How to reposition a product as a product marketer

Have you ever been told to reposition a product by next Friday, without a clear brief, no research, no roadmap alignment, and barely anyone in the company even aware it’s happening?

If so, you’re not alone.

This happens all the time. Repositioning in product marketing gets mistaken for a simple messaging tweak when it’s really a strategic, cross-functional shift. And when that’s not understood, you wind up with missed timelines, misaligned teams, and a whole lot of unnecessary stress.

I’ve seen firsthand how PMMs and their teams are thrown into these situations without support, clarity, or time.

So I’m writing this guide to help you do repositioning differently – and the right way. You’ll learn:

• What is repositioning, and when should you do it

• Common mistakes in repositioning

• A step-by-step playbook to reposition

• A real-world example: how I repositioned a product for the U.S. market, and helped grow its ARR by 240% in one year

Today’s newsletter is a long one, but stick with me, because it's a hugely important strategic skill for PMMs to develop.

Let’s walk through how to do it right.

What is repositioning, and when should you do it?

Repositioning is when a company wants to change how it’s perceived in the market, usually because its current position is limiting growth, no longer relevant, or misaligned with strategic goals.

It’s about answering the deeper question:

What space do we want to own?

You can think of it as moving where you are on a magic quadrant if you are a B2B product. This isn’t just a cosmetic change; you have to earn this move.

So, when should a company actually reposition? Some common reasons are:

• You’re moving upmarket - For instance, you started with SMBs or self-serve customers, and now you want to win larger enterprise deals.

• You’re entering a new market - Maybe you’re expanding from Europe into the U.S., or launching in APAC. Different regions can have different competitive dynamics, buyer expectations, and category definitions.

• Your ICP has changed - Maybe your original customer base isn’t converting like they used to, or your best-fit customers now look very different.

• You’ve gone through a major pivot, launch, or acquisition - A big change in your product offering or company structure often creates a mismatch between how you’re perceived and what you actually offer.

Just as importantly, here’s when NOT to reposition:

• Your company missed its quarterly numbers and wants a quick fix.

• Leadership is bored and wants a “refresh”.

• You’re chasing a new segment without fully understanding your existing one.

Repositioning ≠ Rebranding

One thing I want to emphasize is the difference between repositioning and rebranding. I have heard people use “repositioning” and “rebranding” interchangeably, but they’re not the same.

• Repositioning is the strategic shift: who you’re for, what problem you solve, and where you play in the market.

• Rebranding is the expression of your identity: logo, visuals, voice, and brand guidelines.

They can go together, especially if the rebrand helps reinforce the repositioning. But they’re not interchangeable. A rebrand without true repositioning is just a cosmetic update. And a repositioning without any visual or verbal changes might not stick with the market. While in most cases you do them together, it doesn't always have to be the case. Check out the scenarios below.

So next time your boss says, “Let’s reposition,” ask:

Are we repositioning, rebranding, or both? And what are we actually trying to change?

Common reasons why repositioning in product marketing fails

Before we dive into what we should do, let’s address some common pitfalls. Here are the top reasons I’ve seen repositioning efforts fall apart:

1. You didn’t do sufficient research and validation

Positioning should be built on INSIGHT - customer discovery, market analysis, and competitive mapping. But too often, teams skip this step or rush through it because leadership wants fast results or has established yet untested assumptions.

I've heard it over and over from PMMs:

“We didn’t spend enough time on validating the new target segment, and moved ahead with incomplete data, which means we didn’t realize some critical insights that would have made us position very differently.”

If you don’t understand how the market sees you today and what your customers want, you’re just guessing. And that certainly won’t yield the results you’re looking for.

2. You forgot about your core customer

One of the biggest risks in repositioning is chasing a new audience or segment and abandoning the customers that actually built your business. Companies are generally resource-constrained, and if you are chasing a new segment, you have to divert GTM resources to this new area… which means under-investing in the core.

3. You didn’t get internal alignment

The product team is on one page, sales is on another, and marketing is off writing new copy. Meanwhile, no one agrees on the “why” behind the change, or what success even looks like.

And worst of all, the product roadmap isn’t aligned with the new narrative. If the product itself doesn’t back up the story you’re telling, the market will smell the disconnect. That’s how you end up with fluffy decks and marketing jargon that don’t convert. This is a classic issue of operating in silos when doing a repositioning project.

4. You put a junior PMM in charge with no support

Repositioning is a high-stakes, cross-functional effort. It requires exec alignment, clear decision-making, and real strategic judgment.

But way too often, I see junior PMMs or solo ICs thrown into the deep end with no guidance, no air cover, and no power to influence product or sales. And when things don’t go well, they get blamed for it.

If that’s you, it’s not your fault. But you do need to raise the flag early. This kind of project is bigger than one person, and you deserve support to make it successful.

5. You confused repositioning with rebranding

I made this point above, but it’s worth restating because it happens so frequently. Someone says, “Let’s reposition,” and what follows is a visual refresh, new logo, new website, maybe a catchy new tagline. That’s rebranding.

To read an in-depth story on a failed repositioning, ​check out this article​ on SurveyMonkey's attempt gone wrong.

The 5-step framework for repositioning your product

A successful reposition must be treated as a full GTM exercise. Below is a five-step process designed to help you succeed.

Step 1: Identify business objectives

Every successful repositioning starts with clarity on what you're trying to achieve. For each objective, establish clear success metrics. For example, if you're entering a new market, what market share do you expect to capture in 6 months? 12 months? Work with your manager and leadership on this to drive buy-in and alignment.

Pro tip: Create a one-page brief documenting the business case for repositioning, including current state assessment, target vision, expected impact, timeline, and resource requirements.

Step 2: Understand your best-fit customers

This step is all about customer research. Before you can effectively reposition, you need data-driven insights about who your customers really are and what they actually care about.

Key research methods to employ include win/loss analysis, customer interviews, surveys, and market sizing analysis.

Once you have this research, you can accurately:

• Segment your target market based on validated criteria rather than assumptions

• Define detailed buyer personas with real insights into their priorities

• Map the buying committee with clarity on who influences decisions

• Identify their jobs-to-be-done with confidence

Remember: Repositioning often means deprioritizing certain audiences to better serve others. Your research should give you the confidence to make these tough choices based on evidence, not intuition.

Step 3: Determine competitive alternatives

This step answers the fundamental question: "Who are we positioning against?"

When you reposition, your competitive dynamics often change. The competitors you thought you were up against might not be your actual alternatives in customers’ minds. This is why determining competitive alternatives is a critical standalone step.

It’s important to choose the ONE competitor that most customers compare you against. This becomes your primary reference point for differentiation, instead of positioning yourself across so many competitors or competitive categories.

The output of this step should be a clear understanding of who you're positioning against, which informs how you'll articulate your differentiation in the next step.

Step 4: Identify unique differentiators and create positioning and messaging

This is where all the insights from steps 1-3 come together in a focused workshop setting.

Rather than multiple fragmented sessions, I recommend a single, comprehensive (2-3 hour) workshop with key stakeholders from product, sales, marketing, and leadership. In this workshop, you'll:

1. Review research insights - Share key findings from customer research and competitive analysis

2. Complete the positioning framework - Work through these core elements:

   • Who is our target customer? (From Step 2)

   • What category do we play in?

   • Who is our primary competitive alternative? (From Step 3)

   • What are our unique capabilities?

   • What value do those capabilities deliver?

   • What's our evidence?

3. Craft the core narrative - Develop a simple, compelling story that communicates your positioning

The real output isn't the workshop itself; it's the formalized positioning brief that follows. This document becomes your single source of truth and should include:

• Positioning statement (1-2 sentences)

• Target audience definition

• Category definition

• Unique differentiators (3-5 points)

• Messaging pillars with supporting proof points

This brief shouldn't just live in a PMM's documents folder. It should be socialized, referenced in planning, and used to evaluate future marketing initiatives. Everything that follows in your go-to-market should align with this brief.

When I work with clients, I find that it’s not just the workshop discussions but also the formalized brief that makes positioning stick. It creates the foundation for all your messaging and becomes the reference point for the internal and external rollout in Step 5.

Step 5: Implement promotional and enablement plan

Execution is where most repositioning efforts succeed or fail. Going in depth on a promotional plan is outside the scope of this newsletter, but here is the overview:

Internal rollout:

• Schedule dedicated briefings with each department

• Create enablement resources (battlecards, talk tracks, FAQs)

• Update sales presentations and establish feedback channels

External rollout:

• Prioritize assets for updates (website, sales materials)

• Create a content refresh plan and customer announcement strategy

• Update digital presence and plan launch activities

Case study highlight:

How repositioning drove 240% ARR growth: JUUNOO’s US expansion story

To bring this to life, I wanted to share with you a real case study of a company I advised. When JUUNOO, a European sustainable construction startup, struggled to gain traction in the US, the then Head of Product Marketing, ​Matt Benson​, brought me in to lead a repositioning effort.

Their existing messaging focused on sustainability, but that wasn’t what US buyers cared most about.

Using my 5-step framework, Matt and I uncovered what did matter: speed, minimal disruption, and ROI. Together, we

• Clarified business goals: Break into the US commercial real estate market and build a reliable pipeline.

• Interviewed target buyers: Speed of installation, not sustainability, was the key decision driver.

• Analyzed competitors: JUUNOO wasn’t competing with other green startups, it was up against traditional construction.

• Facilitated a positioning workshop: We reframed JUUNOO as “cost-effective construction for adaptable workspaces” instead of “Europe’s most sustainable wall system.”

• Revamped go-to-market: We focused on the most important marketing and sales assets given limited resourcing. This meant prioritizing paid ads (TOFU), a strong customer case study (MOFU), and sales talk track (BOFU) to shift focus on speed and ROI.

These were the results we were able to generate within 1 year:

• 240% YoY ARR growth in the US

• 40%+ lower customer acquisition costs

• 140M+ media impressions (Forbes)

• Major increase in qualified leads

👉 Same product. New story. Wildly different results.

"Repositioning the same product completely changed our growth trajectory in the U.S. The work Matt’s team led was the single most important driver of our sales acceleration."

— Jon Agostino, Head of Sales, JUUNOO

What’s next

I hope this newsletter gave you tangible steps to approach your next positioning or repositioning project with more clarity and confidence.

Whether you’re navigating a complex project or looking to level up your strategic leadership, I offer ​private 1:1 coaching to help you tackle PMM and leadership challenges with clarity and confidence.

If you need more hands-on support, I also offer embedded fractional consulting and advisory services to drive execution and momentum.

Curious which is best? Just hit reply, and I would be happy to chat.

Here’s to your success,

Yi Lin

P.S. Additional ways I can help:

• Land your dream job — through ​1:1 coaching​ or the ​PMM Job Search System​

• ​Ramp faster​ — if you’re starting a new role, I’ll help you onboard with confidence