In the interest of moving expediently to market with a new product, sometimes positioning and messaging get rolled together – but doing so can lead to a suboptimal outcome on how to best land the new product in the marketplace.

While some may consider this controversial, it is my strong belief that positioning and messaging are two separate exercises – because they’re answering two different (and important) questions.

Positioning research should try to answer the question of “who should we try to be, based on the product truths we have, existing market perceptions of competitor products, and our brand halo?”

“Product positioning describes the specific market you intend to win and why you are uniquely qualified to win it. It’s the underpinning of your go-to-market strategy and impacts everything from marketing to sales, to customer success and the product itself.”

-April Dunford

Messaging on the other hand is a more tactical exercise to determine the optimal way to deliver content that will help connect your potential customers to your positioning, and highlight key reasons to believe that reduce friction in their path to purchase.

When developing a messaging framework, you should already know what your north star (product positioning) is going to be to ensure that all the messaging pillars that help tell your story ladder up to that differentiated position in a way that will resonate with your customers.

Keeping in mind the delineation between these two efforts, below are some outcomes marketers and researchers should strive to achieve within each of the two workstreams:

Positioning research outcomes:

• An understanding of which product attributes / characteristics are valued within the market (e.g. helps you work faster, enable better communication, take high quality photos)

  • This can be obtained using either stated or derived importance, or even both!

• A map of which product attributes / characteristics are already heavily attributed to competitive products, vs. what is more ownable – or even already being attributed to you based on brand halo

  • You want to know what you can / can’t own. For instance, it would be very challenging for a new Kia to try and own ‘World’s best exotic sports car’ for their next sedan, but ‘best value for money’ is likely doable.

• A statement of what your product stands for that makes it unique in the market (e.g. the best smartphone for privacy, the smart speaker that understands you, the best car for urban families)

  • This statement doesn’t need to be customer facing (in many cases it isn’t) but should succinctly describe why your product stands out from all the rest.

Messaging research outcomes:

• An understanding of which pillars and themes to highlight based on what best resonates with your target audience

  • If you can only talk about one thing, what should you lead with (personal productivity, entertainment, time savings, etc.)?

• An idea of which proof points / reasons to believe (RTBs) will be most impactful for your target audience

  • This can help you identify which product truths to surface to help customers buy into the bold claims you’re making with your product position

• Guidance on which tones to use to activate your audience effectively.

  • For instance, you may choose to communicate your position by comparing the product to a competitor, by framing the product against a problem, or simply by talking about its key benefits / features

When both positioning and messaging research are used effectively, it sets up your go to market strategy to pay off the success that your product truths can realize. For such an important task, it's worth taking the time to ensure it's working at peak efficiency.