Finding the story for a new smart home device

The question

A smart home company had a new device nearly ready, and had to choose the story that would sell it.

There were several possible stories, each a different way of describing the same product. The one it chose had to work for people already using its app, who knew the brand, and for buyers who had never come across it. Whatever it chose would carry through everything the device said about itself.

Our approach

Before hearing any story, people talked through why they were considering a device like this and how they pictured using it, so each story met their own situation.

Each story was explored for the benefits it promised, the features and reasons to believe behind it, and how well it fitted the brand, in an order rotated across groups so none always went first. The company’s team observed the groups and put its own questions to them as they ran.

What the team came away with

Both audiences heard every story, and that was the point.

The product and marketing teams had qualitative evidence from each audience on every messaging territory, and a positioning recommendation setting out the story to lead with and the features to support it. Each story also came in a second version that made the buyer its hero, so the team could compare framings as well as stories.

They could choose the device’s story knowing how each came across to people who already used the company’s app and to people meeting the brand for the first time, and what the device seemed worth once its price was known.