5.1 Product Strategy: Turning Vision into Reality

Explain how sharpening a competitive angle enhances product strategy and customer value.
Describe how branding transforms products into meaningful customer experiences and fosters loyalty.
Break down major pricing strategies and understand how price shapes both profit and perception.
Evaluate distribution channel choices and explain how they align with brand positioning and customer access.
Design an integrated marketing mix that includes product, pricing, distribution, promotion, and social media, and explain how it connects to measurable business outcomes (such as sales, market share, and ROI).

You’ve chosen where to play and how to win. Now it’s time to turn that strategy into something real. is the game plan that takes your ideas from paper to the market. It connects your vision and positioning to the product decisions that customers will see, touch, and experience.

Product strategy boils down to three big questions:

What do we want to achieve with this product? (Goals)
How will we achieve it? (Plans and tactics)
Why will this product succeed? (Competitive strengths)

Revisiting the Competitive Angle

Back in Chapter 4, you identified a competitive angle—a unique, actionable idea that would help you win customers and outmaneuver competitors. Your competitive angle wasn’t just a marketing idea, it was a product strategy starting point. Your product design should now bring that angle to life.

For example:

If your competitive angle is “the first fitness tracker designed for rock climbers,” your product strategy must include durability, altitude tracking, and climbing-specific features.
If your angle is “the most stylish fitness wearable for fashion-forward users,” your product design choices—from materials to colors to app interface—must reflect that.

Sharpening the Competitive Angle

Your original competitive angle was a starting point. Now it’s time to sharpen it.

Sharpening a competitive angle involves the following:

Improving the product design to make it more unique or different
Creating a stronger personal connection through product messaging and promotions
Adding features or benefits that matter to customers, but competitors don’t offer

Table 5.1

Five Questions to Sharpen Your Competitive Angle

Question	What to Consider
Need to Believe	Which significant pain point does the product address that is personally relevant to the target audience?
Reason to Believe	How effectively does the product demonstrate its ability to solve that problem and capture the imagination of the target audience?
Dominate Situations	Which usage or buying situations does the product dominate in a way that delivers superior value?
Quantifiable Support	Which relevant facts, figures, or proof points back up your product’s claims?
Unique Product Claim	How is the product distinctly different, better at solving problems, and more memorable than competitors?

These aren’t simple yes/no questions. Honest answers require reflection and direct feedback from customers. That’s why WOW! Groups and Hierarchal Value Maps are so useful.

Here’s Why It Counts

The decisions you make now will shape not only the product itself but also effect the following:

Branding decisions (Section 5.2)
The creative brief (later in Chapter 5, Promotion)
The messaging and promotions that will convince customers to buy

Product strategy and competitive angle should evolve together. They both work to deliver on the customer benefits and values you uncovered in your laddering interviews and HVM.

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