What are the most common mistakes in product positioning?

Not knowing your exact target customer OR targeting too many different target personas, with different needs and pain points is one of the biggest mistakes in positioning. Every target user persona is different, with different motivations, wants and needs, so the target persona has to be clearly defined and understood. It can be that we want to target several (2-3) target personas - and those would also be clearly defined, with the defined pain points we want to solve AND we would build features that solve the pain points for each persona, which could be same/similar, but also very different.

Ignoring Customer Needs: Failing to understand and address the specific needs, pain points, and preferences of your target customers is a fundamental mistake in product positioning. Your positioning should be centered around solving customer problems and providing value. Neglecting to align your product with what customers truly want can lead to a disconnect between your offering and the market, resulting in poor sales and adoption. It's crucial to conduct thorough market research and listen to customer feedback to ensure your product positioning is customer-centric and resonates with your audience.

I think is fundamentally the biggest mistake which lot of companies in both B2C & B2B space commit. You need to know your customer well. Knowing your customer isn’t an one time exercise but in-fact it’s also a regular exercise. In B2B space, lot of companies follow agile methodology which leads to frequent changes & adaptations of the product. You might have from very basic to very detailed version in span of couple of months. During this cycle , they forget that their customer might have changed or their product segmentation might have changed completely. It is always crucial to have consistent value feedback flowing back into the system and product managers & marketers should be acquainted with the customer needs & wants.

I think marketers know very well who their customers are, the problem is that they don't know who their message should focus on. It's easy to fall into the trap of "but we also sell to this industry or to this persona" and dilute your messaging so that it appeals to everyone. You should be very selective and position your product in a way that works for your core ICP and persona and them alone.

Common positioning mistakes include a lack of understanding of the target market, overcomplicating the message, ignoring competitors, inconsistent branding, and failing to clearly differentiate the product. Neglecting customer feedback, inadequate market research, poor alignment between sales and marketing, not adapting to market changes, and overpromising and underdelivering also significantly affect a product’s success in the market.

We live in an era where we don’t consume product or services , we consume combination of both which leads to good experience. Always try to do the following: 1. Focus on user experience 2. Focus on brand experience 3. Follow customer first approach & shift your company DNA from product to customer. 4. Try to have atleast one unique feature or differentiator . It can be pricing, go live time, ease of use etc. 5. Talk about that distinctive feature on every platform possible in different content formats

Stop the "me-too" madness. Knowing you need to stand out isn't enough. Here’s the how-to guide you didn't know you needed for effectively setting your product apart. The Hidden USPs - Find those less obvious gems. Is your customer service the real MVP? Flaunt it! Tailor-Made Value - One size never fits all. Personalize your USPs to different buyer personas. It’s all about them, not you. Team Up - Who said you have to go it alone? Strategic partnerships can add layers of value. Experience > Features - Yes, features are cool, but how cool is it to use them? . Differentiation is less about shouting, "Look at me!" and more about whispering, "This is why I matter."

As important as benefits communication is, it is also challenging. Generic terms like "easy to use" are not benefits. Be very specific in your benefits language. Explain exactly HOW, WHY, and TO WHOM your benefits work. Back up your benefits with numbers, but use categories that your buyer personas understand. For example, if you're talking to "regular users," tell them how much time they'll save in their daily work, rather than getting into ROI calculations. Back up your numbers and calculations.

Features & technical specifications are indeed the backbone for your marketing but what really connects is storytelling. Instead of just telling what particular feature can do , tell the world how they have made their life easier. Sometimes, it’s also about hedonic value and not simple perceived value. People & companies pay premium when they feel that their lives or productivity has been improved dramatically. That’s why ultimately it all lead to experience.

I will not say testing or refining, I will say it’s also about constant evolution of the product. When SaaS companies feel that they have made the perfect product , it’s at that time their journey to end begins. B2B markets especially SaaS markets is also about constant evolution. Procrastinate >Perform or Perish

Absolutely, product positioning should be in the same lines of brand positioning. All the brand ethos & the guidelines should reflect in the product positing as well. Consistency is the key when it comes to brand communication, statement, tone , visuals & experience.

The most common B2B product positioning mistake I see is having no positioning. If your target customer is "SOHO, SMEs, and enterprises," then your target customer is no one. When your prospects see this, they interpret it as you not having done your homework, and you just end up losing anyway to someone more willing to commit.

Positioning can make or break a company's strategy, especially in the early stages. I witnessed a seed-stage company that was running out of runway being able to turn things around by changing the way they positioned their product. While it's easier said than done, working on product marketing from the very beginning is crucial.

Mistake 7: Not understanding the category of your product. Are you positioning your product/service in an existing category? Or are you creating a new category? If you're creating a new category, your positioning is more complex. You can't rely on what customers already know, so you need to explain the new category and its benefits to them before you can explain your product. A great example is the recent launch of Apple Vision Pro. Apple understood that the new category of the metaverse is obscure to most customers. So they didn't position Apple Vision Pro as a VR headset to access the metaverse. Instead, they position it as a "spatial" computer, which is an extension of a category that customers already know and understand: computers.