The Marketing Expert: How to Get More Sales, Loyal Customers, and Bigger Promotions

The Nugget

Positioning is the foundation upon which your marketing and sales are built. It defines how your product is uniquely valuable to a specific set of customers and sets the context for the product in the customer's mind, creating an effective market entry point.

Make it stick

💡 Positioning is not branding: It's about defining the value your product uniquely delivers, not just creating a catchy tagline.
🍰 Muffin vs. Cake analogy: The same product can be seen differently based on how it's positioned - as a muffin for breakfast or as a cake for dessert.
🧭 Market context: Positioning sets the context for customers, helping them understand why they should care about your product.
🎯 Sub-segment focus: Successful positioning often starts by dominating a small, underserved market segment before expanding.

Definition: Positioning defines how your product is uniquely the best at delivering specific value to targeted customers.
Context Setting: Like the opening scene of a movie, positioning sets the initial context for understanding your product.

Ignoring Positioning: Many companies fail to think about positioning, assuming a product's value is obvious.
Misidentification: Positioning is not the same as branding or messaging.

Underserved Sub-segments: Tech companies often succeed by focusing on and dominating a small, underserved market segment.
Evolving Products: Companies need to be agile, willing to reposition products as markets and customer perceptions evolve.

Unique Value: Highlight differentiated capabilities and why they matter to potential customers.
Target Market: Clearly identify who cares about your unique features and focus messaging accordingly.

Collaborative Approach: Use cross-functional teams (marketing, sales, product, customer success) to set and maintain positioning.
Avoid Overly Broad Markets: Start with a focused market segment before expanding.

🍩 Tim Hortons Muffin Example: Demonstrates how the same product can be better positioned based on context (muffin vs. cake).
🏛️ Janna Systems: Positioned as CRM for investment banks to avoid direct competition with market giants.

"Positioning defines how your product is the best in the world at delivering something some value that a well-defined set of customers cares a lot about."
"If everything we do in marketing and sales is the house, positioning is the foundation upon which the house is built."
"You can’t tell just using what I would call the grandmother test. If I’m selling a specialized thing to specialized buyers, it just needs to resonate with them."
"The most common way that tech companies successfully position is they find an underserved sub-segment of the market and attempt to dominate it."
"Most products we could position them in a dozen different markets... We need to think about this in the way customer thinks about it."

This summary contains AI-generated information and may have important inaccuracies or omissions.