"You take a very simple story
and you tell it in a very complicated
way". That's how Baz Luhrmann,
the director of Moulin Rouge, described
the secret behind one of the most
amazing movies made in recent years.
The secret of positioning is doing
exactly the opposite: take a complex
solution and simplify it. Or as Al Ries
and Jack Trout say in their classic
Positioning book: oversimplify it.
Admittedly, simplifying things is far
from being a simple task. It means
taking everything you do and reducing it
to the core.
Your product: It does a lot of
great things. It has dozens or even
hundreds of wonderful features. But when
you think about the positioning of
your product, you need to give up the
desire to tell about all of them.
Instead, you need to focus on one or two
critical benefits your product delivers
and no other can match.
OK, we opened the Pandora box when we
said "no other can match."
I've heard many entrepreneurs say
"we have no competition."
Unless your product enables something
that has truly never been done before
(such as traveling back in time), there
is always competition. Your competition
is the "old" way people arrive
at the goals your product helps them
achieve. For example, when Quicken first
came out, it defined its competition as
the paper-based checkbook.
Defining the competition is an
important part of the positioning
process. Having a reference point in
mind helps people understand what your
product can do for them. It also gives
you the opportunity to demonstrate how
your product can do it better.
Your market: While you may
have the potential to be the leader of a
huge market, your positioning should
reflect a realistic vision of the market
you can address and the benefits you can
deliver at each given time. When you get
started, the key to your positioning is
defining a small enough market segment
and solution category in which you can
be the leader. As Geoffrey Moore calls
it, you want to be the big fish in a
small pond.
Speaking of Moore, I like the
positioning statement format proposed in
Crossing the Chasm. It boils down
the positioning to five sentences:
- Who you're selling to.
- What problem you solve for them.
- What your product does.
- How it solves the problem.
- How it is different from the
competition.
The tricky part is reducing each of
these to a single sentence. Once you
have done this, you have a very powerful
way of presenting your business, both
internally and to the rest of the world.
Everything we covered so far has been
a refresher to Positioning 101. What we
would really like to talk about is what
you do after you've defined your
positioning.
Now that you've defined it, how do
you use your positioning?
There is little benefit in crafting
your positioning if you don't use it.
Here are some of the ways your
positioning can provide guidance to your
day-to-day marketing decisions.
Branding and messaging: your
brand and message should match the
target audience defined in your
positioning, and should convey an image
that fits the benefits and values you
want to be recognized for: if you target
a specific industry, use the industry's
terminology and familiar images in your
marketing communications; if the benefit
of your product is speed, then speed
should jump out of everything you do,
from the words you use to the graphics
in every marketing communication piece;
if your differentiation is simplicity
and ease-of-use, make sure your website
reflects these, both in content and in
form.
Product development: with
every new release of your product,
hundreds of decisions are being made
regarding product architecture and
features. These decisions are influenced
by customer demands, technology
considerations, and competitive
pressures. While these will continue to
play a role in your product decisions,
it's important that you also keep your
positioning in mind.
Here are some simple steps you can
plug into your product management
processes to make sure this point is not
forgotten:
- Add a column in your decision
matrix to indicate how each
development request contributes to
the strength of your positioning.
- In the final review of your next
release plan, ask yourself whether
the new release will enhance your
positioning, maintain it, or maybe
even damage it.
- One of your senior executives
should be the "positioning
advocate". It can be your VP
Marketing, VP Product Management, or
even the CEO. She or he should
represent these positioning
enhancing line items in the battle
to make the cut for your new
release. To make it real, give them
some power: require a signature of
this executive on the release plan.
Revisiting your positioning
As much as your positioning is the
compass for your decisions, it too must
evolve over time.
As you grow, you need to expand your
solution as well as your market. Don't
get stuck in your initial positioning,
or you will end up a beached big fish in
a dried up pond. You have to do it
carefully; since most buyers are
conservative, they don't like drastic
changes in positioning. Leverage your
initial success by gradually expanding
your positioning, while maintaining your
existing customer and solution base.
At the same time, you may need to
trim, refocus, and eliminate aspects of
your positioning that have become
obsolete or stopped serving their
purpose. What used to be a
differentiator yesterday may be a
"me too" today. It is
important is that that you make these
adjustments consciously. Define the new
positioning first, then make the
appropriate product and marketing
decisions.
If you haven't seen Moulin Rouge, you
should. And remember, unlike Moulin
Rouge, positioning is about telling a
complex story in a very simple way.
For Raj Patel, software and
positioning are a way of life. Raj has
founded and sold two enterprise software
companies. He is currently Vice
President and Chief Technology Officer
at FrontRange Solutions, a leading
developer of CRM solutions based in
Colorado Springs.
