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.

Define your positioning in Aha! Roadmaps — start a trial.

Explore any section below:

What is product positioning?
What is the best way to develop product positioning?
What elements should your product positioning consider?
What is a product positioning statement?
How do people perceive your product?
Product positioning strategies

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.

An example of how businesses can use Aha! Roadmaps to build their strategic positioning

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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.

Start using this template now

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What is a product positioning statement?

Once your positioning is defined, create a brief product positioning statement that describes your target audience, what sets your product apart, and why customers should care about it. Here is an example of a positioning statement template:

For [group of users] that [need/want], [company/product] is a [category/solution] that uniquely solves this by [benefit].

It would be helpful to use an example company to talk through this. Let’s use Fredwin Cycling, a fictitious company that builds a cycling app. The target market is predominantly cycling enthusiasts who are interested in improving their fitness. Your customer and market research reveals that users are concerned about their health but are struggling to stick with an exercise program. Users want to stay motivated by connecting with like-minded friends. The product addresses this need by providing a social cycling community that promotes friendly competition and tracks workout performance.

Here is an example of a product positioning statement for Fredwin Cycling:

For cyclists who want to connect with other athletes, Fredwin Cycling is the leading social fitness application that uniquely brings the cycling community together by promoting healthy competition.

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How do people perceive your product?

Your product positioning shapes how you want your product to be known in the market. But there are many different factors that can affect how your product is perceived. The major influence is what customers experience when they actually use your product and interact with your company. It is the summation of the Complete Product Experience (CPE) that determines what customers think and feel about your product.

There are seven core areas that contribute to the CPE:

Marketing	How potential customers learn about your product and decide if it might be a fit
Sales	How prospects get the information they need to make a purchasing decision
Technology	The core set of features that customers pay for
Supporting systems	The internal systems that make it possible to deliver the product
Third-party integrations	The ecosystem of products the customer uses
Support	How customers receive product training and assistance
Policies	The rules that govern how your company does business

Remember, every touchpoint with your company either reinforces or undermines your positioning. So while you should consciously plan how to position your product, you should think broadly about every aspect of the adoption process. Because your customers will decide what they really think about your product.

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Product positioning strategies

Customer perceptions of your product can be altered — positively or negatively — by any aspect of your CPE. Clearly defined product positioning will help you maintain a cohesive message about your product's unique value at each touchpoint. But while your product's value should be unique, your positioning strategy does not have to be completely original.

There are several standard types of product positioning strategies that companies use to differentiate their products. Here are some common types of product positioning:

Price	Position your product as the more affordable option on the market
Quality	Convey that your product is high quality or luxury. This can be an effective positioning strategy against product rivals that are competing on price.
User	Target a specific user group, demographic, or application that is relevant to your product.
Product type	Shift customer perceptions and reach new market segmentations by selecting an alternate category for your product.
Competitor	Demonstrate directly or indirectly that your product is better than a competitor's product.
Differentiation	Show that your product is a completely unique offering in the market that can not be easily duplicated.

The positioning strategy that is best suited for your product depends on your customers' needs, the results of your market research, and the goals you have as a business or product leader. But regardless of the strategy you choose, well-defined product positioning will show that you have honed in on what makes your product uniquely valuable — and that you know how to communicate this value to your customers.

FAQs about product positioning

What should you include in a product positioning statement?

How is product positioning different than branding?

How often should you do product positioning?

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Product positioning: Tips, templates, and examples

Everything you need to know to create a strong product positioning statement

Define your positioning in Aha! Roadmaps — start a trial.

What is product positioning?

What is the best way to develop product positioning?

What elements should your product positioning consider?

Get this template now — with a free trial.

What is a product positioning statement?

How do people perceive your product?

Product positioning strategies

FAQs about product positioning

Read more

What is roadmap software? Key features of roadmap tools

Use our product roadmap template

What's new with Aha! Roadmaps?

What elements should your product positioning consider?

Get this template now — with a free trial.

What is a product positioning statement?

How do people perceive your product?

Product positioning strategies

FAQs about product positioning