Market and Product positioning strategies for targeting a new user segment.
Are you a product manager tasked with attracting a younger generation (think gen z or social media generation) to your digital product? This article equips you with market and product positioning strategies to turn “surfers” into loyal users.
Product managers are frequently tasked with various tasks to measure, manage, and track business growth that intersects the AARRR framework.
Acquisition focuses on attracting potential users, an audience who might not be aware of your product or the problem it solves. It’s the initial point of contact where “products” need to spark interest and convince potential users that your product can solve a problem they might not even realize they have.
Understanding your Ideal customer Profile
The ICP in this case are younger generations, digital natives, or Gen Z, and they are tech-savvy. Acquiring users in this segment means applying marketing and product positioning strategies that appeal to individuals in this segment. It’s important to understand their user behavior, financial literacy where applicable, their product needs, and more to attract individuals who need the services your business provides.
The benchmark for what you consider important will vary based on the selected target group or target market and even the product.
Market Positioning
Market positioning is how a company creates a distinct identity, for all its products, brand and services and wants to be perceived relative to its competitors within a specific industry. Think of it as carving out a specific niche in the customer’s mind for your product or brand.
Product Positioning
This zooms in on a specific product or service. Product positioning is all about shaping how customers perceive your product in the marketplace. The ultimate goal of product positioning is to land a distinct spot in the minds of your customers. This way, when they think about a particular need you solve, your product comes to mind first.
Acquisition-Focused Positioning Strategy for ICP
For a younger, digital-savvy generation that might not realize they need your product, the strategy would be to create awareness and educate users about the value of your product.
- Focus on educating users about the unique value proposition of our product offering, using analogies that clarify the core of your product.
- Social media marketing and social influence
- Using emotional associations
Example of Positioning strategy
The images of Arc browser website and their simple, straightforward taglines helps a user to know immediately what Arc is.
“Arc is the chrome replacement I’ve been waiting for” is an analogy that references an existing product but also lets people know that Arc is different, innovative and stands out from traditional browsers.
Following up with “Your browser your way” is another prime example of product positioning, letting users know they can personalize their Arc browser in ways not possible with other browsers.
Arc has positioned itself as an innovative product in an existing marketplace through analogies, copywriting, and brand & product design decisions that appeal to their ideal customer profile. This makes users realize that they want to use this product, didn’t know they needed it, and suddenly cannot do without it.
I didn’t know I needed Arc browser. I stumbled upon Arc browser because other users were advocating for it, so I tried it out. Now, I simply cannot do without it. Arc browser has done a good job with positioning so that in the retention stage of their strategy, people become ambassadors of their product and refer other users. By the AARRR metric, Arc’s market and product positioning is a success.
Conclusion
Including all these elements in Marketing and Product communications will attract your business or product’s Ideal Customer Profiles (IDP), which is the main goal of acquisition. In the Activation (Retention and Engagement) stage, more visitors will convert, become users, and may even turn into ambassadors for your product.
If your market positioning uses analogies like Arc, people who didn’t know they needed your product/service could convert.
Depending on the stage of your product and your ideal customer profile, good market and product positioning can help with acquisition (targeting new users) and reducing CAC (customer acquisition cost).
