Brand Positioning
Also known as: Market PositioningValue Proposition DesignBrand Promise
💡The Concept
Brand positioning is the deliberate process of occupying a distinct, highly defensible space in the minds of your target market relative to your competitors. It defines exactly who a product is for, what unique value it provides, and why it is objectively superior to the alternatives.
⚠️The Trap
The deadliest trap is the 'Better' trap—positioning a product as simply a faster, cheaper, or slightly more feature-rich version of the market leader. 'Better' is a weak, easily copied position. You do not want to be 'Better'; you want to be 'Different.'
🎯The Action
Write a positioning statement: 'For [target customer] who [statement of need], [your product] is a [product category] that [key benefit], unlike [primary competitor] who [competitor's core weakness].' If you cannot fill in the blanks without sounding generic, your product lacks positioning.
🌍Real-World Example
In 2001, Apple didn't position the iPod as 'A better digital music player with more storage and a faster interface.' They positioned it as '1,000 songs in your pocket.' They didn't compete on technical specs against Creative and Sony; they created a completely new mental category for consumers.
⚡Pro Tips
Positioning is sacrifice. By deciding exactly who your product is perfectly designed for, you must explicitly accept who it is NOT designed for.
Your positioning dictates your pricing. If you position as a premium, exclusive tool (like Roam Research at $15/mo in a sea of free note apps), you attract high-intent power users and repel casual users.
A feature is not a position until it solves a dramatic, high-pain problem for a specific persona.
🚫Common Myths
✗Myth: “Positioning is the same as your slogan or tagline.”
✓Reality: A tagline is the creative expression of your positioning. 'Just Do It' (tagline) sits on top of Nike's positioning as the brand that brings inspiration and innovation to every athlete.
✗Myth: “Once you lock in your positioning, you shouldn't change it.”
✓Reality: Markets evolve. If your primary competitor launches a feature parity, you must shift your positioning to highlight a new vector of differentiation.
📈Industry Benchmarks
Sales Win Rate against Primary Competitor
B2B SaaS Mid-Market to EnterpriseDominant Position
> 60%
Strong Position
40-60%
Parity (Commodity)
20-40%
Weak Position
10-20%
No Differentiation
< 10%
Source: Gartner
🎮Decision Scenario: The CRM Pivot
Your startup built a powerful, AI-driven CRM that automates data entry. You initially positioned it broadly to 'all small businesses.' Growth has stalled. You're losing deals to HubSpot because they have more marketing features, and to Salesforce because they have more enterprise integrations.
Win Rate vs HubSpot
12%
Win Rate vs Salesforce
5%
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
$3,500 (Unsustainably High)
Decision 1
You dive into your user data and realize the 100 power users who absolutely love your product and never churn are all high-volume Real Estate brokerages. They don't care about marketing automation; they desperately need your specific AI data entry because their agents hate manual typing.
Double down on 'all small businesses.' Lower your pricing by 20% to compete with HubSpot on value, and hire more sales reps to explain the AI benefits.Click to reveal →
Reposition exclusively as 'The Zero-Data-Entry CRM Built Specifically for Real Estate Brokers.' Rebuild your marketing site entirely around broker case studies.Click to reveal →
Scenario Challenge
You launched a project management software with an incredibly fast, minimalist UI. Your competitor, Atlassian (Jira), dominates the enterprise market with complex, feature-heavy boards that take weeks to configure. How do you position your product?
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