How to Escape the Startup Trough of Sorrow(briefmix.com)
briefmix.com
How to Escape the Startup Trough of Sorrow
https://www.briefmix.com/startup/positioning
6 comments
Yes and no - I think you're thinking of very early stage startups that are still looking for PMF (which indeed is also a big reason why many are in the Trough of Sorrow). But the Trough of Sorrow can come at many points during a company's lifetime, not only in the very beginning.
In my experience, many companies that are still startups hit a growth stall later on, let's say 3 years after launch, maybe even 10 years after launch - at this point it can be very valuable to look at positioning.
In my experience, many companies that are still startups hit a growth stall later on, let's say 3 years after launch, maybe even 10 years after launch - at this point it can be very valuable to look at positioning.
I agree about evaluate positioning 3 yrs in, assuming you’ve hit PMF.
But as long as you have PMF in a big market, there is no trough of sorrow. These two things are mutually exclusive, and if you have the sorrow, you do not have PMF.
I say that as someone who has lived both at the extremes.
Fwiw, PMF is not an end state. It’s like riding a bronco. When you have it, you may feel fear, but never sorrow.
But as long as you have PMF in a big market, there is no trough of sorrow. These two things are mutually exclusive, and if you have the sorrow, you do not have PMF.
I say that as someone who has lived both at the extremes.
Fwiw, PMF is not an end state. It’s like riding a bronco. When you have it, you may feel fear, but never sorrow.
I think it depends on how you define trough of sorrow, there are many versions this phenomenon can manifest. In a company I consulted, they had PMF in one segment but the segment was to small to generate quite serious growth - hence they hit a trough / growth stall. While going after a more lucrative segment, competitors started to catch up - diminishing profit from the original segment as well.
Turned out positioning was the problem - they still had PMF in both segments, the issue was that they were not able to communicate what they offered properly, leading to leads choosing competitors instead. Changing their comms put them back on track.
Turned out positioning was the problem - they still had PMF in both segments, the issue was that they were not able to communicate what they offered properly, leading to leads choosing competitors instead. Changing their comms put them back on track.
In addition to the 4 Cs of marketing, I would look at Porter's 5 forces and make an industry analysis:
Competitive Rivalry
Supplier Power
Buyer Power
Threat of Substitution
Threat of New Entry
(There's also a sixth force, complementary products)
I think these also tie in nicely with an analysis of where the best profit pools exist within the value chain. Apple makes more profit selling an iPhone than Foxconn because its position in the value chain has a more favorable 5 forces situation: a much lower threat of substitution, lower supplier/buyer power, lower threat of new entry etc.
You can have great brand positioning and never make a dime. Example: Uber. A dominant brand with universal recognition, which has done nothing but lose money. They'll never make money because their supplier power, buyer power, and threat of substitution are impossibly high. They're caught between their suppliers' (drivers') price demands and their buyers' (riders') prices sensitivity.
Competitive Rivalry
Supplier Power
Buyer Power
Threat of Substitution
Threat of New Entry
(There's also a sixth force, complementary products)
I think these also tie in nicely with an analysis of where the best profit pools exist within the value chain. Apple makes more profit selling an iPhone than Foxconn because its position in the value chain has a more favorable 5 forces situation: a much lower threat of substitution, lower supplier/buyer power, lower threat of new entry etc.
You can have great brand positioning and never make a dime. Example: Uber. A dominant brand with universal recognition, which has done nothing but lose money. They'll never make money because their supplier power, buyer power, and threat of substitution are impossibly high. They're caught between their suppliers' (drivers') price demands and their buyers' (riders') prices sensitivity.
Great framework and points - can see if I can incorporate some of it in the blog. Thanks for reading!
Interesting read. I'd be curious to see examples of companies that change their positioning every 5 years, vs those that are able to nail a long-term position.
Your example of "Enjoy the silence" sounds more like a tagline than a positioning statement.
This is so easy to also get confused with Mission statements.
I was thinking "Organizing the world's information" was Google's positioning statement, but that's their mission statement.
Other articles get this confused as well [1]. From what I understand, the positioning statement should be more of a "for [customer] we [do the thing] so they can [be the person]"
https://brandstruck.co/blog-post/positioning-three-valuable-...
Your example of "Enjoy the silence" sounds more like a tagline than a positioning statement.
This is so easy to also get confused with Mission statements.
I was thinking "Organizing the world's information" was Google's positioning statement, but that's their mission statement.
Other articles get this confused as well [1]. From what I understand, the positioning statement should be more of a "for [customer] we [do the thing] so they can [be the person]"
https://brandstruck.co/blog-post/positioning-three-valuable-...
Thanks for reading! And good idea - will see if I can add a few examples to the article. And you're right - it is very much like a tagline.
I worked at agencies that preferred the catchy tagline approach even for strategy statements (arguing they work better as jumping off points for creatives) as well as places that had more of a strategy structure - yours is a really good and classic template. Another popular one is the "get-to-by" structure, credited to the BBDO agency.
A lot of brands use mission/vision/brand idea/positioning/tagline statements interchangeably, for better or worse - there are no rules in strategy though so you kind of just have to go with what works best for your company.
I worked at agencies that preferred the catchy tagline approach even for strategy statements (arguing they work better as jumping off points for creatives) as well as places that had more of a strategy structure - yours is a really good and classic template. Another popular one is the "get-to-by" structure, credited to the BBDO agency.
A lot of brands use mission/vision/brand idea/positioning/tagline statements interchangeably, for better or worse - there are no rules in strategy though so you kind of just have to go with what works best for your company.
(Very) OT: I would hazard a guess the striking phrase in the title originates (indirectly if not intentionally by the author) from "Slough of Despond" in The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slough_of_Despond
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/131
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slough_of_Despond
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/131
And to add on to this, here is where I got the image in the blog post :) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=173261
Oh I thought it was referencing the SaaS "ramp of death" from https://baremetrics.com/blog/long-slow-saas-ramp-of-death. Shows how much interpretations can change based on what you've already heard of I guess. :)
Author here - thank you all for reading. Happy to discuss any points in the article and answer any questions. Also, feel free to check out the other articles in the series!
The article is well written and I like the concrete examples, but I feel it cut off early before really telling me anything interesting, particularly answering the question raised in the title. "Trough of Sorrow" is not even defined in the article besides a quick allusion to stalled growth, instead linking to a Forbes article which itself is apparently a rehashing of yet other blog posts. Maybe that is because the target audience is expected to know the concept already.
Honestly it feels like you got me on the hook then withhold the promised info just to drive subscriptions. Which I guess proves some marketing skill! I didn't actually subscribe though, but I wasn't likely to be a good lead anyway.
Honestly it feels like you got me on the hook then withhold the promised info just to drive subscriptions. Which I guess proves some marketing skill! I didn't actually subscribe though, but I wasn't likely to be a good lead anyway.
Haha fair enough! I think you're right, I'll update the article with more of a definition of "Trough of Sorrow". This is my first blog project and I find it hard to know how much to include in one post vs. what to split out into several modules. It is not my intention to withhold info to drive subscriptions, I just haven't had time to write it all yet! Going with the launch fast, even though the product is not complete heh.
For now, the below is what I've laid out as the plan for the blog. So hopefully it will all be covered when you can click through the blogs, one after another:
1.01 - Objectives, KPIs and the effectiveness framework - Map how your marketing efforts will add commercial value to your balance sheet by driving behavioural change.
1.02 - Branding fundamentals - A quick overview that explains the basics of branding and brand positioning.
1.03 - Target Audience - How firms like Bain & McKinsey help Fortune 500 companies create a segmentation and find their ideal target customer.
1.04 - Research & the 4 C's of marketing - How to conduct research to form the basis of your brand positioning.
1.05 - Consumer - Dig deeper into your segments and develop an audience persona.
1.06 - Competition - How to conduct a robust competitor audit to reveal whitespaces in the market.
1.07 - Culture - An introduction into trends research - how to put your finger on the pulse of culture and discover micro, medio and macro trends in society.
1.08 - Company - There are always insights to gain from looking into the history of a company. What can we learn about the founding days?
1.09 - Positioning Statement - How to craft a unique brand or product positioning statement to keep your marketing activities consistent and clear.
1.10 - Manifesto, Visual Identity & TOV - Express what and who your brand represents by creating a manifesto, visual identity and tone-of-voice.
-
Brand Definition 2.01 - Defining a Brand - Learn how to structure your positioning work, expand it, simplify it and make it "production-ready" to be used as the foundation for all your marketing and communication efforts.
2.02 - Brand Architecture - We’ll define a system to organize your brand(s), product(s) and service(s) to help your audience access and relate to your portfolio.
2.03 - Brand Purpose - Define your brand's reason for being and what you stand for - allowing your brand to connect with consumers (and employees) on an emotional level.
2.04 - Values & Behaviours - Define a set of guiding principles to shape every aspect of your business and dictate your brand message and personality.
2.05 - Additional Brand Attributes - What other attributes and tools can we use to define our brand?
2.06 - RTBs & Proof Points - What are “Reasons-to-believe” and how do you choose which ones to prioritise?
2.07 - Brand Book & Visual Guidelines - How to create a document that sets distinct guidelines for maintaining brand identity across all aspects of your business.
-
Brand Campaign 3.01 - Introduction to advertising campaigns - How to create a strategy designed for a specific business objective (eg. to strengthen a brand, launch a product or steal market share).
3.02 - The Consumer Journey - Understand your customer’s purchase journey and the experiences they go through when interacting with your brand, from awareness to purchase and loyalty.
3.03 - Comms architecture - How to plan your marketing tactics and deliver comms to consumers at the right moment in their buying cycle.
3.04 - The Creative Brief - Create succinct documents outlining the strategy for a creative project which can be provided to partners such as copywriters, designers, film producers and web developers.
-
Brand Media Strategy 4.01 - Introduction to Media Strategy - Why it's important to choose the right marketing channels for your business and how to find the perfect ones for you in a sea of options.
4.02 - Media Plan - Create a campaign media plan to deliver your ad message via the right channels and increase conversions in an effective manner, at low cost.
4.03 - Channel strategy - Strategies for specific channels and approaches to figure them out (eg. TV, Google Ads, Billboards, SEO, Social Media, Apps, Email, PR).
4.04 - KPIs & measurement - Learn how to define KPIs and create a measurement strategy to understand campaign performance and inform adjustments to current tactics.
4.05 - Branding 101 Conclusion - Summary of what we've done and where to go next.
For now, the below is what I've laid out as the plan for the blog. So hopefully it will all be covered when you can click through the blogs, one after another:
1.01 - Objectives, KPIs and the effectiveness framework - Map how your marketing efforts will add commercial value to your balance sheet by driving behavioural change.
1.02 - Branding fundamentals - A quick overview that explains the basics of branding and brand positioning.
1.03 - Target Audience - How firms like Bain & McKinsey help Fortune 500 companies create a segmentation and find their ideal target customer.
1.04 - Research & the 4 C's of marketing - How to conduct research to form the basis of your brand positioning.
1.05 - Consumer - Dig deeper into your segments and develop an audience persona.
1.06 - Competition - How to conduct a robust competitor audit to reveal whitespaces in the market.
1.07 - Culture - An introduction into trends research - how to put your finger on the pulse of culture and discover micro, medio and macro trends in society.
1.08 - Company - There are always insights to gain from looking into the history of a company. What can we learn about the founding days?
1.09 - Positioning Statement - How to craft a unique brand or product positioning statement to keep your marketing activities consistent and clear.
1.10 - Manifesto, Visual Identity & TOV - Express what and who your brand represents by creating a manifesto, visual identity and tone-of-voice.
-
Brand Definition 2.01 - Defining a Brand - Learn how to structure your positioning work, expand it, simplify it and make it "production-ready" to be used as the foundation for all your marketing and communication efforts.
2.02 - Brand Architecture - We’ll define a system to organize your brand(s), product(s) and service(s) to help your audience access and relate to your portfolio.
2.03 - Brand Purpose - Define your brand's reason for being and what you stand for - allowing your brand to connect with consumers (and employees) on an emotional level.
2.04 - Values & Behaviours - Define a set of guiding principles to shape every aspect of your business and dictate your brand message and personality.
2.05 - Additional Brand Attributes - What other attributes and tools can we use to define our brand?
2.06 - RTBs & Proof Points - What are “Reasons-to-believe” and how do you choose which ones to prioritise?
2.07 - Brand Book & Visual Guidelines - How to create a document that sets distinct guidelines for maintaining brand identity across all aspects of your business.
-
Brand Campaign 3.01 - Introduction to advertising campaigns - How to create a strategy designed for a specific business objective (eg. to strengthen a brand, launch a product or steal market share).
3.02 - The Consumer Journey - Understand your customer’s purchase journey and the experiences they go through when interacting with your brand, from awareness to purchase and loyalty.
3.03 - Comms architecture - How to plan your marketing tactics and deliver comms to consumers at the right moment in their buying cycle.
3.04 - The Creative Brief - Create succinct documents outlining the strategy for a creative project which can be provided to partners such as copywriters, designers, film producers and web developers.
-
Brand Media Strategy 4.01 - Introduction to Media Strategy - Why it's important to choose the right marketing channels for your business and how to find the perfect ones for you in a sea of options.
4.02 - Media Plan - Create a campaign media plan to deliver your ad message via the right channels and increase conversions in an effective manner, at low cost.
4.03 - Channel strategy - Strategies for specific channels and approaches to figure them out (eg. TV, Google Ads, Billboards, SEO, Social Media, Apps, Email, PR).
4.04 - KPIs & measurement - Learn how to define KPIs and create a measurement strategy to understand campaign performance and inform adjustments to current tactics.
4.05 - Branding 101 Conclusion - Summary of what we've done and where to go next.
Looking forward to the continuation of this article!
Thank you! Working on the "Consumer" module as we speak
Achim from AirGradient here. Just a few days ago we started disucussing in more detail our "branding" strategy for our Open Source Air Quality Monitors [1]. So your whole series of topics is very helpful for us.
I already read a few of the other topics on your site and I like them very much but missing a bit of the following.
Authenticity.
This is hugely important for us internally as well as how we want to be seen externally. We started as a volunteer project in Northern Thailand building Air Quality Monitors with students during the so called "burning season". This still defines us four years later massively, e.g. in the respect that our air quality monitors are open-hardware and we support many educational and environmental justice organisations. We make sure that every decision we take reflects our ethos. I believe this not only applies to us but that some of the most powerful brands are very much built on REAL authenticity (and stick to it!), examples can be Patagonia, Adafruit, Hackernews, etc. Your article makes it a bit like companies can just pick every few years what they stand for. I'm not so sure if that is a good idea.
Controversy, Contrast, Positive vs Negative Messaging.
It could be great if you could write a bit on above. This is also an area where we struggle and are unsure to what extent we should for example directly call-out our competitors that engage in consumer unfriendly business practises (e.g. monetizing the air quality data that your own monitor collects). Currently we try to keep it "we" focused but the activist in me sometimes would love to be much more direct, see e.g. for a 'we' focused blog post on this topic [2].
Increase Reach in Creative Ways.
I think one of our biggest challenge at AirGradient currently is how we can get more visibility and get more people know about our open hardware monitors. Being a small company, we have very limited budget for paid advertisement. We also much rather donate our air quality monitors to disadvantaged communities than paying Google or Facebook for clicks. So it would be great if you could cover that topic also a bit.
Be more Specific.
I also would like to underline what another poster wrote that it feels the topics could get a bit deeper. Why not share some actual worksheets, questionnaires, specific metrics, etc. At the moment it's not clear what the purpose of these documents are. Is it a way for you to attract clients or you just want to get all your knowledge out there.
Anyway, I think you are building up a great resource and I already subscribed to it and looking forward to the next articles. Keep up the good work!
[1] https://www.airgradient.com/
[2] https://www.airgradient.com/blog/hidden-costs-of-air-quality...
I already read a few of the other topics on your site and I like them very much but missing a bit of the following.
Authenticity.
This is hugely important for us internally as well as how we want to be seen externally. We started as a volunteer project in Northern Thailand building Air Quality Monitors with students during the so called "burning season". This still defines us four years later massively, e.g. in the respect that our air quality monitors are open-hardware and we support many educational and environmental justice organisations. We make sure that every decision we take reflects our ethos. I believe this not only applies to us but that some of the most powerful brands are very much built on REAL authenticity (and stick to it!), examples can be Patagonia, Adafruit, Hackernews, etc. Your article makes it a bit like companies can just pick every few years what they stand for. I'm not so sure if that is a good idea.
Controversy, Contrast, Positive vs Negative Messaging.
It could be great if you could write a bit on above. This is also an area where we struggle and are unsure to what extent we should for example directly call-out our competitors that engage in consumer unfriendly business practises (e.g. monetizing the air quality data that your own monitor collects). Currently we try to keep it "we" focused but the activist in me sometimes would love to be much more direct, see e.g. for a 'we' focused blog post on this topic [2].
Increase Reach in Creative Ways.
I think one of our biggest challenge at AirGradient currently is how we can get more visibility and get more people know about our open hardware monitors. Being a small company, we have very limited budget for paid advertisement. We also much rather donate our air quality monitors to disadvantaged communities than paying Google or Facebook for clicks. So it would be great if you could cover that topic also a bit.
Be more Specific.
I also would like to underline what another poster wrote that it feels the topics could get a bit deeper. Why not share some actual worksheets, questionnaires, specific metrics, etc. At the moment it's not clear what the purpose of these documents are. Is it a way for you to attract clients or you just want to get all your knowledge out there.
Anyway, I think you are building up a great resource and I already subscribed to it and looking forward to the next articles. Keep up the good work!
[1] https://www.airgradient.com/
[2] https://www.airgradient.com/blog/hidden-costs-of-air-quality...
Thanks for reading Achim! Yes, you bring up some good points - if they are important for your company you can definitely add them as layers to your research.
Authenticity - I would categorise this as a "Value pillar" that you can bring up under your "Company" section of your 4C research. If it is a core value of your company.
Increase Reach in Creative Ways - Will definitely write about this, but it will be part of the media strategy section of the series!
Controversy, Contrast - I'd put this in the "Culture" section of the 4C's, as it has to do with culture and trends.
Positive vs Negative Messaging - I think this might be more related to tactics which comes a bit later in the series when talking about developing ad campaigns. But yes, it's definitely an interesting topic - it kind of depends on how you want to be seen. Is your positioning work about being a leader in the space? Then I would not call-out our competitors, a leader does not compare themselves. Are you the disruptor? Then yes, call-out our competitors! But agreed, this can be an entire post of its own, thanks for the feedback!
Be more Specific. - I will write an entire post on every one of the 4C's as well as continuing the series so will cover more of it there - but good idea about the worksheets, questionnaires, specific metrics etc, will see what I can do there :)
Authenticity - I would categorise this as a "Value pillar" that you can bring up under your "Company" section of your 4C research. If it is a core value of your company.
Increase Reach in Creative Ways - Will definitely write about this, but it will be part of the media strategy section of the series!
Controversy, Contrast - I'd put this in the "Culture" section of the 4C's, as it has to do with culture and trends.
Positive vs Negative Messaging - I think this might be more related to tactics which comes a bit later in the series when talking about developing ad campaigns. But yes, it's definitely an interesting topic - it kind of depends on how you want to be seen. Is your positioning work about being a leader in the space? Then I would not call-out our competitors, a leader does not compare themselves. Are you the disruptor? Then yes, call-out our competitors! But agreed, this can be an entire post of its own, thanks for the feedback!
Be more Specific. - I will write an entire post on every one of the 4C's as well as continuing the series so will cover more of it there - but good idea about the worksheets, questionnaires, specific metrics etc, will see what I can do there :)
Most startups’ problem is they often don’t have any customers at all, and don’t know how to find them. Many of them started with a tech solution and went searching for a problem.