The positioning and messaging playbook: Winning hearts, minds, and wallets

This article is based on Elena Madrigal’s brilliant talk at the Positioning, Messaging, and Storytelling Summit. As a PMA member, you can enjoy the complete recording here. For more exclusive content, head over to your membership dashboard. 

Crafting a message that resonates with your audience is key to standing out – but how do you do it effectively? 

This article breaks down proven strategies for powerful positioning and messaging, featuring real-world examples that highlight:

• How to identify and leverage your product’s unique benefits
• Ways to niche down and tailor your message to specific audiences
• The power of outcome-focused positioning to create lasting impact
• Tips for building a message that truly connects with your ideal customer profile

Ready to develop messaging that wins hearts, minds, and wallets? Let’s dive in!

The evolution of "the festival phone": A case study in strategic positioning

We’ll start with a classic David versus Goliath story. A few years ago, while working at Nokia, I was tasked with launching a basic phone model – the Nokia 206 – in a world completely captivated by smartphones, notably the iPhone 5. 

There I was, armed with this simple little phone, feeling very, very small in the face of Apple’s massive presence. It felt like my odds of making this product a success were slim.

Picture me holding this fun but modest device, which, let’s be honest, couldn’t compete with the iPhone 5 in terms of flashy features. The iPhone was sleek and feature-rich, while the Nokia 206 was, well, colorful – a detail that seemed minor compared to everything the iPhone had. 

So, instead of trying to beat the iPhone at its own game, I decided to take a different tack, focusing on three distinct advantages the Nokia 206 had: 

• A battery that lasted a whole month on a single charge (can you imagine such a thing?!) 
• Nokia’s famously durable build (think “Nokia brick”)
• A remarkably low price of around $20. 

The next step was to figure out what kinds of customers would care about these advantages. And then it came to me – festival-goers!

They loved the bright colors, and since they were often camping out for days with limited access to charging outlets, the long-lasting battery was a big win. Plus, they wanted to stay connected without the fear of losing a pricey smartphone in the mud – or, even worse, in a porta-potty (we’ve all been there, right?). 

So, I positioned the Nokia 206 as the festival phone. Suddenly, this modest little phone, with its unique positioning, became a top seller, successfully competing with the industry giant, Apple. 

But I couldn’t stop there – festival-goers were only a small part of the market, and festivals only happened during the summer. The positioning needed to evolve to capture more audiences. 

So, I turned to other niches that could benefit from this phone. There were adventurers who wanted a reliable phone to stay connected, cautious folks who needed a backup phone for emergencies (remember, smartphone batteries didn’t last long back then), and even parents looking for a durable, affordable device for kids, who weren’t quite ready for an expensive smartphone. 

Each of these groups valued the differentiators that our tiny but tough Nokia offered.

As this positioning evolved, the phone became known as the "smartphone companion" – a handy little backup option for those times when you couldn’t carry your smartphone with you.  

This approach not only avoided direct competition with Apple but also opened up an excellent cross-sell opportunity for retailers. The Nokia 206 became a favorite, securing prime retail space alongside top-selling smartphones.

The keys to the Nokia 206’s success

Two major factors made the Nokia 206’s positioning highly effective: 

• It tapped into loss aversion: Studies show that people are more motivated by the fear of losing $20 than by the chance of winning $20. Similarly, the Nokia 206 was a low-risk, practical option, perfect for scenarios where you didn’t want to risk losing a pricey smartphone. 
• It used the power of niching down: We honed in on niche audiences and tailored our messaging for each one.

And that’s how David avoided being flattened by Goliath.

The battle for the meditation throne: Headspace vs. Calm

If you’re anything like me, you probably love a good use case, so let’s dive into another fascinating example – the battle for the meditation throne, aka Headspace vs. Calm. 

For years, it’s hardly been a battle; Calm has been the most downloaded meditation app since 2018, consistently outpacing Headspace in both subscribers and revenue. 

But here’s the twist: Headspace was supposed to be the frontrunner. They were first to market with an incredible origin story – the founder studied as a Buddhist monk, bringing a unique, emotionally engaging story to the brand. Headspace had all the early momentum. 

So, what happened? How did Calm gain the upper hand?

The answer lies in Calm’s clever combination of repositioning, product, and pricing.

Calm's repositioning strategy

Initially, both Headspace and Calm positioned themselves as meditation apps. Then Calm made a pivotal shift – they moved from focusing on the input (meditation) to focusing on the outcomes: sleep more, stress less, and live better. 

While Headspace stayed focused on meditation, Calm recognized that meditation was just one part of the broader wellness journey.