Book SummaryObviously Awesome, by April Dunford

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Obviously Awesome

In Obviously Awesome, positioning consultant and speaker April Dunford explains why positioning, an often misunderstood and undervalued part of the marketing process, is critical to successfully selling your product. She contends that without proper positioning—contextualizing the use of the product, so consumers understand why they should buy it—customers don’t understand how or why to use your product and subsequently won’t buy it.

When executed well, however, positioning gives customers context on what your product is for and how it...

Obviously Awesome Summary What Is Positioning?

According to Dunford, positioning is providing the backdrop for the use of your product to your customer so they know what the product is, why it matters, and why they should buy it.

(Shortform note: In Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey Moore agrees with Dunford on the fundamental importance of positioning in business but veers from her definition of positioning. He asserts that positioning isn’t something you do as a company—how you contextualize your product—but rather describes how the customer contextualizes the product. Yet while Moore is more explicit than Dunford about positioning being “in the eye of the customer,” it’s clear that Dunford understands that the customer’s opinion of your product matters more than your opinion of your product. We’ll see this later in this guide.)

You must provide this contextualizing backdrop because humans use context to make sense of the world in general—it’s how the human brain operates, writes Dunford. Here’s an example: When you enter an unoccupied office and see a mahogany...

Obviously Awesome Summary How to Position Your Product in 12 Steps

Now, let’s move on to Dunford’s 12 steps that will let you avoid the above mistakes and position or reposition your product for maximum success.

Step 1: Identify Your Most Eager Customer and What They Love About the Product

Dunford writes that the first step of this process is to reflect on what aspects of your product make your customers happiest and what aspects of your top customers make them appreciate your product so much. This clues you in on how to position your product for the customers who will most appreciate it.

(Shortform note: Dunford operates under the assumption that you already have a product for sale and customers who love it. This can seem like putting the cart before the horse: If you haven’t yet positioned your product correctly (or if you don’t even have a sellable product), you might not have raving fans. One way to navigate this step is to first position your product however seems right to you now and then gather data both on what customers like and dislike about it. Use that data to refine your positioning until you can identify a group of top customers and think about what they love about your product, as Dunford recommends.)

Dunford...

Shortform Exercise: Adopt New Perspectives to List Your Product’s Features and Value

Identify the features, benefits, and value that both you and your customers perceive in your product, and consider how these might differ.

List what you personally feel are your product’s five best features. Then, determine what benefit (the practical support) and value (the problem-solving ability) each provides the customer. Write these down next to the feature.