AMA: Etsy Senior Director, Product Marketing, Maureen Sitterson on Competitive Positioning

At the foundation of a sound competitive position is 2 things: Keeping up with how your competitors (and adjacent or related companies) are evolving over time. Having a consistent pulse on how things shift in the external landscape is critical. Focusing on brand differentiation - what makes your brand unique and special? What is your brand's role in the world, and why does it matter? By staying current as others' strategies evolve and consistently focusing on why your brand and product are uniqu ...Read More

AI tooling can be very helpful for streamlining competitive and marketing intelligence. That enables the team to focus less time on collecting inputs and competitive and market intel, and more time analyzing what the insights mean for Etsy. A structure I like to use for competitive analyses is: A one page introduction featuring a clear comparison grid of key features across adjacent companies and direct competitors. A deeper, in-depth analysis of the specific features across companies following ...Read More

This is a great question. When a solution doesn’t address the same need that competitors’ solutions do, I’ve found it most effective to anchor the messaging in the value it delivers to the user. Leading with customer value is always a strong strategy, and it becomes especially important when the solution isn’t competitively differentiated on features. A structure I’ve found helpful is: Clearly define the user need or problem the solution addresses. Articulate a strong value proposition that expl ...Read More

Research on segments and their needs is critical to our strategy. One of our top priorities is deeply understanding who our customers are, and how effectively we are meeting their needs and expectations. That's why research is such a critical partner to our team. I'm a strong advocate of developing user personas to build understanding and empathy of our segments, so that we're consistently thinking about how what we're building or communicating meets customers' needs, and clearly articulating th ...Read More

When plans serve different customer segments (for example, multiple tiers of a paid subscription) it can be effective to develop distinct but related positioning statements, and potentially differentiated GTM plans, for each segment. Here is a recommended approach that I've found effective: Evaluate the competitive landscape holistically, while assessing how competitors address the needs of different types of users. Segment the competitive analysis itself, surfacing differentiated insights and r ...Read More