Your Product Isn't What You Think It Is

A confused person never buys. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that that might be a problem. If you think it's a problem you have, get comfortable.

Is your audience confused about your product?

While positioning is all about placing your product in the mind of your customer, it is possible to put it in the wrong spot. That's either by letting it fall where it seems it should fall, or forcing it into a group where it'll never fit.

Avoiding those mistakes sounds like a good idea. So let's begin.

But first, what do cars, email and berries have in common? And why is your product the same as baking soda?

What Are Categories?

Categories are a way of organizing the market. Think cars, email, berries. Each of those words bring a specific mental image to mind.

As an example, if I said I’m making a flying car, it’s not hard to imagine what that might look like. The category of car is clear enough in your mind that you can add the flying concept to it easily.

And that's how we sort a lot of things in our life. If you had to explain TV to your grandparents you might describe it as radio but with moving pictures. Netflix: it's like the cinema but on the Internet. American Football: it's like regular football (read: soccer) but they don't really use their feet, it's carried in their hands, and it's not really shaped like a ball (*confused emoji*).

In each example, you're using what they already have in mind to explain the new idea. It also works the other way. It tells us what concepts wouldn't make sense or what ideas don't belong together. I'm not sure anyone would buy the upside-down toilet for instance.

So your goal should always be to make sure you’re placing your product in the best category. How do you know which is the best?

Mixed Berry Fruit Salad

Imagine I said I’m making a mixed berry fruit salad. Picture that. A mixed berry fruit salad. What would you expect to be in a salad like that? Perhaps blueberries, cranberries, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries. Seems simple enough. On the other hand, you wouldn’t expect to see something like bananas in there.

Here’s the problem. Only the first two are actually berries. Technically speaking, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries are classified as aggregate fruits, not berries. And oddly enough bananas should be in the salad. Along with pumpkin and cucumber, bananas are considered berries. Surprised?

This is where the confusion comes from. Even though bananas are berries, it’s not typically placed in the berry category of our minds.

Baking Soda? What Do You Mean Baking Soda?

Here's another example. If you bake a lot, this won't surprise you. But as someone who didn't bake a lot, it had me truly confused.

Many of us, including me, grew up in households that used baking soda. Although it's called baking soda, specifically the Arm & Hammer brand, it's typically stored in the back of the fridge as a means of odor control. Baking soda equals odor control. The name of the product didn't send off any alarm bells.

Then comes the day where I decide to experiment a bit and make pancakes. Add flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder... baking soda? Let me read that again. Baking powder, yes that makes sense. Baking soda? Is baking soda even edible?

"Hey Siri, is baking soda edible?"

Arm & Hammer used to categorize their product in the baking category. But when there was a shift in the popularity of baking, they repositioned their product in the deodorant category since it already had those properties. Turns out that's the only positioning that they had in my mind.

Where Should It Go?

It might be the same for your product. The way you would use it and the way your customers do might be entirely different. Baking soda as a baking good versus baking soda as a deodorant.

Or the way you think of it and the way your customers do might be entirely different. Banana in a mixed berry fruit salad.

Either way, you have a choice to make. Sometimes the category that we think is the best may not be the best. Other times the category that the product seems to fall into may not be the one that highlights it's strengths the most.

So instead of putting bananas with the berries, put it in the “peel and eat” category. Your customers will understand it better.