Devoted to branding and building and protecting brands

There are principles to practically everything, even the humble (and immeasurably valuable) elevator pitch -- one of the indispensable elements of marketing. Here they are:

First, as always, consider your audience. It's composed of the consumer/customer, or anyone who influences said "buyer".

The goal: getting whoever you're pitching to want to hear more.

The model: The old 30-second TV commercial. Hey, I know this has fallen into disfavor recently, but make no mistake: Procter & Gamble knew what it was doing with its household-product advertising. You saw the housewife scrubbing and slaving with the primitive, "old" product and wishing there was an easier way to make the floors shine and the laundry whiter than white. Then, you saw the "new" (P&G's) product. Last scene: the housewife dreamily using the P&G product, saving her time, energy, and her nails and generally living a luxurious life. All because she changed her detergent. The elevator pitch defined!

So how do you channel the housewife? This is what you say:

(Name of your company, or product) is a (your category) company completely focused on (what that product does for customer).

We (what you do for that customer) by (specify the advantage).

More than (quantify) customers have (cut X-amount of costs, improved X-amount of revenue, kept their jobs, stayed out of jail, etc.) with (your product).

To whet appetites for more information, the "tell me more" element, you have to intentionally omit some stuff from the elevator pitch. Things like:

• Why what you do is important.
• How you do it.
• Detailed benefits and value statements.
• Detailed customer examples.
• Analysts, or some third-party observers, who can vouch for you.
• Any awards or recognitions you've received.
• Your financial performance.

The sequence: Give the 25-words-or-less positioning statement, then the one-minute pitch. There's instant gratification here because if you don't get a "tell-me-more" response, your pitch needs revision.