Unlocking Your Product’s Potential: A Comprehensive Summary of “Obviously Awesome” by April Dunford

In “Obviously Awesome,” April Dunford, a globally recognized expert in positioning and market strategy, offers a revolutionary guide to helping technology companies—and any business with a product—make their offerings easy for customers to understand and love. Drawing on over two decades of experience launching sixteen successful products, Dunford tackles the often-misunderstood concept of product positioning. She argues that while many know what positioning is, very few understand how to do it effectively. This book provides a practical, step-by-step methodology, moving beyond vague theories to deliver actionable insights and field-tested frameworks that can transform how the world perceives your product, your problem, and even your entire market. Prepare to uncover every essential idea, illuminating example, and powerful strategy from Dunford’s “Obviously Awesome” that will fundamentally change how you approach your business’s success.

Introduction: Why Positioning is Your Superpower

The Introduction to “Obviously Awesome” powerfully argues that positioning is the often-overlooked, foundational input for all marketing and sales efforts. April Dunford highlights that while new, trendy tactics like growth hacking and content marketing emerge constantly, none of them work effectively without a strong positioning strategy. She defines positioning as “the act of deliberately defining how you are the best at something that a defined market cares a lot about.” Without clear positioning, businesses struggle with confusing messages, long sales cycles, low close rates, and high customer churn—leading to wasted marketing budgets and frustrated sales teams. Dunford uses the analogy of trying to make an omelet with rotten eggs: perfect cooking technique (marketing execution) won’t save a dish made with poor ingredients (weak positioning). Conversely, great positioning supercharges all efforts, making sales and marketing feel like you’re “cheating” because the market’s forces are working in your favor.

Dunford points out that positioning itself has a “positioning problem” because many confuse it with mere messaging. She introduces her preferred definition: positioning as “context setting” for products. When people encounter something new, they seek context to understand it. Without this deliberate context, innovative products are often misunderstood or dismissed. She acknowledges that the concept of positioning has existed since Al Ries and Jack Trout’s 1981 book, “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind,” which defined what it was but not how to do it. Dunford’s crucial contribution is providing a systematic, teachable process to perform positioning work. She emphasizes that her method is “field tested and proven as a bulletproof way to connect the customer with the product, leading to sales.” This book is for founders, marketers, salespeople, and executives who recognize that business success hinges on customers easily understanding what your product is, why it’s special, and why it matters to them. Weak positioning creates visible trails: customers love you but prospects are confused, sales cycles are long with low close rates, customer churn is high, and you face constant price pressure. Dunford promises that positioning is “worth it. And it’s not that hard,” offering a practical guide to putting you at a distinct competitive advantage.

I. WHAT IS POSITIONING?

Positioning as Context: The Foundation of Understanding

Chapter One delves into the core concept of positioning as context setting, arguing that context is essential for people to quickly grasp what’s important. Dunford draws an analogy to the opening scene of a movie, like “Apocalypse Now,” which rapidly provides the “where, what, why, and who” for the story. Similarly, when customers encounter a new product, they seek contextual clues from its messaging, pricing, features, branding, partners, and customers to understand what it is, who it’s for, and why they should care. Context can completely transform perception, as illustrated by the famous Washington Post experiment with acclaimed violinist Joshua Bell. Playing for tips in a busy subway station, Bell, despite his world-class talent, was largely ignored and earned only $32.17. In that context, people didn’t recognize his value, treating him as “just a guy trying to make a buck.” This demonstrates that even a world-class product, poorly positioned, can fail. In a concert hall, Bell’s value is obvious; in a subway station, he’s “sabotaged by his context.”

Dunford explains that we rely on context to navigate a world full of choices, and without it, we’d be overwhelmed. For innovative products, lacking context leads to customers framing them based on something they already know—like an “iPad” being “a giant cell phone.” This frame of reference is critical for business success. The chapter then introduces “The Two Traps” that product creators often fall into regarding positioning:

• Trap 1: You are stuck on the idea of what you intended to build, and you don’t realize that your product has become something else. Dunford illustrates this with the “baker” analogy: starting with “cake” implies certain buyers, competitors, pricing, and features. But if the product evolves into a “small piece of cake that you can eat with your hands… on a stick,” remaining fixated on “cake on a stick” (Frankencake) is confusing. Repositioning it as a “cake pop” (a lollipop for grownups) changes everything—buyers, competitors, pricing, and roadmap—making its unique features (the stick, portability) instantly sensible. This transformation often happens gradually, so creators don’t notice, but customers are left confused.
• Trap 2: You carefully designed your product for a market, but that market has changed. Markets are dynamic, shifting due to technology, preferences, economics, or regulations. A “diet muffin” that was well-positioned years ago might become irrelevant when market attitudes shift towards “gluten-free paleo snacks,” even if the product itself hasn’t changed. Dunford notes this is common in tech, where fast-moving markets can leave companies “trapped in your original positioning.”

The core failure in both traps is a lack of deliberate positioning. Dunford emphasizes that most products can be positioned in multiple ways, and the best position is often not the default. She recounts her own “Positioning Story: From database to data warehouse,” where her company initially struggled to sell their “special kind of database” because the market was saturated and dominated by giants like Oracle. Investors and customers didn’t see the need for another database. A customer’s insight—that their product was more like a “data warehouse” (a specialized system for data analysis)—transformed their perception. Despite lacking some traditional data warehouse features, their product blew away existing data warehouses in analysis capabilities. This repositioning aligned with their strengths, made their value obvious, stopped direct competition with Oracle, and allowed them to raise prices. This story underscores that “lousy positioning makes your prospects work harder to figure out if you are worth paying attention to.” Great positioning, conversely, is “the underpinning of your entire business strategy and can mean the difference between success and failure.” Dunford concludes by setting the stage for her methodical approach, emphasizing that positioning needs to be broken down into components.

The Five (Plus One) Components of Effective Positioning: Building Blocks for Success

Chapter Two addresses the critical gap in positioning education: while its importance is acknowledged, a concrete methodology for doing it is often missing. Dunford critiques the widely taught “positioning statement” as an ineffective tool. She shares her experience at IBM, where filling out a template like “FOR target buyers, your offering IS A market category WHICH PROVIDES competitor’s benefits UNLIKE primary competitor WHICH PROVIDES competitor’s benefits” yielded only “hilariously awkward mumbo jumbo” that was neither useful nor used. The major flaw of this statement is that it assumes you already know the answers to complex strategic questions. It reinforces the status quo, doesn’t encourage creative thinking, and provides no guidance on next steps or how to improve positioning.

Instead, Dunford breaks down positioning into five core components (plus an optional bonus) that, when systematically defined and understood, collectively shape your market position. These are:

1. Competitive alternatives: This goes beyond direct competitors. It’s “what customers would do if your solution didn’t exist.” This could include other products, but also manual processes (“use a spreadsheet”), hiring someone (“hire an intern”), or simply “do nothing.” Understanding these alternatives is crucial because they define the “yardstick” customers use to measure “better.”
2. Unique attributes: These are the features and capabilities that you have and the alternatives lack. They are your “secret sauce”—what your product or company can do that others cannot. Examples include patented technology, specific delivery models (SaaS vs. on-premise), unique business models, or specialized expertise. Dunford cautions against listing features that are difficult to prove or are merely benefits in disguise (like “outstanding customer service” without objective proof).
3. Value (and proof): This is the benefit your unique attributes enable for customers. It translates “what your product does” into “why someone might care.” For example, a “patented query algorithm” (attribute) leads to “faster response times” (benefit), which enables customers to “respond to their own customers while a customer is on the phone” (value), improving satisfaction. Value claims should be as fact-based and demonstrable as possible, supported by data or third-party validation.
4. Target market characteristics: This defines “the characteristics of a group of buyers that lead them to really care a lot about the value you deliver.” It’s about identifying your “best-fit prospects”—those who buy quickly, rarely ask for discounts, and become raving fans. This goes beyond broad demographics (e.g., “small businesses”) to specific, identifiable traits that make them appreciate your unique value most (e.g., “small businesses that send a significant number of invoices every month”).
5. Market category: This is the frame of reference you choose for your product to help customers understand its unique value. Declaring a market category (e.g., “customer relationship management (CRM) tool”) triggers a set of powerful assumptions in customers’ minds about competitors (Salesforce), expected features (contact tracking), and pricing models. A well-chosen category makes your unique value obvious, while a poor choice (“email-for-lawyers” that lacks calendar features but excels at secure file sharing) forces you to battle against misperceptions.
6. (Bonus) Relevant trends: This optional component helps customers understand why your product is important to them right now. Trends (e.g., Blockchain, AI, Augmented Reality) are distinct from market categories. While a market category defines “what you are” (e.g., “AI-empowered CRM”), a trend adds “why you matter now” (e.g., “AI-empowered CRM” leverages a hot trend). They can make “boring” products more interesting but must have a clear, reinforcing link to your product’s value and market context. Dunford warns against using trends superficially, citing the “Long Blockchain” company as a cautionary tale of hype without substance.

Dunford emphasizes that these components are interconnected, with a specific logical flow: competitive alternatives define your unique attributes, which drive value for specific target market characteristics, leading to the selection of the best market category (and potentially layering on relevant trends). This sequence is crucial for effective positioning. The chapter concludes by setting the stage for Part II, the 10-Step Positioning Process, which will guide readers through defining these components in the right order.

II. THE 10-STEP POSITIONING PROCESS

STEP 1. Understand the Customers Who Love Your Product: The Starting Point

Chapter Three outlines the crucial first step in Dunford’s systematic positioning process: understanding your happiest, best-fit customers. She explains that positioning components are interdependent, creating a circular problem: where to start? Her breakthrough came from realizing that your existing best-fit customers hold the key to understanding your product’s true identity and value. These are the customers who “understood your product quickly and bought from you quickly,” became “raving fans,” provided referrals, and acted as references. They represent the “perfect type of customer you want to buy from you.”

Dunford stresses that surveying all customers often yields muddy results. Instead, focusing only on the ecstatic fans reveals clear patterns about why they are so satisfied, what competitors they consider, and what features they love most. This allows businesses to refine their marketing and sales efforts to attract more customers with similar characteristics. She advises creating a short list of these best customers as a reference point for the entire exercise.

For companies without “super-happy customers yet,” Dunford suggests holding off on tightening positioning. Instead, they should “fish broadly” by exposing their product to a diverse audience to identify emerging patterns. Just as a fishing net initially cast for grouper might discover it catches tuna, early market experience helps reveal who truly loves your product. Trying to position a “tuna net” as a “grouper net” prematurely can lead to missed opportunities.

Dunford explicitly warns against starting with the product and its features, as this “trap” leads to comparing against competitors in a way that customers may not. Your features and value are only “unique, interesting and valuable when a customer perceives them in relation to alternatives,” and customers’ perceptions of competitors often differ significantly from the company’s. She also debunks the idea of positioning for customers and investors the same way. Investors buy into future vision; customers buy solutions to immediate problems. Your website and sales materials should reflect customer positioning, not investor positioning, as the latter might sound “confusing, terrifying or both” to a buyer.

Finally, Dunford clarifies whether to position a product or a company. For single-product companies (like Slack or Zippo), it’s easiest to treat the product and company positioning as the same to simplify customer understanding. For multi-product companies, product positioning and company positioning are separate but linked. She advises positioning the product first if most revenue comes from single-product purchases or if a product serves as an entry point for customer relationships. If products are sold as a bundle, company positioning might come first. Regardless, the book’s process is designed primarily for product positioning, with the understanding that “product” can be replaced with “entire portfolio of offerings” for company-level efforts, as exemplified by Wave’s transformation from “accounting” to “financial services” to better reflect their expanded offerings and capture new customer needs.

STEP 2. Form a Positioning Team: The Collaborative Core

Chapter Four emphasizes that effective positioning is a team effort, ideally involving representatives from across different company functions. Each team member—from sales, marketing, and customer success to product and development—brings a unique perspective on how customers perceive and experience the product. This collaborative approach is vital because it exposes differing internal assumptions about attributes, value, and target markets, fostering alignment across the organization.

Dunford stresses that a positioning exercise not driven by the business leader will likely fail. The person responsible for the business of that particular product (CEO, founder, division head) must lead and fully support the effort, as positioning is fundamentally a business strategy exercise. While marketing often initiates the discussion, they cannot “own” positioning alone, as it impacts every group.
The wide-ranging impact of positioning on various departments is highlighted:

• Marketing: Shapes messaging, audience targeting, and campaign development.
• Sales and business development: Guides target customer segmentation and account strategy.
• Customer success: Informs onboarding and account expansion strategy.
• Product and development: Influences roadmaps and feature prioritization.

Engagement from every group is crucial for buy-in and effective execution. Dunford recommends having one or two senior representatives from each functional group to ensure diverse perspectives without making the room too crowded, ideally keeping the total team size between three and twelve people. She strongly advises bringing in an experienced, external facilitator to guide the discussion. An outside facilitator ensures impartiality, encourages all voices to be heard, and can gently challenge long-held internal assumptions that might hinder fresh thinking. This external perspective helps the team move beyond internal biases and align on a new, desired position for the product.

STEP 3. Align Your Positioning Vocabulary and Let Go of Your Positioning Baggage: Clearing the Path

Chapter Five underscores the necessity of establishing a common vocabulary and shedding preconceived notions before the team can effectively work on positioning. Dunford explains that teams often arrive with different understandings of what positioning entails, leading to unproductive debates. To ensure alignment, she recommends dedicating the first hour of a positioning workshop to reviewing core concepts: what positioning means, its importance, its components, and how market maturity impacts positioning style.

The central theme of this step is “letting go of your positioning baggage.” Dunford defines this as the tendency to remain stuck in old ways of thinking about a product—its market, its problem solved—even when the product or market has evolved. This baggage is often “baked into the initial positioning” from the product’s conception. The challenge is that customers don’t share this history or baggage; they encounter the product with a clean slate. When the company’s internal perception disconnects from customer perception, market confusion arises.

Dunford provides the compelling example of Arm & Hammer baking soda. Originally used for baking, its sales flatlined in the 1970s as packaged food became popular. Recognizing its odor-absorbing quality, and seeing consumers already using it in fridges, Arm & Hammer chose to “let go of the past” and reposition itself as a deodorizer. This led to a dramatic increase in sales and brand extensions, proving that willingness to shed old thinking can unlock massive growth.

To facilitate this “mind-freeing” process, Dunford advises teams to:

• Identify where history influences current positioning: Do you still use outdated terminology or market definitions?
• Acknowledge and respect different levels of “baggage”: Founders might have more historical attachment than newer employees.
• Agree to suspend opinions: The team must commit to temporarily setting aside their existing beliefs about the product’s positioning to remain open to new ideas for the duration of the exercise.

The “Positioning Story: Clearpath Robotics steering robots toward autonomous vehicles” further illustrates this. Initially positioning their intelligent, mobile industrial robots as simply “robots,” Clearpath faced confusion because traditional manufacturing robots are stationary. This forced them to constantly explain how their product was unlike what customers expected. By letting go of the “robot” label and repositioning as “self-driving vehicles for industrial uses”, they shifted the context. This made their unique strengths (mobility, navigation, fleet management) “completely obvious to customers,” aligning them with the emerging trend of autonomous vehicles and accelerating their sales and investment. This step is about achieving a collective openness to redefine your product’s identity to best serve its future success.

STEP 4. List Your True Competitive Alternatives: Understanding the Customer’s Yardstick

Chapter Six emphasizes that customers’ perceptions of competitors are the only ones that truly matter for positioning. Dunford argues that product creators often fall into the trap of starting with their product’s features, unconsciously comparing themselves to competitors they perceive, which might be very different from what customers see. To create strong positioning, you must understand your product’s unique strengths through the customer’s lens, which means identifying their “true competitive alternatives.”

The foundational question for this step is: “What would our best customers do if we didn’t exist?” This probe reveals how customers categorize your solution. Alternatives aren’t just direct competitors; they can include:

• Other products: Direct rivals.
• Manual processes: Using spreadsheets, pen and paper.
• Hiring someone: “Hire an intern to do it.”
• Doing nothing: For innovative solutions where customers aren’t yet aware of a problem.

Dunford highlights that customers often lack the deep market expertise that product creators possess. They may not know about niche startups or the “state of the art” in your domain. For business software, the most common alternative is a combination of general-purpose tools (spreadsheets, documents) and manual work. Understanding these alternatives is crucial because they form the “yardstick” customers use to define “better.” If your solution is easier to use than a competitor’s product, but customers compare it to Excel, then “easier to use” needs to be true relative to Excel.

She advises focusing on the most common alternatives identified by your best-fit customers, rather than creating an exhaustive list of every possible fringe competitor. This ensures the team focuses on what truly influences the majority of your ideal buyers. These alternatives should then be ranked from most to least common and, if possible, clustered into logical groups (e.g., “do it manually” including Excel and interns, or “small-business accounting solutions” including QuickBooks). This grouping helps simplify the landscape and prepares the team for subsequent steps in the positioning process. The goal is to deeply understand the customer’s current “solution” to the problem you solve, which forms the basis for demonstrating your unique value.

STEP 5. Isolate Your Unique Attributes or Features: Your Secret Sauce

Chapter Seven moves to the next crucial step after identifying competitive alternatives: isolating what makes your product uniquely different and better. Dunford stresses the importance of focusing strictly on features and capabilities (attributes) at this stage, not the value they provide (which comes later). An attribute is something your product has or does, like “a 15-megapixel camera,” “integrates with QuickBooks,” or a “patented query algorithm.” These are your “secret sauce”—what you can do that your alternatives cannot.

Dunford encourages a broad and creative listing of attributes, including:

• Technical features: Patented algorithms, specific integrations.
• Delivery model: On-premise vs. SaaS.
• Business model: Leasing vs. selling.
• Specific expertise: A consultancy with deep experience in a particular industry.
• Proprietary processes: Unique manufacturing or service delivery methods.
• Distribution channels or partnerships.
• Team skills/experience: For service businesses, unique combinations of expertise.

A key point is to list every attribute, even those that might seem negative or whose value is uncertain, as perceptions can differ across team members (e.g., a required professional services installation might be a negative for sales but a positive for customer service seeking customization).

Dunford strongly cautions against listing attributes that are difficult to prove or are actually benefits in disguise, such as “outstanding customer service” or “very easy to use.” She emphasizes that your opinion of your own strengths is irrelevant without proof. Instead, focus on objective, demonstrable characteristics. For example, to prove “better customer service,” you might cite:

• Quantifiable metrics: More support staff per customer.
• Certifications: Unique training or certifications for your support team.
• Third-party validation: Independent reviewer statements, analyst reports, or approved customer testimonials.

She also differentiates between “consideration attributes” (features that drive initial purchase decisions, directly linked to customer goals) and “retention attributes” (features important for long-term satisfaction and renewal, like ease of doing business or customer support quality). While retention is important, the focus in positioning is on consideration attributes, as customers must first decide to buy before they can experience long-term benefits. The goal of this step is to generate a comprehensive, objective list of unique capabilities that sets your product apart from the identified competitive alternatives.

STEP 6. Map the Attributes to Value “Themes”: From Features to Impact

Chapter Eight guides the transformation of unique attributes into compelling customer value. Dunford clarifies that while features (like a “15-megapixel camera”) enable benefits (“sharp photo images”), value takes these benefits a step further by connecting them to a customer’s ultimate goal or problem solved. So, the value of the 15-megapixel camera becomes “images can be zoomed in or printed in large format and still look sharp,” directly addressing a customer’s need. This mapping answers the “So what?” question that often arises when explaining a feature.

Dunford provides a helpful table to illustrate this progression:

• Feature: Something your product does or has (e.g., “15-megapixel camera”).
• Benefit: What the feature enables for customers (e.g., “Sharp photo images”).
• Value: How this feature maps to a goal the customer is trying to achieve (e.g., “Images can be zoomed in or printed in large format and still look sharp”).

She acknowledges that translating from features to benefits and then to value can be challenging, especially for those with technical backgrounds. The key is to think from the customer’s perspective: What can they do with this feature that they couldn’t before? How does it solve their problem or help them achieve a specific objective? For instance, “faster response times” (benefit from a “patented fuzzy logic algorithm”) translates to the value of “decreasing support response times and increasing their customers’ satisfaction” because support agents can resolve issues while the customer is still on the phone.

The next critical part of this step is clustering the identified value points into “themes.” This involves grouping attributes that provide similar value from a customer’s perspective. For example, features like “works on any mobile device” and “works without an internet connection” could both contribute to the value theme of “supports remote environments,” which is important for field workers. The goal is to organize a potentially long list of value points into a more manageable one to four “value clusters” or themes. Dunford reminds readers that positioning is about highlighting the most critical and distinctive value, not every single feature. This step ensures that the product’s unique capabilities are articulated in terms of their tangible impact on customers.

STEP 7. Determine Who Cares a Lot: Pinpointing Your Best-Fit Customers

Chapter Nine focuses on the crucial step of identifying the specific customer segments that truly value your product’s unique offerings the most. Dunford highlights that while your product’s value might be broadly relevant, you need to concentrate your limited marketing and sales resources on the “best-fit prospects”—those who exhibit the highest affinity for your product and its specific value proposition.

She clarifies that this is a “segmentation” exercise, but one that goes beyond traditional consumer demographics (e.g., “single men between 18 and 30”) or business firmographics (e.g., “small businesses” or “companies with 100-2,000 employees”). A truly actionable segmentation captures “a list of a person’s or company’s easily identifiable characteristics that make them really care about what you do.” For consumers, this could include other brands they like, stores they frequent, or job roles. For businesses, it might involve their sales model, existing tech stack, or internal skill gaps.

The core idea is to focus on customers who are:

• Easiest to sell to and retain: They understand your product quickly, buy quickly, rarely ask for discounts, and become advocates.
• Most passionate: They “loooooove” your product, unlike others who merely find it “OK” or “good enough” for the price.

Dunford challenges the common misconception that a broader target market increases sales chances. In reality, a narrower focus makes it easier to connect with prospects and convince them of your unique suitability. She advises teams to target as narrowly as they can while still meeting their near-term sales objectives. If focusing solely on the “best-fit” segment is sufficient for this year’s revenue goals, then that’s the most efficient strategy. This focused approach accelerates traction, especially in homogeneous markets, and fosters word-of-mouth marketing due to strong community links within segments.

She provides examples: an invoicing solution integrated with QuickBooks delivers maximum value to “small businesses that send a significant number of invoices every month,” not just any small business. Similarly, online appointment software that supports multiple locations might best serve “businesses that offer financial services and tax preparation services” rather than just any business with multiple locations.

Key criteria for a worthy segment include:

1. Size: Big enough to meet business goals (e.g., if you need 30 deals, a segment of 100 businesses is too small, but thousands is good).
2. Unmet needs: The segment must have important, specific, and common needs that are not being adequately met by existing solutions.
3. Identifiability: You should be able to easily create a list of prospective buyers within that segment (e.g., companies with 1,000+ employees, Mac users, not “companies that value design”).

Dunford emphasizes that positioning is constantly evolving, so don’t worry about it fitting perfectly in five or ten years. The focus is on what resonates with your best-fit customers now. The example of Janna Systems’ CRM for investment banks powerfully illustrates this. Initially struggling against Siebel in the broad “enterprise CRM” market, Janna’s unique ability to model relationships resonated deeply with investment bankers. By narrowing their focus to “CRM for investment banks,” they became indispensable to that niche, despite investor fears of a “too small” market. This allowed them to raise prices, accelerate sales from $2 million to $70 million in 18 months, and eventually be acquired for $1.7 billion—proving that “focusing on a niche doesn’t mean you can’t grow.” This success came because they understood precisely “who cared a lot” about their unique strength.

STEP 8. Find a Market Frame of Reference That Puts Your Strengths at the Center and Determine How to Position in It: Choosing Your Arena

Chapter Ten is arguably the most pivotal, guiding you to select the optimal market frame of reference that clearly highlights your product’s unique value to your target customers. Dunford explains that while you likely had a “default” market in mind when you started (e.g., “email system for lawyers”), your product’s evolution and market shifts often mean this original framing is no longer the best. The chosen “market” must already exist in customers’ minds (unless creating a new one) to trigger helpful assumptions about competitors, features, and pricing.

Dunford presents three distinct “styles” of positioning, each with its own opportunities and challenges, and advises on when to use each:

1. Head to Head: Positioning to win an existing market

• Goal: To be the leader in a well-defined, established market category.
• Approach: Convince customers you are the best at delivering the solution, accepting the current market definition and buying criteria. You’re not changing the game, just winning it.
• When to use:
  • If you are already the market leader: Reinforce current buying criteria and your superiority, quickly defending against challengers.
  • If launching a new product in an uncrowded emerging category: Where buyers understand the category but no strong leader exists. This allows you to claim leadership without a direct fight.
• Advantages: Don’t have to convince people the category needs to exist; benefit from existing customer assumptions.
• Disadvantages: If there’s an established leader, it’s very difficult for a small company to unseat them (like “out-cola Coke”). Requires clear competitive advantage or a shifting market that disadvantages the leader.
• Work: Continually reinforce your superiority on established buying criteria with hard evidence. If challenging a leader, prove you’re better at their game.
• Example: Dunford’s “database-turned-data-warehouse” story. Initially failing “Head to Head” against Oracle as a database, they pivoted to “data warehouse,” where demand existed but no clear leader, allowing them to claim leadership and raise prices.

2. Big Fish, Small Pond: Positioning to win a subsegment of an existing market

• Goal: Dominate a specific, well-defined piece of an existing market, rather than taking on the overall leader directly.
• Approach: Leverage customer knowledge of the broader market, but highlight that a specific subsegment has unique, unmet needs not addressed by the category leader. You must be “good enough” on general criteria while excelling in the niche.
• When to use:
  • When a market category is well-defined and has a clear leader (who isn’t you).
  • When there are clearly definable customer groups with unique, important needs not met by the leader (e.g., by industry, geography, preferences, ecosystem characteristics).
  • The subsegment must be easily identifiable (e.g., law offices, Mac users) and large enough to meet short-term business goals.
  • You can demonstrate superior ability to meet the subsegment’s special needs compared to the leader, with a defensible competitive advantage.
• Advantages: Easier to reach and target prospects; highly targeted value proposition; faster traction; strong word-of-mouth marketing. Can expand to adjacent markets later.
• Disadvantages: Subsegment must be genuinely distinct; risk of market leader turning attention to the niche.
• Work: Educate the subsegment on how general solutions fall short; quantify the specific value of your purpose-built solution; prove you meet or exceed basic category criteria.
• Example: Janna Systems’ CRM for investment banks (from Chapter 7). By focusing on investment banks’ unique relationship-driven needs, they dominated a niche, leading to massive growth and eventual acquisition.

3. Create a New Game: Positioning to win a market you create

• Goal: Establish an entirely new market category.
• Approach: Convince customers that a new category deserves to exist, define its parameters, and position yourself as its undisputed leader.
• When to use:
  • Only when no existing market category adequately positions your offering’s true differentiators and value.
  • When there’s been a massive, enabling change (new technology, economic shifts, regulations) that makes the new category possible and necessary.
  • Your company is large and powerful enough to capture market attention or has deep-pocketed, patient investors, as it requires significant resources and time.
  • Your product is demonstrably, inarguably new and different from existing solutions.
• Advantages: Allows you to perfectly tailor the market boundaries and purchase criteria to your strengths; you become the de facto leader.
• Disadvantages: Most difficult style, involves the greatest amount of “teaching” the customer. You must spark demand, not just capture it. Risk of larger competitors swooping in to take advantage of your market creation work.
• Work: Convince the market why the problem is unique and existing solutions fall short; teach them how to evaluate solutions in this new category; prove why you are the best vendor. Requires a strong “Why now?” answer.
• Example: Eloqua creating “marketing automation”. Initially “demand generation automation” was confusing to investors. But as the market shifted and demand gen proliferated, Eloqua defined and led the “marketing automation” category, aligning it to their strategic process automation features. This led to massive growth and acquisition.

Dunford concludes that the choice of market style is like answering “What are you?” to customers. She also mentions that asking customers directly about their market perception should be done with caution, as they are not positioning experts and may default to obvious but unhelpful categories. The “Positioning Story: Wattpad transforms a story platform into an entertainment company” showcases how Wattpad evolved from a “social storytelling platform” to a “global multi-platform entertainment company” by leveraging their data and insights into popular stories to create new value in TV and film, effectively creating a new game for themselves.

STEP 9. Layer On a Trend (but Be Careful): Adding Relevance and Sizzle

Chapter Eleven introduces the optional but potentially powerful step of layering a relevant trend onto your core positioning. Dunford visualizes this as three overlapping circles: your product’s strengths, your market context, and a relevant trend. The sweet spot is where all three intersect, making your offering look “current and relevant,” particularly to customers interested in that trend. While not a prerequisite for success—a “boring” but well-positioned product can still thrive—trends can add “an extra gloss of interest.”

Dunford illustrates this with her own experience at a startup selling a solution for retail sales associates. Their product’s value was enhanced by aligning it with the pervasive retail trend of “mobility” (sales associates using tablets), making their solution for information access “an obvious way that retailers could use mobility to empower their sales associates.”

She provides crucial cautions on using trends:

• Don’t describe a trend without declaring a market first: This leads to “cool but baffling” positioning. “Sharing economy for pets” was unclear; “Uber for cats” was even worse. “Marketplace for pet services” with “sharing economy” as a trend would be clear. “It’s always better to be a little boring than completely baffling.”
• Ensure a clear link to your actual solution: Avoid focusing on trends to the exclusion of your product. The Long Island Iced Tea to Long Blockchain debacle is a prime example of capitalizing on hype without any genuine product or business strategy alignment, leading to a stock plummet and delisting.
• If a trend doesn’t reinforce your positioning, it can muddy the waters.

The “Positioning Story: Redgate Software makes a boring but profitable market cool—and even more profitable” exemplifies successful trend integration. Redgate, a leader in the “database tools” market, leveraged the popular “DevOps” trend. By weaving “database DevOps” into their positioning and creating content on data’s role in DevOps transformations, they made their established products appear more “urgent or strategic.” This led to a “dramatic increase in customers buying multiple Redgate products at a time and a whopping 100% increase in inbound leads”—showing how a trend can elevate perception and accelerate sales without changing the core market category.

Ultimately, Dunford advises using trends carefully: Start by making your product-to-market connection obvious. If a trend genuinely reinforces that connection and your value, use it. If not, don’t force it. A successful business doesn’t need to be trendy, but thoughtful trend alignment can provide a significant competitive advantage.

STEP 10. Capture Your Positioning so It Can Be Shared: Operationalizing Your Strategy

Chapter Twelve emphasizes that positioning is useless if it’s not effectively captured and shared across the entire organization. Dunford reiterates her disdain for the traditional positioning statement due to its brevity and awkwardness, which make it difficult to communicate subtlety or be memorized. Instead, she recommends a more detailed document that breaks down each component of the position, provides sufficient detail for understanding, and illustrates their interrelationships.

Her preferred tool for this is the Positioning Canvas. This single-page document visually organizes the core elements:

• Product name and one-line description.
• Market category (and subcategory if applicable).
• Competitive alternatives: What customers would use if your product didn’t exist.
• Unique attributes: Features/capabilities your product has that alternatives lack.
• Value: The benefits those attributes enable for customers.
• Who cares a lot: Characteristics of customers who highly value your offerings.

The Positioning Canvas serves as a concise, easily shareable reference point, ensuring that everyone across marketing, sales, and product development is aligned on the agreed-upon positioning. This step transforms the theoretical positioning work into an actionable, operational document that informs all strategic and tactical decisions across the company.

III. PUTTING POSITIONING INTO PLAY

AFTER POSITIONING: WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?: From Strategy to Execution

Chapter Thirteen addresses the critical question of “now what?” after completing the 10-step positioning process. Dunford states that the exercise itself is valuable for achieving internal alignment on differentiated value and target segments. However, the next crucial stage is to make the positioning real across the company.

She suggests that before tackling general messaging, it’s more effective to first craft a “sales story.” For businesses with complex sales cycles, the sales pitch is the primary way positioning is embodied for prospects. The sales story isn’t about creating exact copy or presentation aesthetics, but rather defining the components of a persuasive narrative that sales teams can use.
A typical sales story arc includes:

1. Problem Definition: Succinctly define the problem your solution solves (e.g., “Insurance companies today are trying to make their claims process less difficult…”).
2. Current Solutions’ Shortcomings: Describe how customers currently try to solve the problem and where those solutions fail (e.g., “Insurers have added mobile claims functionality, but it still requires customers to do many steps manually”).
3. The “Perfect World”: Envision what an ideal solution would look like, given the problem and current limitations (e.g., “In a perfect world, customers could complete the entire claims process seamlessly with their mobile device”).
4. Product/Company Introduction & Positioning: Introduce your offering and position it within the relevant market category (e.g., “Mobileclaimsorama is a mobile claims management solution for insurers”).
5. Value Themes & Detail: Elaborate on each value theme, showing how your solution delivers that value. This stage might also include case studies, customer lists, and handling common objections.
6. Next Steps: Conclude with a clear call to action for the prospect.

The purpose of developing this sales story as a team is to gain agreement on how the positioning translates into a “pitch,” ensuring consistency in problem definition, understanding current solutions, highlighting the gap, and aligning on key purchase criteria.

Next, the marketing team translates the sales story into broader messaging for campaigns, website content, and other materials. Dunford advises creating a “master messaging document” to serve as the single, accepted baseline. This prevents “messaging creep,” where subsequent campaigns deviate from the core positioning, ensuring consistency and preventing the language (and underlying positioning) from evolving too far from the agreed-upon starting point.

Beyond marketing and sales, a shift in positioning often signals a shift in overall business strategy, impacting:

• Product Roadmap: Feature prioritization aligns with the new positioning (e.g., “accounting software” roadmap differs from “financial services”).
• Pricing: Adjusting pricing to reflect market category expectations (e.g., “CRM for investment banks” could command a premium over general CRM).

Finally, Dunford emphasizes the importance of tracking your positioning over time. Products and markets are dynamic, so positioning needs regular review and adjustment. She recommends checking in every six months or whenever there’s a major event that could impact the competitive landscape or customer perceptions. Such events include:

• Entry of a credible, established competitor: This can rapidly change market perceptions, expected features, or pricing.
• Other outside forces: Government regulations (e.g., security and privacy laws), economic climate shifts (e.g., focus on cost-cutting during downturns), or new technologies (e.g., 4G/LTE enabling mobile video streaming).
• Shifts in customer attitudes and preferences: Sometimes subtle changes in what customers care about (e.g., data center clients suddenly caring about server design and “cool purple lights”).

If such changes occur, Dunford advises revisiting the process starting from Step 4 (Competitive Alternatives) to determine if your unique attributes, value, or target customers have shifted in light of the new landscape. This iterative process ensures that your positioning remains sharp and relevant, allowing your business to adapt and thrive.

Conclusion: Mastering Your Product’s Destiny

In “Obviously Awesome,” April Dunford concludes by reflecting on her own journey from viewing product positioning as a matter of “fate” to mastering it as a deliberate, influential force. She assures the reader that, armed with her 10-step process, they are now equipped to systematically position any product for success.

She reiterates the key takeaways to embed the book’s core philosophy:

• Any product can be positioned in multiple markets: You are not confined to a single, predetermined market, and your product is not “doomed to languish.”
• Great positioning rarely comes by default: It requires deliberate effort, a willingness to “try, fail, test and try again.”
• Understanding your best customers’ true alternatives leads to your differentiators: Their existing solutions reveal the real competitive landscape.
• Position yourself in a market that makes your strengths obvious to your target audience: Choose an arena where your unique value shines brightest for the customers who care most.
• Use trends cautiously to add relevance: They can make your product more interesting “right now” but must genuinely reinforce your core positioning to avoid confusion. It’s always “better to be successful and boring, rather than fashionable and bewildering.”

Dunford emphasizes that while leaders often excel at doing things, teaching others how to do them can be challenging. This book is her attempt to codify and simplify the complex process of positioning, offering readers a valuable shortcut to effectively position their products for success. The ultimate message is empowering: you can actively influence your product’s destiny by mastering the art and science of positioning.

Key Takeaways

“Obviously Awesome” by April Dunford offers a transformative approach to product positioning, arguing that deliberate context-setting is the foundation for all successful marketing and sales. The book moves beyond abstract theory to provide a practical, 10-step methodology for defining how your product is uniquely the best solution for a specific market’s needs.

The Core Lessons:

• Positioning is context-setting: It’s not just messaging, but strategically defining how customers should understand your product, its value, and its competitors.
• Weak positioning cripples everything: It leads to confusion, long sales cycles, low close rates, high churn, and price pressure, wasting marketing and sales efforts.
• Focus on best-fit customers: Your happiest, most loyal customers hold the key to understanding your product’s true value and competitive advantage.
• Know your true competitive alternatives: Understand what customers would actually do if your product didn’t exist, as this defines their “better” benchmark.
• Map attributes to value themes: Translate what your product has into what it does for customers, and then into the concrete goals it helps them achieve.
• Choose your market strategically: Select a market category (existing or new) that naturally highlights your unique strengths to your target audience.
• Leverage trends carefully: Use relevant trends to make your product timely and appealing, but ensure a clear link to your core value to avoid confusion.
• Positioning is a team sport: It requires alignment and buy-in across marketing, sales, product, and leadership, led by the business owner.
• Capture and share your positioning: A comprehensive document like the Positioning Canvas ensures clarity and consistency across the organization.
• Positioning is iterative: Markets and products evolve, so regularly review and adjust your positioning in response to competitive shifts or external forces.

Next Actions:

1. Identify your best-fit customers: Make a list of 5-10 customers who understood and loved your product quickly.
2. Form a cross-functional positioning team: Bring together key leaders from sales, marketing, product, and leadership to collaborate.
3. Facilitate an internal workshop: Use the 10-step process to systematically define your competitive alternatives, unique attributes, value themes, target market characteristics, and market category.
4. Craft your sales story: Translate your new positioning into a clear, compelling narrative for your sales team.
5. Create a master messaging document and Positioning Canvas: Ensure consistency across all external communications.
6. Review your product roadmap and pricing: Adjust them to align with your new, optimized positioning.
7. Schedule regular positioning check-ins: Revisit your positioning every 6 months or after significant market changes to maintain relevance.

Reflection Prompts:

• How might our current positioning be confusing prospects, even if our existing customers love us?
• What are our customers actually doing to solve the problem we address, and how does our product truly differentiate from those alternatives?
• If we were to completely redefine our market, which existing market category (or new one) would best highlight our unique strengths to our ideal customers right now?