Samstag, 16. Februar 2008

five words describe your business

it requires severe effort to describe a business in five words. if a company, an entrepreneur or any employee can not do this, then big chunk of work lies ahead.

the idea to describe what makes a company unique and differentiates it from their competitors in five words gets quite some focus by jay conrad levinson in his book "guerrilla marketing". although being a 1985 first published classic marketing book, nothing of its relevance is lost.
how this simple idea often is ignored showed a recent information and telecommunications trade fair, the "itnt" in vienna.
what information does a potential customer get at an it-fair about companies describing themselves as "software solutions", "it solutions" or "the it company"? other then that they do what all the others do and that they are not anything special at all. one could even think, those companies do not know by themselves what they stand for. the rather do whatever you dare to give them money for.
there are exceptions though. a company called "comnet" for example. while already their name gives an indication, that communication and networking is their business, they describe their business as follows "connect-protect-controll". seeing that, one gets what they focus on. the bit extended slogan goes "we create value through networks". while their business is not of much interest here, it has to be acknowledged, that they are clear about their message. and if one counts, there are not more then five words to do that. there is room for improvement though. for example, what are they doing better then the others can not be seen.
five words to describe what a company does, how it differentiates itself from all the others remains a tough job. one worth to tackle though.