Everyone Hates Marketers

Not really!

One of our favorite people of all time is Merleen Johnson, long time Marketing Director for MacSoft and Lightspeed Net. (And a super product manager for MyBigCampus as well.) We worked together for years – and she was always kind, professional, super smart, and hard working. In short, a wonderful marketer who we love!

Merleen often talked about “positioning” our products. As CEO, I got the general idea – but in retrospect spent way, way too little time thinking hard about our product positioning. Product positioning is central to our business strategy, but done right, also central to how we then organize ourselves, our product roadmap, sales processes, etc.

As part of our recent work, we have been reading and thinking much more about positioning. An excellent book on the subject is by April Dunford titled Obviously Awesome, which Louise Grenier offers an excellent overview. This article is worth your time, promise.

At Thrive Haus Consulting, we help build successful businesses by clarifying purpose, strategy, alignment, and culture.  Purpose (often called vision) is necessary for success – but too many organizations define their vision independent of the day to day reality. It is only meaningful if actualized.

The product positioning process forces that connection – and points us toward key alignment issues as well. Which is why our strategy process actually starts with a modified product positioning exercise.

Whether you are embarking on a new adventure, relaunching your business, or simply want to improve performance, this article is a great read.

Marketers are the best!

Joel