---
title: "Positioning research for a new smart home security device | antedote"
description: "Positioning research for a new smart home security device: online groups with app users and prospective buyers, comparing messaging territories."
url: "https://antedote.com/explore-our-work/positioning-a-new-smart-home-device/"
author: "antedote"
---

# Choosing how to talk about a new smart home security device

One story had to win over two audiences at once. A smart home company needed a positioning for a new device that would work for people already using its app and for buyers new to the brand, so we tested the options with both.

**Client**
Smart home company

**Industry**
Smart home

**Kind of work**
Concept and product testing

**Our role**
Positioning research with app users and prospective buyers

## What happened next

The product later launched.

## The question

A new smart home security device was close to market, and the brand wanted to know which positioning would make it compelling to the people most likely to buy it.

The story had to work for people who already lived with the brand’s app and for people meeting the brand for the first time. The work started from a set of messaging territories, each a different way of describing the same product.

## Our approach

We met both audiences in online groups, with homeowners who were seriously considering a product like this.

Each group began with why people were looking at products like this, and how one would fit into their home. Every territory was then heard against people’s own situations.

The territories rotated, so no story had the advantage of always going first. Alternative versions put the person using the product at the center of the story, so the brand could see which way of telling it people understood and wanted, and why.

## What the team came away with

Product and marketing leaders had evidence from both audiences on how each territory was understood, in people’s own words.

With it came a positioning recommendation, covering the story to lead with and the features to support it.

Who we heard from

Homeowners seriously considering a product of this kind, some already using the brand’s app and some new to the brand, in online groups

## Related work

[View concept and product testing case studies](https://antedote.com/explore-our-work/?work=Concept%20and%20product%20testing#library)

- Sports eyewear and wearable technology

    ### [Getting athlete evidence into Oakley and Intel’s development sprints](https://antedote.com/explore-our-work/what-a-wearable-coach-had-to-get-right/)

    Oakley and Intel launched Radar Pace.

- Consumer technology

    ### [Four accessories in development, each with its own question](https://antedote.com/explore-our-work/four-accessories-in-development/)

    Three of the four accessories later launched, and the company launched a product drawn from the fourth.

**What we do**
[Concept testing and portfolio prioritization](https://antedote.com/what-we-do/concept-testing/)

## Developing new products or concepts?

We’d be happy to help you assess and improve them.

[Talk to us](https://antedote.com/talk-to-us/) · [hello@antedote.com](mailto:hello@antedote.com)

A partner or director will reply.