Does the world really need another book about product positioning? Turns out, it does.
Many books have been written about product positioning, such as “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind” by Trout and Reis. “Positioning” is a common term in the product manager or marketer’s vocabulary,and refers to the process of defining how a product addresses and wins in a market. However, April Dunford wrote her 2019 book, “Obviously Awesome” to address a problem that she still sees in product positioning: there is not much guidance available on how to actually do it.
Setting The Context For Your Product
For Dunford, one of the key points to understand about positioning is the notion that customers do not inherently grasp what your product is – they look for contextual clues from you, the manufacturer or seller, to understand what the product is and to what it should be compared. If the product you are building is a pastry, calling it “cake” will incur a number of assumptions:that it is sold in bakeries, at a certain (relatively high) price point, to people looking for a fancy dessert. But perhaps it’s a small cake, small enough to be single-serve, and so you put a wrapper around it – in which case, you could also call it a “muffin”. Muffins incur different assumptions: they are sold in coffee shops and restaurants, among other muffins, donuts and danishes, and for prices generally much less than a cake.
Another well-known story is that of Joshua Bell. On the stage of Boston’s Symphony Hall, he can sell every seat for an average price of perhaps $100. Three days later in a Washington, D.C. subway station, only 7 out of 1,070 passersby stopped to listen, giving him a total of $32.17.
In both examples – same product, two different contexts; big difference in results! The point is this: context matters! Your goal, therefore, is to select the context that puts your product in the best light; that resonates with the right customers and tells them how your product uniquely solves their problems, and does it better than the competition.
The Five Components
So, how do you do positioning the right way? Dunford outlines five (with a bonus) components that are critical in the positioning process:
- The Competition – What your customers would use if your product didn’t exist. This could be another product, or a different activity altogether.
- Unique Attributes – What your product has that the competition lacks.
- Value (and proof) – The benefit that the attributes deliver to your customers
- Target Market Characteristics – Your target buyer and what it is about them that leads them to care about this value.
- Market Category – The context you wish to declare for your product (is it a muffin or a cake?).
As a bonus component, Dunford also suggests including trends of interest for your customers that make your offering particularly compelling and relevant now.
Dunford walks through each of these in detail, and outlines a ten-step process to build out these components for your product, including the identification of the right competition, your unique attributes and their translation into value, and selecting the market frame of reference that is ultimately best for your product in various market and competitive conditions.
What’s Different About “Obviously Awesome”?
In a day and age where ‘positioning’ is often used (and overused), Dunford’s approach is refreshing for a number of reasons. First, it is informative yet very accessible (it is also only about 200 pages and reads quickly). Relevant anecdotes and quotes are also interspersed to add variety.
However, what is perhaps most differentiated (pun intended) about Dunford’s writing is the reversal of the thought process from the traditional approach; instead of starting by deciding what a product is (that is, how you will classify it), she proposes starting by identifying what customers would use instead (the competition, be it an alternate product or even activity they would otherwise undertake), and working through the attributes and values to the target customer that cares about them. And only then do you decide how to categorize your product, to encourage that your target customer is considering your product in the right (and most flattering) context.
The value of this new approach is that you are forced to first ensure that you clearly understand the market’s needs and values. You can then map these back to your product and ultimately decide on how to categorize it. This enables a degree of flexibility and consideration that is often impossible when you have, from the start of development or product definition, declared that your product is a muffin. Or, perhaps, a cake.
By the time you have read “Obviously Awesome”, you will have an excellent framework to apply to your next product. But you may also (as I did) immediately reconsider the labels and classifications you’ve assigned to your existing products! In any case, April Dunford’s book presents a viewpoint I strongly recommend any product manager or product marketer to consider.
Adam Shulman is a Product Manager with extensive experience in software/hardware systems and a passion for music and audio technology. He currently leads the Installed Systems business at Bose Professional and has been a member of the BPMA since 2016.
