One of the fundamental strategies product marketers must lead is positioning. It’s what determines how you’ll talk about your product, your company, and your brand as you scale. So why do so many people get it wrong? Catherine Spence, VP of Global Marketing at Microblink, joins Leanna to share her best lessons on brand and product positioning, from leading marketing at an international company to her own startup, Pomello. If you’re looking to stay in your comfort zone, this isn’t the episode for you. Catherine shows us why we need to use our positioning to pick a fight and take a stand, especially in B2B SaaS. 

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to see the latest in Better Product, a show part of the Better Product Community powered by Innovatemap. The community is the connection point for product leaders & practitioners to learn and share what it takes to design, build, market, and sell better products. Learn more at betterproduct.community.

Takeaways

• Positioning gives you focus. You can’t be everything to everyone. 
• Product positioning should make you think. 
• Brand positioning should make you feel. 
• Don’t prioritize brand positioning until you have product-market fit.

Things To Listen For

• [2:00] Icebreaker: If you had to write an autobiography and name it after one of your guilty pleasures, what would you call it? 
• [3:00] What’s the difference between brand positioning and product positioning? How do marketers and PMMs work together to define it? 
• [7:00] Introducing Catherine Spence and her role at Microblink 
• [9:00] PMM is the intersection of product, marketing, and sales
• [11:00] The ask of product marketing is simple. But it’s difficult to do well. 
• [12:00] How Microblink thinks about brand positioning vs. product positioning when marketing AI when the world isn’t familiar with it yet
• [13:00] The deceiving similarities between product positioning and brand positioning, and what unites them at the core 
• [14:00] Brand positioning should be internal and external 
• [15:00] How do brand positioning and product positioning work together?
• [16:00] All positioning should reflect your vision and who you want to be in the world. When are you willing to walk away? 
• [19:00] Why B2B product marketers and marketers need to position products that “pick a fight and take a stand” for their products
• [22:30] Clear positioning doesn’t just make sense. It makes dollars. 
• [23:00] When is the best time to focus on brand positioning?
• [26:00] Use your vision statement to anchor your brand positioning 
• [28:00] The role of employer brand in positioning 
• [36:00] The future of PMM: how do we find great product marketers?