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September 14, 2004
Not All Proof is Created Equal
Making a bold claim is important to get an audience's attention, but supporting it is even more critical if you want to convert that attention into action. You can support a claim at three levels:
. Functionality and Features: What you have.
. Needs and benefits: Why they should care, what's in it for them.
. Evidence or Proof: Why they should believe you.
And in our calculus not all support it equal. Features are great but not as important as the benefits they provide to customers. Benefits are the center of all good messaging. But proof speaks the loudest. Therefore Proof>Benefits>Features.
Beyond that, not all proof is equal. Depending on where you are in the market, you can leader with weaker or strong proof of your claims.
The strongest is when you can say you are number one overall. The next strongest is when you can claim leadership of some subset of the category (e.g. "choosey mothers choose Jif"). The next best is individual endorsements from folks your audience trusts. And the weakest (but still essential at whatever stage of market development you are in) is simply to show how you are better.
Proof may be the most powerful marketing but always make sure to engineer your proof to put the strongest foot forward. End of soapbox.
Posted by johnza at September 14, 2004 11:10 PM
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