PDF Summary:Obviously Awesome, by April Dunford

If you work in marketing yet still can’t define what “positioning” is, consultant and speaker April Dunford is here to tell you that you’re not alone. She contends that most marketers don’t fully understand what positioning is or its vital importance to selling. This gap in knowledge is a huge disadvantage to any product because without proper positioning, customers can’t understand why they should bother to buy it.

To fill this knowledge gap, Dunford proposes a 12-step process—taking you all the way from creating a cross-departmental positioning group to sharing your final positioning across the company—that lets you position any product well. We’ll supplement her recommendations with actionables that allow you to implement her advice, as well as alternative perspectives on positioning and selling from other marketing and sales experts.

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(Shortform note: Dunford again presses your team to consider several customer perspectives on your product rather than just your own. Tony Robbins’s advice on perspective-taking in relationships might help your team more easily adopt these viewpoints. Have your team ask themselves three questions: 1) What is the customer seeing in this product that I’m not seeing? 2) What past experiences have led the customer to feel this way about the product? 3) How can I use this information to better understand the customer? For instance, customers may have had past experiences with poorly performing vacuums, so you can use that information to list your superior suction power as a feature of your vacuum.)

When listing your product’s assets, stick to concrete, verifiable features rather than vague, unverifiable ones, like “user-friendly” or “increases productivity,” recommends Dunford. However, if an independent reviewer writes that your product does these vague things—that your product is more user-friendly than alternatives, for instance—that counts as a concrete and verifiable feature.

(Shortform note: If independent reviewers aren’t reviewing your product, you might boost your product’s visibility by encouraging customers to review your product first. You can do this by simply asking the customer outright to leave a review and then by incorporating review solicitation into your selling process, so it happens automatically. When customers review your product, you increase your chances of being found online—and ideally, being reviewed by an industry publication that can verify your product’s quality and assets.)

Step 6: Determine Your Features’ Value to the Customer

At this stage, you know what your product’s unique features are. Now, figure out how each feature adds value to your customer’s life, counsels Dunford. It’s easiest to break this step into two sub-steps: First, determine each feature’s benefit—what the feature will do practically for the customer. For instance, if your vacuum’s feature is a high-powered suction mechanism, the benefit is greater cleaning power.

(Shortform note: In Building a StoryBrand, Donald Miller proposes that your product should not only add benefit and value to your customer’s life but that it should also help them solve a philosophical problem—a misalignment between their lifestyle and their values. So, ideally, your vacuum would have the benefit of greater cleaning power, the value (as we’re about to see) of a clean home, and solve the philosophical problem of not having enough time to spend on things that matter to the customer due to menial chores.)

Next, determine what the value of the benefit is, advises Dunford: how the feature helps the customer solve their specific problem. In our vacuum’s case, the high-powered suction feature with the benefit of greater cleaning power leads to the value of a less dirty home—the problem the consumer is trying to solve.

(Shortform note: In the Little Red Book of Selling, Jeffrey Gitomer proposes you consider “value” in an additional light. Beyond the value your product provides directly, your company must also provide value to the customer through services like advice, email or social media communication, and ongoing support. If you don’t offer that sort of value yet, consider establishing avenues for this.)

Dunford adds that you need to translate your product’s feature to its benefit and value for the customer because it’s rarely clear to the customer how these things are connected. For example, you might need to explain how your vacuum’s faster-revolving brush (feature) separates carpet fibers better, allowing it to suck up deeper dirt (benefit), which keeps your carpets cleaner longer (value).

(Shortform note: Marketing experts like Dunford stress the importance of showing the customer exactly how your product improves their lives and not making them draw those connections themselves. In Building a StoryBrand, Donald Miller elaborates that many brands fail because they don’t tell customers how they help them stay alive or prosper—every human’s two main goals in life. When brands don’t clearly show how they help customers achieve those two basic goals, customers overlook them.)

Step 6.5: Gather Like Values Together

Once you’ve determined the value of each feature, group these values together based on their relevance to the customer, states Dunford. Do this by thinking about what values the customer would associate with each other. For instance, your customer might consider that some values fall into the category of “ease of use” while other values fall into the category of “cleaning effectiveness.” Narrow this down to one to four value groups.

(Shortform note: Rather than just imagining what values your customer might associate with each other, consider asking them, as Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles suggest in Raving Fans. When doing this, ask people who’ve already purchased from you or who plan on doing so (you don’t have to only ask your top customers, as Dunford suggests). Blanchard and Bowles recommend inquiring about what customers appreciate about your product—this will help you understand what they value about your product. To figure out what values customers associate with each other, ask customers to then zoom out and describe what bigger-picture aspects of your product they like—this should provide you with value categories.)

Step 7: Pinpoint Customer Segments Most Likely to Buy Your Product

Once you have a good understanding of the value that your product delivers versus other alternatives, determine which customer segments care most about that value, advises Dunford. You’ll want to target these segments simply because they’ll be easiest to sell to.

(Shortform note: This step, pinpointing the customer segments most likely to buy your product, may seem similar to Step 1, identifying your most eager customers. We might consider that Step 1 is a general and high-level reflection on what certain people like about your product that kicks off your positioning effort. Step 7, then, is a detailed inquiry into precisely who these groups are.)

To determine which customer segments to target, follow these steps, writes Dunford:

1. Think about what makes some groups more excited about your product than others. For instance, people most interested in your vacuum cleaner might be employees who work from home and care particularly about having a clean living space. (Shortform note: This step might require you to find out what makes other groups unexcited about your product, which can be painful. Whenever you receive criticism of your product, determine if that criticism is justified (and not simply a malicious attack) and then try being grateful you received it—this gives you the opportunity to improve your product.)

2. Consider how to identify these groups. You might identify them based on the brands they buy, the media they consume, or the jobs they hold. For example, you might identify your target group of work-from-home employees by the type of job they have: skilled knowledge roles. (Shortform note: Marketers often take this identification step even farther by creating customer personas—fictional characters with certain buying behaviors. While doing this isn’t necessarily helpful in the context of positioning, it can later help your marketing team craft content and messaging that better appeals to a persona based on how they buy and the advertising they pay attention to.)

3. Make this group as specific and narrow as possible at this stage and then expand later if necessary. Remember that your positioning will evolve over time, so you can change your target group if needed later. For now, you might target only work-from-home executives at tech start-ups and then later expand to include work-from-home executives at any company. (Shortform note: In New Sales. Simplified., Mike Weinberg agrees that you must narrow your target segment as much as possible and provides a specific reason for doing so: It allows you to fully understand a particular segment—work-from-home executives in this case—so you can better market to them and establish yourself as credible in their eyes.)

Step 8: Sell Your Product in the Right Market, and Dominate It

Now that you understand your competition, your superior features, and which customer segments to target, sell your product in a market that provides context on how to use it and that gives you the opportunity to dominate that market, recommends Dunford. As we’ve said, positioning means establishing the context for the use of your product, and selling your product in the right market helps provide that context. For instance, if you sell a new snack in the “chip” market, customers immediately know approximately what your product will look and taste like.

(Shortform note: Dunford doesn’t provide specific advice on how to select the market for your product that provides the right context on how to use it. In Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey Moore advises that you won’t initially have enough data to know which market—or what he refers to as a niche—to position your product in. You must therefore first position your product as well as possible through a thought exercise: Think of your target customer (who you identified in the previous step) and consider in what scenarios they’d buy your product. This is, in essence, the niche you should enter (for instance, “high-end convenience store snacks”).)

You can try to dominate three types of markets, claims Dunford:

1. An existing market: Customers already know this market well and understand what defines a good product within it. For instance, in the chip market, consumers know a chip should be salty and crunchy and expect this from all chips. Small businesses shouldn’t try to win over an entire existing market—to create a chip more popular than Pringles, for instance. However, a large company could try to win over an existing market if the market is changing in a way that favors its product (say if the chip market is becoming increasingly health-conscious, and your company sells a veggie chip), or if there’s no existing market leader.

(Shortform note: If you were to succeed in dominating an existing market in the way Dunford recommends, you might even go so far as to establish a monopoly in the market. Dunford doesn’t discuss this specific possibility, but in Zero to One, Peter Thiel argues that creating a monopoly would advance the greater good. This is because monopolies, facing no stiff competition that requires them to minimize expenses and maximize profit, can dedicate resources toward improving the lives of employees and society as a whole. If you aim to dominate an existing market, it might be worth asking yourself if you’d feel compelled to give back to society if you achieve your goal and perhaps changing your aim if the answer is no.)

2. A subsegment of an existing market: Alternatively, if you’re a smaller company, pick a subsegment—an industry, region, customer group, or other factor—of an existing market you can dominate. Winning over a subsegment is easier than winning an entire existing market, and you’ll likely grow more quickly within that subsegment because happy customers will spread the word about your business within their small subsegment community.

(Shortform note: You might appeal to a subsegment of an existing market by differentiating your product. According to Alan Lafley and Roger Martin, differentiating means producing a product that’s special in the eyes of the customer—has a higher quality or more exciting branding, for instance. Brands can charge more for differentiated products because customers value them more highly than competitor products. You might therefore target the “gourmet” subsegment of the existing chips market by positioning your product as being for epicures.)

To win over a subsegment of a market, you must identify a customer group within the broader market that has an unmet need—for instance, people with a potato allergy who still want to eat chips. You must then prove that your product is better for your market subsegment than the leading product on the market within that subsegment. In our example, you must prove that your veggie chip is better than the existing potato-substitute chip that dominates the market.

(Shortform note: In The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, Al Ries and Jack Trout contend that you must not only prove that you’re a better product than the market leader, but you must also communicate to customers that you understand you’re not the leading product on the market. They advise this specifically to businesses that aren’t at the top of their chosen markets (because customers only buy from you when your messaging aligns with what they understand about your brand), but their advice also applies to companies in a subsegment of a market. You might acknowledge your subsegment position to customers by saying something to the effect of: “We know we’re no Pringles, but we offer something healthier than Pringles…”)

3. A new market: Creating your own market is extremely difficult but also has the greatest potential for you to dominate, claims Dunford. This style is hard to pursue because you can’t use existing market references to help customers understand what your product is: You need to educate them from the ground up about your product.

Here’s an illustration of this: If you position your veggie chip in the “chips” market, consumers will instantly understand what you’re selling (a salty, fried vegetable snack) because they understand what a chip is. However, if you position your veggie chip in a new “alternative dehydrated superfood” market, customers won’t understand your product because they don’t grasp and will need to be taught what an “alternative dehydrated superfood” is.

However, while creating a new market is difficult, if you succeed, you’ll be the dominating company in a market that’s set up to support your unique strengths.

(Shortform note: Al Ries and Jack Trout agree with Dunford that being first in a market means potentially big success. They elaborate that if you’re first in a market, customers will remember and reach for your brand more than newcomer brands and will continue to choose you even if newcomers offer better products. Trout and Ries would likely further argue that if you’re going to create a new market, you should start educating your customers about it immediately and not waste time trying to perfect your product before setting up the market. They feel that being first in a market offers you so many advantages that the quality of your product is secondary in importance. This approach might make creating a new market easier than Dunford thinks.)

Step 9: Optionally Connect Your Product to a Current Trend

Now that you know what market to target, you might take advantage of a current trend to show that your product is relevant and useful to consumers now, proposes Dunford. While this step isn’t mandatory—and there are conditions under which it’s a bad idea to ride a trend—if you can clearly show customers how what you already do aligns with a current trend in your existing market, you can benefit from the trend.

Let’s illustrate this: It would be a bad idea for your veggie chip company to ride the trend of supersizing your products because your brand identity revolves around healthy portions, and supersizing products isn’t a trend in your existing market. By following this trend, your company would appear uncommitted to your core principles. However, if there’s a current trend of adding barbeque flavoring to products, you might avail yourself of that trend because 1) your existing products already have flavoring, so adding a new flavor would align with what you’re currently doing, and 2) other chip companies in your market are also BBQ-flavoring their chips.

(Shortform note: If riding a trend isn’t possible for you because it doesn’t align with what you’re doing or isn’t a trend in your market, consider making the use of your product a trend in its own right. You might do this by first targeting consumer groups that Geoffrey Moore refers to as innovators and early adopters: people who are extremely tech-savvy and willing to test new products (in this context, products are usually new technologies and software). Innovators and early adopters are the people who spread knowledge and enthusiasm about a product to the general population, thereby potentially launching a trend.)

Before latching on to a trend, ask yourself the following questions to determine if doing so is the right move for you: Does connecting my product to a trend reduce the clarity of my message? Am I only stressing the trend and ignoring the product and market? Is the connection between your product and the trend unclear? If you answer “yes” to any of the above questions, don’t avail yourself of the trend—it won’t help you.

(Shortform note: Dunford advises cautious self-examination when thinking about riding trends. Other experts are less wary of trends, arguing that a company’s ability to ride a trend contributes significantly to its profitability. However, they contend that it’s not enough to ride a trend: You must anticipate the trend to take full advantage of it. This requires you to actively search for trends, for instance in growing geographic markets. You might thus reframe the questions Dunford recommends you pose to be: “Where are markets growing? And how can I position my product in these growing markets?”)

Step 10: Share the Positioning Across the Company

Once you’ve positioned your product, communicate that position across the company through a positioning document so all departments can apply the positioning to what they do, recommends Dunford.

In the document, include the name and description of the product, its market or market segment, the alternatives to using your product, the product’s unique, superior features, the value it adds to the customer’s life, and the characteristics of the ideal customer.

(Shortform note: Establishing buy-in into your positioning will likely only happen if your employees already are aligned with your company culture. This is because a strong culture gives employees a company identity to rally behind, which makes it easier for them to then rally behind the company’s positioning. Further, a strong culture encourages employees to stay at the company because they feel a sense of belonging, and this, too, helps firm up positioning because new employees don’t constantly have to be educated on it.)

Step 11: Implement Your Positioning

Once you’ve completed the above steps, implement your positioning, says Dunford. There are two parts to this: creating a narrative about your product (this is the pitch with which your salespeople will approach prospects) and building your messaging (contained in your marketing to customers). Let’s look at each.

Here’s how to construct the narrative about your product, according to Dunford: First, articulate the problem your product helps the customer solve (“It takes you forever to vacuum your entire office”). Then, explain how other solutions fail to solve that problem (“Most vacuums require frequent emptying and cleaning, which slows you down”). Next, tell the customer what the perfect solution to the problem would be, and then introduce your product by explaining what market it’s in (“You need a vacuum with immense cleaning power, which is why you need the DustDestroyer, the top vacuum for workplaces”). Finally, explain the value the product adds to the customer’s life (“The DustDestroyer lets you clean faster and more efficiently than other vacuums, saving you time”).

Next, have your marketing team adjust the messaging based on the new positioning. Dunford doesn’t elaborate on how to message because there are other resources to help you do that, but she does recommend creating a messaging document containing the main message, which your team can adjust for each piece of marketing material.

Alternative Marketing Narratives

In Building a StoryBrand, Donald Miller presents an alternative marketing narration that helps sell your product to customers:

Instead of beginning the story with the problem your product solves, Miller begins the story with the customer’s desire: the state or objective they wish to attain. Next, he advises explaining the customer’s problem, elaborating that the problem can be external (tangible), internal (an unpleasant emotional state), or philosophical (misalignment of the customer’s lifestyle with their values).

The narrations continue to diverge in an important way: Dunford’s narration includes an articulation of the value the product adds while Miller’s narration contains a call to action—the ask for the customer to buy. We might imagine Dunford is aware of the foundational importance of the call to action in selling and doesn’t include it in her narrative because it’s not as integral to positioning as communicating the problem to customers and showing them how your product helps solve it. A call to action is more important in messaging to customers because this is where you truly sell the product.

This means that when it comes to messaging—which Dunford doesn’t elaborate on—you might consider adding a “call to action” field to your messaging document. This will ensure you actually ask the customer for the sale.

Step 12: Track Your Positioning, and Adjust It if Necessary

According to Dunford, the final piece of the positioning puzzle is to track the success of your positioning over time and make adjustments if needed. Assess your positioning every six months to learn if the market has changed and if you need to thus reposition your product. Possible changes to the market include established competitors entering it, changing government regulations, the introduction of new technology, changing customer desire, and the economic environment.

(Shortform note: How can you stay abreast of changes in your market to ensure your product remains optimally positioned? You might conduct simple research online or keep track of what your competitors are doing. You could also use social media, including LinkedIn, to gauge what’s happening in the market and how customers are feeling. Finally, it may be worth soliciting the input of advisors and going to industry conferences to obtain the insights of leaders to gain a long-term perspective of where your market is headed.)