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Achim from AirGradient here. Just a few days ago we started disucussing in more detail our "branding" strategy for our Open Source Air Quality Monitors [1]. So

Achim from AirGradient here. Just a few days ago we started disucussing in more detail our "branding" strategy for our Open Source Air Quality Monitors [1]. So your whole series of topics is very helpful for us. I already read a few of the other topics on your site and I like them very much but missing a bit of the following. Authenticity. This is hugely important for us internally as well as how we want to be seen externally. We started as a volunteer project in Northern Thailand building Air Quality Monitors with students during the so called "burning season". This still defines us four years later massively, e.g. in the respect that our air quality monitors are open-hardware and we support many educational and environmental justice organisations. We make sure that every decision we take reflects our ethos. I believe this not only applies to us but that some of the most powerful brands are very much built on REAL authenticity (and stick to it!), examples can be Patagonia, Adafruit, Hackernews, etc. Your article makes it a bit like companies can just pick every few years what they stand for. I'm not so sure if that is a good idea. Controversy, Contrast, Positive vs Negative Messaging. It could be great if you could write a bit on above. This is also an area where we struggle and are unsure to what extent we should for example directly call-out our competitors that engage in consumer unfriendly business practises (e.g. monetizing the air quality data that your own monitor collects). Currently we try to keep it "we" focused but the activist in me sometimes would love to be much more direct, see e.g. for a 'we' focused blog post on this topic [2]. Increase Reach in Creative Ways. I think one of our biggest challenge at AirGradient currently is how we can get more visibility and get more people know about our open hardware monitors. Being a small company, we have very limited budget for paid advertisement. We also much rather donate our air quality monitors to disadvantaged communities than paying Google or Facebook for clicks. So it would be great if you could cover that topic also a bit. Be more Specific. I also would like to underline what another poster wrote that it feels the topics could get a bit deeper. Why not share some actual worksheets, questionnaires, specific metrics, etc. At the moment it's not clear what the purpose of these documents are. Is it a way for you to attract clients or you just want to get all your knowledge out there. Anyway, I think you are building up a great resource and I already subscribed to it and looking forward to the next articles. Keep up the good work! [1] https://www.airgradient.com/ https://www.airgradient.com/ [2] https://www.airgradient.com/blog/hidden-costs-of-air-quality-monitoring/ https://www.airgradient.com/blog/hidden-costs-of-air-quality...

Vagantem 3y ago
Thanks for reading Achim! Yes, you bring up some good points - if they are important for your company you can definitely add them as layers to your research. Authenticity - I would categorise this as a "Value pillar" that you can bring up under your "Company" section of your 4C research. If it is a core value of your company. Increase Reach in Creative Ways - Will definitely write about this, but it will be part of the media strategy section of the series! Controversy, Contrast - I'd put this in the "Culture" section of the 4C's, as it has to do with culture and trends. Positive vs Negative Messaging - I think this might be more related to tactics which comes a bit later in the series when talking about developing ad campaigns. But yes, it's definitely an interesting topic - it kind of depends on how you want to be seen. Is your positioning work about being a leader in the space? Then I would not call-out our competitors, a leader does not compare themselves. Are you the disruptor? Then yes, call-out our competitors! But agreed, this can be an entire post of its own, thanks for the feedback! Be more Specific. - I will write an entire post on every one of the 4C's as well as continuing the series so will cover more of it there - but good idea about the worksheets, questionnaires, specific metrics etc, will see what I can do there :)

Vagantem 3y ago

Thanks for reading Achim! Yes, you bring up some good points - if they are important for your company you can definitely add them as layers to your research. Authenticity - I would categorise this as a "Value pillar" that you can bring up under your "Company" section of your 4C research. If it is a core value of your company. Increase Reach in Creative Ways - Will definitely write about this, but it will be part of the media strategy section of the series! Controversy, Contrast - I'd put this in the "Culture" section of the 4C's, as it has to do with culture and trends. Positive vs Negative Messaging - I think this might be more related to tactics which comes a bit later in the series when talking about developing ad campaigns. But yes, it's definitely an interesting topic - it kind of depends on how you want to be seen. Is your positioning work about being a leader in the space? Then I would not call-out our competitors, a leader does not compare themselves. Are you the disruptor? Then yes, call-out our competitors! But agreed, this can be an entire post of its own, thanks for the feedback! Be more Specific. - I will write an entire post on every one of the 4C's as well as continuing the series so will cover more of it there - but good idea about the worksheets, questionnaires, specific metrics etc, will see what I can do there :)