This product positioning exercise will identify which of your product’s benefits are the most appealing to a particular target audience, as well as help you to differentiate your product from competitors operating in the same market.

Before introducing your product to consumers, your priority should be to establish where your product fits in the existing market, how it is different from existing products, and why your customers should take the time to consider your offering above/before others. The answers to these questions determine where your product is best positioned to capture and hold the attention of consumers.

Product positioning describes the specific market you intend to win and why you are uniquely qualified to win it.

April Dunford

Positioning Map

Creating a positioning map will:

• pinpoint the benefit/s that consumers value.
• locate unoccupied or less competitive spaces.
• identify opportunities created by changes in the relationship between the primary benefit and the prices of all the products in a given market.
• allow companies to predict and prepare for their rivals’ strategies.

Creating such a map involves three steps: defining the market, identifying the price and primary benefit, and determining what the consumer expects to pay.

Define the Market

To specify the boundaries of the market you are analyzing, you must

• identify the consumer needs you wish to understand.
• choose the country or region you wish to study.
• determine if you want to track the entire market for a product, or only a specific segment; for example retail or wholesale.

Create different maps to match the variables above.

Identify Price and Primary Benefit

Consider which pricing parameters you will compare. Choices include initial purchase price, price including life cycle costs, price with transaction costs or without, and the price of bundled or unbundled offers. Be consistent with the price definition you choose.

Success depends upon determining the value that customers place on features. To determine that value, you must first generate a list of the benefits offered by all the different products or brands in the market and gather data on how customers perceive those benefits.

When you have gathered data on products’ benefits and prices, determine which benefit is responsible for most of the variance in products’ pricing.

Determine Expected Price

When you have identified the primary benefit, make note of the position of every competitor’s product or brand in the marketplace, according to its price (from highest to lowest) and primary benefit. This will illustrate how much customers expect to pay on average to get different levels of the primary benefit.

Performing this exercise judiciously will:

• pinpoint the benefit/s that customers value.
• locate unoccupied or less competitive space/s.
• identify opportunities created by changes in the relationship between the primary benefit and price/s.
• allow you to anticipate your competitors’ strategies.

Once you have identified businesses with the same strengths and weaknesses as your company, you can begin comparing your product to theirs and discover hidden strengths you have and the competition lacks.

Key Influencers of Product Positioning

In addition to the relationship between pricing and the primary benefit uncovered in the positioning map, there are eight other key influencers that contribute to your product positioning statement. These include your:

1. Company Vision: The overall direction for where your product is headed.
2. Company Mission: Your mission statement articulates how you are going to make your vision a reality.
3. Market Category: The market that you are in and your key customer segments.
4. Tagline: Catchphrase or slogan you use to describe your company or product.
5. Customer Challenges: Major pain points for your customers.
6. Company and Product Differentiators: Unique, value-creating characteristics of your company or product.
7. Brand Essence: The core attributes you want to be known for.
8. Direct Competitors:

Creating the Positioning Statement

A very effective and detailed positioning statement uses the information collected above to convey essential information about four very important elements; the target customer, the marketplace, the brand promise, and the consumer’s “reason to believe”.

1. Target Customer: What is a clear description (values and demographic) of the target group of customers you aim to appeal to?
2. Market Definition: What is the name of the market category your business is competing in?
3. Brand Promise: What is the most compelling benefit you offer to your target customer?
4. Reason to Believe: Do you have measurable evidence that you deliver on your brand promise?

The ultimate goal is for the positioning statement is to introduce the brand name and key points of differentiation to the target market, within the product/service category.

If you are feeling challenged by combining all the information to create your positioning statement, here are two templates you can use:

1. For [your target customer], [your company name] is the [market definition] that delivers [your brand promise] because only [your company name] is [reason to believe].
2. This product was created for [audience] that [need/want] [emotion or solution]. Our [company/product] is a [category/solution] that uniquely solves this by [features/benefits].

Targeted Marketing Messages

When positioning your product you do not have to limit yourself to one audience. It is entirely possible that your product has a main target audience, as well as a secondary – or even a third – audience, that benefits from using the product in a different way.

Each audience will find the product appealing for different reasons, which is why it’s important to tailor marketing messages to focus on the benefits each audience values most.

Benefit-Driven Messages

Your strategic product positioning is the foundation of your marketing story. It considers who your audience is, what their needs are, and how your product can uniquely address those needs. Understanding the information in your positioning statement helps streamline marketing efforts and deliver a powerful message to the target audience. This approach will generate more leads and produce more sales.

In Conclusion

A positioning statement should be an accurate assertion of your product’s difference, attraction, and distinction. It should be a credible and convincing reflection of customers’ actual experiences with the product, and it should be based on qualities that matter most to target customers. If a positioning statement does not reflect the customer’s reality, the positioning will fail. Ideally, the end result of product positioning is the successful creation of a market-focused value proposition that clearly conveys the compelling reason why consumers should buy the product.