Thanks everyone who participated in this webcast from The Association of International Product Marketing and Management (AIPMM). If you were to do a survey of executives, sales people, marketing and other market facing personnel within a company and ask them how they would describe a specific product to a potential prospect, I bet in the majority of cases, you would hear almost as many explanations as there were people interviewed. This really is a messaging nightmare that might be undermining the success of your product(s). This results in significant marketplace confusion, impacts revenue generation and reflects poorly on your product. We as Product Managers and Product Marketers like to blame the messenger for this problem, but the likely reality is that we are at fault. As PMs & PMMs, we must own the message and then enable the organization to take this message to the market. The starting point for doing this is a Powerful Messaging Platform. About the Speaker: Tom Evans is Principal at CompellingPM and is an internationally recognized authority in product management, global marketing, business partnerships and entrepreneurship. In his extensive experience, he has helped start-ups through Fortune 500 companies create and launch winning products and has led business development efforts in the US and global markets. Upcoming Events For more information regarding certification courses near you, contact Hector Del Castillo at http://linkd.in/hdelcastillo. About AIPMM The AIPMM is the hub of all things product management. It is where product professionals go for answers. With members in over 65 countries, it is the worldwide certifying body of product team professionals. It is the world's largest professional organization of product managers, brand managers, product marketing managers and other product team professionals who are responsible for guiding their organizations, or clients, through a constantly changing business landscape. AIPMM's certification programs are internationally recognized because they allow product professionals to demonstrate their expertise and provide corporate members an assurance that their product management and marketing teams are operating at a high competency level. Visit www.aipmm.com. Upcoming Webinars: http://aipmm.com/aipmm_webinars/ Subscribe: http://www.aipmm.com/subscribe LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/aipmm Membership: http://www.aipmm.com/join.php Certification: http://aipmm.com/html/certification Articles: http://www.aipmm.com/html/newsletter/article.ph

1. © AIPMM 2013 www.aipmm.com
AIPMM Webinar Series
www.aipmm.com

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3. © AIPMM 2013 www.aipmm.com
– Founded 1998
– World’s largest professional association for product
management, product marketing and brand management
– Provides globally recognized certifications:
• Certified Product Manager
• Certified Product Marketing Manager
• Agile Certified Product Manager
• Certified Innovation Leader
• Certified Brand Manager

4. © AIPMM 2013 www.aipmm.com
AIPMM: @AIPMM
Tom Evans: @compellingpm
Hector Del Castillo: @hmdelcastillo
Tweet!

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• One Amazon $50 gift card
• One hour free product management
assessment or consulting session for the
first 10 people that request it
Participate and Win!

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Today’s Speaker
Moderator:
Hector Del Castillo, CPM, CPMM, PMP
Presenter:
Tom Evans, CPM, CPMM
Compelling PM
tevans@compellingpm.com
@CompellingPM
www.compellingpm.com

7. © AIPMM 2013 www.aipmm.com
FEATURED PRESENTATION

8. Going from Messaging Nightmare to
Messaging Delight - How to Create a
Powerful Messaging Platform
Tom Evans
CompellingPM
@compellingpm
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 8

9. Without a Messaging Platform
• Market facing personnel each have their unique
set of messages they use
• Product marketing is constantly putting out fires
and rushing to create messages on short notice
• Marketing creates messages with no input from
the product team
• Marketing and sales tools fail to motivate target
buyers
Confusion in the market place!
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 10

10. What is a Messaging Platform?
A Messaging Platform serves as a reference to
all “market-facing” personnel in your
organization to ensure consistency & accuracy of
messaging for your product (or company).
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 11

11. Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 13

12. Messaging Platform Structure
Positioning
Key Messages / w Evidence
Tagline Talk Track
Product
Descriptions
FAQs
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 14

13. Guides All Other Tools & Programs
MessagingPlatform
Marketing & Sales
Tools
Marketing
Campaigns
Public Relations
Product Demos
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 15

14. Messaging Platform Structure
Positioning
Key Messages / w Evidence
Tagline Talk Track
Product
Descriptions
FAQs
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 16

15. Positioning Decisions
1. Target Market(s)
2. Key Problems Solved
3. Most Important Value Proposition
– What we do for our customers
4. Key Points of Differentiation
– Why us
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc.

16. Target Markets
• Messages must resonate with target audience
– Corollary: it will not (& shouldn’t) resonate with all
• Key Personas – Buyers, Influencers, Users
– What do they care about
– What language do they use
– Typical profile/characteristics
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc.

17. Key Problems Solved
• What are the buyers motivations (per buyer
persona)?
– Need, pain, goal, challenge, ideals
– Personal & business
– Articulated & unarticulated
– What do they need to know to make a decision
– How will they evaluate & use your product?
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc.

18. Value Proposition
• What we do for you!
• Benefits & value your customer will realize from
purchase and use of your product
• Relative to customer’s other viable alternatives
• Sources of value:
– Reference customers, industry expertise, internal processes,
partnerships, innovation, IP, delivery methods, geography, social,
business model, personnel, features, guarantees, brand promise, core
competencies, etc.
– Speaking to your customers
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc.

19. Differentiation
• Why us!
• What makes your product stand out
• Meaningful value to the customer
• Sources of differentiation:
– Reference customers, industry expertise, internal processes, partnerships,
innovation, IP, delivery methods, geography, social, business model,
personnel, features, guarantees, brand promise, core competencies, etc.
– Speaking to your customers
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc.

20. Positioning Statement
• For [target end user]
• Who wants/needs [compelling reason to buy]
• The [product name] is a [product category]
• That provides [key benefit].
• Unlike [main competitor (s)],
• The [product name] [key differentiation]
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc.
Adapted from: Geoffrey Moore - Crossing the Chasm

21. Messaging Platform Structure
Positioning
Key Messages / w Evidence
Tagline Talk Track
Product
Descriptions
FAQs
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 23

22. Key Messages
• Per target buyer persona
• 2 to 4 messages per persona
• In customer’s language
– Avoid meaningless words
– Not advertising language
• Support positioning
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc.

23. Messages Are Benefit Statements
• Too many market messages are about features or
technology
• Changing to benefits
– Why is a feature important (so what?)
– What does it mean to the customer
– Use “So That”
• Example
– 4 inch Retina display
– “So that” you can view photo quality images and still
use it effectively with one hand
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 25

24. Message Alignment
Strategic Increase plant profitability
Get new customers / Gain market share
Increase customer loyalty
Managerial Reduce maintenance costs
Responsive to customer orders
Focus staff on higher value activities
Reduce staffing costs
Operational Reduce Process Upsets
Reduce Time to handle process upsets
Faster transitions between grades
More time for process improvement
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 26

25. Supporting Evidence
• You stated a message, but why should
someone believe the message?
– Reason to believe
• 2 to 4 points of evidence per message
• Sources
– Customer testimonials, unbiased testing,
distinguishing features, third party validation,
facts & statistics, etc.
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 27

26. Exercise
Product Name: SmartCredit
Target Market
Small to Medium Size Credit Card Issuers
VP of Cards
Must grow total outstanding balances from a reduced number of prospects
Looking for promotion to top executive in cards or other line of business
Wants to avoid all potential confrontation with Feds over marketing tactics
Middle age, male, MBA, full career in credit card services
Key Problems Solved
Risk management platform
Must grow portfolio size while maintaining portfolio risk.
Must profitably compete against the top 10 card issuers for new cardholders.
Low capital investment (can’t afford multi-million dollar investment)
Value Proposition
• Compete cost effectively and take market share from top 10 competitors
• Profitably grow outstanding balances without increasing delinquencies and write-offs
Differentiation
• No capital investment and quick implementation (less than 3 months).
Key Messages
• Achieves the same risk management power that the large competitors have.
• Delivered as a service with no custom development and capital investment.
• Allows you to quickly adapt new risk management strategies as market conditions change
Evidence
• Bank X increased portfolio size by 25% while reducing delinquencies by 10%
• No software to install, monthly subscription fees
• Bank Y was able to create and test new risk management strategies in less than a week (v. 3 months with
traditional systems)
• Bank Z was operational within 4 months of contract (v 18 months with major competitor)
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc.

27. Messaging Platform Structure
Positioning (per mkt segment)
Key Messages (per buyer persona)
Tagline Talk Track
Product
Descriptions
FAQs
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 30

28. Tagline
• Succinctly communicates the essence of your
brand promise in a memorable way
• Creates a first impression
• No Tagline is better than a bad Tagline
• Memorable taglines
– Just Do It
– Because so much is riding on your tires
– 1000 songs in your pocket
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 31

29. Talk Track
• Guides the initial conversation
• Leads to a longer conversation (sales
call/presentation)
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 32

30. Developing Talk Track
1. Sales Opener (Elevator Speech) - 30 seconds to get
attention
– What your company/product does
– Key problem addressed for that target market
– Key benefits received
2. Talking Points - another 2 minutes to lead to longer
discussion
– Brief statement on how you do that
– Communicate key benefits (aligned with key messages)
– Provide evidence (case study, testimonial)
– Create a vision of success for them
– Ask for longer conversation
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 33

31. Product Description
• Boiler plate product description
• Various lengths
– 50, 100, 150, 200, 250 words
• Use in press releases, news articles, SEO,
tradeshows, etc.
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 34

32. FAQS
• Answers most common questions from
prospects/customers/press
• Can address questions on competition
• Keeps “market facing” personnel on message
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 35

33. Summary
• Messaging platform ensures consistency of
message.
• Must be owned by Product Marketing (or
Product Management)
• Key element to feed all other marketing facing
tools and programs
• Validate with your target markets
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 36

34. My Next Webinar
What is a Go-To-Market Strategy Anyway & How
Do I Create One?
Friday, Aug 30th, 12 pm ET
http://www.aipmm.com/aipmm_webinars
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 37

35. Upcoming Training
• Optimal Product Management & Product Marketing
– Sep 5 – 7 (Mexico City)
– Sep 9 – 11 (Austin)
– Oct 14 – 16 (Dallas)
• AIPMM Certifications
– Nov 5 – 6 (CPM – Austin)
– Nov 7 – 8 (CPMM – Austin)
More dates/locations - www.280group.com
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 38

36. Free 1 Hour PM/PMM Consult
• First ten to submit information on form
http://compellingpm.com/freeonehour/
• Please include background on topic or issue
• Must include company info (no Gmail)
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 39

37. Thank You!
Tom Evans
CompellingPM
tevans@compellingpm.com
@compellingpm
www.compellingpm.com
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 40

38. © AIPMM 2013 www.aipmm.com
Q & A
Moderator:
Hector Del Castillo, CPM, CPMM, PMP
Presenter:
Tom Evans, CPM, CPMM
Compelling PM
tevans@compellingpm.com
@CompellingPM
www.compellingpm.com

39. © AIPMM 2013 www.aipmm.com
Upcoming Courses
Course & Location Dates Days Time
ACPM® Certification Prep Course & Exam
Seattle, WA
McLean, VA
Aug 26, 2013
Sep 16, 2013
M 8:30 am – 5 pm
CPM® Certification Prep Course & Exam
Seattle, WA
McLean, VA
Aug 27-28, 2013
Sep 17-18, 2013
T, W 8:30 am – 5 pm
CPMM® Certification Prep Course & Exam
Seattle, WA
McLean, VA
Aug 29-30, 2013
Sep 19-20, 2013
Th, F 8:30 am – 5 pm
Contact Melissa Holtzer, melissa@280group.com, for more information.
Additional certification prep courses are available in Austin, San Jose, and London.

40. © AIPMM 2013 www.aipmm.com
Upcoming Courses
Course & Location Dates Time
CIL® Certification Prep Course & Exam
Athens, Greece Oct 10-11, 2013 9 am – 6 pm
CPM® Certification Prep Course & Exam
Athens, Greece
Singapore
Oct 8-9, 2013
Oct, 2013
9 am – 6 pm
8 am – 5 pm
CPMM® Certification Prep Course & Exam
Athens, Greece
Singapore
Oct 14-15, 2013
Oct, 2013
9 am – 6 pm
8 am – 5 pm
Follow the links provided to get more information regarding these courses.

41. © AIPMM 2013 www.aipmm.com
For More Information About
• AIPMM membership benefits
• Certification courses near you
• How to prepare to take a certification exam
Hector Del Castillo, CPM, CPMM
Senior Product Innovation Consultant
hmdelcastillo@aipmm.com
linkd.in/hdelcastillo

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Please Join Us Again!
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