His speech is over. He’s proud. What a great chance to pitch his new start-up in front of all these people. His elevator pitch was the last one of this session. All guests leave the sticky room quickly. Outside, selected drinks are offered. Food is set on several smaller tables throughout the room. Business angels, journalists, and businessmen wander about the area; drink in one hand, trying out delectable nibbles with the other. He gets a glass of white wine and approaches a group of gray-haired men. As he joins the group and politely greets them, the man standing opposite to him says: “Ah, you did the last presentation, right? Good speech! Your company name sounds funny… hyzloo. So, tell me, what do you do again? “
Clear and simple
One of the most difficult tasks is to formulate YOUR MESSAGE. It must be clear. It must be simple. I’m not the founder of hyzloo. Still, it took me also a lot of time to find the right words for our business too. I experienced the above-mentioned situation many times. No matter what you do, no matter how simple your business is, you need to re-think your message again and again.
Business angels and investors are bright people. So are other entrepreneurs and potential clients you meet. This is not about intelligence, this is about memory and attention. You have more or less 5 seconds to convince others. That’s it. Our brain efficiently selects and stores information that seems to be necessary to survive. How many business ideas would you remember after 20 presentations? Right, the one you understood right away.
What about your brand? Become a Master.
If your message is clear and simple, it is easy for every one’s memory to link your message with your company name. It might be better NOT to name your company hyzloo (except you’re a web 5.0 rocket-science algorith venture, whose product no one would understand anyway). No seriously, the best case is, if people know what you do by reading your company name. At least, it should be easy for each one’s memory to link your message with the name of the company.
Do a self check. What belt have you mastered with your message?
White Belt: People are interested in what you say.
Yellow Belt: People want to know more about it.
Orange Belt: Your message is short and easy to understand.
Green Belt: Your company name tells people exactly what you do.
Blue Belt: Two months later, people still remember.
Red Belt: People love your product and come back again.
Brown Belt: People recommend it to others – and it’s easy to explain.
Black Belt: Everytime they could need your product, they have you top of mind.
Most probably you don’t know the following brands. In my opinion, they are masters:
Supertext - we write, edit, and revise your text
Eat – order food online
Routerank – the fastes and cheapest way from A to B
What about famous brands?
The masters:
Facebook, Apple and Salesforce have mastered the art of transposition. Their brand / product name IS the message. For example the iPhone. No explanation needed. “Wow, a Phone by Apple. I want this.”
Brand names that need some explanation:
Wikipedia, Twitter, Digg, Flickr
Some brands like Wikipedia, Twitter and Digg have a catchy name. They describe their business model and that makes it easy to remember – be it fast encyclopedical information, be it tweats from the roofs, or be it digged out articles from the web-swamp.
A: “Flickr? What do you do again?”
B : “We store those photos online that you would like to share with others.”
A: “Ah, thanks.”
Brand names that really needed explanation:
It’s easy to critize branding, I know. I wanted to show that there are many other reasons beside branding that influence your success. All famous brands above have done well in telling their message. Flickr is easy to understand and has a useful interface. Craigslist is simple at its best and has be spread by the word-of-mouth. Hulu offers famous series for free … and on-demand … and its legal. How nice! An easy message.
Lesson learned from the brands above? Your brand name is not crucial. Talking to investors, customers, and media, be sure your telling a clear and simple message. The easier it is for somebody else to understand your message, the more likely they will tell other people – especially the media 
.
June 2nd, 2009 at 10:34 am
Dear Rico,
I like this post very much! There are a lot of other examples, I could list here. Picasa is a good brand, so is for example Rapidshare. Good selection, though. Enjoying your writing.
Best wishes
Arthur
June 2nd, 2009 at 10:58 am
Thanks Arthur. What belt have you earned so far?
June 3rd, 2009 at 1:27 am
Even if you have a clear and simple message, pay attention that you display the ADDED VALUE of your product / service. Stimulate emotions. Awake the investors’ interest to give you money and the customers to buy.
June 3rd, 2009 at 2:16 am
Quality over Quantity – really nice! Keep on writing.
June 3rd, 2009 at 5:45 am
Hey Rico,
I really liked your post.
I’m myself a big fan of easy and simple ideas + I completely agree with Mike that the added value is significant. It’s hard to believe, but there are still so many startups which can not provide that one sentence or 5 sec. pitch. Of cause the idea/ structure/ system behind is complex and with tons of great details. And of cause the entrepreneur is in love with his product. But please give me the chance to fall in love with your product too by starting with some little eye catchers, some flirting – make them curious. And then, if you got the interest go for the whole story.
Cheers
Viktoria
June 10th, 2009 at 2:04 am
Maybe you should introduce this as an official ranking. Create a cool Logo and evaluate a few companies. Then it’s like a quality sign.
And you should install a plugin that send out emails when there are responses to my post.
June 12th, 2009 at 3:04 am
Thanks Remy. Implemented
March 28th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
Thanks for the article that you have. I found a new one the other day. They look open for business, but very similar to linkedin.com with more of a social business directory look and feel. Nice easy interface though. It’s at SocialTerrain.com