Tempo Automation ran a software-driven smart factory in San Francisco, building printed circuit board assemblies for engineering teams from prototype through low-volume production. In 2021 its messaging still led with speed, the attribute its buyers ranked third. With no in-house product marketing and a tight timeline, Tempo’s CRO brought in The Artesian Network to rebuild its positioning and sales narrative from the customer’s priorities up.
Key Results
- Messaging re-anchored on quality, agility and speed, in the order buyers ranked them: 96% of surveyed buyers called quality critical or very important, versus 61% for speed.
- Competitive value-claim audit across 13 PCBA contract manufacturers, exposing a market where everyone claimed software and no one proved it.
- New first-call enterprise pitch narrative and DFM sales story, built on the repositioned platform message.
- Positioning pillars later reflected in Tempo’s October 2021 public-listing announcement, which described the platform as delivering “speed, agility, and quality.”
The Challenge
Tempo’s messaging had been built for venture investors, not manufacturing buyers. Its homepage promised “Software-Accelerated PCBA Manufacturing,” and earlier materials called Tempo “The World’s Fastest Electronics Manufacturer.” Speed was the lead promise.
Tempo’s own 2020 State of the Market survey told a different story. Buyers ranked quality first, customer experience second, speed third and price fourth. Speed was also where most contract manufacturers already met expectations, which made it a weak basis for differentiation.
The competitive picture made it harder. Half of Tempo’s closest competitors also claimed advanced software, and none backed the claim with evidence. Tempo made no customer-experience claims at all, despite having a real engineering team behind every build.
Tempo also had no in-house product marketing. Its revenue team needed a rebuilt messaging architecture, a new first-call pitch deck, sales tools and vertical messaging for aerospace, medical and industrial buyers. Most of it was due within about 45 business days.
What We Did
Artesian embedded a two-person product marketing team inside Tempo’s revenue organization the first week of March 2021, reporting to CRO Bill Schmitt. We worked in priority order to hit Tempo’s schedule.
- Started from the buyer’s data. We mined Tempo’s survey of US PCBA buyers and ran a value-claim analysis of 13 competitors, counting every quality, speed, experience, cost and technology claim on their homepages and capabilities pages. The finding: Tempo’s messaging was misaligned with how the market buys, and 44% of buyers were only somewhat satisfied or worse with their current manufacturer.
- Carved out a defensible position. We moved Tempo from “software-accelerated,” a term every competitor was using, to an AI-driven, all-digital manufacturing process. We recommended naming Tempo’s software as a branded, extensible platform so buyers and investors could see where Tempo’s value lived.
- Rebuilt the brand pillars. Quality, agility and speed became the three pillars, with agility replacing transparency. Speed moved from the headline to a proof point, and faster innovation became the customer outcome.
- Put people back in the story. We elevated partnership in top-level messaging and put Tempo’s Lean Six Sigma-certified team in front of buyers, closing the customer-experience gap the audit exposed.
- Armed the sales team. We built a first-call enterprise pitch deck around Tempo’s digital twin and single digital thread, and a design-for-manufacturing (DFM) story showing how Tempo cuts build iterations and idle time in new product introduction.
- Planned for scale. As Tempo prepared to combine with two established manufacturers, we developed brand-architecture guidance for extending Tempo’s platform and brand across the combined company.
The Positioning Shift
| Before | After | |
|---|---|---|
| Lead promise | Speed: “The World’s Fastest Electronics Manufacturer” | Quality, agility and speed, together |
| Technology story | “Software-accelerated,” a claim half the market made | AI-driven, all-digital process on a named, extensible platform |
| Brand pillars | Transparency as a top-level pillar | Agility as a pillar; transparency as proof via the digital thread |
| Relationship | A technology play | A partnership, backed by a Lean Six Sigma-certified team |
| Customer outcome | Faster builds | Faster innovation |
The Outcome
Tempo went to market with a position built on buyer priorities instead of investor talking points. Its sales team gained a first-call narrative and DFM story that led with quality and partnership, with speed as the proof.
The positioning held. When Tempo announced its plan to go public through a merger with ACE Convergence Acquisition Corp. in October 2021, it described its platform as delivering “speed, agility, and quality,” powered by an “all-digital process” and “software and AI” that let customers “move at the speed of innovation.” Those are the pillars and language Artesian recommended five months earlier.
Jonathan and his Artesian Network team were a stellar resource to help with marketing strategy, company positioning, and go-to-market ramp. They hit the ground running, quickly became immersed in our business and market, and helped us convey our story clearly and professionally. Jonathan is an inventive, diligent, and very resourceful guy to have on your team.