En Route to Saenthood:
#21 Positioning Your Product is Hard
This series is about what I’m learning, observing and experiencing while building my startup Saent (pronounce “Saint”). The good, the bad and especially the ugly, each time in under 500 words.
A few weeks ago, my co-founder Russell and me were having lunch with a former Creative Director of one of the biggest advertising agencies on the planet. As an early believer in Saent, he felt the positioning of our product during our crowdfunding campaign didn’t match the Saent message we preach in real life.
“To me, productivity is something scary,” he said. “I know it’s an area I should improve in, but every solution out there seems complicated and not suited for me.” He went on to explain that our Indiegogo campaign page gave him that same impression: another tool focused on the hardcore productivity geeks.
How did that happen?
Originally we had intended to position Saent differently from anything which is currently out there. Here’s an excerpt from an early fake press release I wrote for Saent (based on a practice championed by Amazon):
“Saent is to productivity what Apple used to be to computers. Famously visualised in the ‘I’m a Mac’ commercials, Microsoft catered to the boring corporates, while Apple was the rebel appealing to the hearts of creatives and young professionals. In similar vein, Saent is a new take on productivity, setting itself apart from traditional methods and products with provocative slogans such as ‘Helping sinners Get Sh*t Done since 2014’ and ‘Productivity for rebels, rockstars and other sinners’.”
While this was the original angle we had in mind, we eventually tamed it down and ended up using a lot of common productivity speak during our campaign. This seemed the best approach for reaching our goal; carving out a whole new market is harder than appealing to people who are already interested in productivity solutions.
While this worked in practice (we hit our campaign goal), this made us seem like yet another tool for the efficiency nerds among us.
Birth of a productivity rebel
“You look for the solution to your problem not inside the product, not even inside your own mind. You look for the solution to the problem inside the prospect’s mind.” - Al Ries in “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind”
Defining something entirely new is hard. With no frame of reference in the consumer’s mind, nor a huge marketing budget on our side, you need to find other products or existing terms people can relate to. In our case, that consisted of the term “productivity” and a comparison to another existing product, hence the tagline: “A Fitbit for work.”
While those are suitable to give people an idea of what we’re talking about, we could have been more informal, witty and funny in all our copy and marketing materials, to show Saent truly is different from everything else.
We’re therefore heading back to where we originally started in November of last year: we’re going to take a more daring and rebellious position with Saent. It’s who we are and how we had originally envisioned the product; as a productivity rebel!
Ready to give Saent a try?
Download the free app now to start working smarter, being more focused, and developing better work habits.
Or buy your Saent button (now shipping!) with a 12-month subscription to the Premium Saent app included!
