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We often hear promoters share, ‘Demand is down.’, ‘Consumers are cutting back’, ‘Times are tough’, ‘Cant find Product Market Fit’. But if we scratch beneath the surface, we find that most businesses don’t have a demand problem. They have a positioning problem. Because, here is the uncomfortable truth: Demand is not absolute. It is elastic. It is malleable. It is not “out there” waiting to be found, it is created. And Positioning is how you create it.
Demand is Made, Not Found
Every marketer knows that discounting spikes demand, a 'limited-period offer' triggers urgency, a slight nudge in language 'Buy 2, Get 1 Free' instead of “33% Off” can swing sales.
Behavioral science has given us a treasure chest of levers: scarcity, social proof, anchoring, adding proxies to tweak, turn and shift demand upwards. And yet, too many businesses still treat it as something that exists in a vacuumous fixed state.
But, demand is a function of primarily two things - Need & Value, and both can be changed by framing the product differently.
Positioning is the Lens
Positioning is not a tagline. It’s the frame through which the consumer sees your product. Change the frame, and you can trigger a need and shift the value. Change them, and you change the demand.
Take a ₹1,500 soap. At face value, there’s no market for it. ‘Who will pay that much for soap?’ would be an honest question anyone would ask.
But what if we frame it as a bridal soap, to be used on the wedding day. Suddenly, ₹1,500 feels like a small price for a once-in-a-lifetime occasion. The product is the same. The demand is not.
Or think of laundry pods. When positioned as a better format, adoption may remain slow. But what if we frame it as a no brainer for men who do laundry. The ultimate, time-saver for busy professionals and suddenly you’re no longer selling detergent at all.
This is why brands like Liquid Death can sell water at a premium, because they don’t sell water, they sell rebellion, counterculture and maybe even an alternative to plastic bottles.
And, much for the same reason, some of us patiently wait to be invited and earn the right to own a luxury bag. Because we are not buying the product at all, we are buying membership.
“Apple didn’t just sell an MP3 player. It sold 1,000 songs in your pocket. It turned tech specs into a revolution you could carry and made owning music feel personal, portable, and powerful. That was positioning or demand framing at its best”
India has its own examples. Think what Boat did to boring audio devices, it made headphones into a lifestyle accessory and now you needed more than one, because this color suits that hoodie better.
Even, Zomato didn’t just aggregate restaurants. It positioned food delivery as the solution for late-night cravings, ‘no-time-to-cook’ moments, and even lockdown boredom, embedding itself into culture and our lives.
And this idea that demand can be shifted, matters even more for MSMEs and founder-led businesses who may not have the budgets to outspend competition. But they can surely out-frame them.
The best example of this would be say a brand like Moov, who at a point took on Iodex with a simple frame of back pain specialist. Suddenly staking claim to the largest body part as well as something most women suffer from silently almost everyday.
Yes, All Demand Can Be Shifted
Lastly, for those of us who believe their category is the most challenging. Let me assure you that even the ‘hardest’ demand problems are solvable with better positioning.
Think how positioning can help create new usage occasions, for example an MFD repositioning itself as a ‘pre-exam ritual’ or shifting price resistance by positioning an everyday household product such as tea or dry fruits as a ‘wellness or gifting product’. Not to mention, how Coffee at a cafe in India costs more than even abroad, because it positions itself not as a beverage, but as ‘Me time and work space rent.’
The Positioning Test
So, here’s a quick test: If your product isn’t selling, ask,
- Is it irrelevant (are we addressing the wrong need)?
- Is it invisible (are we speaking to the wrong audience)?
- Is it interchangeable (are we offering any unique value)?
Because the truth is: You don’t need to create demand. You just need to create the lens through which demand can see you.
And follow the Two-Line Mantra: "Shift the frame, to shift the game."
