What is product positioning and why does it matter?
When you think about the Apple brand, what comes to mind? Really, take a minute to think about this before reading the rest of this lesson.
To me, Apple is all about the experience. It goes after the emotional branding—something which is felt in the heart and the mind of the customer. Every element—from product to design to advertising conveys the company’s values on innovation, design, and imagination. Apple positions itself as a luxury brand for early adopters of technology.
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 defines which market segments you’re targeting and how you want your audience to think about your product. Without clear positioning, you’re in danger of trying to reach everyone, which means your brand will reach and appeal to no-one.
Defining your positioning helps you establish a north star for who you should be reaching, how you’ll reach them, and what message you’ll use to engage them.
For example, if we look at Apple’s positioning again we can see that its market segmentation and target are clearly defined as:
Age group: 22 – 55
Gender: Male and female
Income: As an affluent brand, Apple targets medium to high-income individuals
Lifestyle: Income becomes synonymous with lifestyle and since Apple targets medium to high-income earners as its segments, the lifestyle the company targets is modern, young individuals who are open to change.
Behavior: Early technology adopters and hardcore loyalists
Lastly (but, very importantly), as you grow product positioning will help you bring teams across your entire organization into alignment with what your place in the market is and where you’re headed. If you’ve ever attempted this before you’ll know it’s no small feat.
The difference between brands and products
Before we dive into the finer details of creating effective product positioning and messaging it’s important to understand the difference between brand and product. We see a lot of clients thinking these are one in the same, especially if they only have one product, but it’s better to approach these as separate efforts and to know why you’re doing so.
Let’s take a look:
Brand, Product, Positioning, Messaging
Under a single brand, products can be vastly different.
Think about the different targeting, visual identity, and messaging for these products.
Brand vs. Products
Product messaging is external communication about your product—what problem it solves, how it works, and where it’s headed.
Strong product messaging will be the foundation for everything you say about your product. Your messaging will inform how you write emails to beta prospects, create sales decks, product landing pages and more.
So now that you know what product positioning and messaging is, let’s dive into the core tenets.
