Positioning and assumptions
One of the reasons I’m so fascinated with positioning and how we can use it to help create the right set of assumptions about our products is that I’ve been on the receiving end of incorrect assumptions in my personal life. The usual word for this is ‘stereotypes.’
If you’re one of those people who immediately reacts to that statement by thinking, “This conversation is not relevant to me, because I do not have any stereotypes and no one every makes assumptions about me based on stereotypes,” I assure you you are wrong. We all make assumptions based on stereotypes and we are all judged based on stereotypes. I think we tend to notice it a lot more when the assumptions about us are wrong. When they are generally spot-on, we don’t even notice. Side note: That is the goal when we create assumptions about our product… for the assumptions to be accurate and largely invisible, so the prospect / customer doesn’t even realize that they are being made and your product just seems like the perfect fit.
It’s also not true that you have no stereotypes and make no assumptions about people. Stereotypes and assumptions are bad when they are based on things like race, gender or even age that we can’t control, but they are not necessarily bad when applied to other factors. You assume that the person at Home Depot with an apron and a name tag is an employee, not a shopper. When a new acquiantance says she is a neurosurgeon, you assume she is financially secure. This applies to places: You assume that if you are going to Central America, it will be hot (in case this sounds abundantly obvious to readers, let me assure you that there are some places in Central America that are at high elevations and pretty chilly). If you call something a continuous integration tool, it will have testing functionality.
People can get uncomfortable talking about assumptions, because we all know that they can be wrong when applied to people. I certainly know they can be wrong. But using things we know about a person, place or product to make assumptions about it is how human beings make sense of the world. We can’t start entirely from scratch every time we encounter something new, whether it is a person or a product. Instead, we pick up on cues based on what the product is called and what it looks like and build a mental picture about that person, place or product based on the assumptions the name or other obvious, visible characteristics create.
When this happens to you in your personal life, it is jarring when the assumptions are wrong. Incidentally, when customers, prospects or press make incorrect assumptions about your company or product, it is also jarring — but when the assumptions are correct you most likely don’t notice them.
Positioning is about leveraging the way humans make sense of the world with assumptions in a way that advantages your product. The fact that people make assumptions is just that — a fact. It can be used to advance our goal or to torpedo them.
If you feel like the assumptions people make about your product are working against you, reach out. Maybe I can help.