Positioning
Positioning is the set of decisions about who your product is for, what buyers will compare it with and why it’s the better choice for them.
Area
Brand strategy and identity
What it means in practice
Positioning usually fits on one page. It names:
the target buyer
the alternatives they’d use if you didn’t exist
what you do that those alternatives can’t
the value that follows
the market category that makes the rest easy to grasp
April Dunford’s book Obviously Awesome made this breakdown popular. The idea is older. In 1981, Al Ries and Jack Trout argued that positioning happens in the buyer’s mind, and a company can only influence it.
Customers rarely see the positioning itself. They see what it produces, like the homepage headline, the first slide of the sales deck and the sentence a founder uses on a podcast. When those all point the same way, the positioning is working.
Every position is a trade. Choosing one buyer means putting others second. Teams that try to speak to everyone usually end up with a homepage that could belong to any company in their space.
Why it matters for B2B and AI teams
B2B software and AI products are often hard to place. If a buyer can’t tell which category you’re in, they can’t compare you. So they book a call just to understand the basics, pick a competitor they already understand, or leave.
AI companies feel this most. Many describe themselves with the same handful of words, like agents, copilots and automation, and buyers skim past them. A clear position gives the buyer a reference point and a reason to keep reading.
Positioning also settles internal debates. Once the team agrees on the buyer and the alternative, decisions about headlines, page structure and visual direction get faster and easier to defend. A launch or a move upmarket often breaks the old position, because the buyer and the competition change with it.
How we approach it
Making a product easier to understand starts with positioning. Every project begins by agreeing what needs to change. For many teams, that means settling who the product is for and what it should be compared with, before identity or website design. Positioning is part of a project when it’s commissioned, and Daniel G. Bright leads strategy and creative direction on every project.
For Customer Conversations, we built the positioning around a comparison with customer surveys, then designed the logo, identity and homepage, all in three weeks.
For Corvus Robotics, the positioning, identity and website brought three warehouse automation products under one shared brand.
FAQ
Positioning is the strategic decision about buyer, alternatives and value. Messaging is the language that expresses that decision on your website, in sales material and in the product. Positioning comes first, and messaging follows from it.
Revisit it when the buyer, the competition or the product changes. Common triggers are a move upmarket, a new product line, or sales calls that keep opening with the prospect asking what you actually do.
Design makes a clear position easier to see and remember. If the team hasn’t agreed on who the product is for, a new identity or website will look better and still leave buyers unsure. Settle the position first, then design around it.
Keep exploring
Related terms
Messaging hierarchy
A messaging hierarchy is a ranked structure of what you say about your product, from one main message down to supporting points and the proof behind each.
Value proposition
A value proposition is a short statement of the specific result a buyer gets from your product, and why they should believe you can deliver it.
Category design
Category design is deciding which market category a product belongs to, either by choosing an existing one or by naming and explaining a new one.
Brand strategy
Brand strategy is the plan for how a company wants to be understood and remembered, and the decisions that turn that plan into names, words and visuals.
Tagline
A tagline is a short, memorable line that sits alongside a brand name and captures what the company does, promises or stands for.
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