Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It

by April Dunford

If we fail at positioning, we fail at marketing and sales. If we fail at marketing and sales, the entire business fails.

“Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it’s about deliberately choosing to be different.”

Even a world-class product, poorly positioned, can fail.

Features enable benefits, which can be translated into value in unique customer terms.

Feature: Something your product does or has Benefit: What the feature enables for customers Value: How this feature maps to a goal the customer is trying to achieve 15-megapixel camera Sharp photo images Images can be zoomed in or printed in large format and still look sharp. All-metal construction A stronger frame that resists damage The frame lasts five times longer, allowing savings of $50,000 per year on frame replacements. One-click reports Fast, easy report generation Every part of the organization can make better decisions based on accurate, up-to-date metrics. 24-hour support Support that is always available Global operations have access to help across every time zone.

Keep in mind that your product positioning will constantly be evolving. There is no need to make sure that your positioning will fit perfectly with where you or your product will be in ten years or five years or even two years from now. Similarly, your target customers will also evolve over time. Great positioning resonates with your best-fit customers right now, and will evolve with them over time.

In general, the segment needs to meet at least two criteria to be worthy of focus: (1) it needs to be big enough that it’s possible to meet the goals of your business, and (2) it needs to have important, specific, unmet needs that are common to the segment.

“The future isn’t a place we are going to go, it’s a place we get to create.”