Short-form "Company" Positioning Report (Excerpt)

This is an example of a short-form analysis of "Company's" website. Not shown here are the concrete changes that Velocity Associates recommended.

Note 1.  First Impression.  As a rule of thumb, a website should make clear within seven seconds what the Company’s primary mission is.   Leaving out the clever introduction, the home page of Company claims it develops “Marketing Solutions.” Unfortunately, “Marketing solutions” can mean any one of a dozen things—a larger sales force, more price points,  international operations, etc. This description is known as a backward truth. A description that is “correct,” (i.e. not false) only when the answer is already known.  Thus, a new website viewer can only tell in seven seconds that Company is roughly “in the marketing business.”  Not a compellingly distinct position.

Over-generalized verboseness is another stylistic error in terms of the seven second rule, and generally throughout the site.  Is it of first-order importance to overload the opening statement with the explication that the Company “develops, deploys and supports” its products rather than simply “provides” them? This identity statement is further embroidered with “intelligent” marketing solutions as if the Company were trying to assure their solutions are not “unintelligent.”  The essential claim—that Company sells high-level marketing software--is never stated!  This essential point is generalized to vanishing and encumbered by hairsplitting addendum. In short, the two opening positioning statements (and many others) are both diffuse and overloaded--and therefore confusing.  This confusion stems from the absence of a detailed value proposition.

All descriptions of products and services aimed at prospects who have no preconceived notion of what the Company does must follow a well-know process:

1. Describe the first-order issues as simply as possible. What does the Company sell or do ?  
2. Follow them with the most interesting (to the prospect) second-order issues.  Is this product/service of interest to me?  Why?
3. Then branch off to allow a prospect (who is now interested and realizes he may be in the right spot) to find the particular areas of his greatest concern. Yes, but do they have what I want?
4. Make him realize that Company is an excellent choice and he can stop looking . Wow! This really might solve my problem.
5. Give him the impetus and a painless way to contact the right high-level person at Company for further information. "Click here" to have a salesman call.

Note 2.  Same as Note 1.  Among the thousands of companies offering marketing services, it just takes too long to find out what, exactly, Company does. Most web searchers will not take the time to figure it out, and just move on.  

Note 3. Once the prospect figures out that Company has a product/service he is interested in, it is essential to show him why buying this service from Company is the best solution.  Company must seamlessly make the prospect feel that its solutions are better—the best, even—of all other market solutions companies.  The purpose is not only to inform the prospect of Company’s product/services, but to stop his search for others offering a similar product.  

Note 4.  The second major fault with the website is the lack of concrete examples of clever solutions that the prospect can identify with.  With all the interesting clients, surely concrete examples of how several companies were helped would do much to nail down what Company can achieve, and how, therefore, it can achieve it for the prospect.

Note 5.  The “Contact Us” tab is hidden within the “Company” tab.  Another customer  hurdle.

Note 6.  Any live prospect contacting Company is himself apt to be a high-level executive.  High level executives do not want to fill out a form and send it in to a black box where it may be read, or it may not be.  At the very least, to assure prospects that their inquiry will be taken seriously at the highest corporate level, the VP of marketing/sales/ business development should display his own email address as a contact point.  His name and telephone number would be even better.

Note 7.  The opening video is clever. (It verges on being too risqué for  mainstream US companies.)  The opt-out button is clearly visible.  

Note 8.  Excessively generic descriptors. This is the crux of the site’s main problem. The text is adverb-encrusted and makes for slow, almost Germanic reading. It sorely lacks lucidity, elegance, economy and grace.   Even the spacing of the words is ungainly (left & right justified),  in order to make them “look good” on the page, but thereby making them choppy to read.  Which is more important: comprehension--or artistic appearance? 

Note 9.   Very little concrete information is given.  There is far too much vague market-speak, and not enough concrete examples.  The home page is a perfect example.  The two sentences are each of paragraph length, and try to cram in far too many modifiers and adjectives, when simple sentences would be much clearer.  The Fog Index of the home page is 24.8.  It should be no higher than 12.  The rest of the site follows suit.  More fundamentally, with all the verbose description, there is practically no “selling” going on. No comparisons, no before-and-after, a few advantages, but no believable (i.e., concret) benefits .

(Some) Velocity Associates Recommendations: 

1.  The website text must be translated into normative English.   This can probably be done by any experienced copywriter with some technical background. (It can be done expertly by Velocity Associates.)  This will make a huge difference in comprehensibility and increase the interest level of high-probability customers  in Company’s services.

2.  If left and right justification is deemed essential, kerning of the text will be necessary (if the web can support that.)  Otherwise, left justification will increase reading ease and look just fine.

3.  The challenging element is to re-orient the web site to be more specific, more concrete and of higher prospective-customer interest.   Dump the glittering generalities.  Nearly every service or product should be explained by example, or have a nearby example in a box.

4.  Management must discover and construct the compelling selling propositons of their product, and these selling points must suffuse web content.  This is main thrust of Velocity Associates' expertise.  The positioning task is to narrow-down who the web site is aimed at—-and then reposition the content to attract maximum prospect interest.  (One major target will be the colleagues of the prospect who has become interested in buying Company services.  This "champion" will need to build an internal consensus among his peers that Company services are necessary.  The website must speak clearly to him, as well.)