Building A Brand Media Arm (w/ Mark Jung, Nextiva)

Learn how Nextiva’s Mark Jung drives predictable growth by finding his brand’s white space, building a media arm to communicate it, and being different – not better.

How They Move The Needle

Mark has found that the brands that ultimately win in their space aren’t trying to convince people to buy their products. Instead, they’re thinking about how to be the brand that’s top of mind when the prospective customer becomes ready to buy or wants to recommend a solution to a friend. To do this, he focuses on connecting with his target audience around what the brand stands for, believes, and how they’re different – not better – than the competition. 

To do this, he focused on finding the “white space” their brand can occupy: the less competitive space their company can occupy and own, to differentiate from the competition.

Here’s how:

First, he analyzes the brands in the space and how they exist: what they stand for, the value proposition they lead with, how they position themselves in the market. 

Then he uses the “jobs to be done” framework (cited from Front’s series C deck) to find the area they can occupy. 

Finally, he analyzes what big bets competitors are making right now: what they’re talking about on social, saying in press releases, or what messaging is coming from the founders. 

After bringing these together, he does a writeup on what white space the brand can own: the category he thinks they can win, how they can best position themselves as different (not “better”) and ultimately win the category.

From there, he focuses on building a media arm to communicate that new brand messaging. To do this, he might use one or more of the following channels:

1. Company brand (e.g. social, podcasts, etc.)
2. Founder brand (e.g. building the c-suite or founding team’s brand)
3. External media arms (e.g. HubSpot buying the Hustle and building a podcast network)

Resources mentioned:

• Play Bigger
• Front Series C Deck
• Google Ventures Design Sprint model