Company and product differentiators
Often, if a problem is big enough, someone has tried to address it before. The key is to clearly define why your product provides a better solution to the problem—and more importantly, how. In a saturated marketplace, it’s critical to differentiate your product from the competition.
Brand identity
Think about today’s most recognizable brands. The Nike swoop. The green Starbucks mermaid. The Target bullseye. In each of these cases, the company name doesn’t need to be present for you to identify the brand—and likely, the logo itself evokes some kind of opinion or emotion in you. This is the ultimate test of a strong brand. To create one, think about the tangible and symbolic things you’d like to be known for. This process requires introspection and vision.
Vision
Speaking of vision, it’s easier to identify why you created a product in the first place. It’s more challenging to define your vision for the product’s evolution or future. Considering this as part of your product positioning will help you more clearly define your product’s immediate value—and its potential for growth.
Product positioning statement
Once you’ve considered all of the above elements, you’re armed with all the context you need to draft a solid product positioning statement. From a strategic perspective, this is the core of all of the marketing materials and messaging to come. Concretely describe your product and its value to your target audience.
Here is an example of a product positioning template:
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].
Once all stakeholders agree on this statement, you can also draft a creative customer-facing tagline.
From product positioning to go-to-market: Strategies and templates for growth
There’s no one right way to capture the key elements of your product positioning. Many templates exist, and each can help you manage the process, provide a holistic look at every element of your new product positioning, and visualize how each piece relates to each other. A shared template can also make it easier for the necessary stakeholders to collaborate on different pieces of your product positioning puzzle. Let’s take a look at a few helpful models:
Product positioning template
A basic product positioning template allows you to more clearly define each of the seven elements above. Organizing this information in a single template helps you proactively identify any correlations or discrepancies in your product positioning.
Tip: After gathering insights into each element of your product positioning, this template can also be used to share and evangelize your research across the larger organization.
