Product Positioning and Messaging: A Guide to Standing Out

An Ex-Google PMM's take on product marketing.

Hi, my name is Henry, and today we’re diving into the essentials of product positioning and messaging.

What is Product Positioning?

Product positioning is all about finding your unique niche in the marketplace. It’s about determining where your product fits among the competition. There are two key steps to effectively position your product:

1. Know Your Product’s Strengths and Weaknesses

The first step in positioning is to have a clear understanding of what your product is good at—and where it falls short. You want to create a list of your product’s strengths and weaknesses.

For example, let’s say you’re making an electric scooter. If your scooter is fuel-efficient but doesn’t go very fast, fuel efficiency would be your strength, while speed would be your weakness.

2. Analyze Your Competitors

Next, look at your competitors to see how your product differs from theirs. This comparison helps you highlight your product’s unique advantages.

For instance, imagine your competitor offers a scooter that’s both fuel-efficient and fast, but it’s expensive. Now, you’ve discovered another strength of your product: it’s affordable. By evaluating your competition, you can identify how to better position your product in the market.

What is Product Messaging?

Once you’ve nailed down your positioning, it’s time to work on messaging. Messaging is about communicating your product’s value in the simplest way possible so customers understand what it does and how it helps them. Messaging consists of two main components:

1. The Headline

Your headline should describe what your product does in a way that’s easy for anyone to understand—think fourth-grade level language. For example, with the electric scooter, your headline might be:

• "The most affordable fuel-efficient scooter"

Another approach is to anchor your product to a well-known brand. For example, in the car market, Honda is synonymous with affordability and fuel efficiency. You could position your scooter as:

• "The Honda of scooters"

This helps customers immediately associate your product with something familiar, solidifying your message.

2. The Benefits

Benefits explain how your product improves the customer’s life. Features describe the product itself, while benefits explain what those features mean for the customer.

For example, if your scooter is foldable, that’s a feature. The benefit of it being foldable is that it’s easy and convenient to carry around and store.

Positioning and Messaging: A Perfect Pair

Positioning and messaging always go hand in hand. You need to understand what your product is good at and how it stands out in the market before you can communicate its value effectively to customers. Once you have your positioning, you can craft clear and compelling messaging that resonates with your target audience.

That’s it for today! If you found this helpful, please leave a comment below with any questions or thoughts.

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