Consulting & Facilitation
At the core of every successful organization, big or small, in any industry and in any geographical area, is the ability to answer two essential questions:
1. What is your unique position in your market?
2. What is your sustainable competitive advantage?
Everything in your business plan, whether it’s written out explicitly for review by your third party partners such as venture capitalists, your bank or your board of advisor, stems from how you answer these two questions. They affect every business activity you engage in – and your ultimate success in the market.
Traditional branding and marketing approaches, however, result in only minor variations of the expected and usual positioning statements or value propositions – which really don’t result in differentiation at all.
That’s why Essential Message D.I.G. Methodology has been purposefully designed to be unlike any other consultative process you may have tried. We customize our trademark Essential Message approach in intensive and focused sessions to allow you to discover your true differentiation, core strengths and strongest brand position.
Read our blog post that shows the link between your Essential Message and multiple corporate objectives at http://essentialmessage.com/essentialmindmap/
Beyond better marketing, beyond stronger branding, and beyond higher sales, the feedback we get is it gives our clients the confidence, momentum and resilience that can only come from being absolutely clear about their strengths and unique difference both as a company – and as individuals.
That’s how The Essential Message supports multiple objectives in teambuilding, core strategy, peak performance and leadership – as well as in networking, customer service, personal branding, and sales communications.
Client Profile
We work with many different kinds and sizes of organizations, from small business to NGO’s to international corporations.
The common challenge they all face is either they believe their message is too complex or difficult for potential customers to understand, or they face such intense competition and are unclear about what sets them apart in their market.
D.I.G Methodology
The Essential Message D.I.G. Methodology: Discover-Identify-Galvanize. Click on the image to see the full size image.
Most reputable consulting processes work through various phases roughly equivalent to 1. discover, 2. analysis, 3. planning and 4. implementation. In that respect, The Essential Message D.I.G. Methodology follows accepted and proven norms. The specific tools, resources, exercises and concepts inherent in the D.I.G. Methodology, however, are uniquely adapted to the objectives and purpose of an Essential Message engagement.
Most corporate teams have already participated in more traditional approaches to defining branding and identity, or mission/vision/values. As a result, participants in these exercises tend to be familiar with the processes and expected outcomes. Combined with the natural tendency for most people, (especially the intelligent Type A’s on the team), to jump to the ‘right’ answer, it’s perfectly understandable why so many attempts at defining true identity or differentiation end up in the same place — thereby defeating the purpose.
At each stage of the process, the D.I.G. Methodology is driven by counter-intuitive processes and exercises designed to achieve a deeper level of understanding, and genuinely fresh insights.
Stage 1. Discover
This stage is characterized by questioning underlying assumptions and surfacing value that has been hidden or overlooked. Our goal at this stage is to answer the following questions:
- What is the true challenge we solve?
- How and why do we do what we do?
- Is there an opportunity to package products/services we were previously ‘giving away’?
- Is there an undocumented methodology that is so much a part of the fabric of the culture that nobody ‘sees’ it?
Stage 2. Identify
Now that we have surfaced hidden value in different areas of the organization, this stage focuses on sifting through the findings and identifying relevance and implications:
- What is the difference that makes the difference?
- What is of value… and to whom?
- What are the implications to our current business?
Stage 3. Galvanize
Look up the word ‘galvanize’ and you’ll find synonyms such as electrify, spur, rouse, stimulate, fire up, and rally. This stage is squarely focused on the targeted customer groups and stakeholders.
- What communication vehicles to we need to carry the message?
- What is the most compelling Tagline/strapline/rallying cry?
- How do we align internal teams (salespeople, customer service, product development) around core message?
