Observe these two beautiful, delicious macarons.

One is yellow with a pink background and one is pink with a yellow background. Generally, they're the same thing. Fundamentally, they're totally different.

One might choose yellow because of the color, the lemon flavor, because it's bright, cheerful, it has a white filling instead of a pink filling, because they saw it first or they saw it last. 

Another might choose pink because they don't like yellow, it was the last one, they want to know if the flavor is strawberry or cherry, or if it has no distinct flavor at all.

A third might choose to eat both because they want to taste-test by comparing and assessing before they buy a dozen for a party.

A fourth might choose neither because they’re having a baby reveal party (it’s a boy) and they need blue.

Point is: Everyone has reasons to purchase one product or service over another, and there are many, many factors in determining what’s going to make you the top choice.

In her brilliant book, Abviously Awesome, renowned positioning expert, April Dunford, breaks down product positioning and how to connect with people who are most likely to buy a specific product or service.

As in our macaron example, we sure have a lot of questions we need to answer before we can figure out how to get people to eat, say, the yellow one. If we were to break it down into questions, it would look something like this:

• How many people ate a yellow one?

  These are your buyers - your BEST customers.

• What did they like about it?

  This is the affinity a buyer has for your product or service.

• Why did they choose yellow over pink?

  These answers are your differentiators - the reasons why your best customers keep coming back (or better yet, refer you to another person or business).

• When and how did they eat it?

  This is where and when you place them in your content experience.

• Did they share it with anyone?

  Who else got to try the treat as a result of the initial buyer?

• What other treat did it remind them of? Ex., “That lemon macaron reminds me of Lemonheads.”

  These are your competitors.

Discover everything you can about the people who choose the yellow macaron

April (I assume we’re on a first name basis ever since we met at Uberflip’s Conex in Toronto recently) believes people selling a product or service should focus primarily on their best customers.

Instead of honing in on the customers you want, April says we should be focusing on the ones you already have: your best customers. Getting to know what made them choose yellow will help you figure out the people and companies like them who are most likely going to prefer yellow over pink.

In addition, these customers are going to know your product or service better than someone who has an affinity for the pink macaron. They can tell you what the texture is like, if the lemon flavor is tart, sweet or a little of both. They’re going to tell you why the yellow macaron is far superior to any other macaron. Listen to them.

Market confusion starts with our disconnect between understanding the product as product creators, and understanding the product as customers first perceive it. 

- April Dunford

Brand or product positioning is not what you think it is, but it will improve your business

April’s book has me on a content crusade to help people think differently about ways they can use positioning to get not just customers, but the right customers. If you enjoyed this macaron experiment and want to learn more about how I’m implementing pieces of April’s wisdom in my content experience work with clients, we should talk. I’ll bring the macarons!