Competitive Positioning
Etsy Senior Director, Seller Growth & Retention • 4mo
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 c...
772 Views
What metric, goal or KPI can you put on providing competitive intelligence to the company or product teams?
I work in a company that measures the impact of all projects, but admittedly this is a difficult area to track. Would love to any suggestions/thoughts.
ActiveCampaign VP Product Marketing | Formerly Pendo, Demandbase, Conga, SAP • 2y
You're right this is difficult to measure but I would suggest two things. First, if you have created battlecards for each competitor, you should be able to measure views ...
798 Views
UiPath Sr. Director of Product Marketing | Formerly Salesforce, Tableau, Microsoft • May 18
April, Lindsay, and Olesia have covered the standard intelligence channels well. Let me add what works specifically in enterprise software, where pricing is rarely public...
233 Views
Fmr Product Marketing Leader, Cisco | Formerly Twilio, Cisco, Gartner • 1y
The fundamentals of customer-first competitive positioning do not change with the business model. All competitive positioning should use the following framework: What’s t...
1689 Views
Celigo Vice President Product Marketing | Formerly HackerOne, Cohere, Box, Google, Adobe • 1y
Shift the Battleground: Compete on Outcomes, Not Just FeaturesCompetitors can copy what you build, but they can’t easily copy the results your product delivers.Reframe th...
506 Views
Upcoming AMAs
Hedra Head of Marketing | Formerly Docusign, Responsys, Invoca • 1mo
There are actually three questions here. I'll focus mostly on how to weave AI into your existing narrative, before coming back to the others at the end.
1: Start with a ...
521 Views
UiPath Sr. Director of Product Marketing | Formerly Salesforce, Tableau, Microsoft • May 13
The biggest shift will not be in what PMMs produce but in what they spend their time on.Over the next 12 to 24 months, I expect the execution layer of PMM work to become ...
1785 Views
How do you obtain competitive intelligence on a competitor's product that has very little public-facing marketing around it?
I'm about to just call and ask them if they still sell it.
Datadog VP, Product Marketing | Formerly Salesforce, Attentive • 3y
Call them! It is all fair game. Going deep on youtube and searching their exec team is also a great resource. Odds are even if they don't have public content, the CEO has...
732 Views
How do you automate competitive so that sales always has fresh intel and positioning?
Looking for how frequency intel gets updated and what tools are used to get the intel as well as latest content to sales. Thanks!
UiPath Sr. Director of Product Marketing | Formerly Salesforce, Tableau, Microsoft • May 7
Chris has described a solid modern stack. What I'd add from running competitive programs at scale across Microsoft, Salesforce, Tableau, and now UiPath is that the toolin...
158 Views
How do you perform extensive competitive product research?
I've been tasked with it but I'm missing the mark. This research is for the CEO and Product/Engineering teams who want to know how our tech stacks up in the market. Do you have any tips?
Pomerium Head of Marketing | Formerly Roofstock, Instacart, Uber, Algolia, Google • May 7
Claude Co-work...How good are your prompts? Competitors are pushing out tons of collateral. It's actually pretty easy now to go grab a few key pieces of collateral...alwa...
558 Views
Outtake VP of Marketing | Formerly Cyera, Zscaler, Docker • May 6
In terms of customer evaluations (proof of concepts or vendor down selections) the best way to find this out, is actually to ask channel partners! They have tons relation...
566 Views
Jellyfish VP of Product Marketing • 3y
If you see different competitors by industry, then yes. At a previous company we realized that when we expanded into different industries (e.g. going from Tech to Healthc...
1937 Views
ActiveCampaign VP Product Marketing | Formerly Pendo, Demandbase, Conga, SAP • 2y
In the early days of an analyst relations program, the key metric you are going to be able to track is touches (inquiries, briefings, conference 1:1 meetings etc). The nu...
1906 Views
Fmr Product Marketing Leader, Cisco | Formerly Twilio, Cisco, Gartner • 1y
Market intelligence + competitive intelligence = a full picture of how your organization fits in a market. Market intelligence is tells us what's driving decisions, actio...
1032 Views
Outtake VP of Marketing | Formerly Cyera, Zscaler, Docker • May 6
Ultimately the biggest differentiator is not your message, it’s how you evangelize and validate your perspective on the market..You need to define the problem, define the...
390 Views
Outtake VP of Marketing | Formerly Cyera, Zscaler, Docker • May 6
My favorite recent use of AI is Claude Work for team prioritization and execution. It’s an incredible tool because you can define connectors and pull data from each into ...
365 Views
How do you fight a price war with positioning/messaging? Can you even?
Often my sales team goes up against competition that undercuts our pricing and heavily so. The buying decision quickly comes down to "who's proffering the cheapest price" -- platform value communication is rarely successful. How does one navigate this situation/How have you?
Hedra Head of Marketing | Formerly Docusign, Responsys, Invoca • 1mo
The short answer is "Yes." You can fight a price war with positioning. That said, it's really hard. And, if you're already in a price war you've lost the high ground your...
990 Views
Bloomreach VP, Product Marketing • 11mo
By (and I use a quote not credited to me) selling the problem you solve, not the product you have. Start with the voice of the customer. Listen and understand what the ma...
678 Views
Hedra Head of Marketing | Formerly Docusign, Responsys, Invoca • 1mo
There's no one right answer here. Every company and industry is a little different. But, there are a few things I always come back to. These aren't ranked, because they'r...
621 Views
How does one create a "positioning document?"
Our organization is focusing on a new customer segment and channel. My CMO has asked me to create a "positioning document" that we can share with senior leadership that articulates how we're going to market to this segment. Does anyone have a template or (and NDA-compliant) example document I could use as a model? Just trying to understand what type of information to include and how best to organize it. Thanks!
HiredScore Head of Product Marketing • 3y
Positioning is the foundational element of all product marketing work, which makes the positioning document pretty critical to the success of a launch/campaign/etc. Here ...
533 Views
Airtable Director, Compete & Partner Marketing • 3y
Win/loss interviews have consistently been one of our richest sources. Also, plugging into active deals where we support the sales team (we use Gong and CRM to get alerts...
2385 Views
Vanta Group Product Marketing Manager | Formerly Twilio, Sauce Labs • 1y
When a competitor offers something you dont, avoid the feature war and try to uplevel the conversation to what outcome theyre trying to achieve. Buyers dont choose a prod...
961 Views
Is competitive positioning an output of a feature or a marketing story?
I see a lot of battles between start-ups about similar features/products; I myself have tried to position our product with a differentiated story not always backed by features.
What's the ideal approach? Where does one draw the line?
Fmr Product Marketing Leader, Cisco | Formerly Twilio, Cisco, Gartner • 1y
Everything is a marketing story when it comes to communicating with customers. ;) Competitive positioning should be an output from competitive analysis. If you’re not see...
1110 Views
Celigo Vice President Product Marketing | Formerly HackerOne, Cohere, Box, Google, Adobe • 1y
Managing competitive intelligence (CI) effectively in a B2B scale-up—especially as the company enters new markets—requires a structured approach that ensures insights are...
2264 Views
Amperity Vice President Product & Customer Marketing, Competive Intelligence | Formerly Amazon, Qualtrics, SAP, DreamBox Learning, Carnegie Learning • 1y
I can think of several common mistakes companies make when trying to differentiate their product. However, I'm going to focus on a few key ones:
Overemphasizing featur...
2389 Views
What do you use or do to get people to buy into your positioning plans and consistently using them?
The product marketers job typically revolves around positioning a product. Sometimes, it can be difficult to align sales, marketing, and product teams around your positioning.
Adobe Sr Director of Product Marketing, Creative Cloud • 2y
The way to get people bought into positioning is to make sure that positioning is a cross functional exercise in the beginning. Positioning is not just a marketing or pro...
1788 Views
UiPath Sr. Director of Product Marketing | Formerly Salesforce, Tableau, Microsoft • 2mo
Win/loss is table stakes — but for AI products in 2025, the standard framework needs one new dimension: segment your analysis by buyer AI-skepticism level, not just by pe...
196 Views
Splunk Sr. Director, Product Marketing - Observability • 1y
Other than building a good product that solves real problems for customers, positioning is probably the most important thing to get right, because it's so strategic and f...
10823 Views
How are you using AI for competitive research and battlecard updates?
I’m curious how others are using AI to support competitive research. Keeping battlecards up to date is especially time-consuming — would love to hear what tools or workflows have worked well for your team.
Bloomreach VP, Product Marketing • 11mo
Great question! We're constantly testing out AI tools now. I apply a “consequential AI” lens: any tool must make Product Marketing faster, better, or more holistic. When ...
22588 Views
How do you separate out your competitive positioning for two different plans of your product, while keeping a unified view, if the plans serve different customer segments?
For example - Shopify Plus and Shopify (core)
Freshworks Vice President - Global Product Marketing | Formerly Klaviyo, Qualtrics, Microsoft, MckInsey • 3y
For Shopify/Shopify Plus type scenarios (also seen in Klaviyo/Klaviyo One, or Dropbox/Dropbox Enterprise), you end up creating two sub-brands. These names aren’t just dif...
490 Views
What research helps identify segments, their needs, and decide your build/buy/partner strategy? And how do you share those insights?
I'm working at a company where we're trying to unlock new industries that we as a company need to have a better understanding of.
Former SVP of Product Marketing at Quickbase • 2y
I recommend doing a mix of both quantitative and qualitative market research to augment your customer data analysis. For quantitative, you can run market research surveys...
1505 Views
Vori Head of Product Marketing | Formerly Square, Intuit, Brex, Dandy, Klaviyo, PepsiCo, Heineken, Mondelez • 2y
Three types of research should inform any competitive and market intelligence program:Internal resources and intelligence, such as sales calls and win-loss analysis, are ...
2983 Views
Midi Health Go To Market & Principal PMM | Formerly Homebase, Angi, The Knot • 3y
As a Product Marketing Manager , effectively communicating and sharing competitor analysis with your team and stakeholders is crucial for aligning everyone on the competi...
2267 Views
What competitive positioning frameworks have worked best for you?
i.e. standard/academic frameworks tweaked to your requirements or a completely redesigned framework that is proprietary
Moloco Product Marketing Director • 7mo
I have chosen different frameworks based on different product situations (new category, highly competitive, PLG motion, etc). So with that said, here are my top 2 favorit...
1331 Views
ClassDojo Head of Product Marketing • 7mo
I think about this the same way I think about writing a creative brief. If you don’t start with clarity on what problems you’re trying to understand or solve, you won’t g...
13562 Views
Snowflake Product Marketing Lead • 1y
This is a great question that I’m sure a lot of companies are grappling with. I think the path to success here lies in differentiating based on how you safeguard customer...
4944 Views
How often do you talk to customers, or do qualitative + VOC research?
Is it continuous or at specific campaigns?
Lovable Head of Product Marketing • 4y
This is a fantastic question! In my experience, for competitive research/marketing, it is critical to spend time with your customers and frontline sales teams. In my prev...
1979 Views
Anthropic Product Marketing Leader • 5y
I like to break this down into: product research, messaging research, GTM research.
Product research is research you do to inform the product the team builds. This almos...
753 Views
Cisco Head of Product Marketing, Cisco Campus Network Experiences | Formerly Tellme Networks, Microsoft, Box, Vera, Scout RFP, and Sisu Data, to name a few. • 3y
There are two big categories here.
Speaking with a customer after specific feature feedback
Re-introducing a product to a prospect/customer who said "no"
I'll address...
530 Views
Tigera Technical Product Marketing Manager • 3y
As a Technical PMM in the network security industry, public-facing datasheets provide valuable information for competitive analysis. You should especially focus on caveat...
Click To View Draft
1 Views
Airtable Director, Compete & Partner Marketing • 3y
Use "trap setting questions." Craft a question for the customer to ask your competitor that will expose the lacking functionality. In extreme cases you could send a video...
1720 Views
Norm Ai Head of Marketing | Formerly Galileo, Cresta, Tanium, Zuora • 11mo
I love this question! Competitive insights are one of the fastest ways for PMM to earn a seat at the strategy-table and influence the roadmap table. In theory, competitiv...
4167 Views
Norm Ai Head of Marketing | Formerly Galileo, Cresta, Tanium, Zuora • 11mo
In my experience, there are a few key differences between positioning for developers vs. business buyers. While the following aren't hard and fast rules, they are general...
7511 Views
Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 11mo
A powerful practice that the team implemented on the Gemini marketing team while I was still at Google was centralizing our foundational assets into a "Product Marketing ...
5458 Views
Stripe Head of Product Marketing, APAC • 1y
The best companies understand that delivering value isn’t a one-time event; it’s a continuous process. Marketing ongoing innovation means evolving how you position the pr...
10681 Views
Datadog VP, Product Marketing | Formerly Salesforce, Attentive • 3y
I think there are a couple of different docs that I would use, depending on the audience (internal, external) and the competitor (are you ahead, behind)
INTERNAL resourc...
952 Views
How much bearing does your competition have on your messaging?
How do you tackle/counter theirs?
Wiz VP of Product Marketing • 4y
Competition is critical and should always be a factor in your positioning and messaging for B2B. At Okta, it is a core part of our brand identity and position to be best-...
857 Views
Replicant Head of Product Marketing • 1y
Even without a Gartner MQ or Forrester Wave, there are a lot of ways to understand the competitive landscape. Take a look at some of my answers around getting competitive...
2191 Views
Apollo.io Head of Competitive Intel • 3y
I love this question.
Here are a few that come to mind:
1. Avis's "No. 2" ad against Hertz: https://consumerbehaviourmcgill.wordpress.com/2012/09/26/avis-is-no-2-we-try-...
Click To View Draft
8 Views
Actively AI VP of Marketing | Formerly Mezmo, Sauce Labs • 5y
I think with anything you do in Product Marketing, you first have to understand what your goals are to avoid being completely consumed by the task at hand. This includes ...
1234 Views