Have you ever opened a "Brand Guide" hoping for a lot of really useful information only to find that it is nothing more than the corporate specs for the company's logo, fonts, and color scheme? But a company's brand is so much more than that. It's the promise the company is making to customers, employees, and the marketplace. It's communicated by the words, images, and actions used by the company. So where does "brand" end and "messaging" begin anyway? Rather than worrying about where to draw the line, I suggest you put together a single, comprehensive "Messaging & Brand Bible". Or "Brand & Messaging Encyclopedia" if you prefer because, yes, this sucker will be long. A good 30-60 slides at least. But there are major benefits to putting together this giant document, if for no other reason than the process of doing so forces you to get really, really clear and organized about both your corporate-level and product-level messaging. That way you can: * Drive consistency across all your content - web, print, PDF, sales enablement, business partners, even technical documentation * Save you and your team a lot of time in writing future press releases, datasheets, white papers, etc. with everything all in one handy place * Reduce the inevitable chaos around product launches with one place to review and update existing messaging that different team members can then easily replicate out to their areas * Get your money's worth from the outside agencies and co-marketing partners you work with, while spending less time getting them "up to speed" * Enable your more junior marketing staff, or those outside of traditional content creation roles, to contribute material that supports your overall brand and product messaging

1. A Comprehensive Resource For Corporate Branding,
Messaging, and Positioning
4/27/20151
[YourCompany] Messaging Bible

2. MARKET OVERVIEW
2

3. Market Overview
3
Description
• What markets the company participates
• How those markets are related to each
other
• Critical market drivers
• Notable market characteristics
• This is higher level than individual
products in the portfolio
Systems/Security
Management
Desktop
Virtualization
(VDI)
Enterprise
Mobility
Mgmt (EMM)
Enterprise File
Sync & Sharing
(EFSS)
YOUR
LOGO
HERE

4. Customer Challenges
4
Enterprise
Infrastructure
• High mobility &
intermittent
connectivity
• Slow network links
• Image storage &
distribution
Windows
Container
Management
• Users are off
network, on
untrusted hosts,
with no VPN
Unmanaged Hosts
• Hardware &
software diversity
• Unknown security
posture
• Data leakage
controls
Image
Management
• Software
distribution
• Patch
management
• SLA compliance
Key Customer Challenges
End User Experience
What challenges are causing customers to purchase
technology solutions in [YourCompany]’s key markets?

5. CORPORATE MESSAGING
5

6. What we do
6
[Company] 140 character description
Tagline
App App App App

7. Corporate Descriptions
7
 50Word
 200Word
 500 “About Us”

8. BRANDING
8

9. Brand Guide
9
 Typical Brand Guide material
 Logo allowed / disallowed usage
 Colors
 Fonts
 Should be provided by existing agency

10. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO
4/27/201510

11. Portfolio Overview
11
Graphic that illustrates product
portfolio, highest level benefits,
and capabilities
(a.k.a. “marketechture”)

12. Strategic Messaging Map
Customer Drivers
Driver 1
Driver 2
Driver 3
Use Cases
Use Case 1
Use Case 2
Use Case 3
Use Case 4
Use Case 5
Use Case 7
Use Case 6
Benefits
Benefit 1
Benefit 2
Benefit 7
Benefit 8
Benefit 6
Benefit 3
Benefit 5
Use Case 8
Benefit 4

13. Target Industries
13
Oil & Gas Finance Legal & Professional
Services
Manufacturing Technology Higher
Education
Nearly EVERY B2B company claims FSI & HC, but what
is reality based on historical revenue and current pipeline.
Complete honesty is critical here.

14. Target Roles
14
Buyers
• CIO /VP IT
• Director IT
• LOBVP
Influencers
• CISO / CSO /VP
Security
• Systems Architect
POC/ImplementationTeam
• Network /VPN
Architect
• Systems Analyst
• Desktop
Administrator
• SecurityAnalyst
• Help Desk
Technician
• Server
Administrator
• Database
Administrator
• End Users
Same as before, complete honesty is critical for success
here. You can’t focus on everyone.

15. Personas (Buyer, Influencer, User)

16. Competitive Landscape
16
Gartner MQ(s) if you have them, or
other visual representation of key
competitors and their overall relative
strength compared to [YourCompany]

17. Key Differentiators by Competitor Type
17
Systems/Security
Management
Desktop
Virtualization
(VDI)
Enterprise
Mobility
Mgmt (EMM)
Enterprise File
Sync & Sharing
(EFSS)
1. User & data centric, not device mgmt
2. Dual / multi persona gives easy access to
multiple environments at once
3. [Company] uses a “next gen” virtualized
approach that enables the use cases of today
and tomorrow, not yesterday
4. Simple OS migration & preservation
1. Offline access to workspace
2. Mobile & remote workers’ user experience
over low bandwidth / high latency
connections
3. Scalability & flexible infrastructure
4. TCO
1. Windows not designed for
mobile, multi-persona world, not
a simple thing to adapt EMM to
PCs
2. Flexible infrastructure capable of
handling the large file sizes of a
Windows world across corporate
networks
1. [Company] can leverage
whatever technology the
customer wants to sync files
across containers and devices
May need to have separate slides for
each product / product line

18. DETAILS: USE CASES
18

19. Detailed Mapping of Drivers, Use Cases, & Targeted Benefits
Customer Drivers
Simplified
Management
Use Cases
ShortTerm Projects
Labs & Kiosks
Targeted Benefits
Fast, Easy On/Off-boarding
Business Enablement
OpEx Cost Reduction
Eliminate IT Mgmt & Security
Tools

20. Use Case 1: Title
Supporting Features
20





Detailed scenario description that ties in the key benefits, customer type (size, industry, user group, etc.),
focus products, and a story that will resonate with the target audience

21. DETAILS: INDUSTRIES
21

22. Industry 1: Title
Supporting Features
22





Detailed industry description that ties in the key benefits and products, industry size, growth statistics, and
other relevant details.

23. PRODUCT MESSAGING
23

24. Product 1
24
 140 Character Description
 50Word Description
 200Word Description
 “Trading Card” Stats:
 TargetAudience
 Market(s) / Market share
 Target Industry(ies), if any
 Key Competitors
 Top 3 Features
 Top 3 Benefits
 Key tech partnerships / integrations, if any

25. [Company] Dictionary
4/27/201525
[Company] | enterprise software company
Company Name
Do Not Use Externally:[Company] misspellings,nicknames
[Company] | product
Product Name
Do Not Use Externally:misspellings,nicknames,generic industry terms,synonyms
[Company] | component
Component Name
Do Not Use Externally:misspellings,nicknames,generic industry terms,synonyms
Optional, but good for driving
consistency across content, web, social,
Sales, product doc, and UI if the
organization commits to actively using.