The Overview #12

This week: A great messaging example, putting lipstick on a pig, and why you probably can't use Nike-level brand messaging yet.

👋 Hey there. This is The Overview, a weekly roundup of noteworthy B2B SaaS stuff. You'll find interesting tweets and articles from around the internet, plus highlights from my personal swipe file.

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‘Shallow niching’ = putting lipstick on a pig

Danilo Kreimer @DaniloKreimer

Beware shallow niching: Changing your value proposition is not enough to differentiate yourself.

pragmaticconsulting.clubBeware Shallow NichingChanging your value proposition is not enough to differentiate yourself.

In the Overview for two weeks running is Danilo with his post on shallow niching.

Positioning is strategy, and strategy is positioning. If your positioning work is only about doing better marketing, you’re missing out on a great opportunity to put real customer insights at the heart of your business.

Use what you learn through the positioning process. Give your product teams the space and freedom to reset and explore new opportunities. Empower the rest of your business to look for ways they can put the positioning into action.

Preach 🙌

Matt Lerner @matthlerner

4/ Nike and Apple spent 40+ years building brands. Everyone understands what they do, so their ads can be ephemeral and allusive, quirky and inspiring. But yours cannot. (yet)

In a great tweet thread, Matt looks at how startups attempt to use brand-led messaging without conveying the customer value.

We see this all the time, and when early-stage startups attempt it, they usually fail unless they have a big enough audience, budget, and team required to break the message through into the discourse.

Positioning and messaging has to convey the value your product delivers to your customer. Messaging should focus not on what your product does, but what your customers can achieve.

Enough of this sheet: a great positioning and messaging example

I’m not even going to add any commentary, Emma says it all. It’s a great reminder of the power of customer value, competitive differentiation, and creative messaging.

See the post on LinkedIn

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That’s the Overview for this week

Hope you found something interesting in this edition!

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Thanks for reading, and here’s to momentum.

James