Startups fail because the dog won't eat the dogfood. Not because they can't make the dogfood, or price the dogfood, or even sell the dogfood. They fail because - having solved all those problems - the dog doesn't want to eat it.
So how can you approach Marketing in way that evolves your "dogfood" in the direction your "dog" wants? And having done so, how do you get the other dogs in the neighborhood interested?
6-time startup veteran and brand guru Mike Troiano (@miketrap) for an exploration of the marketing challenges unique to venture-funded startups, at the intersections of entrepreneurship and branding, product strategy and communications, new technology and enduring truths.
[I’d like to make the case for this version one more time.The way we use the original doesn’t make sense. We should either use men’s shoes and tell it in the first person (“Now I buy shoes when there’s a hole in the shoes I have…”), or use women’s shows and tell it in the third. I think the former is almost always more impactful. I also don’t think “Influencing” adds anything to the story, and that we should remove it in the spirit of paring back anything from a slide that isn’t absolutely necessary.]
[Eliminating one of these, thought it was the weakest of the five. Should be 5, I think.]
[EXPRESSION -> EXPERIENCE per Rob’s request.][Also recommend changing “RELEVANCE OF OFFERING” to “ALIGNMENT OF OFFERING.” Open to alternatives, but RELEVANCE clearly caused problems for some people.]
We think a successful marketing program has to start with a stronger connection to the external realty. There are lots of ways to do this, obviously – quantitative, qualitative, studies, focus groups, panels, etc. Some of these might make sense for you, and some might not. But the good news is…
[I cut the other emotion slide, just to pare this back a little. This one clearly gets the point across pretty well.]