Book SummaryObviously Awesome, by April Dunford

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Obviously Awesome

In Obviously Awesome, positioning consultant and speaker April Dunford explains why positioning, an often misunderstood and undervalued part of the marketing process, is critical to successfully selling your product. She contends that without proper positioning—contextualizing the use of the product, so consumers understand why they should buy it—customers don’t understand how or why to use your product and subsequently won’t buy it.

When executed well, however, positioning gives customers context on what your product is for and how it...

Obviously Awesome Summary What Is Positioning?

According to Dunford, positioning is providing the backdrop for the use of your product to your customer so they know what the product is, why it matters, and why they should buy it.

(Shortform note: In Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey Moore agrees with Dunford on the fundamental importance of positioning in business but veers from her definition of positioning. He asserts that positioning isn’t something you do as a company—how you contextualize your product—but rather describes how the customer contextualizes the product. Yet while Moore is more explicit than Dunford about positioning being “in the eye of the customer,” it’s clear that Dunford understands that the customer’s opinion of your product matters more than your opinion of your product. We’ll see this later in this guide.)

You must provide this contextualizing backdrop because humans use context to make sense of the world in general—it’s how the human brain operates, writes Dunford. Here’s an example: When you enter an unoccupied office and see a mahogany...

Obviously Awesome Summary Step 1: Identify Your Most Eager Customer and What They Love About the Product

Dunford writes that the first step of this process is to reflect on what aspects of your product make your customers happiest and what aspects of your top customers make them appreciate your product so much. This clues you in on how to position your product for the customers who will most appreciate it.

(Shortform note: Dunford operates under the assumption that you already have a product for sale and customers who love it. This can seem like putting the cart before the horse: If you haven’t yet positioned your product correctly (or if you...

Obviously Awesome Summary Step 2: Select a Cross-Company Group to Position Your Product

Next, assemble a group of employees from across the company who will define your current and new positioning, advises Dunford. A positioning process works best when it’s a team effort because you learn how different departments feel your product should be positioned. Then, you can incorporate their input and get everyone on the same page moving forward.

(Shortform note: While soliciting the input of many departments is helpful in identifying your positioning, [it’s important to structure such a cross-departmental meeting well to maximize effectiveness and keep the group on...

Obviously Awesome Summary Step 3: Develop an Open Mindset About the Best Positioning of the Product

Once you have a group of people who will position your product, they must consciously set aside old conceptions of the product to have the openness to devise the best new positioning, contends Dunford. If the group is mired in old ways of thinking about the product, they’ll never be able to optimally position it. For instance, if the group is convinced your high-powered vacuum cleaner should only be used for garage floors, they might not even consider that it could also be used for indoor spaces and thus positioned as such.

To do this,...

Obviously Awesome Summary Step 4: Identify the Alternatives to Using Your Product

Now that you have an open-minded team, figure out together what your product’s real competition is—in other words, what alternative solutions your ideal customers would use if they didn’t have your product, writes Dunford. It’s important to consider what the customer sees as alternative solutions, rather than what you see as alternative solutions based on your research of your competition because the customer’s alternative options are the only ones that matter here.

To identify your product’s real competition, ask ideal customers what problem they want to use your product to solve, recommends Dunford. Let’s say you sell a vacuum, and your customers tell you they want to tackle the problem of household dirt. Now ask what other solutions they compare your product to: What would your ideal customers do if they didn’t use your product? For instance, some of your ideal customers purchase an expensive competitor vacuum, but most of your ideal...

Obviously Awesome Summary Step 5: List Your Product’s Superior Features

Now that you know what alternative solutions your customers compare you to, identify what features make your product different and better than those alternatives, advises Dunford. Do this by listing all concrete unique features of your product. Approach your product from a few different perspectives to ensure you’re pinpointing all possible assets. For instance, your vacuum’s suction power makes it great for carpets, but its light weight also makes it great for vacuuming stairs. You might consider asking ideal customers why they chose you and what they feel sets you apart from others.

(Shortform note: Dunford again presses your team to consider several customer perspectives on your product rather than just your own. [Tony Robbins’s advice on perspective-taking in...

Obviously Awesome Summary Step 6: Determine Your Features’ Value to the Customer

At this stage, you know what your product’s unique features are. Now, figure out how each feature adds value to your customer’s life, counsels Dunford. It’s easiest to break this step into two sub-steps: First, determine each feature’s benefit—what the feature will do practically for the customer. For instance, if your vacuum’s feature is a high-powered suction mechanism, the benefit is greater cleaning power.

(Shortform note: In Building a StoryBrand, Donald Miller proposes that your product should not only add benefit and value to your customer’s life but that it should also help them solve a philosophical problem—a misalignment between their lifestyle and their values. So, ideally, your vacuum would have the benefit of greater cleaning power, the value (as we’re about to see) of a clean home, and solve the philosophical problem of not having enough time to spend on things that matter to the customer due to menial chores.)

Next, determine what the value of the...

Obviously Awesome Summary Step 7: Pinpoint Customer Segments Most Likely to Buy Your Product

Once you have a good understanding of the value that your product delivers versus other alternatives, determine which customer segments care most about that value, advises Dunford. You’ll want to target these segments simply because they’ll be easiest to sell to.

(Shortform note: This step, pinpointing the customer segments most likely to buy your product, may seem similar to Step 1, identifying your most eager customers. We might consider that Step 1 is a general and high-level reflection on what certain people like about your product that kicks off your positioning effort. Step 7, then, is a detailed inquiry into precisely who these groups are.)

To determine which customer segments to target, follow these steps, writes Dunford:

1. Think about what makes some groups more excited about your product than others. For instance, people most interested in your vacuum cleaner might be employees who work from home and care particularly about having a clean living space. (Shortform note: This...

Obviously Awesome Summary Step 8: Sell Your Product in the Right Market, and Dominate It

Now that you understand your competition, your superior features, and which customer segments to target, sell your product in a market that provides context on how to use it and that gives you the opportunity to dominate that market, recommends Dunford. As we’ve said, positioning means establishing the context for the use of your product, and selling your product in the right market helps provide that context. For instance, if you sell a new snack in the “chip” market, customers immediately know approximately what your product will look and taste like.

(Shortform note: Dunford doesn’t provide specific advice on how to select the market for your product that provides the right context on how to use it. In Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey Moore advises that you won’t initially have enough data to know which market—or what he refers to as a niche—to position your product in. You must therefore first position your product as well as possible through a thought exercise: [Think of your target customer (who you identified in the previous...

Obviously Awesome Summary Step 9: Optionally Connect Your Product to a Current Trend

Now that you know what market to target, you might take advantage of a current trend to show that your product is relevant and useful to consumers now, proposes Dunford. While this step isn’t mandatory—and there are conditions under which it’s a bad idea to ride a trend—if you can clearly show customers how what you already do aligns with a current trend in your existing market, you can benefit from the trend.

Let’s illustrate this: It would be a bad idea for your veggie chip company to ride the trend of supersizing your products because your brand identity revolves around healthy portions, and supersizing products isn’t a trend in your existing market. By following this trend, your company would appear uncommitted to your core principles. However, if there’s a current trend of adding barbeque flavoring to products, you might avail yourself of that trend because 1) your existing products already have flavoring, so adding a new flavor would align with what you’re...

Obviously Awesome Summary Step 10: Share the Positioning Across the Company

Once you’ve positioned your product, communicate that position across the company through a positioning document so all departments can apply the positioning to what they do, recommends Dunford.

In the document, include the name and description of the product, its market or market segment, the alternatives to using your product, the product’s unique, superior...

Obviously Awesome Summary Step 11: Implement Your Positioning

Once you’ve completed the above steps, implement your positioning, says Dunford. There are two parts to this: creating a narrative about your product (this is the pitch with which your salespeople will approach prospects) and building your messaging (contained in your marketing to customers). Let’s look at each.

Here’s how to construct the narrative about your product, according to Dunford: First, articulate the problem your product helps the customer solve (“It takes you forever to vacuum your entire office”). Then, explain how other solutions fail to solve that problem (“Most vacuums require frequent emptying and cleaning, which slows you down”). Next, tell the customer what the perfect solution to the problem would be, and then introduce your product by explaining what market it’s in (“You need a vacuum with immense cleaning power, which is why you need the DustDestroyer, the top vacuum for workplaces”). Finally, explain the value the product adds to the customer’s life (“The DustDestroyer lets you clean faster and more efficiently than other vacuums,...

Obviously Awesome Summary Step 12: Track Your Positioning, and Adjust It if Necessary

According to Dunford, the final piece of the positioning puzzle is to track the success of your positioning over time and make adjustments if needed. Assess your positioning every six months to learn if the market has changed and if you need to thus reposition your product. Possible changes to the market include established competitors entering...

Shortform Exercise: Adopt New Perspectives to List Your Product’s Features and Value

Identify the features, benefits, and value that both you and your customers perceive in your product, and consider how these might differ.

List what you personally feel are your product’s five best features. Then, determine what benefit (the practical support) and value (the problem-solving ability) each provides the customer. Write these down next to the feature.