Are you "positioned" for the win? – PART II
Ok, you are agreed over the importance of positioning given the previous edition. But, given the umpteen number of approaches there are to this, how do you go about finding out what works best?
This is the final one of the 2-part series about positioning yourself for the WIN as an organization.
Recap:
PART I dealt with the 5 Ps (product, placement, price, promotion & perception) and market positioning strategy and where it stands as opposed to the other positioning strategies that were based on product, price, competitors etc.
PART II:
When it is absolutely right that there are tons of approaches to position products around markets and users, it’s a futile exercise debating over which one is better or worse in comparison to the other approaches. It’s just about understanding the maturity of the markets in general, the user behavior and the environmental constraints in particular and being able to find the right chord to carve a niche employing a brand of strong messaging helping close out the divide between the perception of the users by influencing the tilt or gravitation towards the stuff that has to be conveyed.
Let’s dive in.
Popular approaches to Positioning
1) Product benefits approach
Often the most common approaches followed, as its namesake it totally focuses on the benefits offered by the product and tends to highlight them over various methods given a user group over a target market, when one can’t ignore that it could be possible that each of those benefits vary depending on the user groups or target markets.
For ex: Apple iPod (2003) showcasing the exceptional ease of holding, operating & managing a hand-held portable music player with 1000+ songs
2) Differentiators approach
Although not that common as the previous approach given how differentiation in itself may not be that prominent a strategy given how some orgs. may not really have anything at all to do with innovation, the focus here is totally on selecting, classifying and highlighting a few factors that are believed to set the product / the organization apart from the rest of the market. Note how the focus remains on the features that differentiates and not on the competition and seemingly pitting it against them or their products.
For ex: Coca Cola life, the green used to represent ingredients that are naturally sourced with no preservatives whatsoever
3) Mass-market approach
Some products are indeed meant for mass-markets given how they cater to wider target audience and the market they are targeting seems totally non-polarized. When most of the products belonging to this category may be meant for use across demographics, across geographies, across the world sans the affordability parameter influencing the decision to adoption.
For ex: Microsoft Windows 95 using the “Start” button to showcase technology that was meant for a mass market
4) Segmented approach
It is very possible that some organizations may boast of a huge product line or a product suite. Given how the features that the products have on offer and how they are targeted at solving highly specific problems that are typical to a given niche that a segment of the market seems to identify with, the need for a segmentation approach in terms of positioning is deeply felt.
For ex: Volkswagen group positioning each car that it has made alongside each brand that its owned
5) Moral causes approach
Given the advent of causes that are deeply concerning the environment around us and how most users also correlate to it already or may be able to correlate to it with a little bit of an effort over an awareness-building exercise, pinning on these social causes and showcasing how the masses could do their bit, contributing directly to the cause by adopting to the products is becoming more commonplace, even across in the billion-dollar MNCs. There also seems to be a fresh term precisely meant for this – “sustainable positioning”.
For ex: Wrangler’s sustainable denim collection that cuts water used by 100% & energy by 60%
6) Co-branding approach
Most times, products ought to blend in with the ecosystem of products already existent in the market and using the other popular brand-name in the ecosystem as a hook, especially if they already are pretty well established in the business vertical they operate in, does go a long way in all getting a few eyeballs on and also helping users adopt the product seamlessly into their lives. It is not about a product not believing in their own worth nor is it the case that they can’t seem to position themselves all on their own, it is more about (a) works well with (b) that’s the crux of this strategy here. For all you know, the product may have been envisioned and built specifically to solve for a problem prevalent over the use of another product.
For ex: Betty Crocker’s supreme brownie mix coming bundled with Hershey’s chocolate syrup
The Positioning Tree
I’ve been advising startups from over a year now and also carry a good amount of years of experience under my belt working with the leadership teams of various product organizations contributing actively at the intersection of product offering, market fitment & leveraging tech.
I have personally seen how most of them struggle to position their product well given the market they seem to be targeting. When some actively nod “yes” to there’s something odd about or not fitting in with what they feel the positioning ought to be as opposed to the messaging and all the other assets fanning out over parallel tracks and not conveying it, or in the worst case conveying something altogether different doing that prominently.
So that’s what led to the birth of a Positioning Tree.
Think of the Positioning Tree as split over 4 main sections, the main pillars of focus so to speak, namely:
THE VALUE
THE MARKETS, USERS, PROBLEM
THE PRODUCT
THE DETERRENT(s) TO ADOPTION
Here’s a description of each of the 8 elements.
DECLARATION: I don’t want to call this a FRAMEWORK or even a CANVAS.
When I’m tempted to call this a framework and although it could very well classify as one, I am deterring to do so for the one reason how I have noticed young PMs as much as the experienced ones in some cases seem to carry a tendency to adhere to a framework as the gospel truth and ignore the rest of the dependencies, environmental constraints.
When you may find this is good enough to go, please think of this as a starting point from where you could begin your positioning exercise and feel free to add any other headers as desired, given the situation you find yourself in.
Case Study
So, let’s get on to a case study and describe all the 8 sections listed out as a part of the Positioning Tree envisioning how they all fit in given the parlance of a real-world product.
Let’s consider a generic product that could have a mass market and something that most of them could correlate to.
Product – Herbal Energy Drink
Here’s the Positioning Tree duly filled with all the sections clearly stating the purpose of the product across those very 4 dimensions – Value, Markets, Product & Deterrent.
Resources:
In case you are looking for the HIGH-RES images of the Positioning Tree template, head over here to Gumroad:
Conclusion
Positioning is a seminal exercise every product team ought to undertake so as to help the users of the target market space it properly which is also a precursor to adoption. The “Positioning Tree” if used well could prove to be an invaluable resource to help you get cracked-in to organizing your messaging and building an aura for your product(s) and an image for your brand in the longer run.