How does product and launch positioning and messaging differ?

It's a good idea to start with overall product positioning and messaging ("P&M") as a foundation for general or evergreen marketing channels and campaigns. Channel owners can then leverage the guidance to craft channel-specific messaging tailored for each channel and audience that ladders up to the product P&M.  For feature launches, however, I treat new features (or bundles of features), as separate, thematic launches and develop separate P&Ms to lean into the most relevant customer ...Read More

Love this question. You want to make sure that you are always telling a story. Storybrand is a great template that I often use. It has 7 elements A hero Has a challenge They meet a guide Who gives them a plan Calls them to action Helps the avoid failure They succeed in the end Your overall product or platform should be telling this story above. Any new product launches should map back to this story, but add additional value to customers. You can use the "Three Whys" to help guide you too. Why an ...Read More

I think there's a few different aspects of this: 1. Alignment -- There needs to be alignment between your feature and overall product positioning and messaging. If you are sprinting towards a major launch of a notable feature then it should focus on how that capability naturally solves key challenges in the market for prospective buyers. That said, launch and core product positioning shouldn't be different (for the same product line). A launch is an opportunity to drive momentum -- and you can u ...Read More

You'll need to have both 1) Your core positioning and messaging doc at the overall company and product level and then 2) Your GTM plan for the new feature which includes messaging and positioning for that particular launch.  For any launch, you'll also need to come up with a tiering structure and then let's say it's a Tier 1 product launch that changes your positioning or messaging in some way you'll need to update your core positioning and messaging doc to reflect that change if the launch is b ...Read More

That is a great question! I like to have both. The core messaging should be for your overall company and product - this is the foundational messaging for how to talk about your product (and perhaps even different parts of your product depending on product complexity) Then as you develop and launch new features, your launch GTM plan should also have launch-specific messaging that you align your entire GTM team around. As you develop new messaging for each launch, make sure you go back and either ...Read More

Yes, these are definitely different, but related. Product positioning: Durable, consistent framework for positioning a product or solution over the long run. Needs to account for current and future positioning.  Launch positioning: Unless it's a completely new product, this is derivative of the overall product/solution positioning. Ideally, it magnifies or highlights a subset of the overarching product positioning through the new capabilities you're introducing.  A launch is an opportunity to re ...Read More