The Lustratus REPAMA Guide (1.10 Scribd)

8/14/2019 The Lustratus REPAMA Guide (1.10 Scribd)

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Research

A guide to interpreting Lustratus

REPAMA competitive studies

REPAMA Competitive

Intelligence

Author: Danny Goodall

Version 1.1

September 2009


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Table of ContentsWhat Questions Does REPAMA Answer? ......................................... 2

Sales .......................................................................................... 2Marketing ................................................................................... 2

General Management and Equity Investors ................................. 3

A Guide to Lustratus REPAMATM ...................................................... 4

The REPAMA Reverse Engineered Marketing Elements .............. 4

The REPAMATM Methodology ..................................................... 5

The Marketing Element DistributionTM (MED) ............................... 5

Multiple Vendor Comparisons and the Market Mean ................... 6

REPAMA Ranking and Scoring System ...................................... 7

The Scoring System ................................................................... 8

Why is there no scale on the charts? .......................................... 9

Other Lustratus REPAMA Deliverables ........................................ 9

Organisation and Market Approach ................................................ 10

What will this tell us? ................................................................. 10Company Profile ....................................................................... 11

Offer Category .......................................................................... 13

Primary Audience ...................................................................... 15

Job Titles .................................................................................. 17

Sales Engagement Level ........................................................... 18

Market Stage ............................................................................ 19

Vertical Market Segmentation ................................................... 21

Channel Approach .................................................................... 22

Implied Sales Methodology ....................................................... 25

Geographic Operations ............................................................. 26

Product ........................................................................................... 27

What will this tell us? ................................................................. 27

Primary Feature/Benefit ............................................................ 28

Interpreted Primary Feature/Benefit .......................................... 29

Value Proposition Approach...................................................... 29

Primary Value Proposition ......................................................... 30

Interpreted Value Proposition .................................................... 31

Use Cases ................................................................................ 32

Positioning ...................................................................................... 33

What will this tell us? ................................................................. 33

Depositioning focus .................................................................. 34

Differentiation strategy .............................................................. 35

Perceived threat ........................................................................ 36

Reverse Engineered Positioning Statement ............................... 37

The Positioning Spectrum Analysis (PSA) .................................. 39

PSA For...(Ideal Customer) ..................................................... 39

PSA Who...(Pain, Need or Desire) .......................................... 42

PSA - Our...(Product Name)...................................................... 43

PSA Is A...(Product Category) ................................................ 43

PSA That Provides... .............................................................. 45

PSA Unlike...(Primary Competitor or Alternative)..................... 46

PSA Our Product...(Primary Differentiation/USP) .................... 47

Appendix I - Glossary ...................................................................... 49

Appendix II Audience Strata ......................................................... 50

Appendix III IMF GDP Rankings ................................................... 51


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Table of FiguresFigure 1 - REPAMA for sales teams .................................................. 2

Figure 2 - REPAMA for marketing teams ........................................... 2

Figure 3 - REPAMA for general management teams ......................... 3

Figure 4 - The REPAMA Reverse Engineered Marketing Elements .... 4

Figure 5 - Example Single Vendor Use Case Example MED Chart .... 5

Figure 6 - Multiple Vendor Use Case Example MED Chart ................ 6

Figure 7 - Example Primary Audience MED ....................................... 7

Figure 8 - Example Direct Geographic Operations MED .................... 8

Figure 9 - Company Profile Categories ............................................ 11

Figure 10 - Example Company Profile MED .................................... 12

Figure 11 - Example Offer Category MED ....................................... 13

Figure 12 - Primary Audience Classification .................................... 15

Figure 13 - Example Primary Audience MED ................................... 15

Figure 14 - Example Job Titles MED ............................................... 17

Figure 15 - Example Sales Engagement Level MED ........................ 18

Figure 16 - Example Market Stage MED ......................................... 19Figure 17 - Example Vertical Market Segmentation MED ................ 21

Figure 18 - Example Channel Approach MED ................................. 23

Figure 19 - Example Implied Sales Methodology MED .................... 25

Figure 20 - Example Geographic Operations MED .......................... 26

Figure 21 - Example Primary Feature/Benefit MED .......................... 28

Figure 22 - Example Value Proposition Approach MED ................... 30

Figure 23 - Example Primary Value Proposition MED ...................... 31

Figure 24 - Example Use Cases MED ............................................. 32

Figure 24 Example Depositioning focus MED ............................... 34

Figure 24 Example differentiation strategy MED ........................... 35

Figure 28 Example perceived threat MED .................................... 36

Figure 25 - Typical Positioning Statement Structure ........................ 37

Figure 26 - Ideal Customer Classification ........................................ 40

Figure 27 - Example PSA For... (Ideal Customer) MED .................... 41

Figure 28 - Example PSA Who...(Pain, Need, Desire) MED ............. 42

Figure 29 - Example PSA Is A... (Product Category) MED ............... 43

Figure 30 - Example PSA That Provides... (Reason to Buy) MED .... 45

Figure 31 - Example PSA Unlike ... (Primary Competitor) MED ........ 46

Figure 32 - Example PSA Our Product... (USP) MED ...................... 47

TablesTable 1 - Lustratus REPAMA Products and Services ........................ 9

Table 2 - Channel Approach Categories ......................................... 22

Table 3 Differentiation strategies .................................................. 35

Table 3 - Example Positioning Matrix .............................................. 38

Table 4 - End User Organisation Audience Strata ........................... 50

Table 5 - IMF GDP Rankings........................................................... 51


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DisclaimerWhilst reasonable care and skill has been taken by Lustratus Research Limited (the company) in the preparation

of this report no liability is accepted by the company (except in the case of death or personal injury caused bythe company's negligence) by reason of any representation or any implied warranty condition or other term or

any statutory or common law duty or otherwise howsoever arising for any direct or indirect general special or

consequential damages or loss costs expenses or other claims (whether caused by the negligence of the

company or otherwise) which come out of the provision of this report or its use.

All trademarks are acknowledged as the property of their respective owners.


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Whataremycompetitionsayingaboutus?

HowcanIsellagainstaspecificcompetitor?

Whatvaluedomycompetitorsbelievethey

providetotheircustomers?

Whatbusinessissuesdomycompetitorsfeelare

importanttotheirprospects?

DowecompetewithXYZcompetitor?

DoesXYZtargetcompanies,jobtitlesorindividualsthat

wearenot?

DoesXYZtargetthesamecompanies,jobtitlesand

individualsasus?

DoesXYZuseaspecificsalesmethodology?

Willwewastetimetalkingaboutourfeaturestoa

techieifXYZistalkingtoClevelcontactsaboutbusiness

value?

Inasales

situation

which

featuresandbenefitsdoesXYZbelievearetheir

strongest?

Whatpartnershipsdomycompetitorsrelyupon?

Whatgeographiccoveragedoesmycompetitionhave?

What Questions Does REPAMA Answer?The range of Lustratus REPAMA reports and consultancy services helps sales teams to win more business,

helps strategic marketing teams to build more competitive market propositions and helps marketing execution

teams to generate better sales leads. REPAMA supplies detailed competitive information that examines:

How your competitors actually address their prospects What messages competitors rely on in sales situations What types of companies and individuals your competition targets What value your competitors believe they provide to their customers How your competitors try to deposition and undermine their own competitors What features and benefits competitors stress in sales situations How your competitors are positioned in the marketplace

The REPAMA research is used by the sales, marketing and general management functions to understand the

market landscape, tune or re-engineer propositions and to benchmark marketing performance against peers.

SalesIn competitive situations, sales teams need to

understand how their competitors are likely to behave.

Gaining insight into the current messages and sales

tactics that competitors are likely to use can provide a

powerful advantage.

REPAMA helps sales teams understand the strategies

and tactics that their competitors use in sales

situations which allows better competitive strategies to

be built. It helps to answer the following questions:

Figure 1 - REPAMA for sales teams

MarketingWhether setting product strategy, empowering sales

teams or generating leads, gaining an understanding

into competitive behaviour is key for the marketing

organisation. Comparing your own marketingstrategy to those of your competitors and to the

average strategy for your market segment allows for

early identification of potential weakness as well as

new opportunities.

REPAMA helps marketing teams to understand how

their competitors are positioning their offerings and

provides answers to the following questions:

Figure 2 - REPAMA for marketing teams

Whatcompaniesandverticalmarketsaremycompetitorstargetingforleadgeneration?

Atwhatleveldomycompetitorslookto

startthesalesprocess?

Whatistheidealtargetcustomerformy

competitors

Whatisthemainpainthatmycompetitors

claimto

address?

Whatdomycompetitorsfeelisthe

mainreasonfora

prospectto

buy

from

them?

Whatdomycompetitorsbelieveis

themajoralternativeor

primarycompetitor

to

them?

WhichUSPsdomycompetitorsclaim?

Whichproductfeaturesdomycompetitors

believearethemostimportant?

Howdoesmycompetitionsell?

Technicalsale,referencesale,value

addsales,solutionsale?

Whatdepositioningstrategiescanweuse

againstourcompetitors?


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General Management and Equity

InvestorsWhen comparing marketing and sales performance

against competitors it is important to understand the

differences in approach of the respective organisations.

To do this it is key to map your own performance for a

variety of indicators against those of key competitors.

REPAMA tracks the key marketing strategies of vendors

in a specific market segment and plots these graphically

against each other. By interpreting these indicators, the

following questions can be answered for general

management and equity investors:

Figure 3 - REPAMA for general management teams

Howfarismymarketingstrategyfromthenormfor

thesegment?

Whatstrategiesarethemostsuccessfulvendorsin

thesegmentfollowing?

Whyisourmarketingstrategynotassuccessful

asourcompetitors?

How

does

the

performanceofmyownmarketingorganisation

performcomparedtoitspeers?

Howdoesmymarketingstrategycomparewith

marketleaders?

Howisourmarketingdifferentiatedfromthe

competition?

Doesthecompetitionfocusondifferentprospectsthatus?

Isourcompetition'ssalesstrategyradicallydifferent

ours?

Dowehavethecorrectpartnershipand

geographiccoveragestrategiestocompete?


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A Guide to Lustratus REPAMATMLustratus recommends that the user of the REPAMA study familiarise themselves first with the concept of

REPAMA competitive intelligence at a high level by reading through this guide. Subsequently the relevant

sections of the guide can be referred to for reference when interpreting the results from a specific LustratusREPAMA study. This section of the guide describes the REPAMA methodology, the Marketing Element

Distribution (MED) diagrams, the scoring system and the high-level uses that the research can be put to. Three

further sections provide detailed descriptions of each of the MED studies within the following categories:

Organisation and Market Approach Product Positioning

A detailed description of the individual studies within each section is provided together with a list of the potential

strategies that may present themselves. The result of each MED is very specific to the segment, the vendors

included and their respective status in the segment. As a result it is not possible to provide definitive genericstrategies that will always be relevant for a specific study. Instead each study should be interpreted in context

and strategies and tactics should be created accordingly using the potential strategies as a guide.

The REPAMA Reverse Engineered Marketing ElementsLustratus developed the REPAMA methodology to allow us to prioritise, categorise and rate the following

elements of a vendors marketing strategy and tactics:

Figure 4 - The REPAMA Reverse Engineered Marketing Elements

Organisationandmarketapproach

Companyprofile Howdoesthevendorwanttobeperceived?

Offercategory Howdoesthevendordescribeitsoffer?

Primaryaudience Whodoesthevendortarget?

Jobtitlestargeted Whichjobtitlesaretargeted?

Salesengagement

level

At

what

level

does

the

vendor

look

to

start

the

sales

process?

Marketstage Whatmarketstageissuggestedbythevendorsmarketingtactics?

Verticalmarketsegmentation Whichindustriesdoesthevendorfocuson?

Channelapproach Whatchannelstrategiesdoesthevendorrelyupon?

Impliedsalesmethodology Doesthevendorappeartorelyonaspecificsalesmethodology?

Toneofvoice Whatattitudedoesthevendortakewhenaddressingthemarket?

Geographicfocus Whichcountriesdoesthevendorfocuson?

Product

Primaryandinterpretedfeature/benefit Whichfeaturesandbenefitsdoesthevendorascribetoitsproduct?

Valuepropositionapproach Howimportantisvaluebasedsellingtothevendor?

Primaryandinterpretedvalueproposition Whichvaluepropositionsdoesthevendorfocuson?

Usecases Whatusescanthetechnologybeputto?

Positioning

Reverseengineeredpositioningstatementcoveringthe

idealcustomer

Theirmainpain,needordesireaddressed

Theproduct

name

and

category

Themainreasontobuy

Theprimarycompetitiororalternative

Theuniquesellingproposition

Depositioningstrategy Howdoeseachvendordepositionthecompetitionoralternative?

Differneitationstrategy Whatapproachdoesthevendortaketodifferentiation?

Perceivedthreat Whatisthekey,impliedthreatthatthevendorfears?

PositioningSpectrumAnalysis Comparingeachelementofthepositioningstatementwitheachoftheothervendorsinthestudy

MarketingEfficacyandProof

Useofindependenttestimony Doesthevendorsupplyindependentproofofitsclaims?

News/Blogcoverage Whatlevelofcoveragehasthevendorbeenabletoachieve?

Pressreleases frequency/consistency

Successfulpartnerships Isevidenceprovidedofsuccessfulpartnerships?

Independentspeakers Hasthevendorbeenabletofieldcustomerstospeakateventsontheirbehalf?

Programmixandfrequency Whatmarketingtacticsdoesthevendoruseandhowfrequentarethey?

Messageconsistencyovertime(BoilerplateDelta) Hasthevendorsmessagingbeenconsistentovertime?

GoogleRanking Howwellisthevendorusingsearchenginestoreachtheirprospectsand/ordamagetheircompetitors?


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The REPAMATMMethodologyGaining a comprehensive understanding of a competitors marketing strategy is an essential but complex job

for marketing communications, product marketing, product management and sales individuals. Understanding

what techniques a competitor is likely to use when they are generating leads, depositioning your own

organisations to analysts and press or selling against you in a sales situation are essential in building a

successful sales and marketing organisation.

Whilst this is valid in any competitive situation, it is especially true when competitors are either late entrants to a

market or are present in an early market where less intelligence is available to build a full competitive picture.

REPAMA from Lustratus Research is a set of research and consultancy offerings that provide marketing

intelligence on high-tech vendors marketing strategy. We are able to document a vendors implied strategy by

reverse engineering key marketing elements from the way they engage their prospects, customers,

shareholders, the press and market analysts through their outbound marketing communications.

The Marketing Element DistributionTM (MED)

For each of these elements we identify and categorise the valid strategies and tactics for the vendor or vendorsin the study. We then track, rate and rank the distribution of the vendors strategies across them. For example,

if we look at the use cases that a vendor believes their technology can be put to, we will look for evidence for

each of the uses and compile a list. We then rank the use cases in the list and score the relative importance of

the use case to the vendor. We do this by distributing a use case score across all of the valid use cases.

This results in a prioritised picture based on the relative importance of each use case to the vendor.

To facilitate interpretation of this complex analysis, Lustratus represents this information graphically in the form

of a Marketing Element Distribution (MED) diagram. This is a radar chart where each of the marketing elements

from the study is shown on the spine of the radar and the relative rating given in the analysis above is plotted to

show a vendors relative commitment or lack of commitment to each of these elements. An example MED

chart is shown below.

Figure 5 - Example Single Vendor Use Case Example MED Chart

Usecase1

Usecase2

Usecase3

Usecase4

Usecase5

Usecase6

Vendor1


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Interpreting the chart is relatively straightforward and the example above shows that Vendor 1 believes that use

cases 5 and 4 are the highest priorities to stress in their marketing communication with their prospects and

customers. A lesser commitment is made to use cases 1, 2 and 3 with use case 6 being of little apparent

importance to Vendor 1.

Multiple Vendor Comparisons and the Market MeanLustratus refers to a REPAMA study that focuses on a single vendor as a Vendor Analysis Study (VAS). Whilst

understanding the detail of a single vendors marketing strategy is important when building specific strategies to

combat their threat, it is equally important to gain insight into the competitive landscape across multiple

vendors strategies. Lustratus uses the same methodology and MED diagram shown above to plot multiple

vendors strategies against each other. This makes relative vendor to vendor comparison much easier.

Lustratus refers to this multiple vendor comparison as a Segment Analysis Study (SAS).

Whilst rating the various vendors positions Lustratus also computes the market mean. This, as its name

suggests, is a simple average of all of the other vendors scores in the MED. The value and importance of the

market mean differs from chart to chart and requires interpreting for each MED. In some MEDs where large

differences exist between the different vendors positions, the market mean may not truly represent the middleground that the vendors take. Instead it may simply be an averaging of significantly different positions.

A significant difference from the market mean represents a significant differentiation in strategy from the other

vendors in the segment. This of course may be a positive or a negative situation depending on the perception

of that difference. In other MEDs, understanding exactly where the common ground lies can help enormously in

building effective competitive strategies.

An example of a multiple vendor MED diagram including the market mean is shown below.

Figure 6 - Multiple Vendor Use Case Example MED Chart

Usecase1

Usecase2

Usecase3

Usecase4

Usecase5

Usecase6

Vendor1 Vendor2 Vendor3 MarketMean


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Figure 6 above shows the different priorities that vendors 1, 2 and 3 place on the use cases they attribute to

their product. The market mean, shown above as the dotted line, shows the mean for the use cases across the

particular segment (vendors 1, 2 and 3). In this example most vendors in the segment cite use cases 1 and 2.

It is also worth noting that only Vendor 2 cites use cases 5 and 6. The significance of this fact depends on the

status and perception of Vendor 2 within the segment.

REPAMA Ranking and Scoring SystemREPAMA measures perception. The results are subjective and should be interpreted as such. Our analysts use

a methodology backed by decades of technology marketing experience to reverse-engineer implied strategic

marketing elements from the language vendors use to reach their prospects and customers. These elements

are scored against other possible competing strategies to give a relative picture. This relative picture is referred

to as a Marketing Element Distribution (MED) diagram.

An example MED is shown below for Primary Audience.

Figure 7 - Example Primary Audience MED

In the example above which shows a group of vendors likely relative reliance on a specific target audience, we

can see that Vendor 1 leans towards IT Technical as the primary audience (see Table 5 below for a description

of the primary target audience categories). At the same time the analyst notes that Vendor 1 also addresses

the IT Business audience and in a very minor way the Business audience. Now whilst suggesting multiple

primary audiences might be at odds with the term primary, it is important to note that the analyst is suggesting

that during the research, Vendor 1 was found to use language or strategies that addressed the IT Business and

Business audiences, but that this was considerably outweighed by the vendors commitment to the IT Technical

audience.

Vendor 2 has a similar profile but splits its strategy between the Business and, in a lesser way the IT Business

and IT Technical audiences. We can see that the analysis of Vendor 3s primary audience was inconclusive. It

appears that Vendor 3 uses strategies and language aimed at multiple audiences. As we will see in theInterpreting the Results sections below, whilst Vendor 3s result looks inconclusive, it provides very valuable

Business

ITBusiness

ITTechnical

Other



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intelligence. A vendor that is using language that attempts to equally address multiple, different audiences;

each of which has very different needs, pains and desires, will likely fail to satisfy each audience constituent and

will therefore confuse their prospects.

The Scoring SystemThe REPAMA ranking and scoring system features two different approaches.

Relative focus Absolute score

Relative Focus

The Primary Audience MED above shows the relative focus scoring system. This allows the analyst to score a

vendors position out of a maximum of 11 across all of the axes that represent the various marketing elements.

Such charts highlight the value of focus as the 11 points are distributed relatively across the marketing elements

according to the weightings the analyst arrives at during the research.

By spreading the maximum score across each of the categories strong single areas of focus are rewarded witha higher score and obviously multiple areas of focus (if thats not an oxymoron), score less prominently on a

single axis.

Absolute Score

The absolute score system as shown below in Figure 8 - Example Direct Geographic Operations MED, allows

the analyst to rate each of the market elements out of a maximum of 11. This differs from the relative focus

system which distributes a maximum score of 11 across all of the axes. In the diagram below geographic

coverage of a particular territory will score 11 if the vendors commitment to a territory is total i.e. a presence in

each major country within the territory. In the example below Vendor 3 is shown to have a near total

commitment to each of the major geographic regions.

Figure 8 - Example Direct Geographic Operations MED

Africa

Americas

AsiaPacificEurope

MiddleEast



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Why is there no scale on the charts?As mentioned above the REPAMA MED charts are designed to compare multiple vendors relative commitment

to various strategic marketing elements. It is not intended as a tool for precisely quantifying the differences

between the various vendors strategies. Instead its use is to show the relative differences between vendors

positions and does not aim to precisely quantify these differences.

Other Lustratus REPAMA DeliverablesLustratus REPAMA deliverables take the form of single vendor reports, multiple vendor reports, assessment of

a vendors marketing effectiveness and consultancy to create or tune competitive marketing positioning and

messaging. The table below shows the full range of REPAMA offerings.

Lustratus REPAM A Del iverable Descr ipt ionREPAMA Vendor Analys is Study In the REPAMA Vendor Analysis Study (VAS) we reverse engineer

a specific vendors marketing strategy from the way they engage

the market through their outbound marketing communication.

This material is presented graphically through Lustratus Marketing

Element Distribution charts as well as textually via observations

that Lustratus analysts make for each of the studies. Users of the

REPAMA VAS will typically focus on a specific competitor or they

may chose to carry out an introspective version that studies their

own perceived approach to the market. This allows a comparison

to be made with the intended strategy and steps taken to affect

any changes required.

REPAMA Segment Analys is Study The REPAMA Segment Analysis Study (SAS) combines the sameprocess used in the Vendor Analysis Study above but here we

compare the strategies of multiple vendors present in a particular

segment. Importantly we are able to infer a mean or average

value for each of the marketing elements in the study. Again thisresearch is presented graphically through Lustratus Market

Element Distribution chart and the results of each study are

interpreted by a Lustratus Marketing Analyst.

REPA MA Interpretat ion Consultancy Lustratus provides consultancy services to help vendors interpretthe details of a REPAMA VAS or REPAMA SAS, to map these

onto the vendors specific needs and to build and tune strategies

as required.

REPAMA Posit ioning Consultancy For vendors building positioning, re-positioning or competitivedepositioning strategies, Lustratus has developed a positioning

workshop. Based on years of experience, the workshop walks

vendors through a process to develop sustainable, compelling and

differentiated market propositions.

REPAMA Market ing Ef f icacyAssessment The Lustratus Marketing Efficacy Assessment provides acomprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of a vendorsmarketing tactics. Vendors commission a Marketing Efficacy

Assessment on key competitors or introspectively to reveal

strengths and weakness in their own marketing strategy.

Table 1 - Lustratus REPAMA Products and Services

For more information on any of these products or services please contact us at [email protected] or via

http://www.lustratusrepama.com .


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Organisation and Market ApproachThis section describes the elements of the REPAMA study that relate to the organisation and the way in which it

approaches the market. The individual elements examined are listed below.

What will this tell us?These studies reveal the strategic sales and marketing elements used by the vendors in the study when

executing go-to-market strategies. This information will be useful to sales, product marketing and product

management individuals looking to understand how their competitors have structured and planned their attack

on the market.

The studies in this section provide information on market engagement strategies as well as the tactics that sales

teams use to engage the market. As a result, many of these studies present details that will allow general or

sales management to benchmark their own sales operations against key competitors as well as the market

mean.

When looking to repel competitive threat, sales and operations management can use these studies to build a

detailed go-to-market execution picture of the competitive landscape which in turn allows strategies to bedefined to combat threat, cement market leadership or identify market opportunity.

Companyprofile Howdoesthevendorwanttobeperceived?

Offercategory Howdoesthevendordescribeitsoffer?

Primaryaudience Whodoesthevendortarget?

Jobtitlestargeted Whichjobtitlesaretargeted?

Salesengagementlevel Atwhatleveldoesthevendorlooktostartthesalesprocess?

Marketstage Whatmarketstageissuggestedbythevendorsmarketingtactics?

Verticalmarketsegmentation Whichindustriesdoesthevendorfocus

on?Channelapproach Whatchannelstrategiesdoesthevendorrelyupon?

Impliedsalesmethodology Doesthevendorappeartorelyonaspecificsalesmethodology?

Toneofvoice Whatattitudedoesthevendortakewhenaddressingthemarket?

Geographicfocus Whichcountriesdoesthevendorfocuson?

Organisationandmarket

approach


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Company Profile

What is this?

This study examines what type of leadership position or positions a specific vendor organisation claims to own.

This will typically stem from an internal corporate belief or philosophy that will be widely understood within the

vendors organisation. This may or may not be a conscious strategy that the company has embarked upon but

it will be an internally held belief.

When crafting marketing copy the vendor will typically lean toward language that paints the organisation in a

positive light for one of a number of different leadership positions. These leadership positions together with the

claimed qualities and characteristics are shown below:

Figure 9 - Company Profile Categories

Interpreting the Result and Potential Competitive Strategies

This is an important element of the REPAMA study primarily because it talks to how an organisation wants to be

perceived and, if the vendor is doing its job well, all of its staff will understand this whether they be marketing,

sales or customer focused. This is a central corporate message and will be underpinned by everything the

organisation says and does. Understanding how a competitor communicates its own perceived leadership

position can be a key enabler for depositioning strategies.

A strong single leadership position in a single category is the ideal objective for a vendor. Implied claims for

leadership across multiple categories can show an organisation that is confused about its value. By not

focussing on a single leadership position, but instead hedging bets by claiming multiple areas of leadership, the

vendor leaves itself open to be challenged on multiple weaker fronts. An unfocussed approach will also likely

confuse its prospects and fail to gain a single strong brand value for the organisation.

Effective competitive or depositioning strategies can be created by understanding how an organisation would

like to be perceived in the market. Whilst some of these categories are highly subjective, many can be

challenged successfully. Before a competitive stance can be taken, the user of the REPAMA study should first

ensure that its own leadership position is well understood, clearly communicated and defensible. Picking a fight

with a competitor by looking to focus on a perceived weakness whilst risking a similar attack from the

competitor would be unwise.

Theknowledgeleader

Expertise

Highprices

Themarketshareleader

Biggest

Volume

Theserviceleader

Mostresponsive

Mostcommittedtocustomersatisfaction

Theprestigeleader

Mostexclusive

SmallgroupofcustomersExpensiveproducts/services

Thequalityleader

Thebest

Notnecessarilyexclusive(sodifferentfromprestige)

Nocompromiseonquality

Thegloballeader

Bestplacedtoserveworldmarkets

Worldwidepresence

Worldwidesupport/localisation

Thebargainleader

Lowestprice

Savingmoney

Theinnovationleader

Mostcreative

Canbelimitedtotechiesandearlyadopters!

Thetechnologyleader

Thefirst

Thevalueleader

Bestvalueformoney

Qualitywithsomecompromises

Theflexibilityleader

Mostadaptable

Madetoorder

"Whatdoyouneedandwewillcreateitforyou?"


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Many smaller early market organisations will gravitate towards innovation or technology leadership by claiming

unique creativity or first-to-market positions. A strategy that can be used effectively against organisations that

take these corporate profiles is one of outlining the risk involved in dealing with a vendor of that size/stage of

development. Companies are either, highly creative and innovative, OR they are large, global and stable.

Pointing to the risk associated with innovative and technologically-led organisations could be a valid corporate

depositioning angle.

Another depositioning strategy is to look for contradictions in their profile and to then exploit this. Such an

example would be Global Leadership. If the REPAMA study suggests that a vendor is claiming a global

leadership profile but it can be shown that this vendor is not truly global, or if the user of the REPAMA study can

demonstrate a more global footprint, this can be used to dismiss the claims of the competitor.

Other examples include claimed quality or service leadership. If an organisation is claiming leadership in either

of these qualities then a competitive kill strategy that looks to arm sales and marketing teams with examples of

the competitors poor customer service or product quality might be a successful option. Obviously any

negative competitive depositioning strategy has to be executed with care not to cross any legal or corporate

good practice boundaries.

Figure 10 - Example Company Profile MED

Figure 10 above shows that Vendor 3 alone claims a market and global leadership position. As the other

vendors in the study do not claim these positions it is likely to be a valid and easily defensible position. This can

be dangerous to Vendors 1 and 2 as many prospects and customers will be comforted by dealing with the

perceived market leading vendor.

A valid defensive strategy that Vendors 1 or 2 could implement would be to conduct or commission their own

research to ascertain the real market leader. Equally, Vendors 1 or 2 could redefine or re-segment the market

on their terms to claim market leadership in a smaller market segment where their expertise would allow them

legitimate title to the term market leader.

Knowledgeleader

Marketshareleader

Serviceleader

Prestigeleader

Qualityleader

GloballeaderBargainleader

Innovationleader

Technologyleader

Valueleader

Flexibilityleader



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Offer Category

What is this?

This REPAMA element tracks the way in which each of the vendors refers to the category of their market offer.

Lustratus will almost certainly have grouped two or more vendors in a REPAMA Segment Analysis Study

because of a perceived similarity between their products or services. Whilst market analysts might place certain

vendors product offerings in specific categories, not all vendors use the same terminology.

An example might be that of the Enterprise Service Bus (a specific piece of infrastructure software that allows

data and processes to be knitted together to make it easier for organisations to integrate their systems). If

Lustratus looked at this space it might be that all vendors in the study referred to their offer category as

Enterprise Service Bus. However, for differentiation purposes, it is likely that some of the vendors examined

would refer to their offering differently from their competition. Its likely that each vendor would attempt to

differentiate, in subtle, or not so subtle ways when compared to the competition.

As shown in the Figure 11 below, many vendors will use language in their outbound communication that will

define a primary category that they refer to when talking about their own product in generic terms. The OfferCategory MED shows both the primary as well as any additional categories that the vendor refers to.

Figure 11 - Example Offer Category MED


By examining the MED it is possible to see whether a single vendor is attempting to categorise their offering in

both their own segment as well as the primary segment of additional vendors. This may suggest that they have

ceded the advantage to their competitor by acknowledging that they need to be present in both categories.

A high degree of correlation between the vendors in the MED would typically infer a mature market where new

innovation and change is very gradual and where differentiation is more subtle than at the broad offer category

level. An example of this might be the category Database. That said, even within the database category it is

Category1

Category2

Category3

Category4



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likely that vendors would attempt to differentiate themselves by appending or pre-pending adjectives of some

sort to create implied value and difference.

Defensive or offensive strategies that immediately present themselves here include highlighting differences that

could be perceived as deficient or simply pointing to the lack of a word, typically an adjective, and developing a

competitive depositioning strategy based upon that. For example, if the REPAMA user refers to their offering as

Reliable Process X and Competitor A refers to their category as Enterprise Process X, it would be possible

for the REPAMA user to point toward Competitor A and question whether their product is reliable. Now

obviously Competitor A had every intention of using the term Enterprise to infer that it was up to the rigours of

use across an Enterprise and as such reliability would be a given. Simply pointing to the lack of the Reliable

term may cause Competitor A to have to demonstrate its reliability when in competitive situations.


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Primary Audience

What is this?

This REPAMA strategy element shows what type of audience a competitor targets within end user

organisations. Lustratus infers which level of audience they are primarily targeting from the language and

programs present in the vendors outbound marketing activities.

Lustratus categorises the primary end user target audience as one or more of the following three categories:

IT Technical - Represents the overtly technical disciplines within theIT organisation that have no management, strategic or commercial

responsibilities

IT Business - Represents the higher management levels of the ITorganisation that have strategic and/or financial responsibilities

Business - Represents the line of business functions outside of theIT organisation

Figure 12 - Primary Audience Classification

A full description of the roles, concerns and area of focus for each of the 3 audience constituents can be found

in Table 5 - End User Organisation Audience Strata below.

Figure 13 - Example Primary Audience MED


Understanding which category a vendor targets can reveal many significant marketing as well as sales

strategies and tactics. For example an inferred primary audience of the Business tier would suggest that the

vendor believes the market and their product offering is mature enough to demonstrate deliverable value to the

business. It could also infer that they may use a solution selling based methodology and that they have a

whole-product approach that combines professional services, partnerships, etc. into a complete solution to the

needs of the business.

Business

ITBusiness

ITTechnical

Other


Business

ITBusiness

ITTechnical


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Both the types of vendor marketing deliverables as well as the language they use differ enormously when

addressing the different categories. The closer to the Business strata, the more benefits-focused the marketing

efforts will be. Likewise the closer to the IT Technical layer, the more focus is applied to product functionality,

capability, capacity, etc.

If a vendor is shown to be aiming their marketing communications solely at the IT Technical stratum, it suggests

that they are taking an evangelical approach to the market. This is based on the fact that the IT Technical

audience does not have the ability to buy anything. Rather this layer serves as an influencer and perhaps

gatekeeper during sales efforts. The implication here is that once marketing contact has been made with the IT

Technical community, a sales process will need to be engaged within the prospect organisation to network

above the IT Technical contact to a point where budget, pain and problem resolution is owned.

Addressing the IT Business category involves communicating technical capabilities but at the same time

translating that into language of the business-focused IT community. It also requires the vendor to show that it

understands the pains of the IT Business stratum and that it can address these. Pains and concerns at this

level are likely to revolve around the balance of strategy against tactical, resulting in messaging focused on cost,

time to value, etc. Providing proof of capability via references is more important at this level than it is at the IT

Technical level.

The Business audience category will be sensitive to messages that solve the business problems they are facing.

This category has little to no interest in technology so language that majors on the technology will only serve to

confuse and potentially alienate this audience constituent.

Vendors that appear to communicate at multiple levels may run the risk of confusing their prospects. Many

vendors successfully simultaneously address the IT Business and IT Technical communities by providing

educational/evangelical material to IT Technical and more benefits-focused material to IT Business. That said

this does show a reduction in focus and a lack of clarity and understanding of the key entry point into their

target organisation. In Lustratus experience, a reduction in focus typically results in a lack of success.

A vendor that focuses completely on IT Technical may be betraying the fact that their market is not yet real.

As the IT Technical community doesnt buy, the vendor may very well be attempting to get a foothold

anywhere it can within its target organisations. Wasting too much time with this audience constituent can be a

failing in many early market technology innovators.

If a REPAMA user is experiencing lost sales to a competitor, understanding what audience stratum that

competitor is focused on can help in mitigating lost sales. If that competitor is shown to focus on the Business

level it might suggest that they are gaining earlier access to the power within an organisation. Earning the right

to be able to address the Business audience is a long process that involves demonstrating and documenting

proof of value to other reference customers. Whilst access to the Business audience is seen as the ultimate

aim in technology sales, it takes time, focus and a continued demonstration of delivering and documenting

business value.

Addressing the Business audience without a complete solution to their pain will result in failure. Many vendors

of early technology see selling to the business as the panacea to many of the problems of early market

technology sales. In fact, prematurely addressing the Business strata is a quick way to burn a lot of cash and

waste a lot of time. As such, a vendor that makes a token commitment to selling to the Business is likely to fail.

Such a token commitment can be betrayed by communicating in business benefits at the same time as

addressing the IT Technical audience. An example of this might be attending a technical tradeshow where IT

Technical people are present at the same time as talking about the products ability to reduce the risk of

corporate governance failures.


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Job Titles

What is this?

Where possible the REPAMA analysis will attempt to identify specific job titles that are targeted by the vendors

in the study. These specific roles and job titles often figure in the vendors outbound marketing activity such as

invitations to seminars, webinars, press releases or even web site copy. Whilst it is not always possible to

collate specific job titles and roles, it is often possible to infer the likely roles within end user organisations that

are targeted.

Figure 14 - Example Job Titles MED


Assuming that the user of the REPAMA study is looking to emulate a competitors strategy then an obvious

implication would be to understand who is targeted and then to develop messaging and material that effectively

conveys the organisations value to that audience.

Defensive lead generation techniques can be improved by understanding which job titles are targeted by

competitors and creating similar programs. Obviously this has to be qualified first by understanding whether the

vendor can manage sales leads generated with a specific job title. For example, many vendors have great

expertise in dealing with highly technical job titles and roles but have little capability when dealing with

individuals in line of business management positions. Generating leads within a specific audience has to be

backed up by the vendors ability to nurture and mature the lead through the sales cycle.

The REPAMA user will also find value in understanding competitive job title focus across the segment as this

shows whether the same individuals are being targeted by competitors. The implication here is that if the

competitor also focuses on the same geographies and vertical markets, it is more likely that the REPAMA users

prospects will be familiar with, or even already talking to the competitor.

Developer

DevelopmentManager

SoftwareArchitectCIO

CEO



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Sales Engagement Level

What is this?

This part of the study attempts to identify where the vendors that are present in the study look to start their

sales process. Each vendors outbound marketing activities will feature calls to action aimed at creating leads

or contacts. For example a vendor may target a specific tradeshow or industry event exclusively for CIOs. This

suggests that the vendor is aiming to start the sales process at the IT Business level. Another vendor may run

their own webinar for software developers again suggesting that they see value in starting the sales process at

the IT Technical level.

This study differs from the primary audience in that it looks for where a vendor has used a call to action or

similar device, to attempt to get an individual engaged as a suspect and into the first part of the sales pipeline.

Whilst a vendor might communicate to audiences at different levels, this study examines when a vendor first

attempts to interact with potential prospects.

Figure 15 - Example Sales Engagement Level MED


A potential competitive strategy here would be to track the marketing events and activities of successful

competitors and look to mirror them. As mentioned above, the vendor must first ask themselves whether they

are able to deal with leads generated within a specific audience stratum.

An interesting piece of competitive intelligence can be inferred from observing vendors that are struggling to get

traction with a specific audience suddenly looking to change audiences in the hope that they are able to gain

greater traction with the new audience. The REPAMA study can be used to identify companies who are

potentially executing this strategy by looking for a disconnect between the Primary Audience and the Sales

Engagement Level. It should be borne in mind that this could obviously be the actions of a vendor whose

prospecting is simply maturing to now include additional audience stratum.

Business

ITBusinessITTechnical



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Market Stage

What is this?

This study attempts to determine at what stage of development a specific vendor believes their market is

currently at. This is inferred by the language and marketing programs present in their outbound marketing mix.

The market stages that are monitored include:

Evangelism no real market. Small sales are made but the vendor is looking to create the market Early, proven the market is at an early stage but there is proof of customers deriving benefit from the

vendors technology

Mature the market has existed for some time, customers, competition and alternatives exist Mature with breakthrough as mature but with a significant recent technical or commercial

breakthrough


This is useful study in that it adds balance to any claims that a vendor may make for their success in a market.

For example if a vendor is claiming success, growth and market leadership but it appears that they are using

evangelical language in outbound marketing material and documented customer references are not in evidence,

then it suggests that the market isnt as real as it might otherwise appear to be. Vendors tend to use

evangelical language to push a market to formation and once the market is real, sales are being made and

references plentiful, the language tends to change to be more confident.

Figure 16 - Example Market Stage MED

Another use is understanding the subtle difference between Evangelical and Mature with breakthrough

approaches to the market. Whilst the result is similar because a new capability has been introduced, the way

the messages are spun and delivered can make a big difference. Innovations are often brought about by

technical advancement and not in reaction to customer need. Evangelical language such as radically new

Evangelism

Earlyproven

Mature

Maturewithbreakthrough



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approach, technological breakthrough, completely changes the way you do x may make some potential

customers nervous that they are in some way at the forefront of technological innovation and therefore risk.

Instead an approach that stresses the minor changes to the traditional methods that are now possible due to

some technical or commercial innovation may play better with prospects who are risk averse.

Likewise if a user of the REPAMA study is in a mature market segment and is experiencing stiff competition

from a certain competitor who is using language that suggests they have introduced a significant technological

or commercial breakthrough to the market, then competitive strategies can be drawn up to combat that

approach.

As individuals we exhibit a pre-disposition to either evangelical language that cites technical advancement or

pragmatic language that delivers value. The same is broadly true of industries or vertical markets. Certain

industries are seen as early adopters of innovative technology whilst other industries are seen as laggards.

Using evangelical language about an innovative technology whilst selling into a pragmatic sector such as

farming, may be seen as a disconnect.


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Channel Approach

What is this?

The alternative approaches that vendors take to selling indirectly are captured in this study. Channel in this

study refers to a route to taking products to market that is not directly part of the vendors organisation. Some

of the channel elements examined may not actually be commercially active for the vendor but they appear to

claim that they are.

The categories used include:

Channel Descr ipt ionNo spec if ic channel strategycommunicated The vendor demonstrates no clear or specific 3

rd party channel strategy.

System integrators System integrators are used to reach the market because of the relationshipthey have with end user customers. The vendors technology may be used

as some form of integrated solution that the SI takes responsibility for

delivering. This channel element may also be used by the vendor to deliver

professional services to their end user customer.

Resel ler/Distr ibutor The vendor uses distributors or resellers to reach the market. Often thesewill be present in overseas territories and will effectively be the face of the

vendor in these geographic territories. As vendors mature these channel

partners are often subsumed into the vendors direct sales force or the

vendor launches their own organisations into the territory.

Internal channel A number of large organisations will use internal channel to reach the market.Sometimes these internal channel organisations will focus on a geography,

vertical market or perhaps a horizontal capability such as a professional

services division.

OEM OEM relationships are the result of embedding a vendors technology intoanother vendors product. Due to the complexity of OEM contracts and

relationships, such channels will typically be developed manually. As such, in

most cases the need for vendors to target OEMs through outbound

marketing activities is minimal.

Technology partner Technology partnerships are typically formed with other vendors that havetechnology that is complimentary to a vendors portfolio. Quite often

amongst early market companies, such agreements may simply be co-

operative marketing relationships and may not be a genuine route to market

for the vendor.

Other channel As it suggests this category captures any additional channel approaches notlisted above.

Table 2 - Channel Approach Categories


Depending on the type of product and organisation, real growth may only come when others are doing your

selling for you. As a result, channel strategies become an important growth strategy for organisations of all

sizes. A failing in many early market organisations is that of not building channels to market at the right time.

Having a market opportunity but not the channel to achieve the growth potential will limit the effectiveness of the

organisation. However, the opposite is also true. Attempting to create a channel in advance of having a truly

repeatable sales model will result in a frustrated channel partner and wasted time, energy and money.


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The downside is obviously that the end user is not a direct customer. The customer instead is typically the

OEM.

In Figure 18 - Example Channel Approach MED above we can see that Vendor 2 appears to be targeting OEMs

and system integrators. This may suggest that they have little desire, or perhaps ability, to reach direct end

user prospects. Comparing this to Vendor 3 in the same diagram we can see that they appear to be executing

a strategy of working through system integrators and resellers/distributors. To build a reseller/distributor

channel suggests that there must be a real market for Vendor 3s products and services.


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Implied Sales Methodology

What is this?

This study attempts to infer whether a vendor uses a specific sales methodology. If such a methodology is in

place and well executed, the language that the vendor uses to reach its customers and prospects will typically

betray this.


If a vendor describes the product in purely technical terms, then it is likely that they will take a technical

approach to selling. Here features and capabilities will be important during the process. It is also likely that the

sales will be part of an existing project within the end users organisation. If however the language talks little

about the product capability and instead focuses on the customer pains and how the technology addresses

them, then as long as supporting evidence is there, it suggests that a solution selling-type methodology may be

in place.

Value added selling focuses on the value that can be provided by the vendor and vendors products. This is

different from a technical sale in that it interprets the value that can be derived from the prospect using the

technology. Reference selling relies heavily on documenting previous successes and typically involves

quantifying what those benefits were and listing the previous organisations the vendor has already helped. The

implication is that the prospect will be able to see how similar companies have benefited from dealing with the

vendor. Reference selling can also be used as a supporting strategy with each of the other methodologies.

Figure 19 - Example Implied Sales Methodology MED

If one vendor is shown to focus on a solution selling methodology whilst another vendor majors on more

technical/value-based selling, these vendors may not feel that they compete. Whilst they might not talk to the

same part of an organisation, they may still be competing for business within the same prospect organisations.

Understanding where vendors fit in this MED can help to interpret unexpected lost sales. This is a key study in

understanding how some competitors appear to be able to delay and scupper the deals of other vendorsbecause they have access to power that others dont.

Noevidence

Technicalsale

(feature/benefit)

Valueadded(stressthe

value)

Solutionsale(businesspain)

Refencesale(citecustomers)

Other



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Geographic Operations

What is this?

This study shows the relative commitment to the different geographic territories of the various vendors in the

study. This is an Absolute Score MED which means that scoring is based upon a maximum score for each of

the territories. i.e. it is possible for a vendor to score the maximum on each of the axis in the study rather than

having a maximum score distributed across the axes in the study.

The scoring works by mapping the claimed supported country territories of a specific vendor, either directly or

via resellers, against the IMFs GDP rankings (See Appendix III IMF GDP Rankings). The total GDP for the

supported countries is then mapped against the maximum GDP for each of the five categories below.


This is fairly a straightforward study to interpret showing as it does the places where each vendor claims to

conduct business. This can obviously reveal potential weakness in a REPAMA users own strategy if a

competitor is strong in a particular territory. It can also reveal opportunities where a competitor is not currently

present or is unable to exploit a specific geographic territory.

Figure 20 - Example Geographic Operations MED

Africa

Americas

AsiaPacificEurope

MiddleEast



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ProductThis section describes the elements of the REPAMA study that relate to the product and how it is promoted in

terms of value, features and benefits. The individual elements examined are listed below.

What will this tell us?This section looks at the marketing strategies specifically focused on the product. These studies show how

each vendor describes their products and looks at the features, benefits and value that they ascribe to them.

This information is useful for sales and product marketing teams to understand the relative differences between

their own position and those of their key competitors.

This section examines features and benefits as well as the value propositions some vendors use to engage the

market. These will be of interest to marketing communications professionals who need to track competitive

movements in these areas. In addition these studies will help sales professionals who need to understand the

major thrust of their competitors sales approach. By understanding the key features and benefits a competitor

is likely to use when in front of a prospect, users of the REPAMA study will be better placed to build strategies

to compete.

Understanding the approach that a vendor takes to selling on value and the value propositions that areimportant to them is equally important. Gaining insight into the value that a competitor believes they provide to

their customers will allow REPAMA users to build similar or countering strategies.

Primaryfeature/benefit Whichfeaturesandbenefitsdoesthevendorascribetoitsproduct?

Interpretedfeature/benefit forcomparingmultiplevendorsusingarationalisedlistoffeaturesandbenefits

Valuepropositionapproach Howimportantisvaluebasedsellingtothevendor?

Primaryvalueproposition Whichvaluepropositionsdoesthe vendorfocuson?

Interpretedvalue

proposition

for

comparing

multiple

vendorsusingarationalisedlistofvaluepropositions

Usecases Whatusescanthetechnologybeputto?

Product


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Primary Feature/Benefit

What is this?

This study looks at the specific capabilities or elements of functionality that a vendor highlights in their outbound

marketing activities. Importantly this study uses the raw claimed features and benefits from each vendors

outbound marketing communication with little consolidation. Only where two vendors claim to have the same

or similar features would the MED diagram score two vendors as being present on a particular axis.

The related Interpreted Primary Feature/Benefit study below looks to consolidate multiple features/benefits so

that vendors can be more easily compared across their claimed product strengths.


The results of this study feed straight into the competitive product marketing process. Understanding where

each vendor in the segment is placing their bets and understanding their perspective on the relative importance

of the key features and benefits allows a vendor to compare and review their own priorities.

Figure 21 - Example Primary Feature/Benefit MED

In highly competitive situations in mature markets or in markets that are newly formed around some new

capability, it is likely that there will be a high degree of correlation between the vendors in the study.

The market mean can be important here in that it may reveal consensus amongst different vendors as to what

the key features and benefits are for a particular market segment. The chart does need a degree of

interpretation especially if a specific vendor is seen as dominating the segment. Understanding the priorities of

a market leading vendor and then implementing similar marketing claims might be a valid strategy. Equally a

REPAMA user may look to create clear differentiation between their claims and those of their key competitors.

Feature/benefit1

Feature/benefit2

Feature/benefit3

Feature/benefit4

Feature/benefit5

Feature/benefit6Feature/benefit7

Feature/benefit8

Feature/benefit9

Feature/benefit10

Feature/benefit11



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Interpreted Primary Feature/Benefit

What is this?

This is paired with the previous Primary Feature/Benefit study with one key difference. Here Lustratus attempts

to interpret the different feature/benefit combinations and consolidates them into a reduced list. For example, if

the Primary Feature/Benefit study showed categories of Bandwidth, Throughput and Capacity these might

all be consolidated into a single category called Performance. This makes it far easier to compare each

vendors key areas of focus.

Value Proposition Approach

What is this?

Here Lustratus attempts to infer how important value proposition based marketing and selling is to the vendor.

Lustratus draws a significant distinction between vendors who major on product features and those that

interpret the value that can be derived when an organisation implements solutions using those features.

Certain vendors market and sell based on the relative strengths and weaknesses of their own and other

vendors features and benefits. All marketing material and likely the sales teams strategy will be based around

winning the feature battle. The implication of such a strategy is that the vendor will likely be targeting IT

Technical contacts who care about feature sets. Another potential implication is that vendors who focus on

technical features will likely be selling into existing or planned projects. It is unlikely that addressing the IT

Technical audience constituent alone about specific features will result in new projects being created based

solely on this feature now being available. This vendor behaviour is characteristic of, but not solely limited to,

early market vendors.

The other type of vendor will understand the worth of selling based on the value they believe they can provide

their prospects. These vendors will take their features and interpret what these features, if put to use within a

prospect, would mean to that organisation. The target audience for vendors that sell on value within their

prospects would be different from the IT Technical community and would likely be the IT Business or even the

Business strata. This is because these two audience constituents are more interested in the results of the

product rather than how the project will be carried out.

It must be stressed that the two approaches are fundamentally different across most departments within a

vendors organisation, from product marketing, marketing communication, lead generation to the sales team

itself. Selling on value is philosophically different from selling on features and it requires a very different

organisational approach and structure.

Whilst these are the two main categories of vendors that the study looks to identify, a third category exists. This

is where a vendor, that actually sells on features to the IT Technical stratum will actually go to the effort ofinterpreting the value of their features and communicate this to the market. The difference lies in the fact that

such vendors will use the derived value to show some form of affinity for the business problems and needs that

a prospect may face. But significantly the sales effort will still major on features and will still focus on developing

interest at the IT Technical level.

This approach is evident in vendors who communicate to the IT Technical audience constituent as well as the

higher level audience strata who are more concerned about value. Lustratus categorises such vendors as

making a cursory commitment to value-based sales and marketing purely to demonstrate some form of affinity

with their prospects higher level pains. Lustratus suggests that these vendors may use value statements but it

is unlikely that it is central to their sales approach.


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The value of this study depends on the perspective of the vendor using the study. If the REPAMA user applies

value-based selling techniques then it can be valuable to understand how to unseat potential feature-focused

competitors by aiming higher in the organisation and selling based on value.

Figure 22 - Example Value Proposition Approach MED

If the REPAMA user is one that favours technical sales (features) then it may be valuable to understand which

competitors they compete with who will be selling against them at a higher level in the organisation using value-

based selling statements. It can also be used to understand which vendors sell based on value and then to

perhaps mimic their tactics to facilitate a move to value-based selling. Obviously, moving to a value-based

selling methodology is not simply a matter of changing marketing tactics. As mentioned above value-based

selling runs through the entire organisation and has significant impact in both the sales and marketing

organisations in particular.

Primary Value Proposition

What is this?

This study looks at the specific value that each vendor attributes to their product/solution in their outbound

marketing activities. This is different from the feature/benefit studies in that the vendor must translate a feature

or capability into the value that the prospect would enjoy in business terms.

Importantly, this study uses the claimed value propositions from each vendors outbound marketing

communication with little or no consolidation. Only where two vendors claim to deliver the same value would

the MED score two vendors as being present on a particular axis.

The related

Nospecific

value

proposition

approach

CursoryusetoshowaffinityIntegraltothesalesprocess



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Interpreted Value Proposition study below examines the vendors claims in detail and looks to consolidate

multiple value propositions so that vendors can be compared more easily across their claimed value.


Again, this study allows product marketing and sales teams to review their priorities against other vendors. If a

REPAMA user feels that a specific competitor has had recent sales success over them then this study mayprovide insight into how that competitor describes the value they provide. This may allow for these strategies to

be mimicked.

Figure 23 - Example Primary Value Proposition MED

It is important to remember that the likely commitment to value-based selling as seen in the Value Proposition

Approach study has an impact on the interpretation of this result. If the result of the Value Proposition

Approach study suggests that a vendor is simply using value to show affinity with the prospect, then the result

of this Primary Value Proposition study should be interpreted as such. If however a vendor is seen to use a

value-based approach as central to the sales process, then the results of both this study and the Interpreted

Value Proposition below for that vendor are particularly relevant.

Interpreted Value Proposition

What is this

This is paired with the previous Primary Value Proposition study with one key difference. Here Lustratus

attempts to interpret the different value statements made by the vendors in the study and then consolidates

them into a reduced list. For example, if the Primary Value Proposition study showed categories of Accuracy,

Quality and Reliability. These might all be consolidated into a single category called Reduced Risk. This

makes it far easier to compare each vendors key areas of value focus.

Valueproposition1

Valueproposition2

Valueproposition3

Valueproposition4

Valueproposition5Valueproposition6

Valueproposition7

Valueproposition8

Valueproposition9



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Use Cases

What is this?

This study uses each vendors suggested uses for their product/solution to build a picture of which products

are claimed to be suitable for which use cases. Importantly, an omission here does not suggest a lack of

suitability but rather the fact that the vendor does not specifically list the use case in their outbound marketing

communications.


This study allows a vendor to understand what area of use key competitors are claiming that their product

offering can be put to. This can be compared with internal strategies and any perceived competitive weakness

can be addressed.

Figure 24 - Example Use Cases MED

Usecase1

Usecase2

Usecase

3

Usecase4

Usecase

5

Usecase6



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Depositioning focus

What is this?

The depositioning focus study attempts to identify how each vendor categorises their main competition or what

they perceive is the main alternative to their proposition. The vendor may explicitly or implicitly direct negative

attention towards an alternative. If they do it may suggest that the vendor fears this alternative and that

overcoming it, and ensuring that their prospects know that they are superior, is key to sales success. This may

be a specific competitor or simply an alternative way of doing things.


Figure 25 Example Depositioning focus MED

Understanding which alternative(s) a specific vendor fears is a key piece of competitive intelligence. If a vendor

cares enough to use marketing copy to attempt to damage a competitor or alternative approach then this

suggests that there may be a weakness that they are attempting to cover. At the very least it would suggest

that the vendor expects to meet that competitor in sales situations and that the competitor has a credible offersuch that it is worth spending time and effort damaging them. If the user of the REPAMA report is named as a

feared competitor then it is possible to research the nature of the depositioning tactics and build competitive

strategies that reduce the damage. For example, if a vendor attempted to deposition Competitor A by

questioning whether Competitor As product can perform under certain conditions, then it would be possible for

Competitor A to produce marketing collateral and perhaps even external testimony that proves that their

product does indeed perform under those conditions.

Depositioningfocus1

Depositioning

focus

2

Depositioningfocus3

Depositioningfocus4

Depositioningfocus5

Depositioning

focus

6



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Differentiation strategy

What is this?

This study attempts to identify the approach that each vendor takes to differentiation. Broken down into the

categories shown in the table below, the question being answered here is What does the vendor attribute its

superiority to?.

Element Detai lOrganisat ional The claimed differentiation lies with the company itself age, experience, stability,

track record, etc.

Technical/Funct ional Differentiation is about the product, features, functionality, capacity, speed, etc.

Service The human skills that the company provides, its ability to provide quality service to itscustomers

Holist ic No single thing differentiates the company, instead it is a combination of the above.Not present No evidence is provided for a specific differentiation strategy.

Table 3 Differentiation strategies


Figure 26 Example differentiation strategy MED

In the diagram above we can see that Vendor 3 believes that it is differentiated in the market by its services

strategy and also, to a lesser extent its technical/functional capability. Vendor 1 believes that its differentiation

comes from the technical capabilities of its products whereas Vendor 2 feels that a combination of factors

differentiate it in the market.

Notpresent

Organisational

Technical/FunctionalServices

Holistic



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Building a competitive strategy against a vendor based on their differentiation strategy would involve either

attempting to undermine their claimed strengths or bolstering ones own capabilities in that area.

Perceived threat

What is this?The perceived threat study looks to identify which, if any, of the other vendors in the study are apparently

perceived as a threat. This is similar to the depositioning focus study above but here the result is limited to only

the other vendors in the study whereas the depositioning focus study identifies any external threat that the

vendor apparently fears. In addition to the other vendors in the study two other categories are supplied.

Implicit/Explicit all suggests that either implicitly or explicitly all of the vendors in the study are perceived

threats. Other suggests that the perceived threat comes from a vendor that is not part of this study.


Figure 27 Example perceived threat MED

In Figure 27 Example perceived threat MED diagram above we can see that the majority of the vendors in the

study apparently feel that vendors 2 and 3 are the main threats. Only Vendor 3 in the study believes that Vendor

5 is a threat to them.

Competitive strategies here are similar to that of the Depositioning Strategy Study above.

Vendor1

Vendor2

Vendor3

Vendor4

Vendor5

Vendor6

Other

Impliedall



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Reverse Engineered Positioning Statement

What is this?

This section of the study covers the reverse engineered positioning statement and positioning matrix.

Positioning is the discipline of placing a product or an organisation in a unique space in a prospects mind.

Ideally the prospect will feel that the product has been engineered uniquely to address his or her specific needs.

The positioning statement is usually an internal tool that the vendor uses to capture the positioning focus for a

product. Lustratus reverse engineers a vendors positioning statement from their outbound marketing

communication to succinctly capture in one place their approach to the market.

The positioning statement is a natural language sentence that captures the following strategic marketing

elements:

The ideal customer Their specific pain, need or desire The name of the product and the product category The main benefit or capability of the product The primary alternative of competitor The unique selling proposition for the product.

Whilst there are many varieties of positioning statement, Lustratus favours the following format and structure:

FO R ideal customer descriptionWHO has this specif ic pain, need or desire

OUR productIS A product categoryTHAT PROVIDESthis main benefit or cap abil ity

UNLIKEthis primary alternative or co mpetitorOUR PRODUCT has this unique sel l ing proposition.

Figure 28 - Typical Positioning Statement Structure

Reverse engineering an accurate positioning statement from the way that a vendor addresses its prospects is

not a precise science but the results can be quite rewarding. It is particularly useful for gaining a high level

snapshot of a vendors marketing strategy. The positioning statement will provide most of the significant

marketing elements that the vendor will use to convince prospects and to compete against other vendors. As

such this is a useful tool to use with sales and marketing teams who need a succinct summary of the way aspecific vendor addresses a market.

It is important to realise that the positioning statement is an internal tool used to convey a vendors strategy to

internal stakeholders. The positioning statement is never usually communicated externally in a raw state but the

essence will be embodied within everything the vendor does to address the market. The positioning statement

is taken by the various elements of the marketing and sales teams and is turned into collateral, marketing

communications, press releases, sales presentations, etc.


Taken as a whole the reverse engineered positioning statement is useful for reference and high level competitive

training. Understanding each of the separate 7 elements of the Lustratus reverse engineered positioning


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statement and how they should be used will probably be the

Documents

The Lustratus REPAMA Guide (1.10 Scribd)