ChatGPT can book travel, design a website, and do the job of an assistant.
But how does it do when you put it in an MBA-level course, give it access to the materials, and then ask it to design a strategy to position Airbnb effectively to its best-fit customer?
We thought we’d find out.
I’m not reading all that. Tell me what you found!
- As you probably already know, ChatGPT is extremely good at summarizing and synthesizing key information. As the designers of the course, we’re obviously very familiar with the content – and ChatGPT rivaled our ability to summarize it (and did so in about 5 seconds). Takeaway: Use ChatGPT to pull key insights from a text quickly.
- As others have noted, ChatGPT gets better when your prompt is specific. Its course summaries were good, but its list of “surprising insights” from each lesson was even better. Takeaway: Ask ChatGPT to surprise, interest, or delight you – it’s shocking how it can intuit what’s most interesting to its human audience.
- ChatGPT starts to perform less well when you ask it to dig deep into the human psyche. When we asked it to describe a favorite product’s differentiated value, its findings were less original and delightful than our own students’ musings. Takeaway: ChatGPT excels at technically correct answers, less so at “delightfully human” insights.
- When asked to develop a product idea that would communicate Airbnb’s differentiated value, ChatGPT came up with a good idea (scroll down to find out what it was). Takeaway: Use ChatGPT to brainstorm product ideas, even if you don’t go with its initial suggestions.
Alright, enough summaries. Let’s dig in.
Want to take the Positioning Sprint yourself, and see if you can do better than ChatGPT?
Become a member or watch the first lesson for free.
Step 1: Putting ChatGPT in an MBA-level course on positioning
We decided to put ChatGPT in The Positioning Sprint with April Dunford, one of our highest-rated MBA-level courses at Section.
In short, the course covers “defining how your product is the best in the world at delivering something a well-defined set of customers cares a lot about.”
We gave ChatGPT access to all the materials from the course, which includes seven lessons, five case studies, a livestream with the instructor, and a chat space where students can interact. Then we asked it to do a few things:
- Pull the most interesting and surprising insights from each lesson
- Come up with its own examples of differentiated value
- Complete the course project – in this case, outlining the differentiated value of a specific company and designing a product idea to match
Step 2: ChatGPT summarizes the most surprising insights from each lesson
In this section, we’ll share what ChatGPT thought about each lesson. If you don’t want to read its full exploration of the sprint, here are our takeaways:
Our takeaways
- ChatGPT is extremely good at summarizing and synthesizing key information. As the designers of the course, we’re obviously very familiar with the content – and ChatGPT rivaled our ability to summarize it (and did so in about 5 seconds). Takeaway: Use ChatGPT to pull key insights from a text quickly.
- As others have noted, ChatGPT gets better when your prompt is specific. Its summaries were good, but its list of “surprising insights” was even better. Takeaway: Ask ChatGPT to surprise, interest, or delight you – it’s shocking how it can intuit what’s most interesting to its human audience.
Lesson 1: Context matters
Watch the first lesson of The Positioning Sprint by setting up a free account here.
ChatGPT’s summary
Positioning is a crucial marketing concept that can help products stand out in crowded markets by capturing the unique value of a product. A well-positioned product is easy to understand, offers a clear value proposition for customers and stands out from the competition, making it easier to market, sell, and charge more for.
The most interesting insights
- A well-positioned product has three key characteristics: it's easy to understand, it's clear on the value it provides, and it's clear who the product is for.
- Positioning is often misunderstood and confused with other marketing concepts like messaging and branding. Messaging and branding are actually the things you do with positioning once you have it.
- Well-positioned products are easier to market, sell, and charge more for.
- Differentiating a product through deliberate positioning can lead to stronger product awareness, sales, profit, and market share.
Lesson 2: Overcoming misalignment
ChatGPT’s summary
To overcome misalignment and unlock great positioning, it's important to make it a team sport, create a shared language, let go of the past, and gain access to customer knowledge.
The most interesting insights
- Misalignment within the organization is the root cause of poorly positioned products, and creating a shared language around positioning is critical to achieving success.
- No single team can be responsible for positioning, as it requires buy-in and input from all major groups in the organization, including marketing, sales, product, and customer success, as well as the CEO or executive in charge.
Lesson 3: Your uniqueness
ChatGPT’s summary
It’s important to understand competitive alternatives when positioning a product. You should start by identifying good-fit customers, then ask those customers who else they considered before buying the product. Then, categorize competitors based on how they solve the problem, and list your unique attributes by comparing them to competitors on the list.
The most interesting insights
- Competitive alternatives are a broader field than people realize, and often you can even find competitors within your own office.
- One of the biggest competitors you always need to face is indecisiveness, which often leads to no decision.
- To discover all relevant competitive alternatives, it's important to separate good-fit from bad-fit customers and focus on the opinions of the former.
- Netflix’s biggest competitor is sleep, while manual tracking keeps analytics software companies awake at night, and interns are the bogeyman for products like Airtable.
- In B2B, most commonly businesses are competing against Excel, which is free, easy to use, and invested in by many companies.
- It is not necessary to worry about future competitors that customers don't know about yet, but only the ones that currently land on the shortlist.
- Unique attributes do not need to be differentiating against every competitor on the list, but only against one of the competitive alternatives or the competitive alternative groupings.
Lesson 4: Differentiated value
ChatGPT’s summary
The hardest step of product positioning is mapping differentiated capabilities to value that resonates with customers. Differentiated value connects a product’s unique features to a goal the customers are trying to achieve, which can take many forms depending on emotional, social, or business needs. The process of finding differentiated value involves a 4-step discovery process, starting with identifying the big-deal feature and then translating it into value by asking "So what?" and digging deeper to uncover why it matters to the customer's business.
The most interesting insights:
- Differentiated value is the holy grail of product positioning: it is the unique value that a product delivers that other products can't, and it connects a product’s unique features and capabilities to a goal the customers are trying to achieve.
- Value is the hardest step in the process of product positioning as it requires translating unique features to value that resonates with the customer.
- Value can take many forms. For consumer goods it's often anchored in emotional and social needs, while in B2B, businesses need to extend their thinking to their client’s business goals.
- For most products, there's one or two big-deal, differentiated features, and it's important to focus on them to think about the value they offer.
- To discover the value of a feature, you can use a technique similar to the 5 Whys by asking "so what?" repeatedly until you've identified something that is obviously valuable to customers and their business, but still feels differentiated.
- Value for customers is usually helping them make money or save money; if it's not one of those things, then it's not really value.
Lesson 5: Best-fit customers
ChatGPT’s summary
The key to finding the right customers is not just relying on traditional demographic or firmographic variables, but rather identifying the characteristics of best-fit customers based on their specific needs and values that align with your product's differentiated value.
This can be done by using trigger questions to identify measurable characteristics, going back to existing customers, and being mindful that the previous segmentation may no longer work. Once the observable characteristics of best-fit customers are identified, the next step is to size the target market by estimating the number of companies or customers that meet those characteristics.
The most interesting insights:
- Demographics and firmographics don't go far enough to narrow down specific types of customers that are a good fit.
- Two customers with similar demographics or firmographics may have completely different needs.
- A good segmentation is based on shared specific characteristics that make customers care a lot about the value offered.
- The first step is to identify the characteristics of best-fit customers, such as growth stage, geographies, business environments, and conferences attended.
- One way to list characteristics is to go back to existing customers, but be careful because the previous segmentation may no longer work.
- The clearer the differentiated value, the easier it is to identify observable characteristics of customers who care about this value.
Lesson 6: Market category
ChatGPT’s summary
Choosing the right market category is crucial for positioning your product. The right market category sets off a chain of assumptions about your product. The article suggests three positioning styles for product positioning, which include big fish, small pond; the fastest gun; and the category design. It is essential to add a qualifier to your market category to describe the slice of the market that you are targeting.
The most interesting insights:
- Choosing the right market category is crucial for a product's success.
- Positioning a product in the wrong market category can lead to confusion and hinder adoption.
- Positioning a product in the right market category sets off a chain of assumptions about the product.
- Adding a qualifier to a market category can help target a specific sub-segment of the market.
- Choosing a sub-segment of an existing market category can be a successful strategy for startups.
- Positioning a product to win a sub-segment of an existing market category involves finding an unmet need in that segment.
- Changing a product's market category can change customer assumptions about the product and affect pricing.
Lesson 7: Sales story
ChatGPT’s summary
Positioning for marketing campaigns is not enough; it has to be translated into a sales story that helps customers understand their choices and make the best possible decision. A good sales narrative involves two phases, starting with framing the problem and defining the problem in a way that points at the product's differentiated value, and continues with a discussion of different approaches to solving the problem, the perfect solution, and mapping the ideal purchase criteria.
The most interesting insights:
- A good sales narrative helps customers understand all their different choices and maps the market, so they can feel good about making the best possible choice for their situation.
- A good sales pitch starts by framing the problem, defining it in a way that points at the product's differentiated value, and discussing different approaches to solving it.
- Defining what a perfect solution would be in the third step helps define customers' purchase criteria and should map to the product's differentiated value.
Step 3: Asking ChatGPT to apply what it’s learned
At Section, students who take our sprints are placed in a tight-knit cohort of other professionals, where they discuss, debate, and tease out the concepts they’ve learned.
We asked ChatGPT to answer some of the questions posed to the student community, including, “What’s a product you love, and what’s its differentiated value?”
Our takeaways
- ChatGPT’s initial answer was perfectly serviceable – it picked Apple as an example product and provided a few options for differentiated value. But a few things were missing.
- One, it picked the most obvious company to focus on, whereas human students usually provide more original examples. Two, it didn’t go far enough in connecting “features” to “value” – while the description was technically correct, it didn’t quite convey why users are willing to shell out thousands for the new iPhone instead of a cheaper model.
- We then prompted ChatGPT to choose a lesser-known product, and it chose Wagyu beef. The same issue came up: While ChatGPT recognized the differences in features, it didn’t go the extra step in communicating the emotional value to customers.
ChatGPT’s reflections
Q: Pick a product you love, and then explain its differentiated value.
Chat GPT’s answer #1: Apple
One of the key differentiated values of the iPhone is its ecosystem. Apple has created an entire ecosystem around the iPhone that includes the App Store, iTunes, iCloud, and other services that are tightly integrated with the device. This ecosystem provides users with a seamless and convenient experience that is difficult to replicate by other competitors.
For example, the App Store has over 2 million apps, which are curated and screened for quality and security by Apple. This makes it easy for users to find and download apps that are safe and reliable. Additionally, the iCloud service allows users to backup their data and easily transfer it between devices. This level of integration and convenience has made the iPhone a popular choice for many consumers who are looking for a complete and cohesive experience.
Another aspect of the iPhone's differentiated value is its design and user interface. Apple has always been known for its attention to detail when it comes to product design, and the iPhone is no exception. The device has a sleek and minimalist design that is instantly recognizable and has become a status symbol for many. The user interface is also intuitive and easy to use, with features like Siri and Face ID that add a layer of convenience and sophistication.
Chat GPT’s answer #2: Wagyu
Wagyu beef is a type of beef that is highly regarded for its flavor, tenderness, and marbling. What sets Wagyu beef apart from other types of beef is the strict breeding and feeding practices that are used to produce it. Wagyu cattle are raised in a specific way, including being fed a special diet that includes beer, and being massaged to help improve their muscle quality.
The differentiated value of Wagyu beef lies in the unique and specialized methods used to produce it. Because of these practices, Wagyu beef is considered a luxury item and commands a higher price point than other types of beef. The unique flavor and texture of the meat also appeal to a niche market of discerning consumers who are willing to pay a premium for a higher quality product.
In this way, Wagyu beef differentiates itself from other types of beef and creates value for consumers who are looking for a unique and high-quality culinary experience.
Step 4: Assigning ChatGPT to build a positioning strategy
At the end of every sprint, students are challenged to pick a company and apply their learnings to that company.
In many cases, students pick the company they work for, so that their recommendations will be immediately actionable at work.
In this case, obviously ChatGPT doesn’t have a workplace, so we let it pick any company that came to mind. Let’s see what it does.
Our prompt: Choose a company you’d like to complete a positioning project on
ChatGPT: Let’s choose Airbnb for the positioning project.
Defining good-fit customers
Our prompt: Who do you think are the “best-fit customers” for Airbnb? Which customers intuitively understand Airbnb’s value?
ChatGPT: Airbnb's best-fit customers are travelers who value unique, local experiences and are looking for accommodations beyond traditional hotels. These customers are often budget-conscious and seek out cost-effective lodging options, especially for longer stays. Additionally, Airbnb's customers are often technologically-savvy and comfortable with using digital platforms to book travel accommodations.
Customers who intuitively understand Airbnb's value are those who are looking for more personalized and authentic travel experiences. They are interested in immersing themselves in the local culture and often prefer to stay in residential neighborhoods rather than tourist hotspots. They are also willing to forego some of the amenities that come with traditional hotels in exchange for a more unique and authentic travel experience.
Defining competitive alternatives
Our prompt: What would Airbnb’s best-fit customers use if Airbnb did not exist?
ChatGPT: If Airbnb did not exist, the best-fit customers would likely use traditional hotels, motels, or bed and breakfasts. They may also consider renting apartments or homes through other rental platforms such as VRBO or HomeAway.
Defining unique attributes
Our prompt: What features and capabilities does Airbnb offer that at least one of its competitive alternatives does not?
ChatGPT: One of the features that Airbnb offers that its competitors do not is the ability to book unique and unconventional accommodations such as treehouses, houseboats, and castles. While other platforms may offer traditional hotel rooms or vacation rentals, Airbnb specializes in offering a diverse range of lodging options that are not typically found on other booking sites.
Another feature that sets Airbnb apart from its competitors is its community-driven review system. Guests can rate their experiences and leave reviews of their stays, which are then visible to future guests. This helps to build trust between hosts and guests and ensures that the quality of listings remains high. Other booking platforms may have review systems, but Airbnb's community-driven approach encourages more honest and detailed feedback.
Airbnb also offers Experiences, which are unique activities and tours hosted by local experts. These experiences allow travelers to connect with the local culture and community in a way that is not possible through traditional tours or activities. This feature sets Airbnb apart from other booking platforms that solely focus on lodging.
Our prompt: Pick one of the features you listed above to go deeper on.
ChatGPT: Sure, let's take a deeper look at the feature of "Experiences" offered by Airbnb.
Our prompt: Why is getting to connect with the local culture valuable to customers?
ChatGPT: First, it provides a more authentic and immersive travel experience. Instead of just visiting tourist destinations and staying in generic hotels, Airbnb allows travelers to stay in unique and local accommodations and get recommendations for local restaurants, shops, and experiences from their hosts. This can give travelers a more genuine sense of the local culture and lifestyle.
The ability to connect with the local culture is also simply more interesting and enjoyable. Learning about new cultures and experiencing new things is often a primary motivation for travel, and Airbnb provides a way to do this in a more authentic and personalized way.
Our prompt: Okay, so the value of Airbnb Experiences is that people have a more genuine, authentic, and enjoyable vacation experience.
What other Airbnb attributes provide the same value of a genuine and authentic vacation experience?
ChatGPT:
- Unique Accommodations: Airbnb offers a wide range of unique and authentic accommodations that are not available in traditional hotels, such as treehouses, yurts, and tiny houses. These accommodations provide guests with a more immersive and authentic experience, allowing them to connect with the local culture and environment.
- Local Neighborhoods: Unlike hotels that are often located in touristy areas, Airbnb properties are usually located in local neighborhoods, allowing guests to experience the local culture, food, and lifestyle. This gives guests a more authentic and genuine experience of the destination they are visiting.
- Hosts: Airbnb hosts are often locals who know the area well and can provide guests with insider tips on where to go, what to see, and where to eat. Hosts can also share their personal stories and experiences, giving guests a deeper understanding of the local culture and way of life.
Our prompt: How could you validate Airbnb’s differentiated value of “being more genuine and authentic” with internal and external tests?
ChatGPT:
Internal tests:
1. Surveys: Conduct surveys with existing customers to gather feedback on their experience and how it aligns with the company's brand promise of being more genuine and authentic. The survey can be sent out after a guest has stayed in an Airbnb property, and can include questions that assess how well the experience matched their expectations.
2. Employee Feedback: Ask employees for their feedback on how well they believe the company's brand promise of being more genuine and authentic is being delivered. Employees who work closely with customers can provide insights into how well the company is meeting customer needs.
External tests:
1. Social Media Listening: Airbnb can monitor social media channels to see what customers are saying about their experience with the company. This can provide insights into how customers perceive the company's brand promise of being more genuine and authentic.
2. Customer Reviews: Airbnb can gather and analyze customer reviews on its platform to understand how well it is delivering on its promise of being more genuine and authentic. Reviews can be categorized by keywords related to authenticity and genuineness to provide more focused insights.
Our prompt: Can you come up with a new product idea that Airbnb could develop that would further establish the company as "genuine and authentic"?
ChatGPT: One product idea that Airbnb could develop to further establish the company as "genuine and authentic" is a platform for cultural exchange. This platform would allow travelers to connect with local hosts who are interested in sharing their culture with others. The hosts could offer experiences such as cooking classes, language lessons, music and dance performances, and guided tours of their communities. Travelers would not only learn about the local culture but also get to interact with the locals, ask questions and share their own experiences.
The platform could include features such as a rating system to ensure that the hosts are offering quality experiences, a messaging system to allow communication between hosts and travelers, and a payment system to ensure that hosts are compensated fairly for their time and effort. This would not only benefit travelers but also provide an opportunity for locals to earn income and share their culture with others. Overall, this product idea would align with Airbnb's core value of providing genuine and authentic travel experiences.
Our prompt: Please provide text for 4 slides outlining your idea for a cultural exchange, starting with a title slide, establishing the problem, outlining our differentiated value, and proposing your new product solution.
Note: Slides were (quickly) developed by the Section team, with all content coming from ChatGPT.
Our conclusions
- As you probably already know, ChatGPT is extremely good at summarizing and synthesizing key information. As the designers of the course, we’re obviously very familiar with the content – and ChatGPT rivaled our ability to summarize it (and did so in about 5 seconds). Takeaway: Use ChatGPT to pull key insights from a text quickly.
- As others have noted, ChatGPT gets better when your prompt is specific. Its course summaries were good, but its list of “surprising insights” from each lesson was even better. Takeaway: Ask ChatGPT to surprise, interest, or delight you – it’s shocking how it can intuit what’s most interesting to its human audience.
- ChatGPT starts to perform less well when you ask it to dig deep into the human psyche. When we asked it to describe a favorite product’s differentiated value, its findings were less original and delightful than our own students’ musings. Takeaway: ChatGPT excels at technically correct answers, less so at “delightfully human” insights.
- When asked to develop a product idea that would communicate Airbnb’s differentiated value, ChatGPT came up with a good idea (scroll down to find out what it was). Takeaway: Use ChatGPT to brainstorm product ideas, even if you don’t go with its initial suggestions.
Want to take the Positioning Sprint yourself, and see if you can do better than an AI bot?
