Comments on: The Benefit Hierarchy in corporate positioning & corporate message development

By: Doug Kessler

Doug Kessler — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 11:16:50 +0000

Thanks for the HVM insight. Sounds good. I’ll look it up.

By: Chris Keller

Chris Keller — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 22:23:41 +0000

In academic circles, linking products to customers is called hierarchical values map (HVM). It begins with product features at the bottom. Those features are linked to a second level product benefit. The third level is a personal benefit, and the fourth benefit is a personal value.

Good marketers should target their messaging at personal benefits.

It is nice to read this in your terms. Well done.

By: John25

John25 — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:01:06 +0000

The novelty in our framework is that it establishes a particular hierarchy in goods space that is both amenable to empirical measurement and has determinate growth implications. ,

By: Ben Hayes

Ben Hayes — Mon, 11 May 2009 12:20:53 +0000

Useful way to think about it. I like the vine idea, especially on the homepage/main landing pages.

By: Chris Hall

Chris Hall — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:34:50 +0000

Doug,

Great post. b2b programs and comms are critical for growth and should not be squeezed by 2.0 tactics. I just wrote a short piece on whether social media has relinquished the asylum to the patients:
http://www.chrishallmarketing.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?flavor=archive&id=20090108144317&list=chm

By: Velocity December Newsletter: Tech-speak, feature-talk or benefit babble? | Velocity - the B2B marketing acceleration agency for technology companies

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 15:54:54 +0000

[...] We see this one all the time. A tech company that’s great at describing its technology but not so great at making the story compelling to prospects. Or a company that waves a big, bold benefit flag – that nobody pays any attention to.When we see marketing problems like these, we reach for one of our favourite powerpoint slides: the Velocity Hierarchy of Benefits. [...]

By: Customer Value Propositions in B2B Markets | Velocity - the B2B marketing acceleration agency for technology companies

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:10:31 +0000

[...] sure you’re building it where it will make a real difference. Our recent paper on the Hierarchy of Benefits touched on this (one of the reasons Andrew pointed us at the HBR [...]

By: Evel Knievel, Corporate Positioning & Corporate Message Development - A New Velocity White Paper

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 21:15:42 +0000

[...] You can download it today, FREE, via: http://www.velocitypartners.co.uk/2008/11/25/tech-benefits-recipes-for-corporate-positioning-and-cor... [...]

By: Erin

Erin — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 21:27:16 +0000

Great post! I think this is an issue a lot of companies struggle with. Especially when you really do provide a great benefit, you want your customers/users to trust the credibility of it. At the same time, you don’t want to inundate them with tech-speak they may not understand or care about. Even worse, you could totally scare them away.

It’s a fine line, but it looks like you guys have found a pretty decent map for walking it.

By: Graham Lawlor

Graham Lawlor — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 19:40:19 +0000

Hey Doug,
Just read your post and it makes a lot of sense. One thing I hear regularly from investors is that companies that are too tech focused (composed entirely of engineers) have difficulty explaining their value to potential customers. Sometimes it’s even that they get so immersed in the technology that they don’t really add much top-line value. On the other hand, I’ve seen companies so marketing-focused that the investor or client they’re pitching too never understands exactly what they’re doing or how. I like the way you explain the problem with the axes of Credibility and Value. Very nice.

Graham.