Book profile

Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It

April Dunford

A practical 10-step methodology for deliberately positioning products by setting the right market context so customers instantly understand why a product is uniquely valuable.

Obviously Awesome argues that great products fail not because they're bad but because they're poorly positioned—placed in a context where customers can't perceive their value. Drawing on April Dunford's 25 years repositioning sixteen products as a startup VP of marketing and her work consulting with dozens of tech companies, the book reframes positioning as deliberate 'context setting' rather than the useless fill-in-the-blank positioning statement. It breaks positioning into five-plus-one components (competitive alternatives, unique attributes, value, target market characteristics, market category, and trends) and provides a field-tested 10-step process for finding the market frame of reference that makes your strengths obvious to your best-fit customers. With memorable examples—from cake pops to Joshua Bell to a database repositioned as a data warehouse—it shows founders, marketers, and salespeople how strong positioning shortens sales cycles, reduces churn, supports premium pricing, and supercharges every marketing and sales tactic.

The model

A causal model in which deliberate positioning practices (anchoring on best-fit customers, true competitive alternatives, unique attributes, value, target segment, market category, trends) drive customer comprehension and perceived value, which in turn drive business outcomes like faster sales, lower churn, and premium pricing.

Frameworks you can use

Positioning is deliberately defining how you are the best at something a defined market cares a lot about.
Customers understand new products by comparison to things they already know.
Every component of positioning depends on the others and must be worked in the right order, starting with competitive alternatives.
Value claims must be objective and provable, not opinion.
Position for customers (immediate value) not investors (future vision).
Better to be boring and successful than fashionable and bewildering.

Key terms

Deliberate Positioning: The deliberate act of defining how a product is the best at something a defined market cares about, rather than accepting a default context.
Best-Fit Customer Focus: The degree to which positioning is anchored on the happiest customers who buy fast, rarely discount, and refer others.
Competitive Alternative Clarity: Accuracy of understanding what customers would do or use if the product did not exist.
Unique Attribute Identification: Extent to which provable features/capabilities the alternatives lack are isolated.
Value Articulation: Degree to which attributes are translated into provable, goal-linked value.
Market Category Fit: How well the chosen market frame triggers helpful assumptions placing strengths at the center.
Positioning Style Alignment: Fit between chosen positioning style and market maturity, competition, and resources.
Trend Relevance Layering: Optional use of a customer-relevant trend tightly linked to product and market.