Pragmatic Marketing Rule #15

This is the fifteenth in a series of posts on Practical Product Management Rules from Pragmatic Marketing.

Pragmatic Marketing Rule #15: With positioning, the focus is on what we do for the buyers.

Yes, yes, yes, we love our products.

Yes, yes, yes, we’re proud of who we are and how we got there.

Yes, yes, yes, we know what went into developing them.

Yes, yes, yes, we want everyone to know about all the cool features.

But before we get too carried away, let’s make sure that we focus on messaging that’s relevant to the people who are actually going to buy the product.

This rule is really resonating with me these days. I’m working with a new client, and there’s a part of their history that they are rightfully quite proud of. In fact, they’re so proud of it, that they pretty much lead off with it. Which would be fine and dandy - except that this little piece of information (which looms so mightily for “us”) is stunningly irrelevant to the customers they’re trying to attract.

At best, it’s of passing interest - like finding out that the woman in the next office was an Olympic pairs skater, or that the sales guy you did booth duty with at the trade show is related to the almost-famous actor with the same unusual last name.

At worst, it’s a put off - like finding out that the client loathes Olympic pairs skating, or thinks that almost-famous actor is a scenery gnawing ham.

So when you’re positioning your product, lead with what’s important to the person who might be writing the check, not on what’s near and dear to you.

I am not, by the way, advocating for positioning that excludes what the product actually does. I’m a strong believer that a good positioning statement will include not just what a product does for the buyer, but what it does. I absolutely hate reading about how a product saves time and money, increases your bottom line, and brings about world peace - but come away without knowing whether we’re talking about accounting software or a Ginsu knife.

Positioning should - make that MUST - include what the product does, who it’s for, and how they benefit from it.

Anything that’s supportive of the above can be added into the mix (e.g., an award your product has won; Gartner Magic Quadrant leadership;an interesting market share tidbit - 9 or out 10 dentists recommend Trident for their patients who chew gum; or something else that’s relevant).

But save the off-message info for footnotes, conversation, company background.

Yes, it’s interesting that your founder won the Pulitzer Prize. That your product was originally built to count hula hoops. That your corporate headquarters is located in the old mill where Civil War muskets were manufactured. Nice to know….just not need to know.

When positioning products, I always try to keep in mind a not-so-related event that occurred years ago.

My husband and I were attending a Little League game, and the kids were selling raffle tickets to raise money for equipment. The kid who sold the most tickets was going to get a prize, so some of them were really working the stands. One little girl came up to us and asked if we wanted to buy any tickets.

“Sure,” I told her. “What could we win?”

The little girl looked at me with complete puzzlement. “You don’t win the prize,” she told me. “I do.”

Obviously, no one’s going to make the positioning mistake of telling the audience what’s in it for the company selling the product - “we need this product to be a success so that we can stay in business” - but it’s pretty easy to slip into talking about what’s most of interest to us, rather than to focus on what the customer wants to learn.

Sure, there are two sides to any transaction, and the buyer knows that there’s something in it for us, but - let’s face it - that buyer really wants to know what they could win.

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