How long is a piece of string?

Innovation is a tricky thing to define — where do the borders lie in a brand-new field? Take Bidooh, for example. They’re a UK startup whose product is an interactive digital billboard system that employs a blockchain-based payment layer. They sell advertising as a service, have a functional product, held a multi-million dollar ICO, and work intensively with machine learning and AI.

Pop quiz. What sector are they in?

Advertising? Hardware? Blockchain? Cryptocurrency (its token is an altcoin, after all), AI? It’s not easy to place them because there are no firm lines. Innovation just is. Everything else is a meaningless detail. So why is this sort of categorisation even important? Because it’s from these categories that we define strategies and build the path to success. Choosing how to position your company is one of the foundational decisions in building a strong brand and marketing strategy.

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Labels matter

Positioning matters, sometimes a very great deal. This is particularly apparent in the case of the We Company (née WeWork), which called itself a tech company in its fundraising rounds and initial IPO filings. The reason that this is notable, and has been generating so much debate, is that We is a real estate company but had a tech startup valuation of $47bn. This market valuation has been heavily criticised, and has led to the We Company postponing their IPO and revaluing at around $11bn.

WeWork is an extreme case, of course, but the lesson it teaches is universal. How a company frames itself alters how the public (and potential investors) perceives it. This can be an enormous benefit, or an equally enormous burden — or in rare cases like We Work, both. The fluidity of identity in this disrupted (and disruptive) new economy can be empowering, as changes in technology, the perception of work, and the growing irrelevance of geography in defining a business.

So as we can see, choosing that initial positioning is possibly the most critical single decision a startup can make. Looking at a blank page can be challenging, but pivoting your company’s strategic positioning after entering the market is far, far worse.

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Position, position, position

The real estate industry had it right with their axiomatic “location, location, location” mantra. Just like a restaurant in the middle of nowhere is unlikely to be a success (Fäviken Magasinet notwithstanding), an improperly positioned company is left struggling in the metaphorical wilderness. It’s hard to sell when nobody around is willing to listen to the pitch.

Thus, picking the correct place to stand is critical. If you stay too focused on the core tech (blockchain, AI, etc.), you miss the potential synergies from overlapping sectors and lose out on opportunities for finding growth outside your initial target market. Go too general, and your offering becomes so watered down that it tries to speak to everyone, but truly resonates with no one.

The secret of positioning is finding your marketing Goldilocks point — not so specialised that you become pigeonholed, and not so general that you are drowned out.

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Marketing that’s just right

At THE RELEVANCE HOUSE, we always start our clients’ journey to market with an in-depth positioning analysis and strategy. For us, balancing specialised and general is an art and a science. We don’t focus too much on intricacies, instead looking at the overall relevance of the product. We build every brand’s narrative from the ground up to be the most effective vehicle to success possible, from the first day it goes live.

Few tech projects exist in a silo, so it makes little sense to ignore the larger marketspace, especially in the emerging tech market. As a full-service marketing agency with a very tech savvy team, we know how to tell the right stories to get the message heard. We strive to be the “just-right” partner for exciting new tech companies — whether they are in the blockchain, AI, VR, fintech or other emerging industries — with the perfect balance of broad-based knowledge and skills coupled with industry expertise and contacts.

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Photo credits:

Photo 1 by DilokaStudio on Freepik
‍Photo 2 by 8photo on Freepik