The Siegfried Group begins with a genuinely distinctive culture. One committed to fun, fairness, respect, appreciation, and balance. When combined with our exceedingly compelling business strategy, which stands alone in the industry and is proven by the high-quality clients that we have and continue to attract, The Siegfried Group offers limitless opportunities for growth. We are focused on building upon our success and sharing that success with everyone who works here.
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