Obviously Awesome: positioning a product step by step

Who should use it, and when not to

Use it when buyers don't "get" the product, when sales calls spend too long explaining what it is, when the product has changed but the message hasn't, or before a launch or a homepage rewrite. It's written mostly for B2B and technology products.

For the older idea of owning a word in the buyer's mind, see Positioning by Ries and Trout. To choose the first segment to win, see Crossing the Chasm.

The core ideas

Positioning is context. Customers judge a product by what they compare it with. The same product looks expensive in one category and cheap in another.

The five components.

The components depend on each other. Change the category and the alternatives change. That's why Dunford rejects filling in a positioning statement from memory.

Do it as a team. She recommends working through the components with people from sales, marketing, product and leadership, starting from your best customers.

A worked mini example

This is an illustration. A team sells scheduling software and calls it "an all-in-one practice platform". Its happiest customers are physio clinics, and when asked what they'd do without it, they say a paper diary and a receptionist phoning patients. What only this product has is reminders that patients confirm by text reply. The value: fewer empty slots. The best-fit customers: clinics where one therapist's slot is lost on a no-show. The category that makes this obvious: appointment reminders for clinics, not a practice platform, where it would be compared with much larger suites.

How to position your product

1. List your best customers, the ones who got value fastest.
2. Write their competitive alternatives, in their words.
3. List your unique attributes against those alternatives.
4. Map each attribute to value, with proof.
5. Describe the best-fit customer who cares most about that value.
6. Choose the market category that makes the value obvious.
7. Write it up and test it in sales conversations and on the homepage.

The positioning statement skill works through Dunford's five components with your customers and alternatives, then writes a one-line summary.

Common mistakes

• Starting with the category. Then everything else is forced to fit it.
• Listing only direct competitors. The real alternative is often a spreadsheet or doing nothing.
• Claiming value without proof.
• Positioning for everyone. The best-fit customer makes the message sharp.

Where it comes from

April Dunford led marketing at several technology companies before working as a positioning consultant. Obviously Awesome was published in 2019, and an updated and expanded edition followed. Her later book, Sales Pitch, builds a sales story on the same positioning.

This page is an independent summary in our own words. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by April Dunford. The book's title is used only to name it. More explainers are in the business books index.

Questions

What are the five components of positioning?

In April Dunford's method: competitive alternatives, unique attributes (differentiated features or capabilities), the value those attributes deliver, the best-fit target customers, and the market category.

Why does April Dunford criticize the positioning statement?

She argues the classic fill-in-the-blanks statement assumes there is one obvious answer for each blank, while most products could be positioned in several categories for different customers. Her method works the components out in order instead.

Where should positioning start?

With competitive alternatives: what customers would do if your product didn't exist, which may be a spreadsheet, an intern or doing nothing, not only direct competitors.