From floor cleaner to mouthwash: How positioning makes a world of difference
Did you know at one point Listerine was marketed as a surgical antiseptic? And later, as floor cleaner? For those of us who’ve used it and felt the burn of cleanliness, it might not be too hard to fathom. Still, making a pivot from surgical antiseptic to floor cleaner, to mouthwash isn’t an easy feat.
How you position your product will make or break your company. A product can be re-framed in the minds of consumers without changing a single thing about the product. For example, did you know that at one time Listerine was marketed as a surgical antiseptic? And later, as floor cleaner?
For those of us who’ve used it and felt the burn of cleanliness, it might not be hard to imagine. But still, making a pivot from surgical antiseptic to floor cleaner, to mouthwash isn’t an easy feat.
April Dunford’s book Obviously Awesome has the best example of the importance of positioning that I’ve seen. She tells the story of a baker who wants to revolutionize cake. The baker invents a small piece of cake that you can eat with your hand. It comes on a stick so you don’t need a fork.
Hopefully, by now you’ve guessed that this is not a “small cake on a stick” but actually a “cake pop”. I don’t know about you but I freakin love cake pops. But to position the cake pop alongside regular cake would be a grave mistake.
That’s because the Job to Be Done of regular cake and a cake pop is fundamentally different. You buy a full cake when you have an occasion to celebrate—a special dessert at the end of a dinner party. But a cake pop is really more like a lollipop. You eat it as a quick treat while you’re out for a coffee. Or bring cake pops to the pub or a kids’ birthday party when you really can’t be bothered with plates and forks.
So, whether it’s floor cleaner or cake, how does a company get people to use an existing product in a totally new way? It mostly comes down to product positioning and messaging.
Product positioning refers to the place that a brand occupies in the hearts and minds of its customers and how it distinguishes itself from competitors.
Positioning is the process of defining what context your product operates in and how you're the best in that category.
Product messaging, on the other hand, is the external communication about your product—what problem it solves, how it works, and where it’s headed.
Strong product messaging is the foundation for everything you say about your product. Your messaging informs how you write emails to beta prospects, create sales decks, product landing pages, and more.
Product positioning and messaging is how you get from floor cleaner, to mouthwash. And full slices of cake to a bit of cake on a stick.
The core tenets of product positioning and messaging
There are a lot of different elements involved in product positioning and messaging, but there are a few pillars both rely on:
product
audience
competition
industry
The product
When thinking about your product there are a number of things you need to consider. For example, it’s helpful to have a mission statement (even if it’s just a working mission statement) so you can articulate what your company is currently delivering to the market and the world.
Some examples of strong mission statements:
Intercom’s Mission Statement: “Make internet business personal.”
MailChimp’s Engineering Mission Statement: “We give marketers production-ready software designed to help them grow. We succeed through togetherness, momentum, and pragmatism.”
Along with creating a strong mission statement, you also need a vision statement to communicate how your company plans to impact the market or the world in the future. Vision statements tend to be longer than mission statements. Salesforce has a good example:
Salesforce: “We believe that the business of business is to improve the state of the world, and we work to make sure Salesforce is a platform for change through serving the interests of all our stakeholders — employees, customers, partners, communities, and the environment.”
From there you might consider developing your pitch to customers. Your pitch is what you say to someone to get them interested in your product. Your pitch should be succinct, easy to understand, and tailored to your audience. Be sure to develop a pitch to the buyer and the user—as they often have different needs and goals.
The Audience
Just as with the product messaging, there are a number of considerations when defining your audience. You may want to start by developing personas for your typical buyer. Personas are archetypal or fictional representations of real users of your product or service and are an extremely valuable tool for better understanding your users.
Another piece you may develop is your Jobs to Be Done (JTBD). JTBD is a theory for understanding what motivates customers to buy your product. You can think of it this way: users "hire" software to help get their job done. While many strategies tell you to be customer-obsessed, JTBD theory says you should focus on the customer’s job, not who that customer is.
Finally, you should source customer testimonials, which are a powerful marketing tool. By letting your customers share an authentic experience of using your product, you create a powerful endorsement that often resonates with prospects more than your product landing page copy ever can.
The Competition
There are a few things to consider when analyzing the competition. First, you need to define what market your product operates in. It’s important to define the space you’re in so that people can quickly understand what you do. Market creation is incredibly hard, so unless your product is totally new and stands alone, it’s a better strategy ground your product in the minds of users relative to something they are already familiar with.
After defining your market, you need to identify the market leaders in your space. Market leaders are the companies who have established a brand presence in the mind of your target audience. They likely have a robust product offering, capital resources, and a large customer base.
Finally, you need to be aware of any emerging threats. Emerging threats are either early-stage companies working towards becoming market leaders in your space or they are ancillary products that could make a shift and become a competitor.
The Industry
Once you articulate your product, customer, and competition, you need to define your industry at large. What that mainly comes down to is understanding market trends.
By identifying market trends and defining your point of view on them, you’re able to create content to reach new audiences, attract visitors to your website, and position your company as a credible leader. Sharing your point of view and how your product fits in with market trends is a great starting point for content to be used in blog posts, podcasts, and interviews with journalists.
Crafting your message
If you’re interested in a more in-depth view on how to build out your product positioning and messaging, check out our free guide that comes with a downloadable template. But, if you’re just looking for a few pointers, here are some high-level suggestions:
Speak to the buyer, not the user or end-user: Remember, the person using the product isn’t always the decision-maker. You need to entice that person in order to get more sales.
Focus on buyer intent: When making a purchase, we have a plan for the product. If you’re able to speak to that use, then you’re more able to help the buyer envision using your product, and therefore more likely to purchase.
Explain benefits: The benefits of your product are probably pretty obvious to you, as you work with it day in and day out, but that’s not the case for your prospects. Be sure you’re clearly articulating how your product can impact their lives and what outcomes they should expect.
List key features that are on their mental shopping list: These days most products have too many features to list, but there are usually four to five key features that most customers are looking for. Once you know what yours are, focus your messaging around them.
Stand out from the rest
Presenting yourself and your product to the world is tough. It takes a lot of thought and research and sometimes gets ignored because it’s less tangible than posting on social or running an ad campaign. But if you don’t take the time to get it right, all of your marketing efforts will be harder and less effective. Be sure you’re taking the time to be thoughtful about the context you set and the message you send.
If you do, there’s no telling what you can do. You may even be able to turn your floor cleaner into mouthwash.
If you’d like more resources and further guidance on positioning and messaging (and more), sign up for The Founder’s Marketing Playbook and get access to expanded content, exercises, and much more to get your marketing efforts up-and-running.
