Introduce and Intrigue - Name, persona, and story

More details on this can also be found in my articles on building your identity kit.  Part I, Part II

This is the first goal in the Introduction Phase we will be discussing. If you remember our last article, we broke this phase of the lifecycle into 4 milestones we want to achieve.

 

Part 2 – Introduction Phase Overview

  • Part 2.a Introduce and Intrigue
  • Part 2.b PR
  • Part 2.c Research and Target Market
  • Part 2.d Metrics and Flexibility

 

Naming

I cannot over-emphasize the power of a product name. Remember, this will be the first time people see and hear about you. Everything about your product needs to be memorable, intriguing, and in the dot com world, spellable. I’ve learned this the hard way. Clever or complicated spellings do not lend well to marketing. (20% of my visitors misspell the “genius” in EvilGenius)

Persona

Next you want to work on your persona. Does your market assign the same attributes to your product that you intended. A great exercised I learned a while back from a brilliant marketing exec is persona exercises. It’s cheesy but it works awesome at these intangibles.

The persona exercise works like this. If you had the perfect spokesperson for your product who would it be? What actor, movie character, or public figure would best exemplify your brand. For example, James Bond is a perfect fit for BMW. Classy, refined, sophisticated, but at the same time sporty, athletic, performance based, and above the rules. In this case, buyers associate themselves with an iconized role model and associate your brand with fulfilling that fantasy.

The car model works similarly. If your brand was a car, what would it be? Would you be a uber-luxury Bentley, a eco-friendly Prius, a monster truck, a exotic Ferrari?

You most likely will never use these direct associations in your marketing, but finding a persona can help exemplify dozens of attributes in a single image. This goes a long way towards building your sentence and elevator pitch.

Story

Lastly is your story. You need to have the one sentence pitch, and the paragraph summary which will also be turned into your elevator pitch. The best way to nail these down is just grouping with a bunch of trusted advisors and bouncing ideas off the wall. I’ve never seen a good pitch nailed down by just one person, nor have I seen the best choice be the first words out of someone mouth. Work through it, toss ideas, no matter how retarded. Work the pitch and story like you were oiling a new glove to break it in. It takes time and massaging to get it to fit just right.

Once you have a sentence and a paragraph that best nails what you are about, test it. Memorize it, and try it out. Go to tradeshows, talk to strangers, pitch your server (or barista if your are European and/or drive a hybrid car) at Starbucks. Which words resonate, which inflections work best? Remember that what words on paper is not necessarily the same as what works in the spoken word. The point is, use it and test it. Do people immediately get what you are about? Does it catch their interest?

Remember, your first goals are to introduce your product and build intrigue. That means that people need to understand immediately what your product does and is all about. The next step is to show them why they absolutely have to have it.