The Enablement Angle: How Zenity Flipped the Script on Security Software Marketing

The Enablement Angle: How Zenity Flipped the Script on Security Software Marketing

Security software marketing typically follows a predictable script: highlight threats, amplify fears, and position security as the guardian against chaos. But in a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Ben Kliger revealed how Zenity achieved breakthrough success by completely inverting this approach.

Identifying the Opportunity for Different Positioning

The opportunity emerged from a significant shift in enterprise development. “Citizen Development today is a core strategy to make sure that organizations can really advance and continue to digitally transform their businesses,” Ben explains. This shift created a new challenge: “How do you make sure that what these people are building were less tech savvy or of course less security savvy than traditional professional developers? How do you make sure that what they’re building is secure?”

Most security vendors would have positioned this as a threat. Zenity saw it as an opportunity for enablement.

Flipping the Security Narrative

“What’s very unique about our story is that it’s a story of enablement,” Ben shares. “People or citizen developers are not building stuff to harm the organization or exposing the organization to risks. Organizations need Zenity for a win situation in order for them to feel comfortable to make sure that they empower their end users.”

This wasn’t just clever marketing – it was grounded in market reality. As Ben notes, “Gartner estimated that by 2025, 75% of development in enterprises will be carried by citizen developers, not by professional developers.”

Rejecting FUD Marketing

While fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) remain standard tactics in security marketing, Zenity explicitly rejected this approach. “We never try to scare people off. It’s not the way that we operate at Zenity. It’s not like a FUD motion,” Ben emphasizes.

Instead, they focused on building trust through knowledge sharing. “We believe that we need to show value to our prospects clients, whether it’s with their thought leadership activities, content, publications that we’re doing participation in respectful security organizations.”

Building the Category Around Enablement

This positioning wasn’t just marketing – it shaped how Zenity defined their category. “I think it’s quite obvious that we’re creating a new category here,” Ben notes. “When we started Zenity almost three years ago, we started as the first company to target this world of cities and development. Then it was with local. Today it’s also with generative AI.”

The Enterprise Response

This approach resonated particularly well with large enterprises. “The ICP for us today, we target very large enterprises, I want to say a Fortune 1000 type of organizations who are relying heavily on major SaaS platforms,” Ben explains. These organizations understood that blocking citizen development wasn’t an option – they needed ways to enable it safely.

Framework for Contrarian Positioning

For founders looking to stand out in crowded markets, Zenity’s experience suggests a framework for contrarian positioning:

1. Identify Market Shifts Look for fundamental changes in how enterprises operate that create new challenges.
2. Question Standard Responses Challenge how your industry typically positions solutions to these challenges.
3. Find the Enabling Angle Instead of focusing on what you’re preventing, emphasize what you’re enabling.
4. Build Trust Through Knowledge Support your positioning with deep expertise and thought leadership.
5. Align with Customer Goals Position your solution as an enabler of your customers’ strategic initiatives.

Looking Forward

This positioning strategy has set Zenity up for significant growth. “We went to solve a problem that, first of all, huge. And with that, of course, there is a large opportunity to build something massive here, like a real company,” Ben notes.

For founders in crowded markets, especially in security, the key insight is that standing out doesn’t require louder marketing – it requires fundamentally different positioning. As Zenity’s experience shows, sometimes the most powerful positioning strategy is to flip your industry’s standard narrative on its head.