Obviously Awesome
Positioning isn't what you say — it's the context you choose so buyers instantly get it.
- Author
- April Dunford
- Published
- 2019, Ambient Press
- Components
- 5 (alternatives → attributes → value → segment → category)
- Built from
- 16 product launches as operator
Forms & parts of speech
What the book says
Obviously Awesome rebuilds positioning from the buyer's side: products are understood through context, so positioning is choosing the context that makes your strengths obvious. Her five components chain in strict order — competitive alternatives (what customers would really use instead, often a spreadsheet or an intern), unique attributes, the value those attributes enable, the segments who care most, and ONLY THEN the market category you frame yourself in. Most teams start at category and work backward — the book's central correction.
The ideas people quote
'What would they use if you didn't exist?' as the first question; the three category plays — head-to-head, big-fish-small-pond (subsegment), and create-a-new-game (category creation), each with explicit costs; positioning as a team sport done in a room, not a copywriter's deliverable; and her insistence that weak positioning shows up as the same symptom everywhere — good demos, confused prospects, long sales cycles.
How to read it now
It is the operational layer Ries and Trout never wrote — their theory, her checklist. For most companies the book's big-fish-small-pond play is the realistic move (category creation is a funded-company luxury), which makes it the working positioning manual for the other 95%. Sales Pitch (2023) extends it into the sales conversation.
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonyms
Origin & history
Self-published through Ambient Press in May 2019 after Dunford — a 25-year operator across seven startups and IBM — found every positioning book described WHAT positioning is but none said HOW to do it. The 10-step process came from her consulting practice's repeated workshops.
Etymology: source.
Usage trends
Search interest for this term over the last five years:
Common questions
- Who wrote Obviously Awesome?
- April Dunford, the positioning consultant who ran product and marketing at seven B2B startups, published 2019.
- What are the five components?
- Competitive alternatives, unique attributes, value, target segments, and market category — derived in that order.
- What are the three category plays?
- Head-to-head (win an existing category), big fish small pond (own a subsegment), and create a new game (category creation).
Related tools & calculators
- toolCAC calculator
- toolLTV-to-CAC ratio
Resources & people to follow
- bookObviously Awesome — April Dunford (the subject)
- bookSales Pitch — April Dunford
- referenceAprilDunford.com
Curated, non-competitor resources verified per term.
Related training
- moduleB2B SaaS growth
Disciplines
Areas of marketing where obviously awesome is a core concern: