Positioning your Product or Service
Geoffrey Moore’s positioning framework helps you understand and describe the who, the what and the why of your product or service. The template for the framework is as follows:
- For [target customer] who [statement of need or opportunity], [name of our product/service/business] is a [product/service/business category] that [statement of key benefit to consumer/compelling reason to buy]. Unlike [competitor(s)], [name of product/service] [statement of differentiation].
That looks rather confusing, so let’s apply it to a real-world organization to see how it works. Evolve 360’s positioning statement is as follows:
For startups and small and medium-sized businesses who want to maximize their efficiency and growth potential, Evolve 360 is a business strategy consultancy specializing in early-stage and small and medium enterprises that brings experienced Caribbean practitioners who understand best practices in innovation and entrepreneurship, transformation, business strategy, financial and human resource management to help you identify the factors holding you back, address them, and remove your business’ limits.
Unlike other “incubators” and “accelerators”, at Evolve 360, we understand the unique constraints faced by business in the Caribbean region and how to work around them, leverage regional and global networks and expertise, and help your business thrive and grow to its full potential.
It helps clarify (both for our customers and ourselves) certain questions:
-
- Who are our target customers?
- What problems are they experiencing or what issue do they need help with?
- What is the key benefit that our solution brings to help our customers address their
problems? - What is the competitive landscape?
- What makes us stand out from our competitors?
When you are considering going into business, or offering a new product or service, these are 4 of the key questions that you and/or your team need to be able to answer before you invest significant time and energy into building your solution. These answers, when put together, describe and communicate the unique value proposition of your offering.
We can take Evolve 360’s positioning statement and break it down to answer the 5 questions
above.
Q: Who are our target customers?
A: startups and small and medium-sized businesses
Q: What problem are they experiencing or what issue do they need help with?
A: they want to maximize their efficiency and growth potential
Q: What is the key benefit that our solution brings to help our customers address their problems?
A: brings experienced Caribbean practitioners who understand best practices in innovation and entrepreneurship, transformation, business strategy, financial and human resource management to
help you identify the factors holding you back, address them, and remove your business’ limits
Q: What is the competitive landscape in the market?
A: “incubators” and “accelerators”
Q: What makes us stand out from our competitors?
A: we understand the unique constraints faced by business in the Caribbean region and how to work around them, leverage regional and global networks and expertise, and help your business thrive and grow to its full potential.
The questions to be answered are not listed in the order they are by chance. Every truly successful business, product or service starts from an understanding of the potential customers and their needs and then, when those needs are deeply understood, building a product/service and set of experiences that address those needs and deliver real value to their customers.
It would be a good exercise to describe all of the products and services that your business offers using Moore’s framework, as well as an overall positioning statement for your business. If some of your product or service offerings are underperforming, especially in the new business environment that has emerged as a result of Covid-19, perhaps you should re-evaluate those offerings to see if your target
customers are still who you think they are and if your value proposition is still compelling to them.