Shifting Positioning - Why B2B Tech is Different

Mar 28, 2024

Consumer products rarely shift positioning, where positioning shifts are expected and normal for B2B products. As a result, some of the key concepts related to positioning consumer products are completely irrelevant for B2B products.

In my book Sales Pitch, I discussed the differences between the ways consumer and business products are purchased. Most consumer products are low-stakes purchases, bought by an individual making a choice that hasn’t been deeply researched. Business purchases, on the other hand, are frequently deeply researched and considered high-stakes purchases with a group of folks involved in the decision-making process.

B2C positioning doesn’t change the way B2B positioning does

But from a positioning perspective, one of the key ways in which B2B and B2C products and companies are different is that in B2C, it is relatively uncommon for a product to shift positioning - particularly if the product is fairly well-established in the market. In a typical consumer product - think toothpaste, soda, gum, shampoo, soap - the product is released in the market with a well-researched product positioning already baked into the messaging, branding, and sales distribution strategy. There might be a little tuning of advertising campaigns, and occasionally, a successfully established product might get a modern brand refresh. Still, it’s rare to see a consumer product get repositioned entirely. There are exceptions to this, of course (in my book, Obviously Awesome, I tell the story of Arm & Hammer baking soda being repositioned from purely a cooking ingredient to a deodorizer), but these examples are pretty rare.

An Example: Gum

For example, Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum has had the same positioning since the 1890s. When they wanted to launch a minty gum, they didn’t reposition Juicy Fruit or try to make the product both minty and fruity - they introduced a new product - Double Mint. When the kids wanted bubble gum, they introduced Hubba Bubba. Oh, you want sugar-free gum now? That’s Extra. Wrigley’s might collaborate with another brand (Juicy Fruit Starburst, anyone?) or even get acquired (it’s all Mars now, sorry, kids), but the core positioning of an established consumer product generally stays the same. If you want to go after a new market - you launch a totally new product to do that.

This gum is great for trips to the office or when you need to shoot stuff.

B2B and tech, in particular, is different

That is not the case for B2B. In particular, most successful, established B2B companies and products have shifted their positioning several times across their lifespan. Often, those shifts in positioning are planned as part of the overall product roadmap and go-to-market strategy. In venture-backed technology companies, this is particularly true.

An Example - An Omnichannel Retail Platform

For example - I worked at a company that served large retailers. The longer-term vision of the product was that it would serve as an “omni-channel backend.” The product in its final form would allow retailers to run both stores and their online presence from the same system. However, at the start, our product wasn’t full-featured enough to fully replace what retailers had today, nor were any big retailers prepared to make such a big infrastructure bet on a new, unproven startup. Our roadmap, therefore, included a set of stages - we would first launch as an assisted shopping solution for in-store sales associates, then we would add a full clienteling solution, then we would add point of sale features before adding more omnichannel functionality to support “endless aisle” shopping or “order online, pickup in-store,” etc. At each major stage of the product life cycle, we expected the positioning to shift. We would start as an associate-assisted shopping solution before becoming an in-store mobility solution. Eventually, we would broaden out to being a full-blow platform for omnichannel retail. In this case, we expanded the positioning to target a larger and larger market as our product matured. Most of the B2B products I have worked on have a similar roadmap. This is different from a Juicy Fruit situation where an entirely new product gets launched for every new target market.

So What April?

If we understand that B2B positioning will shift over time as the product matures, then there are a handful of things we approach differently when we are doing positioning work with a B2B product.

1/ We need to separate our longer-term vision from what we are selling right now

The longer-term vision is the goal, but our positioning needs to focus on the stage we are at right now. Our positioning today needs to reflect why a customer would choose us over the other alternatives they might choose in the market right now, not why we believe we will be a great choice in the future.

2/ We need to recognize that positioning for customers will differ from positioning for investors.

Investors care very much about your vision and will want to understand the roadmap that the company has planned and the market you intend to win in the future. By definition, this story will be very different from the positioning you use with customers today. This is normal and to be expected for a B2B product. Investors who do not understand this likely come from a consumer background and are, quite frankly, a terrible fit for your business.

3/ We need to expect our positioning to change over time and have the processes in place to review and adjust our position.

In my opinion, this means teams should have:

A structured process is needed to do positioning because you will have to do it more than once. I use my process, but any process you believe works is 1000 times better than no process.
Regularly scheduled positioning checkins—When I was working in-house, we would have a positioning checkin every six months. We would also call an emergency check-in if something big happened (e.g., a new competitor in the space, an acquisition, a new big product release, etc.).
A process for how downstream changes will happen when there is a positioning change - This will include updating the sales pitch and messaging and any associated work to make those changes.

What do you think? Do you find your teams slipping into the idea that your positioning should stay the same forever? Leave this post a like or sound off in the comments -

Positioning with April Dunford

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