Glossary

Positioning

Defining how you want a particular audience to understand your offer compared with the alternatives.

Why it matters

Customers compare your offer with other ways to solve a problem, including doing it themselves or doing nothing. Positioning helps you make a clear choice about whom the offer is for, which need it addresses and why it deserves consideration.

That choice should guide more than a headline. The service you deliver, the evidence you provide and the way you explain the offer should support the same intended place in the customer’s mind.

A simple example

Illustrative example, not client research

A bookkeeping service could explore an offer for independent shop owners who want help keeping their records current without doing the work every weekend.

Define the comparison

The alternatives might include doing the books with software, asking a family member or hiring a broader accounting service.

Find out which options shop owners actually consider and what they find difficult about each one.

Support the intended position

The service could focus on regular hands-on bookkeeping and plain-language monthly updates rather than presenting itself as a solution for every financial task.

Check that customers value that focus and that the business can consistently deliver it before making the promise.

This is a possible positioning direction, not evidence that the audience prefers it or that any real provider offers it. Customer research should test the relevance of the distinction and the credibility of the promise.

Positioning is not a tagline

A tagline is one way to express an idea. Positioning is the underlying choice about the audience, relevant alternatives and intended difference. A memorable line cannot make an unsupported difference credible.

Your intended positioning may also differ from how people currently see you. Listen to the language customers use and investigate gaps between your message and their experience.

Before settling on a position

Which audience and buying situation are you choosing to serve?
What alternatives does that audience compare you with, including doing nothing?
What meaningful difference can you demonstrate through the offer and its delivery?

Value proposition: A clear statement of the value an offer provides to a particular customer and why they would choose it.
Market segmentation: Dividing a market into groups with shared needs or characteristics, so you can decide whom to serve and how.
Customer research: Gathering and analyzing information about customers to understand their needs, behavior and experiences.