The Significance of Market Positioning

I learned firsthand how crucial market positioning can be. At Automated Insights, we created a software engine capable of generating human-like reports from data—a technology that is now known as Natural Language Generation (NLG).

This technology has powered various online content, including Yahoo Fantasy Football recaps and articles for the Associated Press. Initially, we launched as a sports data company, showcasing our technology by creating over 800 individual websites for every professional and collegiate football, basketball, and baseball team in the U.S. Each site featured up to five articles daily, covering game recaps and player highlights.

While this initiative garnered us significant recognition—including praise from Tiki Barber at a New York event—it did not translate to sales. The reason? Professional and college teams already had human reporters covering them. Although our technology was impressive, it was ultimately redundant.

As doubts about our product crept in, we began contemplating changes and possible pivots. However, a surprising development occurred: smaller colleges we wrote for started sharing our articles on social media. We realized these smaller institutions lacked dedicated coverage for their teams, revealing that our product was viable; it was our market positioning that needed adjustment. Our focus should have been on producing content where coverage was absent.

Sometimes You Need to Shoot First, Then Adjust

That said, not all positioning issues stem from market factors. Entrepreneurs can indeed create subpar products, and that’s perfectly acceptable. Product positioning can often be rectified.

However, in many instances—especially when a product has seen some initial market success—issues may exist, yet they are rarely the core reason for poor sales. The primary concern often lies in market positioning.

Consider this: Product development is rarely a swift process. Typically, products evolve directly from an initial idea and vision, with substantial time and energy invested. Once the product is complete, it is often launched into the market almost randomly.

In numerous cases, the initial target market is selected based on the potential Total Addressable Market (TAM), without considering the product's actual fit within that market. This approach can be likened to saying, “I’m going to create an app store to capture part of that $133 billion market,” without acknowledging the established players like Apple and Google.

This extreme example illustrates a vital point: Often, you may be developing an excellent product for a market that is either too broad, poorly defined, or simply incorrect.

Rather than dismantling and reconstructing a functioning product—or even pivoting your entire venture—examine the sales data you do possess. Establish systems to track and assess your existing successes, as well as the reasons for any shortcomings.

I often advise this approach: make a single sale, learn everything you can from that transaction, and then repeat the process. This not only helps identify the necessary adjustments for your market positioning but also pinpoints genuine product issues when they arise.

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