The Context of Positioning: An “Clearly Superior” Guide Abstract – Half 1

By Sarah Threet, Advertising Marketing consultant

At Heinz Advertising, we worth steady studying and development. We need to be the form of consultants who’re all the time on prime of the newest developments so we are able to place ourselves as a strategic useful resource for our shoppers. Topically, the following e book that we’ve got been studying is a e book on positioning, “Clearly Superior: Find out how to Nail Product Positioning so Prospects Get It, Purchase It, Love It” by April Dunford. This e book, in contrast to most on the positioning subject, teaches you HOW to place your product. 

Positioning your product is very similar to offering the context wherein your product lives. Context can fully change the best way prospects view your product, or anything; it’s transformative. One of many examples that Dunford offers is the experiment involving the acclaimed violinist, Joshua Bell. 

The Transformative Technique of Context 

Joshua Bell is an award-winning musician who sells out reveals averaging $300/ticket. Provided that context, one would possibly assume if he had been to play publicly on the streets, he would amass an enormous crowd of followers, starstruck on the alternative to observe him play totally free. However positioning him in a special setting fully modified the best way the viewers perceived him. 

Whereas Joshua performed his violin outdoors of a busy subway station, the biggest crowd amassed at any given time was solely about 7 individuals. Over 1,000 handed within the 45 minutes he performed, and solely 27 donated, for whole earnings of lower than $40 – not even a sixth the quantity a venue would cost for a ticket to see him on knowledgeable stage. The contextual distinction was the stage on which he was performing. Most people who handed by merely perceived him as a person simply attempting to make a greenback, and others even discovered his music slightly annoying.  

In a efficiency corridor, Joshua would have his personal signal, an accompanying orchestra, a program that supplied details about who he’s and his many accolades, and he can be dressed to the nines like everybody else attending to hearken to his music. The viewers is supplied with the context that tells them why they need to care about listening to this efficiency and why they need to spend good cash. Most individuals depend on a body of reference; they want to have the ability to examine one product or expertise to a different to raised perceive its worth.  

Most merchandise are distinctive solely once we perceive them inside their finest body of reference. The failing for many of us once we attempt to place ourselves or our merchandise/providers is that we expect that the context is apparent. 

The Two Traps of Contextual Positioning 

When we’ve got created a brand new services or products, we frequently fall into the entice of changing into pigeonholed to 1 positioning context: the one which’s most evident. The fact is there are a lot of methods to place the identical product/service.  

Lure 1: You’re so caught on the concept of what you constructed you don’t see when your product transforms into one thing else. 

The instance Dunford offers is of a baker with a brand new form of cake: “the best chocolate cake on this planet”. The baker is already married to a set of selections primarily based off the concept they’re going to create this nice cake: 

• They’ve determined their audience will probably be these with the earnings and curiosity in shopping for a flowery cake, so they’ll need to promote on to a prestigious bakery or by way of a effective eating restaurant.  
• Their aggressive options embrace different truffles, ice lotions, pies, and various desserts. 
• If promoting alongside their different desserts, they’ll probably not be capable of upcharge an excessive amount of. 
• Product differentiators might want to attraction to an viewers of fancy cake customers, so they might need the cake to be made with natural components, or attraction to a high-brow style, together with fancy French salt within the chocolate.  

Within the technique of growing this fancy chocolate cake, the baker has ended up with a product a lot smaller in measurement – a single serving, and they also have wrapped it in a flowery packaging. As a substitute of a conventional cake, the product remodeled into one thing extra like a muffin, and that contextual shift makes a giant distinction though the components are the identical.  

• Their audience now must shift; muffins are extra steadily seen at espresso retailers somewhat than fancy bakeries or being bought at high-end eating places.  
• The aggressive options shift to merchandise extra like Danishes, donuts, and bagels.  
• The value level would probably shift to cheaper, and due to this fact, the baker would need to promote extra of them. 
• Since muffins are sometimes considered as morning confectionaries, including a great deal of chocolate to a muffin indulges a distinct segment set of morning sweet-tooths. These people are much less probably involved with the flowery additions, like French salt, and as an alternative care extra about further chocolate, possibly some caramel, and getting extra energy out of the morning meal.  

Regularly, the product we find yourself with shouldn’t be the product we got down to construct, and it may be tough for us to see the gradual transformation and the way the context must shift with the transformation of the product. It’s essential to be open-minded about what you’re creating and the place it could find yourself, as a result of prospects can usually really feel confused with a services or products that doesn’t match with the best way the corporate is positioning it.  

Lure 2: You rigorously designed a product for a specific market, after which the market modified. 

Markets, and the best way customers understand markets, are always altering; rivals are steadily evolving their choices in response to those market shifts. Typically, regardless of how nicely you positioned your product for its meant market, the positioning nonetheless fails as a result of the market across the product has modified; the context has modified and due to this fact the positioning is not related.  

In Dunford’s instance, the muffin baker has shifted their product to focus on health-conscious customers by filling it with nuts, seeds, and dates, and advertising and marketing it as a “weight loss plan muffin”. A brand new competitor opens throughout the road and plenty of of your prospects are immediately frequenting that institution – why? It seems the competitors is promoting the very same muffin you might be, nevertheless, they’ve positioned their muffin as a “gluten-free paleo snack”, way more aligned with the stylish notion of being health-conscious however not falling for weight loss plan tradition. The context shifted over time as consuming habits and stylish diets have modified, and the unique muffin baker didn’t reposition their muffin for this market evolution. 

Find out how to Place Your Product Like Your Firm Relies on It 

We’re steadily advised there’s one default option to place a product and never that there are a lot of methods to reframe the best way we and the buyer would possibly consider the product. It’s not usually taught that positioning is a deliberate alternative that requires instances, consideration, and systematic course of.  

In Dunford’s instance of deliberate positioning, we as soon as once more revisit the baker who was attempting to make a flowery cake. This time, the baker reimagines the cake as a transportable piece of cake one would possibly be capable of take and devour with their espresso on-the-go. What they find yourself inventing is a bit of cake connected to a stick, and initially, that’s how they conceive of positioning their new product: “cake on a stick”. However Dunford asks, “Is it actually only a cake on a stick, and is that the way you need your customers to understand it?’ 

What the baker has newly crafted could also be cake as outlined by the components, however it’s not cake within the conventional sense customers understand cake and luxuriate in cake. Sure, the product incorporates cake, and that’s the half that’s being actually consumed, however it has a special form (it’s spherical somewhat than triangular like a conventional piece of cake) and it’s delivered on a transportable stick. What makes it distinctive shouldn’t be that it’s cake however the different components of the product. Ultimately, the baker sees their product is extra like a lollipop for adults to devour with their espresso, in order that they reposition their product as a “Cake Pop”.  

Context Issues – So How do I Place My Product? 

I’ll proceed to jot down about this e book over the approaching months and supply extra of the main points realized from April Dunford’s e book. For now, right here are some things to think about about methods to intentionally place your self and your product: 

• What’s your audience’s perspective of the issue and the way your product/service solves that downside?
• Is your product/service aiming to resolve a specific ache level you might be conscious already exists? 
• How is your product uniquely completely different out of your rivals and why ought to customers care? 
• What are the traits of a client who would actually worth your distinctive providing? 
• What’s the finest market context that may showcase and make apparent your distinctive worth to those that would profit most from it?