You’re in a maze of twisty passages, all alike.

You’re in a maze of twisty passages, all alike.

Have you ever felt that way at a high tech trade show? In no time flat almost every booth looks the same and almost every sales pitch sounds like the voice of Charlie Brown’s teacher in a Peanuts cartoon. What does that tell you about the state of marketing in most high tech companies? Customers shouldn’t have to work that hard to grasp a positioning message and clearly understand what makes a product different and compelling.

If you’re reluctant to accept my assertion, try this matching game the next time you go to a trade show: As you roam the floor write down the main message you see at each booth that interests you, but don’t write the name of the vendor. At the end of the day, see if you can attach the correct vendor’s name to each message you wrote. I’ve conducted show floor tours like this for unsuspecting colleagues, and it’s always an eye-opening experience. If they recall anything at all it’s usually limited to just those booths where lengthy discussions took place. Even then I can get them to waffle with just a few FUD-inducing questions. Nothing like spending a sizeable chunk of your marketing budget so you can blend in with the other exhibitors.
Sensory overload they may be, but trade shows expose an acute manifestation of a chronic high tech marketing problem. Most high tech marketing stories sound alike, no matter how great a value proposition they describe to target customers. Outside of trade shows customers still see a maze of twisty passages because they’re continually bombarded with similar stories from ads, web sites, salespeople, and industry experts. It’s hard to stand out from this cacophony, and it’s even harder to do so in a way that’s unmistakably reinforced by your product offering.

I think most high tech marketers have this problem because they build their positioning stories from the wrong starting point. They start with a product and a value proposition, then build a message around that- more or less in a vendor/customer vacuum. The resulting story might sound great to a customer, but guess what? It probably sounds a lot like every other story from every other vendor who builds a value proposition aimed at the same customer problems. Just another corridor in the maze of twisty passages, all alike. This is what happens when marketers fail to take into account all of the OTHER stories their target customers hear.

If you want to build a great positioning story, don’t anchor yourself by looking for great messages that fit the way you think about your product. Look for gaps in all of the other stories your target customer is likely to hear. That’s your starting point. Approach those gaps from new angles, and keep searching until you find a compelling message that stands out from all the others. Then you’ve got to make the story real and credible. Recast the way you present your product offer so it reinforces your story. If this is too much of a stretch for your product, keep iterating. It’s the only way out of the maze.