Great positioning is harder than it looks. It’s one of the most strategic, and often misunderstood, exercises a company can undertake. Most teams tend to approach it the wrong way.
It often starts with brainstorming sessions, debates about differentiation, and sticky notes covering a meeting room wall. But positioning doesn’t emerge from creativity. It emerges from understanding customers better than your competitors do.
Positioning starts with listening
When we repositioned Akeneo around Product Experience Management (PXM), the work didn’t start by inventing a new tagline. It started by listening.
We immersed ourselves in customer interviews, sales conversations, customer success stories, press releases featuring customer quotes, analyst reports, and competitive research. We wanted to understand not just what customers were buying, but how they described the value they were getting from Akeneo.
During our research, one customer comment particularly stood out. They weren’t talking about product information or product data. Instead, they described how Akeneo had helped them unlock new business opportunities and accelerate their growth.
It perfectly illustrated something we were seeing across many customer conversations. Companies weren’t investing in a PIM simply to centralize product information. They wanted to launch products faster, deliver richer product experiences across every channel, expand internationally, and ultimately grow their business.
That insight played an important role in our repositioning around Product Experience Management (PXM). It also inspired one of our strongest brand themes: Unlock. We used it for several years across campaigns and even made it the name of our annual conference. It wasn’t just a catchy marketing slogan. It reflected the transformation our customers were experiencing.
Why customer insights matter
Customer insights are much more than validation. They reveal how customers describe their problems, what outcomes they care about, which words resonate naturally, and how they perceive your product compared to alternatives.
That’s why positioning shouldn’t start with your product roadmap or a messaging workshop. It should start with listening. The best positioning isn’t invented. It’s uncovered.
Where to find customer insights
Customer insights are everywhere. You just need to connect the dots.
Some of the richest sources include:
- Customer interviews
- Win-loss analysis
- Sales calls
- Support conversations
- Customer Success reviews
- Analyst reports
- Online reviews
- Community discussions
- Competitive research
- Product usage data
Each source offers a different perspective. Together, they reveal the language, priorities, buying criteria, and business outcomes that should shape your positioning.
Great positioning is discovered, not invented
The companies with the strongest positioning aren’t necessarily the most creative. They’re the ones that listen the most. Because customers rarely describe your product the way your product team does. They describe the impact it has on their business. And that’s where great positioning begins.