Introduction: The Universal Language of Proposition
We’re going to introduce a key concept in our wider philosophy at Stratinn; whether you’re struggling with a 5-10 year strategy and North Star, stressed about your branding, nervous about how to create compelling innovations for customers or just unsure what your next creative campaign and keywords should be, ‘Proposition Thinking’ should be core to how you do it.
Propositions are more than a marketing slogan or a brand story. They are everywhere we turn, they are in every decision we make and every interaction we encounter in our business and personal lives.
Almost always, there lies an implicit or explicit ‘proposition’ at play.
In business, the focus of our efforts and the reason for the business’s existence is to develop a compelling proposition and then deliver it to customers so they can realise the value and take the benefits. Everything we do in the business is with this goal in mind, or at least it should be as we outline here.
In our personal lives, while it may not be intuitive to think that proposition is in ‘everything’, you can see it everywhere. Our relationships, interactions, and even our self-perceptions are the result of a series of unspoken propositions and agreements.
What Does It Mean That Everything is a Proposition?
In a world driven by choices, actions, and reactions, the ‘proposition’ is key, it’s the offer made for which any decision is being taken.
But what do we mean when we say ‘everything is a proposition’?
At its most fundamental level, a proposition can be described as an offer or service presented for acceptance or rejection.
It’s a value offering, a promise, a unique proposal that has the potential to resonate, compel, and incite action.
At its highest, it’s a ‘value proposition statement’, a sentence that simply outlines the benefits and advantages of one choice [over others].
We often use this simple statement; It’s [product or service] for [ideal customer] so that they can achieve [benefits].
Scratch a little more and you find that ‘proposition’ starts to incorporate all areas of the ‘Business Model Canvas’ and the 4, or is it 7, P’s of marketing.
To deliver the benefits articulated in the ‘value proposition statement’ there are decisions you need to take as a business and action you need to deliver across the business or the marketing mix.
It’s Starting to sound a little like strategy now isn’t it? Or at least business planning (the similarities and differences between those is a subject for another post) because you now have a set of actions you need to act on in order to deliver the end to end proposition.
Diving deeper it can (and we think should) be the thing that defines all other actions you take in the business.
The proposition you offer, whether at the brand or product level is a decision about who you want to serve and how you want to serve them (it really does start to sound like strategy doesn’t it?).
To ultimately deliver your intended value proposition, and the benefits for the customer, you’re required to define the products and services you’ll create (sounds like your product roadmap).
To get customers to buy into your value proposition you’ll need to reach out and let them know what value you deliver and how you’ll do it (starting to sound like marketing too).
And these are just the obvious components of a business that should be thought of as components of your wider proposition.
Yet, as I mentioned in the intro, it’s not all about business. Our personal lives are interwoven with ‘proposition’ too.
Even seemingly simple things, like negotiating television time or setting bedtimes with a child, are grounded in ‘proposition’. “If you finish your homework, you can watch an extra hour of TV.” The additional TV time is the proposition, and its acceptance hinges on the completion of homework.
Further illustrating this point is the societal contract we all implicitly agree upon. The rules and laws of a society are essentially a collection of propositions. “If you buy into (abide to) these guidelines, you can enjoy the benefits and protection of the community. If not, there are consequences.” This structure, though more rigid, emphasises the same principle: the presence of propositions in everything we do.
How Proposition Thinking Shapes Business Success
If your business is, therefore, the vehicle for delivering compelling propositions to customers how does this manifest in the different parts of the business we touched upon earlier?
Strategy: Defining a company’s future value proposition.
Every company’s strategy revolves around a value proposition that differentiates it in the market, at least that’s what your strategy should be doing, if it doesn’t and always ends up being an internal planning process, then give us a call.
In “Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works”, Lafley and Martin break down two key steps of strategy into ‘Where to play’ and ‘How to win’.
Finding where to play consists of decisions on which problems to solve, where to solve them, types of customer to serve, and channel to engage them in, among others (starting to talk about customers here).
Deciding how to win means “providing a better consumer and customer value equation than your competitors do, and providing it on a sustainable basis,” the author’s state.
Fundamental to successful strategy is solving the value equation and developing a proposition that works for customers in the future. That can be customers in one year, five years or even ten years depending on your business outlook.
Innovation: The birth of new product or service propositions.
In a world that’s continually changing, companies must relentlessly innovate to stay relevant and continue growing.
But true innovation isn’t just about introducing new products, it’s thinking of the ‘new propositions’ that can excite customers and disrupt markets.
As highlighted in “Value Proposition Design” and “Business Model Canvas” by Osterwalder & Pigneur, the essence is to focus not only on the products or services a company offers but on the value these deliver to customers.
This perspective shift ensures a future-oriented decision-making process, where companies aren’t just looking at the present but are geared towards the evolving needs of their customers.
Branding: Positioning and perception of a company’s proposition.
Branding goes beyond visual aesthetics, it’s much more than just creating an attractive logo, new colour palate or catchy tagline.
It’s the story, the narrative, the promise a company delivers to customers and it’s held in the minds of customers rather than by the company leadership.
Donald Miller, in “Building a StoryBrand”, emphasises the power of a clear brand story, rooted in its core proposition, making it memorable, authentic, and relatable.
Your brand story must be rooted in the 3C’s of proposition, it must speak to a customer, in a way that stands out to competitors and signals your unique strengths.
Without a proposition, story or offer behind it it’s just the colours… customers don’t buy the colours they buy the experience and outcomes you’re promising.
Marketing: Messaging your proposition to the world.
With a clear strategy, innovative offerings, and a compelling brand story, the stage is set. Now, it’s time for marketing to amplify this proposition.
However, not all messages stick. We can draw insights from “Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die” by Chip Heath & Dan Heath.
Successful marketing ensures that the message is not just conveyed but that it also resonates and lingers in the minds of consumers. The art is in making complex ideas simple, memorable, and impactful.
Similarly, marketing, at its essence, is the amplification of your proposition, ensuring that it reaches potential customers and resonates with them.
Without a proposition, based in real insight, your marketing efforts devolve into a struggle for the ‘next creative idea’ rather than campaigns than build on each other and show potential customers about who you are as a business and what you can do for them.
Proposition is everything…
In tying it all together, propositions stand at the core of business success in every area. They influence strategy, drive innovation, shape branding, and form the core of marketing messages.
The problem, the challenge with proposition being ‘in’ every part of the business is that it can often be overlooked and fall through the gap.
Who ‘owns’ the [customer] proposition is a hotly debated topic in many organisations. Where marketing, product and strategy fight for dominance.
A worse situation though, is found in organisations where no one is fighting to own the proposition. In these organisations ‘proposition’ is truly overlooked and often ignored.
Strategy focuses on ‘planning’ and marketing focuses on ‘campaigns’, both stay focused on the data and neither focus on stitching the broader proposition together. Stitching it in a way that makes sense to customers, provides a North Star for employees and guardrails for each of the functions.
