Obviously Awesome

Introduction

Obviously Awesome is a book that teaches you how to make your product stand out. It has tips and tricks from 20 years of working in marketing for businesses that sell technology. It shows you how to tell people why your product is special and who should buy it.

Imagine a very good violin player who plays in a busy train station. He plays very well, but most people don’t stop to listen. This is a real story that shows how context matters – even the best things or products can be ignored if they are in the wrong place. That’s why you need to position your product well. Positioning is the way you put your product in the right place so that people notice it and want it. You can learn how to position your product in 10 easy steps. These steps will help you find out what makes your product different, who your competitors are, and how to talk to your customers. In this summary, you’ll find out how to use these steps to make your product more attractive and successful.

Chapter 1: How to position your product well: Learn the main parts

Do you ever wonder why some products, even the ones that are very new and cool, have a hard time selling, while others are very popular? It’s because of how they are positioned. Positioning is the way you show your product in a certain situation to make it look valuable. In a world with many choices, knowing and doing this well is very important – especially for people who want to make their product better for the market. Positioning is not just a word; it’s a plan that helps people see and want your product. It’s not only about what your product can do, but how people think about it. Bad positioning makes your customers work hard to find the value in your product – good positioning makes it easy to see. To position your product well, you need to be careful and organized. You need to avoid guessing. Many people who make products stick to their first idea, even when their product changes or the market changes. But positioning is not fixed; it’s a process that needs to change with your product and the situation. Positioning has five important parts. First, know the specific problems your product solves and the other solutions your customers might use now. Knowing the situation helps you make a positioning plan that makes your product look like the best solution. Second, show your product’s unique differences. Every product has things that make it different from its competitors. Finding these things and knowing why they matter to your customers is very important. Third, know your target customer. Not all customers are good for your product. You need to find the features of your best customers – those who will get the most value from your product’s unique things – and focus on them. Fourth, choose your best market situation. This means picking a market that makes your product look strong and matches your target customers’ needs. Finally, be ready to change. As your product and market change, your positioning should change too. This part means checking and adjusting the other parts to make sure your product still looks good. The next sections explain the 10 steps to use these parts to make a positioning plan that works for the right customers.

Chapter 2: How to get ready: Know your customers and work with your team

The first and most important thing to do for product positioning is to really know the customers who love your product. These are your fans – the ones who liked your product right away, bought it fast, and told others about it. By looking at this group, you can find out what they like and need, which helps you see what makes your product special, who your best customers are, and who you are competing with. If you don’t have such a loyal group of customers yet, you need to change your plan. In this case, you can keep a wide approach in positioning and try your product with different kinds of customers. Watch which groups use your product the most to find out who your main audience is. Make sure you start this from the customer’s point of view – the way they see and use your product’s features may be different from how you see them inside your company. After you find your product’s fans, the second thing to do is to make a positioning team. Good positioning is a team effort, done best by getting ideas from different parts of your company – sales, marketing, product development, and customer success, for example. Each part has a different view on the product’s features, its value, and the target customer. Use this team effort to agree on things and make a new positioning that everyone in the company knows and supports. The third and last thing to do in this first phase is to make a new positioning language. This means the team needs to understand the same things about positioning, its parts, and how the market affects it. At this point, you need to forget any old ideas or problems that are in your current positioning, which might come from the product’s past or how the market first reacted to it. Be open, and think about new ideas and views.

Chapter 3: How to know your place: Be better than others and show your value to customers

You have done the first things by knowing your customers and making a positioning team and language. Now you need to do the next things to make your product’s positioning plan better. This part of the work means looking closely at who you are competing with, and showing how your product’s special things give value to your customers. So for step four, you need to know the competition. To do this, you need to write down all your real competitors. Don’t only think about products that are like yours; your competition could also be things like doing it by hand, using other solutions, or even doing nothing. The point is to see what your target customers would do if your product was not there. This way of thinking changes from a product-focused view to a customer-focused one. Then, step five means finding your unique things or features. In other words, find out what makes your product different and better than the competition. Think about the specific things and features that make your product special. It doesn’t matter if it’s a 15 megapixel camera in a phone, software that installs with one click, or strong metal in machines – each unique feature matters. The goal here is to get all of your product’s things, even those that some might not like. Different is good. And proving these differences with facts, other people’s opinions, or customer stories makes your positioning stronger. The sixth step is to show how these unique things give value to your customers. Here, you’re changing from saying what your product’s features are to what they do. For example, a camera’s high megapixel number means sharper images – which means photos that can be printed, zoomed, or cropped for the customer. Each feature can give more than one value point. The goal is to find the main value groups that match customer goals, which shows your product’s most important differences.

Chapter 4: How to finish your positioning and tell others about it

You know your product and who you are competing with. Now you need to find the customers who love your product the most. They are not just people of a certain age or gender. They are people who act, spend, and need things in a certain way. They understood why your product is good, bought it quickly, and told others about it. You should aim your positioning at these customers, so you can sell more and keep them happy. As your business gets bigger, you can reach more customers, but don’t start too wide.

The next thing you need to do is pick the right market to show off your product’s best features and value. You have some options here, each with pros and cons: you can compete directly with the big players in the market, focus on a small part of the market where you can stand out, or make a new market that no one else has. Whatever you choose, your market should make your product look strong and valuable to your customers.

The next thing is optional, but can be helpful. You can use trends to make your product look more up-to-date and relevant. A trend is something that is popular or important right now. For example, if your product helps retail workers use data on different devices, you can use the trend of mobility. But don’t use a trend just to be trendy. Use it only if it makes your product look better and fits your market.

The last thing you need to do is write down your positioning in a document. This document should include everything about your positioning, from who you are competing with to who you are selling to. This document will help you make a good sales pitch, create clear marketing messages, and decide how to improve your product and price it. You should check and update this document often, because things can change in the market. New competitors, new rules, new economy, new technology, and new customer needs can affect your positioning.

Summary

Positioning is very important for your product to do well in the market. It starts with knowing who your customers are and what they want. Then you need to find out who you are competing with, what makes your product different and better, how much your product is worth, and how to tell others about it. If you follow the ten steps to positioning, you can make your product more popular, make your customers happier, and keep doing well.

About the author

April Dunford is a well-known positioning consultant, speaker, and author. She works with B2B tech companies to help them understand their customers, competitors, and value proposition. She has written two books: Obviously Awesome, which teaches a 10-step process for positioning, and Sales Pitch, which shows how to create a compelling sales story based on positioning. She also speaks at various events and mentors startups in the tech industry.