Get your free personalized podcast brief

We scan new podcasts and send you the top 5 insights daily.

As companies grow and add new product lines or target new segments, their once-sharp positioning becomes diluted. This happens because product marketing resources are not scaled to support each new business unit, ICP, and segment, leading to generic, ineffective messaging.

Related Insights

After finding success in webinars, Livestorm expanded into meetings and sales demos. This diversification backfired, diluting their core positioning. Instead of being a clear leader in a niche, they became a "smaller version of Zoom," giving customers no compelling reason to choose them over the established market giant, which complicated their sales conversations.

Many product launches fail because marketers change core messaging too frequently, confusing both customers and their own sales teams. The key is consistency. Instead of constant overhauls, put creative "wrinkles" on the same core message to maintain brand clarity and impact, just as top consumer brands do.

When a brand name becomes a generic verb (e.g., "a Zoom meeting"), it creates immense awareness but can also trap the brand in its initial product category. This makes educating the market about a broader portfolio of offerings a significant challenge, turning the brand's greatest strength into a double-edged sword.

Contrary to the 'diversify revenue' mantra, having too many offers increases complexity in marketing, systems, and support, which erodes profit margins. Focusing on fewer, well-promoted offers almost always outperforms a scattered product suite.

Companies try to communicate too many benefits at once (security, ease of use, efficiency), creating a "mishmash buffet" that prospects can't digest. To provide focus and avoid messaging by committee, companies need a single, clear "flagship message" that guides all communication.

Companies like Hintwater can grow rapidly on the strength of a single beloved product. This creates a "product business," not a "brand business," making it difficult to carry brand equity into new categories without a distinct, overarching brand identity.

A brand's biggest vulnerability is often the internal failure to execute a central strategy consistently across local dealers or franchisees. Brilliant campaigns get diluted or 'bastardized' when adapted by non-creatives at the frontline, wasting resources and creating inconsistent customer experiences.

For companies with multiple products, positioning cannot begin until the go-to-market strategy is set. You must first decide if you have a lead "wedge" product with add-ons (like early Salesforce) or if you're selling an integrated platform. This foundational business decision precedes any messaging work.

Many founders conflate their brand with their first product. A successful company requires a broader brand positioning that can accommodate future products. This prevents the business from getting stuck as a single-product entity and enables long-term growth and category expansion.

Large B2B companies like Slack and Zoom often shift from clear, specific messaging to vague slogans like "One platform to connect." This is rarely a strategic choice but a result of internal stakeholders fighting over messaging as the company adds products and serves more markets.