What positioning is
Who is this for, and who isn’t it for? What do we do that the alternatives don’t? What should people believe about us, and what’s the evidence? Settle those, and the site structure, the campaign idea and the product’s first feature start to follow. Leave them vague, and every project reopens the same arguments.
A good position is specific enough to be slightly uncomfortable. “Trusted, customer-focused, committed to quality” describes everyone. The useful version names a particular audience, a particular difference, and something the organization is willing to give up to keep it.
When it’s needed
Positioning usually comes up at a turning point:
- The organization has outgrown how it presents itself.
- New markets, segments or buyers are arriving, and the old story doesn’t speak to them.
- A new site or product is coming, and nobody has agreed what it should say.
That last one is the best time to do it, because the build gives the decisions somewhere to land.
From interviews to a choice
We start with what the organization does, for whom, and how well: interviews with leadership, staff and, where we can, customers or members, plus a read of how it describes itself and of the alternatives people really weigh.
Then we draft two or three distinct positions, each with what it commits the organization to, what it rules out and what evidence would support it. The choice between them is where the useful conversation happens.
Tested in real work
A position that only lives in a document tends to fade, so we test it in the thing being built. When it’s hard to apply, sometimes the wording needs work and sometimes the position is wrong. Better to find that out drafting a homepage than after launch.
That’s why we don’t sell positioning as a standalone project. It’s the first part of building something, and it’s strongest when the same team carries it through.
Respecting what already works
Organizations that come to us often don’t need reinventing. Where a brand has real equity, such as recognition, trust or a name people know, we protect it, and the work is sharpening: removing what’s accidental and building the evidence that makes the claim believable.
Positioning and AI
When someone asks an AI assistant about you, it repeats what you’ve published. Saying the same true things the same way everywhere is how it gets you right. The finished strategy can also live in Strategy Navigator, our strategy advisor grounded in a client’s own strategy, so your team can question it.
What you receive
- Two or three positioning options, with the trade-offs of each
- A positioning statement and messaging hierarchy, with versions for the audiences that matter most
- The position applied to the site, product or campaign being built