Positioning: Biggest Weakness

What is the product's biggest weakness?

This question is the third of several questions I've enumerated that a product manager should answer to most effectively position a product.

Every product with any chance of success in the marketplace has weaknesses. Your product can't be all things to everyone. Your challenge is to ensure that the weaknesses correlate with strengths that resonate with your target market. You can then market your product so that customers translate perceptions of weakness into those corresponding strengths.

One of the classic examples is Listerine. Perhaps Listerine's biggest weakness is its taste. But its taste instills confidence that it effectively kills germs.

You can identify your product's weaknesses by considering both the perceptions of the product and the business and operational challenges it presents for your company.

More on the relationship between strengths and weaknesses in the next entry in this positioning series.

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