Joseph Wilson

@joeatmars

jwilson@marsdd.com


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 Agenda
What is a value proposition?

Examples

Value Proposition Canvas

Mission Statement

Elevator Pitch

Positioning Statement

Metaphors

Tag line
How to (not) articulate value:
A note on language:

You are a translator

X
volatile organic compounds
cache-coherence
DRM, LAMP
monetize
incentivize
osteoblast
service-dependent sublayer
 A note on language:

Show, don’t tell

X
amazing state of the art
revolutionary groundbreaking
awesome landmark
innovative sensational
breath-taking disruptive
cutting edge ideation
A value proposition is a
statement of the unique benefits
delivered by your offering to the
target customer


A value proposition is a
hypothesis that your offering will
bring certain values to a target
customer. *


* Like any hypothesis, it needs to be
rigorously tested in the lab (read: with
customers) before money is put into
scaling.
The value proposition statement
should consist of these components:

1. What your product/service is

2. The target customer

3. The value you provide them

Emergent property: why your

product is unique
 What is it?
Examples: For whom?
Values?

Good: “Winners is a Bad: “Winners is an

department store that off-price department
offers fashion conscious
consumers the latest store owned by TJX
brand names for up to 60 that employs
per cent off.” (Winners) international
sourcing and buying
power.”
 What is it?
Examples: For whom?
Values?

Good: “Winners is a Bad: “Winners is an

department store that off-price department
offers fashion conscious
consumers the latest store owned by TJX
brand names for up to 60 that employs
per cent off.” (Winners) international
sourcing and buying
power.”
 What is it?

Examples: For whom?

Values?

Good: “A1 Industries has Bad: “A1 Industries

developed an economical and
easy-to-use chemical additive that has discovered a
allows paint manufacturing
companies to reduce the chemical isomer
environmental impact of their additive that allows
products
for a reduction of
VOC emissions.”

 What is it?

Examples: For whom?

Values?

Good: “A1 Industries has Bad: “A1 Industries

developed an economical and
easy-to-use chemical additive has discovered a
that allows paint manufacturing
companies to reduce the chemical isomer
environmental impact of their additive that allows
products
for a reduction of
VOC emissions.”

 What is it?

Examples: For whom?

Values?

Good: “Google is the world’s Bad: “Google uses a

largest search engine that patented page-
allows internet users to find
relevant information ranking algorithm to
quickly and easily.” make money through
ad placement.”



 What is it?

Examples: For whom?

Values?

Good: “Google is the Bad: “Google uses a

world’s largest search
engine that allows internet patented page-
users to find relevant ranking algorithm to
information quickly and make money through
easily.”
ad placement.”



Are Internet Users really Google’s customers?
 What is it?

Examples: For whom?

Values?

Good: “Google is the world’s

largest search engine that Bad: “Google uses a
automatically provides
advertisers with potential patented page-
customers tailored to the ad ranking algorithm to
content, increasing click-through
rates and conversion rates.” make money through

ad placement.”



 Selling to Selling to
Customer Business
Usability
Health Lower risk

Aesthetics Saving time

Status Saving/making money
Newness
Enabling function
Self-Actualization
Convenience
Environmental
Quality
Ethical Social
Inclusion Customizable
Value Prop Template:

__company name_______ has

created __product ___

for _____target audience________,

that results in ___value 1_________,

__value 2____, ____value 3__.
Value Prop Template:

For _____target audience________,

__company name_______ has

created __product name___

that results in ___value 1_________,

__value 2____, ____value 3__.
 Value Proposition is Not:
A tag-line
A mission statement
An elevator pitch
A positioning statement
A positioning metaphor


 Mission
statement
Tag-line Metaphor

Value Proposition

Elevator Positioning
Pitch
statement


 Marketing

Marketing Marketing

Core Thesis


Marketing Marketing



 Mission
statement
Tag-line Metaphor

Value Proposition

Elevator Positioning
Pitch
statement


Elevator pitch: A 60 second quick
pitch that describes the business.

Hook
Problem
Solution (value prop-ish)
Unique Features
Call to action

The Hook:
“I buy dead magazines…”
“We make conferences not boring….”
“We sell 15 minute vacations…”

“What do you mean?”

The Problem:
“Paper based magazines are failing…”

“Conferences are usually based on one-way lectures….”

“People’s commute to work is stressful…”

 The solution:

“We buy up print magazines that are failing and reinvent
them on the web as digital publications. For traditional
small magazine publishers my company Solid Media
provides an online template called digipub which
repurposes their print material for online consumption at
lower cost and opens up their content to a new crop of
advertisers.

 What is it?
The solution: For whom?

Values?

“We buy up print magazines that are failing and reinvent

them on the web as digital publications. For traditional
small magazine publishers my company Solid Media
provides an online template called digipub which
repurposes their print material for online consumption at
lower cost and opens up their content to a new crop of
advertisers.

 The solution:
“We buy up print magazines that are failing and reinvent
them on the web as digital publications. For traditional
small magazine publishers my company XYZ Media
provides a platform called digipub which repurposes their
print material for online consumption at lower cost and
opens up their content to a new crop of advertisers.

Unique
features:
“We add the e-magazines metadata into our recommendation

engine, kind of like Amazon, which brings in new readers.”
“Hmmm, good idea”
Call-to-action:

“We’re signing up beta customers now to play around with the
platform and tell us what they think. Check it out” [hands out
business card]
 Mission
statement
Tag-line Metaphor

Value Proposition

Elevator Positioning
Pitch
statement


Positioning statement: a value
proposition plus a competitive
anchor.
For traditional small magazine publishers my
company Solid Media provides a template
called digipub which repurposes their print
material for online consumption at lower cost
and opens up their content to a new crop of
advertisers. Unlike Press Publisher 4.0,
digipub adds metadata to your content,
connecting you with new readers and new
advertisers.



Positioning statement: a value
proposition plus a competitive
anchor.
For traditional small magazine publishers my
company Solid Media provides a template
called digipub which repurposes their print
material for online consumption at lower cost
and opens up their content to a new crop of
advertisers. Unlike Wordpress, digipub is for
magazine publishers alone to repurpose their
content and discover new readers online.



 Mission
statement
Tag-line Metaphor

Value Proposition

Elevator Positioning
Pitch
statement


Metaphor: a way to anchor your
brand to something people
already understand

“digipub is like Shopify for magazines.”
“digipub is to the magazine industry what Kobo
is for books.”
“digipub is like Wordpress for Magazines.
“digipub combines the metadata from Amazon
with the templates in Wordpress specifically for
magazine publishers.”



 Mission
statement
Tag-line Metaphor

Value Proposition

Elevator Positioning
Pitch
statement


Tagline: a marketing line to accompany
your brand name

“digipub: Reimagine Your Magazine.”
“digipub: Print is Dead. Long Live Print.”
“digipub: Follow Your Readers Online.”
“digipub: Bits are Cheaper Than Pages.”
“digipub: Where Magazines Live Online.”





 Mission
statement
Tag-line Metaphor

Value Proposition

Elevator Positioning
Pitch
statement


Mission statement: a statement of the
purpose of your business.

“Google’s mission is to organize the world’s
information and make it universally accessible and
useful.”
“Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to
share and make the world more open and
connected.”
“Solid Media’s mission is to connect curious readers
to the very best written content on the web.”



Joseph Wilson

@joeatmars

jwilson@marsdd.com