Advertising firms create POVs, or “Point of View” studies when they are contracted by companies to support their media planning initiatives. These reports are used to help customers assess their advertising possibilities. A POV report focuses on choosing the most effective media platforms that a company or organization can utilize to advertise its goods, services, or causes. These reports essentially examine media sources as well as your existing and potential clients to see whether advertising in a specific manner will benefit the client’s target market.
According to Medium, the overall goal of a POV approach is to make your marketing more relevant, differentiated, understood, desirable, and strategic.
Defining the Advertising Environment
A POV report begins by examining the overall advertising environment and the advertising option the client and firm want to examine and potentially add to the company’s marketing strategies. Start by discussing advertising trends within the industry and which ones are most viable for the client. Specifically, discuss how the current advertising option fits into current advertising trends in the industry. You will need to go over many details, including competition, distribution channels, media channels, reviews, and more.
Target Markets
The POV report examines the target markets of the proposed media vehicles to see if their viewers, readers, subscribers, or listeners are similar to the people their clients want to reach.
For example, a tapas bar owner might ask his advertising agency about potentially placing an advertisement in a new, local food magazine. The tapa bar’s target market might include 20-something young professionals with no children, while the food magazine’s target audience might be two families who are seeking casual, inexpensive dining options. The media planning team would conduct research to find out this information, and then present it in the POV report.
Allowing Comparisons
A true evaluation of a potential media vehicle in a POV report involves examining other comparable options. A client interested in advertising a new kid’s clothing boutique on a specific mommy blog would also be presented with a comparison of other local mommy blogs. By giving the pros and cons of each option in their POV reports, agencies can help their clients find the advertising options that will present them with the most cost-effective opportunity.
POV Report Costs
Advertising agencies and their clients have to take costs into consideration as they review potential advertising opportunities. Therefore, the media planning team includes costs and budget considerations in the POV reports they prepare for clients. They let clients know how much they have to invest, plus ways to shift around current advertising tactics to make funds available for the new opportunity they’re examining. If the advertising option is viable but too expensive for the current budget, the media planning team may suggest adding the advertising option to the plans for the following quarter or year.
POV Recommendations
A POV report provides the client with a final recommendation of whether the media option being examined should be implemented. They will outline the perspectives of both your current customers and your prospects, says Skyword. The media planning team may decide it is best to implement the new advertising option in the next couple of months, or the next year. The final recommendation may also suggest trying a comparable advertising option or a decision not to invest in any new advertising opportunity at all.
POC vs. POV: What’s the Difference?
Ascertaining the viability of your idea is essential before launching a firm. For instance, do customers profit from your product or service and is there a need for it? Proof of concept (POC) and proof of value (POV) can be used to respond to these queries.
Make sure you have an offering to support the expansion and success of your firm before developing a product or service and starting to sell it. You can use a sales process and marketing plan to increase sales after identifying the POC and POV.
Despite having similar sounds, POC and POV are employed in different contexts in sales. Each serves a purpose, but not all businesses must be able to pinpoint both. What distinguishes POV from POC, then?
Proof of Concept (POC)
Proof of concept (POC) is a method used to prove whether a business idea is feasible. To determine POC, you must have set success criteria that answer the question, “Does it function correctly?”
You can use POC to determine the price of your products or whether to launch a new service. The proof of concept can support the pre-sales process and help you gauge whether your offering is a good product-market fit and whether it can be successful, showing how well a product or service works.
Proof of concept is usually identified using a pilot project in a more controlled environment to prove that a product works. For instance, if you create a dishwasher, you must prove it washes dishes. Proof of concept is a crucial part of the product life cycle. It can help you develop all types of products by determining their viability and ensuring you create a product that works.
This concept can improve your sales cycle because it helps business owners understand whether there’s a market for their product or service and whether a product actually works. Additionally, proof of concept can support investors in determining if a business idea is possible while giving teams feedback about the market and providing the foundation for product development.
Proof of Value (POV)
Before you market a product, you should identify proof of value (POV). The POV meaning in business determines the benefits of a particular product or service for customers or the company. Again, setting success criteria is crucial for helping you understand the measurable value of a product and if it solves customer pain points.
Ultimately, what value or benefit does the product or service offer? POV shows how your products and services address pain points or solve problems and the types of benefits customers can expect.
A successful POV can help you describe with evidence how specific products and services offer value to customers. Proof of value can also help you determine better product growth strategies, such as pricing changes and evidence points to convince prospective clients to purchase. Additionally, you can use your POV to craft a value proposition based on customer feedback and data to demonstrate how your product or service is beneficial.
Read Also: How do I Request a Business Audit?
Proof of value allows you to validate your product and can be used to determine if it’s worth continuing to develop it. Stakeholders, investors, and other decision-makers use POV to decide if a new product is worth the investment, identify its benefits, predict the return on investment (ROI), and understand how it will benefit the company.
This stage of the process can also help identify issues from feedback and correct them while saving the business money because it addresses those problems promptly. For example, determining proof of value usually requires input and research from clients or users to develop use cases to ensure the product benefits the customers and, in turn, the business.
Stakeholders and business owners must know a product is worth it financially, and that’s where POV comes into play. While POC demonstrates that a product works, POV demonstrates that it’s worth the investment and something a prospective customer will purchase.
POV vs. POC
Understanding POC vs. POV can be complex; many business owners, marketers, and sales professionals use them interchangeably. However, they represent two different business-related concepts and processes.
The definition of proof of concept is to prove a product’s viability in the market. Does it do what it says it does? For instance, it might establish a market for a particular product and determine its functionality. Conversely, POV takes it a step further and identifies the value of a particular offering to customers and the company, helping businesses decide whether it’s worth investing in the product.
Both POC and POV prove something about the business or product idea, but they prove two different things. Consider this: A business seeks an investor for capital to grow its inventory. In this case, investors might consider POV and POC as critical elements to help them decide whether or not to invest in the business.
They’ll want to know that a company can demonstrate proof of value before giving them capital. POV can determine whether it’s worthwhile to invest in a new product. Product development, marketing, and sales cost money; if your product doesn’t provide meaningful value to the company, it’s ultimately not worth it.
On the other hand, other investors may invest in startups and expect their seed capital to help the business owner provide POC. This usually occurs when the business owner has an idea but doesn’t have the funds to prove it’s viable. Instead, they’ll use the seed money to create the product to determine whether it functions correctly.
Meanwhile, a business will determine POV to ensure there’s a customer base for their new products and ensure that the product not only works but provides value. For example, a company that sells software will determine its product’s viability and identify specific consumer benefits that make them stand out from the competition.
Simply put, proof of concept focuses on whether the product works, while proof of value determines how valuable it is for clients once you know it functions as it should.
For example, consider an EV company. An EV company’s POC might be a car that can be charged at any EV charging port. Its POV is the benefits of the EV to customers, such as the fact the EV is cheaper than others and can help them save on maintenance costs.
Which one should you use?
Whether you use POC or POV depends on your overall business objectives. Companies may benefit from using both to determine if a product is viable in a specific market and, if so, what benefits there are for the customers. Ultimately, why should their clients purchase their product?
Other companies don’t need both and will have to decide whether POC or POV can help them reach their business objectives. POC is best for proving a theory, such as whether a new product will work in a particular market. This usually occurs before product development to prove whether creating a product or service is feasible. POC is more qualitative than POV and can help you determine whether or not you should continue spending money on a particular offering.
Proof of value is usually for businesses that must prove the anticipated value of a product. It’s quantifiable and can help you determine customer pain points and how your offering is a solution to these issues.
In most cases, deciding between POC vs. POV depends on the product and its customers. Since your goal is to close sales, you must consider not only the features and function of the product but how the product benefits those who use it.
POC and POV require success criteria to answer your questions, but they should have very different answers. For example, POC is a tool for closing sales and securing funding from an investor. Conversely, POV is less intensive and faster because it focuses on showing value instead of concept.
That said, companies still use these terms interchangeably, and that’s not exactly inaccurate. Most POC and POV models include aspects of one another to demonstrate a product’s viability in a market. After all, you can only determine whether a product will succeed by first providing proof of concept and then establishing proof of value. Both concepts can help you satisfy customers and improve marketing and sales efforts.
Proof of concept and proof of value are two key ways to measure the feasibility of a business idea or project and ensure the desired business outcomes. Only some companies need to use both, but choosing the correct option based on your objectives and target market is crucial for developing products and services guaranteed to sell. Whether you use POC or POV, you can help your business succeed by determining if a new idea will work and is worth the effort.
