W.I.I.F.M: the art of developing compelling value propositions

Well thought through, meaningful propositions are vital to any brand, product or service. Idealogy have a very simple, single-minded and effective definition of a proposition that always looks at it from a customer perspective:

The short version: “what’s in it for me?”

The idealogy: what’s the single most differentiating thing we can say that will create a reason to believe?

Often, propositions are driven by ‘inside out’ thinking, whereas we believe the start point should always be the customer and therefore ‘outside in’.

Business growth is achieved by creating and living by compelling, customer-facing propositions

Who are you, why should I listen, what’s in it for me, why is it different to the other one, what benefit do I get from this and is it really going to make my life easier? You can argue all you want but that's how we all react when presented with a new idea, product, service or partner.

Your company, product and service propositions must answer all of these in an instant. Fail and so does your business argument – and the opportunity has gone! There are too many businesses that believe they have a different or compelling proposition, only to find that, once you scratch at the surface, there is little fresh or compelling to their argument at all.

Equally important, it must grab the attention of an audience already saturated by marketing communications – at a commercial, domestic or personal level.

So how good are your propositions? Can they easily navigate all media or sales and marketing environments? Do they tie back into the corporate brand and the short, medium or long-term business plan? Do they counter arguments at a selling and marketing level? Do they outwit competitive claims or sow the seed of doubt in the buyer? Is this really the best for the business? And most importantly, do they look from the outside in?

It’s NOT a strapline! We’re creating unique value propositions for products, campaigns and sometimes people

Idealogy’s strength is in creating new arguments, sustaining older ones and applying them strategically as well as tactically. Our approach to proposition development draws the founding arguments from our clients and then fashions and moulds these into ‘go-to-market’ customer facing statements – at the same time compelling to targets. A good proposition informative to existing clients and used at all levels of the business for consistent message delivery.

Trust us - what you won’t get is just another ‘line’…

Posted by Simon Dover