Olivia: A world-class violinist, Joshua Bell, stands in a Washington D.C. subway station during morning rush hour. He’s playing one of the most intricate pieces ever written on a Stradivarius violin worth over three million dollars. Over a thousand people walk by. Jackson: Wow. Okay, I'm picturing this. A free concert from a genius. The place must have been packed, right? People stopping, recording on their phones... Olivia: You would think so. But in 45 minutes, only a handful of people stopped for more than a second. His total earnings from the violin case on the floor? Thirty-two dollars and seventeen cents. Jackson: Thirty-two dollars? For a musician who sells out concert halls at hundreds of dollars a ticket? That’s… that’s actually heartbreaking. What went wrong? Olivia: Nothing was wrong with the music. The failure was one of positioning. And that incredible, true story is the opening salvo in a book that completely changed how I see marketing: Obviously Awesome by April Dunford. Jackson: And Dunford is the real deal, right? This isn't some abstract academic theory. Olivia: Exactly. She's a veteran of the tech world, a consultant who has been in the trenches launching over sixteen different products. She wrote this book after seeing brilliant products, just like Joshua Bell's music, go completely unnoticed because they were on the wrong stage. It’s a field guide, not a textbook. Jackson: That makes sense. It’s hugely popular with founders and marketers for being so practical, even if some critics say it’s more of a playbook than a deep theoretical dive. But that practicality is the point. Olivia: It is. Because that subway experiment perfectly illustrates the book's core, and frankly, radical idea: value isn't inherent. It's created by the context you put it in.

Jackson: I love that idea. That value is created, not just presented. What does she mean by 'context' though? It sounds a bit abstract. Olivia: She has a fantastic analogy. She says positioning is like the opening scene of a movie. Within the first two minutes, you know if you're watching a sci-fi epic, a romantic comedy, or a gritty thriller. The director gives you clues—the music, the lighting, the setting. Your product’s positioning does the same job. Jackson: Huh. So it's not the movie poster or the tagline. It's the immediate feeling and set of expectations you create. It’s like you’re trying to secure a specific piece of mental real estate in the customer's mind, placing your product in the right neighborhood. Olivia: Precisely. And if you get that opening scene wrong, the audience is confused for the rest of the movie. That’s what happens with products. Dunford tells this simple but brilliant story about a baker. Imagine you set out to bake the world's greatest chocolate cake. Jackson: Okay, I'm with you. A noble goal. Olivia: By deciding it's a "cake," you've already made a dozen positioning decisions without realizing it. Your competitors are other fancy cakes. Your price point is high. Your customers are people celebrating special occasions. But what if, through experimentation, you end up with something small, single-serving, and easily wrapped? Jackson: That sounds less like a cake and more like... a muffin. Olivia: Exactly! And if you call it a muffin, the entire context shifts. Suddenly, your competitor isn't a fancy bakery, it's Starbucks. Your price point is a few dollars. Your customer is a commuter grabbing a quick breakfast. The product itself is nearly identical, but changing the context from "cake" to "muffin" creates two fundamentally different businesses. Jackson: That is so clear. It’s the same ingredients, but one is a "healthy breakfast alternative" and the other is a "decadent dessert." The context dictates the value. I'm thinking of her other example, the 'diet muffin' that was selling well until a new shop opened across the street selling a very similar product. Olivia: Yes! The competitor called theirs a "gluten-free paleo snack." The market had changed. The 'diet' trend felt old, while 'paleo' and 'gluten-free' were the new, urgent trends. The first baker’s product became irrelevant not because it changed, but because the context around it did. Jackson: Okay, but I have to push back a little. Isn't a great product just... a great product? Doesn't true quality eventually speak for itself? I mean, surely some people in that subway station must have recognized Joshua Bell's genius. Olivia: A few did, but most didn't. Because in the context of a subway, he wasn't a world-renowned virtuoso; he was, as one commuter vaguely recalled, "just a guy trying to make a buck." The context completely overrode the quality of the product. Dunford quotes the performance artist Marina Abramović, who said, "If you’re a baker, making bread, you’re a baker. If you make the best bread in the world, you’re not an artist. But if you bake the bread in the gallery, you’re an artist. So the context makes the difference." Jackson: Wow. Okay. The gallery makes it art. The subway makes it noise. I'm sold. Context is everything. But that brings up a terrifying question. If context is so powerful and so subtle, how on earth do you control it? It feels so vague. How do you actually build it? What are the levers you can pull?

Olivia: That is the perfect question, and it’s where the book moves from the philosophical to the intensely practical. Dunford deconstructs "context" into five interconnected components. These are the levers you can pull. They are: Competitive Alternatives, Unique Attributes, Value, Target Market, and Market Category. Jackson: Okay, let's break those down. Competitive Alternatives—that seems straightforward. It's who you're up against. Olivia: Yes, but with a crucial twist. It’s not who you think your competitors are. It’s what your customer would do or use if your product didn't exist. Their answer might be a direct competitor, or it might be "use a spreadsheet," "hire an intern," or even "do nothing." That answer tells you what problem they're really trying to solve. Jackson: I see. And Unique Attributes? Olivia: That's your secret sauce. The features and capabilities that you have that the alternatives do not. This has to be factual and provable, not just marketing fluff like "we're easy to use." Olivia: Then there's Value, which is the benefit the customer gets because of your unique attributes. A feature is that your hammer is made of titanium. The value is that their arm won't be sore after a day of work. Jackson: Makes sense. Feature, benefit, value. Then Target Market—the people who care most about that specific value. Olivia: Exactly. And finally, the most powerful and misunderstood lever: Market Category. Jackson: Hold on, what's the difference between Market Category and Competitive Alternatives? They sound really similar. Olivia: It's a subtle but critical distinction. Competitive Alternatives are what the customer already has in their head. The Market Category is the box you choose to put yourself in to frame the entire conversation. It's the "cake" versus "muffin" decision. It's the "gallery" versus the "bakery." Choosing your market category is like choosing the stage for your performance. Jackson: Ah, okay. So one is reactive—understanding the customer's current view—and the other is proactive—shaping their future view. Olivia: You've got it. And the best way to see these levers in action is with another of Dunford's stories. She tells of a startup she worked at in the early 2000s. They had built a new kind of database. Jackson: A tough market. You're immediately up against giants like Oracle. Olivia: And that was exactly the problem. In every sales meeting, the first question was, "So, how are you better than Oracle?" And the honest answer was, they weren't. Oracle had a thousand features they didn't. The startup was getting crushed. They were a "cheaper, crappier Oracle." Jackson: That’s a terrible position to be in. So what did they do? Olivia: They were about to give up, but then a customer said something that changed everything. After a demo, the customer said, "You know, this isn't really a database. It's more like a business intelligence tool. It's a data warehouse." Jackson: A data warehouse. A different market category. Olivia: A completely different category! A lightbulb went off for the whole team. They weren't a database for storing information; they were a data warehouse for analyzing it. So they repositioned. Let's look at the five levers. Jackson: Okay, let's do it. Lever one: Competitive Alternatives. Olivia: Before, it was Oracle. A battle they couldn't win. After, their alternatives were other, clunkier data analysis tools. Suddenly, they looked sleek and fast in comparison. Jackson: Lever two: Unique Attributes. Olivia: As a database, their unique attribute was a "fast query algorithm," which sounds technical and boring. But as a data warehouse, that same feature became their superpower. It was the thing that made them better than the alternatives. Jackson: And the Value? Olivia: The value became crystal clear. It wasn't about storing data better; it was about "getting business answers from your data in minutes, not hours." That's a value proposition a CEO can get excited about. Jackson: And the Target Market? Olivia: It shifted from IT guys who manage databases to business analysts who are desperate for faster reports. A whole new audience who cared deeply about their specific value. Jackson: And finally, the Market Category. They chose "Data Warehouse" instead of "Database." And that one choice reframed everything else and made their strengths obvious. That's brilliant. Olivia: It is. And Dunford adds a bonus sixth component, an optional one: Trends. You can layer a relevant trend on top to create urgency. She gives the example of a company called Sampler. They were doing "online product sampling," but they repositioned as "direct-to-consumer sampling" to tie into the massive DTC trend that all their big clients were investing in. It made them seem strategic and essential, not just another vendor.

Jackson: Wow. So it's really a chain reaction. It all starts with understanding who your happiest customers are and what they really see as the alternative to you. That simple question reveals your unique magic. And once you know your magic, you can go looking for the Market Category—the stage—that makes that magic the star of the show. Olivia: Exactly. Positioning isn't about making stuff up or just writing a clever tagline. Dunford's whole philosophy is that it's about finding the truth of your product's value and then deliberately building a stage where that truth can shine its brightest. Most companies just throw their product onto a dimly lit, crowded stage and wonder why no one's applauding. Jackson: I love that. You have to be the stage director. You can't just be an actor and hope the audience figures out what kind of play they're watching. You have to set the scene, control the lighting, and make sure the spotlight hits you at just the right moment. Olivia: That's the perfect way to put it. You are the director of your product's story. And the book is essentially a masterclass in directing. It gives you the tools to stop leaving your success up to chance. Jackson: It’s so empowering. It makes you realize that if your product isn't getting the love it deserves, it might not be the product's fault. It might just be on the wrong stage. Olivia: Precisely. So for everyone listening, a final thought from the book to take with you: what's the default 'stage' your product, your project, or even your own career is on right now? And what would happen if you had the courage to move it to a completely different one? Jackson: A powerful question to end on. Olivia: This is Aibrary, signing off.