Product positioning: Tips, templates, and examples
Everything you need to know to create a strong product positioning statement
Last updated: October 2025
What is product positioning, and how do you create it? Learn how clear positioning defines your product's value, target audience, and competitive advantage to guide messaging and strategy. |
Your ability to articulate the key benefits of your product and the problem it solves is critical to business success. But you may find yourself in a company where product positioning strategy is not well-defined.
Maybe this is because there is unclear ownership or an ever-changing vision. Dig deeper and you may realize that you can lead a collaborative effort to fine-tune the positioning. Your colleagues in sales and marketing will likely be strong advocates of this work — effective positioning makes it possible to craft meaningful messages and create even more value for customers.
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What is product positioning?
Product positioning is a strategic exercise that defines where your product or service fits in the marketplace and why it is better than alternative solutions. The goal is to distill who your audience is, what they need, and how your product can uniquely help. Product positioning is the basis of your marketing story.
The outcome of product positioning is an internal document that informs external messaging — including how you will communicate product benefits to customers. Positioning helps ground your product marketing efforts in the real value you provide beyond features and functionality.
What is the best way to develop product positioning?
Product positioning is a cross-functional exercise. It typically involves product management and product marketing working closely together to define the core essence of your product. You will need to bring together your knowledge of the following areas:
Understand the customer
Your positioning strategy should succinctly capture who your customers are and what they need. Describe the attributes of your target customers, including demographic, behavioral, psychographic, and geographic details. You will also want to provide insights into the main problems the customer is trying to solve. Use your persona profiles to inform your positioning strategies and help the broader team build empathy with your customers.
Want to learn more about uncovering insights from customers? Check out the tutorial below, led by Aha! product experts Kelly Sebes and Maria Plotkina:
Instead of manually grouping customer ideas into themes, use AI to quickly surface patterns, suggest ideas for themes, and help you prioritize what to build next.
Conduct market research
You need to know what alternatives customers have to your product so you can highlight what sets your offering apart. Research your direct and indirect competitors to understand how they serve your customers’ needs. Your market research should also include interacting directly with potential customers to gather ideas — for instance using surveys, focus groups, or empathy sessions. This will allow you to differentiate your product from the competition and help you explain to potential customers why your solution is the best option to solve their problems.
Assess the product
Your positioning must be built on the unique value your company and product provides. Conducting a SWOT analysis is a useful way to objectively analyze what your product or service is doing well and where it can do better. This ensures that your marketing messages aligns with the product experience, thus helping customers make informed decisions.
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What elements should your product positioning consider?
Product positioning is made up of core building blocks that explain your product’s unique value. After you have completed your customer, market, and product assessments, you can define your product positioning, align the broader team around core messaging, and build a product marketing plan.
Here are the key elements that define your product positioning:
Vision | The overall direction for where your product is headed |
Mission | What you will do or build to make your vision a reality |
Market category | The market that you are in and your key customer segments |
Tagline | Catchphrase or slogan you use to describe your company or product |
Customer challenges | Major pain points for your customers |
Company and product differentiators | Unique, value-creating characteristics of your company or product |
Brand essence | The core attributes you want to be known for |
A template can help you capture the key positioning elements described above for your product or service. This product positioning template in Aha! software is a great way to work through ideas on a digital whiteboard with your team. It also offers expert tips for highlighting your product's benefits.
Get this template now — with a free trial.
FAQs about product positioning
For [group of users] that [need/want], [company/product] is a [category/solution] that uniquely solves this by [benefit]. A product positioning statement should include who your target market is and what makes your product unique or special. Keep your positioning statement concise — it is typically a single sentence. You can use this positioning statement template as a guide:
Product positioning is a strategic exercise for defining where your product fits in the marketplace and how it trumps the competition. Branding refers to a company or product's overall visual and emotional identity. Branding includes elements such as an offering's name, logo, and personality.
Defining product positioning is not a one-and-done exercise. Typically, teams will create (or revisit) positioning when preparing to launch major product updates or enter a new market. It is also a good idea to refresh positioning in response to new competitors or shifting customer needs.
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