Positioning Before Promotion
Find the human motive behind the benefit before choosing audience or creative
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 91%
Shackelford starts campaign development by asking what solution or benefit the product provides and which deeper motive that benefit serves. He gives examples such as appearing more desirable, buying comfort, or choosing a gift that strengthens another person's regard. That motive becomes the product's position. Because people generally do not enter a social feed intending to shop, the position must yield an emotional statement, problem, solution, or transition capable of earning attention. From there, the team derives the likely customer, brand voice, audience, creative, copy, and funnel. The mechanism keeps execution coherent: every campaign element expresses the same reason the product matters instead of beginning with disconnected targeting or ad-format choices.
Origin
Extracted from The Foundr Podcast during Nick Shackelford's explanation of how consumer motives shape positioning before a Facebook campaign is built.
Core principles
- 01Every viable offer provides a solution or benefit
- 02Benefits connect to motives such as desirability, comfort, or generosity
- 03Social feeds require a message strong enough to interrupt passive browsing
- 04Positioning should determine audience, voice, copy, and creative
How to run it
- 1
Name the concrete value
State the solution the product provides or the benefit a customer receives.
Watch out If no meaningful value is present, promotion cannot create it.
- 2
Find the underlying motive
Ask whether the benefit supports status or desirability, comfort and ease, generosity, or another credible human motive.
Pro tip Choose the motive that best explains why this customer would spend money now.
Watch out Do not claim a motive that customer evidence contradicts.
- 3
Define customer and voice
Use the motive to identify the likely buyer and the voice that can speak naturally to that person.
- 4
Create the interruption
Turn the position into a statement, transition, problem, or solution that can earn attention in a passive social feed.
Pro tip Make the interruption relevant to the benefit rather than merely surprising.
- 5
Propagate the position
Align audience selection, creative, copy, and funnel sequence around the same customer motive.
Watch out Starting execution before this alignment can produce attractive but incoherent ads.
In the wild
A team first identifies the functional benefit: the accessory keeps a workspace organised. Customer interviews show that the stronger motive is feeling composed and professional during client calls. The campaign therefore targets professionals with a calm visual style, demonstrates the organised setup, and uses copy about readiness rather than generic storage capacity.
→ Audience, voice, creative, and benefit all express one supported customer motive.
Common mistakes
Starting with ad format
Choosing video, copy, or targeting first can leave the campaign without a coherent reason for the customer to care.
Confusing interruption with relevance
A surprising opening that does not connect to the product's benefit may stop attention without advancing the sale.
Treating motives as facts
A proposed emotional position should be checked against customer evidence rather than asserted as universal psychology.
Is it for you?
Best for
Marketers preparing a campaign for a product with multiple possible emotional or functional angles.
Not ideal for
Products that do not yet provide a clear, defensible customer benefit.
From the transcript
“every product service is going to provide some sort of solution or there's a benefit towards it”
“every ad whether you're in top middle bottom of funnel has to have the intention of stopping the”
“starting there is exactly what's going to start bringing down who my customers who my potential voice is going to be”
From the episode
363: Everything I've Learned Spending $30M on YouTube Ads