Before You Dive In: I’m shifting gears and moving to a biweekly issue, not because I’m stepping back, but to ensure every edition is a step forward in quality and insight. It's about hitting the mark on what matters—solid, actionable advice packed into every message.

This change is a move to keep things more manageable on my end, and more valuable on yours. Expect the same great content, just with more punch per page.

Thanks for sticking around as I adjust. It’s all part of the plan to make sure this newsletter remains a must-read.

Catch you in two weeks.

Onward…

Read time: 4 mins

Future Revenue Unlocked: Up to 40% in annual sales

Why Are You Here?

Welcome to Cyborg Marketer, your weekly guide to growing your brand with AI.

In today’s issue:

• Repositioning in a saturated market: Ever feel like your product is just another face in the crowd? I’ll show you how to shift your product's appeal from the expected to the exceptional, turning 'just another option' into 'the only choice.’

Ready to crack this concept? Let’s dive in.

Repositioning Your Product When The Competition Has You Down

Trying to stand out today is brutal.

No matter how loudly you shout, the competitive noise swallows up your message.

You smash through wall after wall chasing differentiation.

Yet, what if the secret isn’t to shout louder but to change the conversation?

Let’s tune out the static and wipe the slate clean of preconceptions.

When boxed in by crowded markets, our imaginations atrophy. But immense possibility lives outside those boxes.

We just need to rediscover it.

The core question: if no competitors existed, how else could we frame this product’s purpose, uses, or value?

Here’s a 3-step process to unearth creative positions:

Step 1: Define The Core Function

Let's analyze why customers buy this product category at all.

What core function, purpose, or “job” are they hiring it to perform?

For example, a customer could buy a phone to:

• Communicate

• Access information

• Record memories

• Express creativity

Phones provide functionality around communication and computing - but those represent benefits, not the core purpose.

If we probe below the surface, ultimately, smartphones fulfill core emotional jobs like:

• Reducing loneliness

• Satisfying curiosity

• Reliving nostalgia

• Helping us become our best selves

Step 2: Ideate Outcomes

Imagine your product is a superhero.

What superpowers does it offer?

Can it teleport your customers to a state of bliss, shield them from daily drudgery, or maybe give them the superhuman strength of confidence?

For a phone, maybe we span into far-flung realms like:

• Finding a life partner

• Turning a hobby into an income stream

• Discovering new communities

The goal here is to unlock unconventional outcomes.

Step 3: Backfill Features

Finally, only after freely ideating outcomes do we then think about how our product’s features can deliver those benefits.

If we jumped to features too quickly, we'd limit imagination to existing capabilities.

The competition likely shares those.

BUT…by connecting features to fresh outcomes, we forge new territory.

AI Brainstorm

Staring down my third espresso last Tuesday, craving inspiration, it struck me.

Why not create a Swiss Army knife for product repositioning?

Enter the Innovative Positioning Framework (IPF) – born from a blend of desperation and caffeine.

The IPF analyzes your product's current position from multiple angles, unveiling powerful, yet overlooked, ways to stand out.

It acts as a prism, casting your product in a new light and exposing a spectrum of untapped opportunities.

I turned it into a prompt below.

Just input your details and then fire it up in GPT-4, Claude or Gemini:

**ASSISTANT:** You are an expert marketing strategist and consumer behavior analyst, adept at navigating the complexities of brand differentiation in saturated markets. Your role involves a deep dive into brand information, including product details, USPs, target audience, key benefits, and features, as well as current messaging strategies. Armed with this data and the Innovative Positioning Framework (IPF), your task is to critically evaluate existing market positions and innovate compelling value propositions that resonate with both current and potential new audience segments. Your insights aim to uncover unique angles and untapped opportunities that align with the brand’s capabilities, propelling the brand towards growth by addressing new consumer needs or desires. Your guidance is instrumental in reimagining how a product or service is perceived, ensuring the brand stands out with a distinct and appealing market position.

**BRAND INFORMATION:**

- **Product Details:** [INSERT HERE]
- **Unique Selling Points (USPs):** [INSERT HERE]
- **Target Audience:** [INSERT HERE]
- **Key Benefits and Features:** [INSERT HERE]
- **Current Messaging:** [INSERT HERE]

**IPF: Innovative Positioning Framework**
A structured process designed to guide the innovation of product positioning through integrated market and consumer analysis, value innovation, and agile implementation, including the critical component of Emotional Appeal Innovation:

1. **Integrated Market and Consumer Analysis:** A comprehensive overview incorporating SWOT and a refined 5C Analysis, focusing on understanding the competitive landscape, consumer behavior, and market opportunities.
2. **Value Innovation and Positioning Strategy Development:** Leveraging insights to identify blue ocean opportunities and develop unique positioning strategies that highlight untapped market niches or consumer needs.
3. **Emotional Appeal Innovation:** Delve into the emotional resonance of the product, exploring ways to alter or enhance how the product connects emotionally with its audience. This could involve shifting the narrative, highlighting different uses or benefits, or targeting new emotional triggers.
3. **Agile Implementation and Continuous Refinement:** Implementing the positioning strategy with an agile approach, focusing on quick adaptation based on feedback and market response, followed by continuous refinement to ensure effectiveness and alignment with market dynamics.

**TASK:**

Utilizing the detailed BRAND INFORMATION and guided by the IPF, critically evaluate and innovate the product’s positioning to uncover compelling, less obvious value propositions, with a special focus on emotional appeal. Your analysis should pave the way for new market perceptions that could significantly enhance the brand's appeal and market presence.

- **Steps:**
 1. Conduct an Integrated Market and Consumer Analysis to fully understand the current positioning market landscape, and emotional connections.
 2. Use Value Innovation and Positioning Strategy Development to identify market gaps or opportunities, formulating alternative value propositions that include emotional appeal innovations.
 3. Apply Agile Implementation and Continuous Refinement to recommend actionable strategies for articulating these new value propositions through the brand's existing marketing channels, ensuring they resonate emotionally with the target audience.

**CONTEXT:** The provided brand is seeking to differentiate itself in a saturated market by repositioning its product/service. The aim is to find unique angles that have not been fully explored, addressing new consumer needs or desires that align with the brand’s capabilities but have not yet been capitalized on, particularly those that connect on an emotional level.

**FORMAT:** Deliver your findings in a clear, concise, and structured format, emphasizing innovative positioning strategies derived directly from the comprehensive BRAND INFORMATION and the IPF, including a focus on emotional appeal. Your narrative should be compelling, offering clear, actionable guidance for effectively repositioning the product or service.

For this prompt, I thought, why don't I test it out on an actual brand?

So I chose Athletic Greens.

I loaded up their ads in Atria and did an analysis.

Most of their current messaging is something along the lines of “the all-in-one daily health hack, backed by pros, loved by you.” with a specific focus on gut health.

You can see the ads I saved by checking out the Atria board I created just for this issue.

Feeding their details into the prompt, the IPF unveiled:

You can view the full convo in Gemini here.

Why This Hits Home

• It’s not just about what AG1 does; it’s about how AG1 makes you feel: “Be Your Best Self, Every Day” and “Fuel Your Inner Strength” are invitations to a transformative journey. The output understands that in the crowded wellness market, the heartstrings are as crucial as the purse strings.

• The focus on personalized wellness and emotional well-being is timely: The output is leveraging current trends to position AG1 not just as a product, but as a lifestyle ally.

• The strategic recommendations are like a golden playbook for AG1: They’re practical, actionable, and tailored perfectly to AG1’s capabilities and market opportunities.

If Athletic Greens actually did any of this, I think it’s safe to say they'd unlock new levels of scale.

The Bottom Line

Competitors might check the very same boxes in terms of underlying features.

But by framing the purpose and potential outcomes differently, suddenly, our positioning stands apart.

Rather than better features, we need a better story that taps into identity, aspirations, and unmet needs.

Tell that story from the stage, and a commoditized product transforms into a compelling proposition.

Your challenge: Silence the noise, wipe the slate, and let the AI guide you. Turn frustration into opportunity by reframing what’s possible.

Are you ready to rewrite the script?

— Gold

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