Strategic Positioning
You know your company or your product so well because you spend most waking moments thinking about it. And yet it's easy to lose perspective because you're so close to it. We help companies with an independent viewpoint and sharply honed expertise that bring things into focus and let you craft a compelling market position. And we do it with speed, efficiency and relevance because we know firsthand what it's like to be in your position.
01
Messaging Audit
Our review will evaluate the four C's of effective messaging. Are you consistent across channels and mediums? Is your language and storytelling compelling? Is it customer-oriented and not inwardly focused? And does it differentiate against competition? (It needs to be qualified with proof points too, but that doesn't start with "C.")
02
Brand/Market Check
This is NOT exhaustive, costly market research to unearth what you and your team already know. This IS very targeted insight development work custom-crafted to your specific situation. Based on interviews conducted by marketing executives with up to a dozen key company leaders, customers, prospects and partners to understand how you're seen in the market.
03
Story Structure
Working from the screenwriter's approach to story development and influenced by the full leadership team, we distill your company or product’s value proposition and key differentiators down to a single, concise document with the rationale and evidence to drive strong engagement.
04
Messaging Treatment
In screenwriting, it’s not the script that a screenwriter submits to a movie studio to secure investment. It’s the treatment, a 2-3 page document summarizing everything that’s unique and compelling about their story. We do the same for your company with plug-and-play messaging meant to be used across many communication platforms, both internal and external.
05
Strategy Operational Map
Many strategic positioning efforts stop short leaving a gap between strategy and execution that weakens your impact significantly. Drawing upon real world experience of internal executive and go-to-market teams, NINE builds a programmatic map that connects all facets of the company to the strategy just finalized. This tool helps brand strategy cross that bridge to execution where successes really happen.
Client Stories
AKTANA
An early stage AI & analytics company struggled to find product-market fit that would catalyze growth. Once we settled on specific use cases around supporting life sciences sales organizations by delivering a very ‘human’ form of AI, the growth arrived to the tune of triple-digit growth rates four consecutive years.
Ten Eleven Ventures
Two cybersecurity experts knew they wanted to start a VC firm and had a clever name already in mind, but needed to fill out the rest of the picture. Building their positioning around their deep operating experience, insider network and unique partnerships has catapulted them to $1B in AUM and a portfolio of nearly 40 investments to date.
Praytell
A highly talented founding team had a different take on agency business and needed the positioning to match. They came from PR backgrounds, but were also “born digital” and brought ad shop creative to the mix. Combine all of that with hiring the right people and doing the right thing and you have a six-time agency of the year winner.
Agency Partners
