What is brand positioning
Also known as: positioning, market positioning
Brand positioning is the place a brand wants to hold in customers' minds relative to the alternatives: what it wants to be remembered for, for whom and why it is different. The concept was popularized by advertising executives Al Ries and Jack Trout, who published the book Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind in 1981. Good positioning guides price, product, communication and channels.
For [audience] who [need], [brand] is the [category] that [main benefit], because [proof].
This is a positioning statement template for internal use. It is not a slogan: it helps the team make consistent decisions about product, price and message.
Two accounting firms in the same city. The first presents itself as full service accounting for businesses of all sizes, the same line used by dozens of competitors.
The second picked a side: accounting for clinics and medical practices. It knows the industry's rules, speaks the client's language, shows up when someone searches for an accountant for clinics and gets referred from doctor to doctor. It serves fewer clients, but charges more and loses fewer of them.
Where the idea came from
Jack Trout wrote about positioning in 1969, in Industrial Marketing, and returned to it with Al Ries in 1972, in Advertising Age. The core idea: consumers are bombarded with messages and discard whatever does not find an empty slot in their minds. In 1981, the two published the book that made the term famous.
Marketing scholars point out that the idea did not start with them. According to historian Stephen A. Fox, Ries and Trout resurrected the concept and made it their trademark.
Ways to position a brand
| Example promise | |
|---|---|
| By attribute | The fastest, the most durable, the simplest to use |
| By audience | Specialist in one segment, such as clinics or carriers |
| By price and value | Premium with full service, or affordable with no frills |
| By use occasion | For breakfast, for travel, for emergencies |
| By new category | Creating a category and being its first name |
Signs of weak positioning
- The website looks like a competitor's with a different logo.
- The stated difference is quality and good service, which everyone claims.
- The company wants to sell to everyone.
- Price is the only sales argument.
- Each team member describes the company differently.
Positioning in day to day marketing
Positioning does not live in the strategy deck. It decides which keywords are worth ranking for, the landing page headline, the ad audience and even the price. A company positioned for a segment knows how to answer when someone asks why choose it, and that answer shows up the same way in every channel.
Positioning also means giving things up. Choosing an audience and a promise means leaving others out, and that is exactly what makes a brand easy to remember.
Frequently asked questions
What is brand positioning?
The place a brand wants to hold in customers' minds relative to the alternatives: what it wants to be remembered for, for whom and why it is different.
Who created the positioning concept?
It was popularized by Al Ries and Jack Trout, through articles in 1969 and 1972 and the 1981 book Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind. Scholars note that the idea predates them.
How do I write a positioning statement?
A common template: for [audience] who [need], [brand] is the [category] that [main benefit], because [proof]. It is an internal document, not a slogan.
What is the difference between positioning and value proposition?
Positioning defines the brand's place relative to competitors. The value proposition explains what customers gain from a specific offer. One guides the other.
Can positioning change?
It can, but slowly, because it depends on what the audience already thinks of the brand. Changing positioning every campaign confuses people and cancels out earlier effort.
Related terms
- BrandingBranding is managing everything that shapes how people perceive a brand: name, visual identity, tone of...
- Value propositionA value proposition is the clear promise of what customers gain by choosing an offer: which problem it...
- Buyer personaA buyer persona is a description of a company's typical customer, with a name, context, goals, questions and...
- ICPAn ICP, short for ideal customer profile, is the kind of company, or customer, that gets the most out of what...
Rodrigo Fávaro
Founder of ROO3, a marketing and technology agency in São José do Rio Preto, Brazil. Builds AI products running in production (Tobia, gerar.app, Pense Mercado) and maintains the AI Benchmark, a public ranking of AI models.
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