Why positioning matters

Positioning answers the critical question:

"Why should a customer choose this product over anything else?"

Without clear positioning:

• Customers misunderstand the product.
• Sales cycles become longer.
• Marketing campaigns fail to resonate.

For example, an IT company that builds a cloud monitoring tool might struggle if customers perceive it as "just another dashboard." However, with proper positioning that highlights it as a real-time anomaly detection platform for DevOps teams, the value becomes clearer, and adoption is faster.

What positioning is (and is not)

• Positioning is not: branding, messaging, pricing, or product vision.
• Positioning is: the deliberate act of defining how your product is the best choice for a specific set of customers in a specific context.

Think of positioning as the lens through which customers view your product. If you fail to define it, the market will create its own assumptions—often incorrectly.

The Five (+1) components of positioning

There are five essential elements (plus one optional) that make up effective positioning.

1. Competitive Alternatives
   • What would customers do if your product did not exist?
   • Example: If your IT company offers a project management tool for developers, your alternatives might be Jira, Trello, or spreadsheets.
2. Unique Attributes (Features)
   • The distinct capabilities that your product offers.
   • Example: Your monitoring tool uses AI-based anomaly detection instead of static alerts.
3. Value (Benefits)
   • The benefits customers derive from your features.
   • Example: AI anomaly detection reduces downtime and frees engineers from manually watching dashboards.
4. Target Market (Who cares the most)
   • The customer segment that gets the most value.
   • Example: Mid-size SaaS companies with DevOps teams and frequent deployments, rather than large enterprises with dedicated NOC centers.
5. Market category (frame of reference)
   • The context customers use to understand your product.
   • Example: Framing the tool as an "AI-powered DevOps platform" instead of a "general monitoring tool" puts it in a higher-value category.

+1. Trends (Optional)

• Associating with relevant industry shifts can strengthen positioning.
• Example: Linking your platform to the growing "shift-left DevOps" movement emphasizes its relevance.

The positioning process

There is a 10-step process to deliberately craft or refine positioning:

1. Identify competitive alternatives.
2. List your product’s unique attributes.
3. Connect attributes to clear value.
4. Determine which customers care the most.
5. Define your market category.
6. Create a catchy positioning statement.
7. Test positioning with sales, marketing, and customers.
8. Translate positioning into messaging.
9. Roll it out across all teams.
10. Revisit positioning as markets evolve.

Common positioning mistakes

• Trying to be everything to everyone leads to generic, forgettable messaging.
• Focusing on features rather than benefits.
• Defining positioning internally without validating with customers.
• Positioning only against competitors, rather than claiming a clear, unique space.

Practical examples for IT companies

1. Example: SaaS backup solution
   • Poor Positioning: "We store your backups securely."
   • Better Positioning: "We are the only backup platform that guarantees recovery from ransomware in under 15 minutes for small and mid-sized SaaS businesses."
     

The second example highlights the competitive alternative (manual backups), the unique attribute (fast recovery), and the target market (SMBs).

1. Example: Developer collaboration tool
   • Poor Positioning: "A place for developers to share code snippets."
   • Better Positioning: "The collaboration platform for remote software teams that reduces code review times by 40%."
     

This reframing shows measurable value for a defined audience.