Death to Bland brands: Developing a strong POV that is worth fighting for | MarteCh -Zone

UVP for POV

One of the staples of Marketing 101 is the concept of one Unique value proposition (UVP). Usually we are told to make a UVP in these lines:

• What you do
• For whom you do it
• How you do it differently or better than everyone else

Because it is marketing, and there is never only one way to do anything, you have probably seen other variations of this. For example the Steve empty method First focuses on the consumer benefits that are derived from product characteristics, instead of the functions themselves. This method is brought to life by following a formula that connects the target market and their pain points with the solution:

We help (x) do (y) by doing (z).

UVPs can be a basic framework for expressing the core existence of a company, but that does not mean that we have to neglect them as social marketers. I know it is much more fun to talk about new platform functions, viral and involvement, but we can do the marketing In marketing on social media. And UVPs, regardless of whether you refer them in this way or not, must be baked in everything a company does. This is especially the case on social media, where it can be so tempting to deviate from what we sell and who buys it in pursuing attention.

I think that the framing of your UVP via the Steve Blank Formula is a better practice for social first brands, because it first focuses on the consumer benefits, above what the company does. For our purposes in this chapter are specific, UVPs are important because they are a building block for our social first POVs. Only once they are in place and understood can we continue by determining the points from which we will do our view.

However, there is another thing you can do to bridge the UVP to your POV. I recommend giving a small turn to a content perspective from a content perspective by creating an empathy statement from the audience. Just like how we put consumer benefits first in our UVP, an empathy statement of the public places the desires of our audience above ours. Here is a simple exercise to make one.

The export of this exercise must be a concise explanation.

Our audience wants ___________ and our content helps them by ___________.

Depending on your brand, this does not have to be too serious explanation. For example, if you sell razors and razor blades and you have established that your audience wants a fast mental escape from their day online, you could very well be careful about something like:

Our audience wants a mental escape from their day, and our content helps them by providing the most uniquely entertaining content on this side of the bathroom door.

With the UVP and the public empathy statement in place, you should have something for you that reflects an empathic worldview. By putting the audience in the first place – and your desires in second place – you have an easier time to earn their attention and connect them with them. Don’t show people what you want them to see. Show them what they want to view.

Death and murder: how to develop a strong POV

Based on my experiences with working with brands around the world, most have never officially documented their POV or have a lukewarm version that tries to take care of everyone. My working theory is that this is not a fault of the brands themselves; It is usually a symptom of all the tools that a brand has to understand themselves.

These tools are great for making things such as logos, colors and brand values ​​that go into brand guidelines, but they are not so good at helping brands to become social first and put a POV on topics of the world around them. It is no surprise that so many brands refer to their guidelines as the Bible of the brand. Your brand can feel a religion when it’s all about you, all the beautiful things that embodies your brand and how great you are.

For the brand strategists and designers who read this, rest assured, I don’t come for your brand guidelines. They are important internal systems to think about the perception of the brand, and every brand should have them. But to become social first, a brand must learn to think than the perception of itself to perceive the external world around it. And this is where our POV comes in.

A POV is about an opinion or a series of opinions around the world. We already know the opinions of a brand about its products without having to say it: They are the best products. And we know the opinion that the brand has about itself: We are the best brand. Instead of wasting someone’s time on these points, brands have to draw on their wider experiences to communicate their views on things outside the brand bell.

How we do this is fairly simple. To one Social first POVYou need these three things:

1. An understanding of the audience with whom you speak
2. A topic in which you have a credible experience
3. A unique opinion or series of opinions that challenge the status quo of that subject

Together these three things give us an audience, a subject and unique beliefs. But where many brands are failing, it says in the third. Having an audience and a credible subject, but not expressing our own unique points of view leads to uninteresting brands and boring content. I call this ‘newspaper social’ because it is about as exciting as reading.

We have started this process with our UVP and target group Empathy statement, so now I want you to start to imagine the ideal future state of any sector you are. Luffiness is the enemy of a compelling POV, so we want to eliminate it from the leap by courageously claiming who or what it is that we want to challenge.

But before challenging the world for fists, there are two important limitations to remember about sharing opinions:

• The more experience and authority you have about a certain subject, the easier it is to share credible opinions;
• The more you are willing to challenge the status quo (specifically if it relates to your area of ​​expertise), the more interesting your opinions become.

At the first point – credibility – it is a universal truth that the more personal experience someone has, the more relevant their position. For example, if two of your friends consult you on the housing market and the Thuisbuying, but one has never had a house and the other recently bought a house for the second time, you better listen to the last one. Because their opinion is more emphatic. But let’s say that the first friend works in local politics and the elections of the city is coming, while the second friend works in something that is not related to a local sports team. What friend does the more credible position about the inner functioning of local elections? It is sufficient to say that the more experience someone has, the greater the chance that others will listen.

To illustrate both points in Brandland, let’s take a look at Liquid Death, a social first brand with a value of more than $ 1 billion that canned water, Seltzer and iced tea sells. If you are not familiar with liquid death, the unique brand name was intentional, like the company Murder you thirsty in a healthy way while you also bring Death of plastics By packing everything in recyclable aluminum cans.

If you are a brand that sells water, you will have opinions about drinks because you have credible experiences here. And if you sell that water in aluminum cans, while all others use plastic bottles of water, then your POV that challenges the status quo of plastic for one-time use is pretty interesting and unique.

In the case of Liquid Death, they experience something daily on a scale – healthy drinks in recyclable cans – and that experience gives them the authority to talk about it and to have a position. What the brand says when it comes to drinks, water or plastic for one -time use, is then the view from which they show. And when it comes to liquid death, you are almost guaranteed a treat.

From the burning skull images that they use as a symbol in their mission to kill thirst and plastics, to their heavy metal inspired taste names such as severed lime and mango chainsaw, liquid death is not afraid to let you know how they see the world. And in a category full of brands that have traditionally all run the same generic playbook by signaling, the use of irreverent humor of Liquid Death is really refreshing. The position of the brand is made credible by their experiences, and their rebellious and playful challenge of the status quo makes it interesting.

When you define the POV of your brand, it is a good idea to follow the leadership of Liquid Death by being unwavering in your dedication to it. Even if it is sometimes uncomfortable. For example, liquid death has ever sold and mentioned a icon/lemonade drink Poorly PalmerAn irreverent word game about the famous golfer and namesake of the ubiquitous drink, Arnold Palmer. After receiving legal threats for the infringement on IP, the brand renamed Dead billionaire. What a perfect example of having a strong POV. Even in the light of legal threats, the brand remained faithful to his POV and used it as an opportunity to rebel further.

If you notice that you are hung on the jump from your UVP to POV, pay attention to liquid death. There is nothing special about the value proposition of the liquids they sell. Your UVP does not have to be world-change, and nowadays in a saturated marketplace with countless comparable, competing options for most brands, it is increasingly unlikely that it will be so unique. Instead, Liquid Death was co -founded by a former creative director of the agency who understands the power of social first brands. The company identified their unique, striking attributes mainly at an emotional, human level (ie social) and loaded it to their POV. If you try this with your brand, remember that the most difficult part is to first learn the customs of the brand.

This edited fragment is from Social first brands By Tom Miner, © 2025, and is reproduced and adjusted with the permission of Kogan Page Ltd.