Positioning

Marketer Anna joined a new project — a startup delivering farm-fresh products. The team had invested effort into a beautiful website, packaging, and advertising. But sales barely grew. In client meetings, the same question kept coming up: "How are you different from dozens of other delivery services?"

Anna realized: the problem wasn't the product or the creative. The company simply hadn't claimed its place in the customer's mind. Competitors had clear associations: some were associated with low prices, others with premium service, still others with ultra-fast delivery. Her startup was neither fish nor fowl.

Then she focused on brand positioning. After research and testing, the team chose a strategy: "delivery of products from verified farmers within 24 hours — freshness like at the market." This idea was built into advertising, design, and communication. Six months later, the startup reached break-even, and a year later, it confidently established itself in the niche.

This story shows: positioning is the foundation of marketing. Without it, even a strong product risks going unnoticed.

What is Positioning

In Simple Terms

Positioning is the process of forming a brand image in the target audience's mind. Simply put, it's the answer to the question: "How should customers perceive us and how do we differ from competitors?"

Positioning in Marketing

In classical marketing theory (Philip Kotler, Jack Trout, Al Ries), positioning is occupying a unique place in the consumer's mind. It's not always important what the product actually is. What matters is what label a person will stick to it in their head.

Brand and Product Positioning

Brand positioning — forming the overall company image in the market. Product positioning — creating a separate image for a specific product or service.

Why Positioning is Needed

Creating Uniqueness

Positioning allows a brand to stand out against competitors. In oversaturated markets where many products and services are similar, uniqueness helps companies attract attention and retain customers. Uniqueness can manifest in different forms: product characteristics, tone of voice, visual identity, or brand story.

For example, Tesla initially positioned itself not as "another car manufacturer," but as a symbol of the future, environmental friendliness, and technological breakthrough. This approach created a special aura around the brand and ensured sustained interest.

Today, technologies also help form uniqueness. Neural networks can generate unusual visual solutions, personalized slogans, or signature patterns, making identity both unique and scalable.

Simplifying Choice for Customers

Modern buyers face information and offer overload. Positioning removes cognitive burden: it provides a quick answer to the question "is this brand right for me or not." If the message is clearly formulated, it's easier for the customer to make a decision, and the path to purchase is shortened.

A good example is IKEA. The brand clearly positions itself as an affordable and functional solution for home furnishing. The buyer immediately understands what they'll find in the store and doesn't waste time on long deliberations.

For online business, neural networks allow strengthening this effect: analyzing user behavior, offering relevant products, and helping quickly match customer expectations with the brand's value proposition.

Increasing Brand Value

When positioning is clearly built, the brand begins to be perceived not only as a set of products, but as a carrier of certain values. This increases consumers' willingness to pay more, even if similar goods can be bought cheaper.

Apple is a classic example: the buyer realizes they're paying not only for a smartphone or laptop, but also for status, innovation, design, and convenience.

In the digitization era, brand value is also enhanced through personalization. Neural networks help create content and products that "reflect" the customer's personality. As a result, they perceive the brand as closer and more meaningful, rather than faceless.

Long-term Development

Positioning is not only about current sales, but also about strategic future. A clear position allows the brand to develop consistently, expand product lines, enter new markets while maintaining recognizability.

Coca-Cola has adhered to the idea of "joy and unity" for over a hundred years. Despite changing campaigns and communication formats, positioning remains the brand's core, ensuring stability and longevity.

In modern business, longevity is also supported by flexible technologies. Neural networks can analyze trends and help adjust positioning so it remains relevant for new generations of consumers. This turns positioning into a living tool that evolves with the market.

Main Positioning Strategies

By Price

Price positioning requires subtle understanding of consumer psychology. Walmart doesn't just offer low prices — the company built a philosophy of "savings for every family." Their slogan "Save money. Live better" says that low price isn't a compromise with quality of life, but a way to improve it.

At the opposite pole, Rolex is long since not just watches — it's an investment, family heirloom, symbol of achievements. Buyers are willing to overpay by multiples for the emotional and status component.

By Quality

Volvo created one of the most sustainable examples of quality positioning. Since the 1940s, the company has associated the brand with safety, and today this association is so strong that many people know for sure that Volvos are the safest, even without remembering what their cars look like.

By Innovation

Apple masterfully wields positioning through innovation. Steve Jobs understood that innovations are important not in themselves, but as a way to improve people's lives. The iPhone was presented not as a "smartphone with a touchscreen," but as a device that would put the internet in everyone's pocket.

By Speed and Convenience

Amazon was first to understand that in the digital age, speed became the new currency. The company invested billions in logistics not to save costs, but to create an insurmountable competitive advantage in convenience.

By Emotional Associations

Coca-Cola created an amazing phenomenon: a simple carbonated drink became a symbol of the American dream, youth, friendship, celebration. The company invested decades in creating emotional connections, and the result is a brand that people choose not for taste, but for feelings.

Types of Positioning

USP (Unique Selling Proposition)

Basic direction that answers the question: "What do we have that others don't?"

The USP concept was formulated in the 1940s by Rosser Reeves, but it remains relevant today. The essence is simple: every brand should offer consumers something unique that they can't get from competitors.

A classic example is M&M's with the slogan "Melts in your mouth, not in your hands." This was a specific, verifiable statement that solved a real consumer problem. In an era when chocolate easily melted and stained hands, M&M's offered a technical solution wrapped in a memorable formulation.

FedEx built its business around the USP "When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight." The company didn't just offer fast delivery — it guaranteed results in critically important situations.

It's important to understand: USP should be not only unique, but also meaningful to the consumer. You can create the most unusual product in the world, but if it doesn't solve any problems, the USP will remain a marketing exercise.

In the modern world, creating a truly unique offer is becoming increasingly difficult. Most product categories are oversaturated, technologies are quickly copied, entry barriers are lowering. Therefore, many companies focus not on product uniqueness, but on uniqueness of brand interaction experience.

Repositioning

When a brand changes strategy due to market changes or errors in old positioning. Example: Old Spice relaunched itself from an "archaic brand for grandfathers" to a "trendy and ironic men's brand."

Repositioning is one of the riskiest, but sometimes vitally necessary strategies in marketing. It's an attempt to change established brand perception, which requires enormous resources and can lead to both triumph and failure.

Old Spice was associated with old-fashionedness for decades. By the 2000s, the brand had practically lost its young audience, perceived as a grandmother's birthday gift. Then the company decided on radical repositioning.

The new strategy was built on irony and self-criticism. Instead of convincing that Old Spice was modern, the brand began joking about its own history. Ad campaigns with Terry Crews and "Old Spice Guy" went viral, the brand began speaking the language of internet memes and youth culture.

The result exceeded all expectations: sales grew several times, the brand became fashionable among millennials, and advertising videos gathered millions of views. Old Spice proved that even the most "dead" brand can resurrect with the right approach.

Another bright example is Apple in the late 1990s. The company was on the verge of bankruptcy, perceived as a manufacturer of expensive computers for graphic designers. Steve Jobs' return launched a process of cardinal repositioning: from a niche computer manufacturer to a creator of revolutionary consumer devices.

The danger of repositioning is that you can lose existing customers without acquiring new ones. Therefore, such changes require deep market research, clear understanding of risks, and significant investments in communication.

Competitive Positioning

Focus on how the company is better or more advantageous than direct competitors.

Competitive positioning is built on direct comparison with other brands. This is a risky strategy that can lead to both rapid growth and prolonged marketing wars.

A classic example is the Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi confrontation, which has lasted several decades. Pepsi long positioned itself as the "choice of the new generation," contrasting its youth and modernity with "conservative" Coca-Cola. This strategy helped the brand occupy strong market positions, though it didn't allow it to become the undisputed leader.

Mac vs PC is another famous example of competitive positioning. Apple created a series of commercials where the personified Mac appeared as creative and modern, while PC was boring and problematic. This campaign not only increased Mac sales but changed perception of the entire personal computer category.

Burger King has been using competitive positioning against McDonald's for many years. The slogan "Have it your way" emphasizes customization possibilities in contrast to the main competitor's standardized approach. Campaigns like "Whopper Detour" directly mock McDonald's, drawing attention to the alternative.

It's important to understand the risks of this approach. First, competitive positioning can strengthen the market leader's position by constantly reminding consumers about them. Second, it provokes retaliatory actions that can escalate into destructive price wars or mutual accusations harming the entire category.

Niche Positioning

Orientation toward a narrow market segment. Example: cosmetics for sensitive skin.

Niche positioning is a strategy of "better to be first in a small pond than second in an ocean." Instead of fighting giants for the mass market, the company chooses a narrow segment and becomes the undisputed expert in it.

La Roche-Posay built a multi-billion business on "dermocosmetics" positioning. The brand doesn't try to compete with L'Oréal or Nivea in the mass segment. Instead, the company focuses on people with problematic and sensitive skin, creating products recommended by dermatologists. This narrow specialization allowed the brand to become a leader in its niche and set premium prices.

Patagonia chose an even narrower segment — outdoor enthusiasts who value not only quality but also environmental responsibility. The brand doesn't try to dress everyone, but creates clothing for people who spend time in nature and care about its preservation. Such positioning ensured incredible customer loyalty and allowed the company to occupy a unique position in the sportswear market.

Rolls-Royce in the automotive industry long ago abandoned the mass market, focusing on the ultra-premium segment. The company produces only a few thousand cars per year, but each is a work of art with a corresponding price. This strategy allows the brand to maintain exclusivity and maximum profitability.

The advantage of niche positioning is that it's easier to become a leader in a narrow segment. But there are limitations: business growth may hit the niche size limit, and dependence on one segment creates risks when it shrinks.

Values-Based Positioning

Focus on the company's mission and philosophy. Patagonia declares: "We do everything for the planet's preservation."

Values-based positioning is becoming increasingly important, especially among young consumers. People want to buy not just goods, but support companies that share their worldview.

Patagonia is a bright example of how a brand can build business around environmental values. The company doesn't just declare care for nature — it embodies this in concrete actions: donates profits to conservation projects, creates clothing from recycled materials, calls on buyers to consume less. Paradoxically, this approach only strengthens people's desire to buy Patagonia products.

Ben & Jerry's turned ice cream into a political statement. The brand openly supports progressive ideas: equal rights, climate protection, social justice. This brings the company both enthusiastic fans and critics, but ensures a clear position in consumers' minds.

TOMS Shoes built a business model around social responsibility: for every pair of shoes sold, the company donated a pair to children in need. This "One for One" concept resonated with consumers who wanted to do good through purchases.

Important nuance: values-based positioning requires sincerity. Consumers, especially young ones, easily recognize falseness and harshly punish brands for hypocrisy. If a company claims environmental friendliness but pollutes the environment, scandal is inevitable.

How to Develop a Positioning Strategy

Market Analysis

First, you need to understand what's happening in the industry, which players have already occupied places in customers' minds.

Market analysis is the foundation of any positioning strategy. Without understanding the competitive environment, it's impossible to find free niches or determine where existing players can be displaced.

Start by creating a perception map. Imagine a two-dimensional coordinate system where key category characteristics are placed on the axes: price and quality, innovation and reliability, exclusivity and accessibility. Place all significant competitors on this map — you'll see which positions are occupied and where there are empty spaces.

Tesla, entering the automotive market, saw that the premium segment was occupied by Mercedes and BMW, the budget segment by Toyota and Hyundai, but no one occupied the "eco-premium" position. This niche seemed too narrow for traditional automakers but proved ideal for a startup with revolutionary technology.

It's important to analyze not only direct competitors but also substitute goods. Netflix competed not only with other video rental services but also with cinemas, television, video games — with everything that took people's leisure time.

Modern analytics tools allow studying brand perception much deeper. Social networks, reviews, search queries provide huge data arrays about how people actually perceive different companies.

Target Audience Study

Determine what's important to people: price, speed, quality, values, or emotions.

Audience study is not just demographic characteristics and questionnaires. You need to understand deep motives, fears, people's desires. What makes them choose one brand instead of another? What problems are they trying to solve? What emotions do they want to experience?

Modern research shows that people make decisions emotionally, then rationalize them. Therefore, it's important to study not only what respondents say, but how they behave. Neuromarketing, digital behavior analysis, ethnographic research give a more accurate picture of real preferences.

Airbnb conducted deep research of travelers and discovered an interesting insight: people were tired of impersonal hotels, they wanted to feel like locals, not tourists. This insight became the basis for "Belong anywhere" positioning.

It's important to segment the audience not only by demographics but also by psychographics — values, interests, lifestyle. A 35-year-old person with high income can be both a conservative valuing traditions and an innovator striving for experiments. These two types will require completely different positioning.

Neural networks today help analyze behavioral patterns and identify hidden audience segments. Machine learning can find non-obvious connections between preferences and consumer characteristics, opening new positioning opportunities.

Competitor Analysis

Create a positioning map and see where there are free niches.

Competitor analysis is not just studying their products and prices. You need to understand how they position themselves in communications, what emotions they evoke, what problems they solve for customers.

Create detailed portraits of key competitors: their positioning, target audience, key messages, communication channels, strengths and weaknesses. Pay special attention to how consumers perceive them — this often differs from how companies want to look.

Spotify, entering the music services market, carefully analyzed iTunes positions (music ownership), Pandora (radio stations), and YouTube (free access). The company found a free niche: legal access to a huge music library with the ability to create personal playlists.

It's important to study not only direct but also indirect competitors. Starbucks competed not only with coffee shops but also with bars, fast food restaurants, home kitchens — with all places where people could spend time and drink something tasty.

A useful tool is SWOT analysis of competitors. Understanding their weaknesses can become the basis for your own positioning. If the market leader slowly implements innovations, you can position yourself as a technology leader.

Key Message Formulation

Make one simple and memorable statement. For example: "Nike — for those ready for action."

The key message is the quintessence of positioning expressed in one sentence. It should be simple, understandable, memorable, and distinguishing you from competitors.

A good positioning message answers three questions: for whom (target audience), what (product or service), why (unique benefit). Nike: for athletes and active people, we make equipment that helps overcome possibility boundaries.

FedEx: "When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight" is a perfect example. The message clearly defines the usage situation (critically important delivery), promise (will definitely deliver), and time frame (overnight).

Test different wording variants on the target audience. What seems clear to marketers may be incomprehensible to ordinary people. The message should instantly "click" in the consumer's head.

Avoid general words and clichés. "Quality," "reliability," "innovation" — these words are used by everyone. Look for more specific and emotional formulations. Instead of "high quality," it's better to say "works even where others break."

Implementation in All Communications

Positioning should manifest in advertising, packaging, service, and even in employee speech.

Positioning is not an advertising slogan that lives only in communications. It's a strategy that should permeate all brand interactions with customers.

Apple implemented "Think different" positioning in everything: minimalist product design, innovative packaging, unique store architecture, special presentation style, even in personnel selection. Every brand touchpoint confirms the main message.

Southwest Airlines positions itself as "an airline with a sense of humor." This manifests not only in advertising but also in pilot announcements, flight attendant behavior, aircraft design, corporate culture. Passengers know: a Southwest flight will be not just cheap, but fun.

It's important to train all employees, especially those who communicate with customers. They should understand positioning and be able to transmit it. A store consultant, call center operator, courier — each forms brand perception.

Check all brand elements' compliance with chosen positioning. If you position as a premium brand, a cheap website and careless attention to details will destroy the entire image. If you claim environmental friendliness, packaging should be appropriate.

Positioning Mistakes

Vague Formulations

If a brand is "for everyone and about everything," it won't be remembered by anyone.

The most common mistake is trying to please everyone at once. Marketers are afraid to narrow the audience and create positioning so general that it doesn't hook anyone specifically.

"We offer quality products at reasonable prices for the whole family" — such positioning says nothing specific. What does "quality" mean? How "reasonable" are the prices? Which exact family is meant?

Compare with IKEA positioning: "Affordable home solutions that work for many people, not for a select few." Here there's specificity: affordability (not premium), functionality (they work), democracy (for many).

Vague positioning is not a compromise, but a refusal of positioning altogether. In an oversaturated information field, general phrases simply aren't noticed. The human brain filters non-specific information as noise.

Vagueness is especially dangerous in the B2B segment, where decisions are made more rationally. If a potential client can't understand in 30 seconds how you differ from competitors, they'll switch to the next option.

Blindly Copying Competitors

Copying someone else's strategy is pointless: the place in the customer's head is already taken.

When Tesla succeeded with electric cars, dozens of traditional automakers began copying its approach. But simple repetition of "environmental friendliness" and "innovation" didn't work — in consumers' minds, this niche was already occupied.

Successful positioning is always about finding a free place in the customer's head. If someone already occupied the "fastest," "cheapest," or "most innovative" position, repeating these characteristics only strengthens the leader.

Pepsi has spent decades trying to displace Coca-Cola using similar messages about taste and youth. The result is a stable second place, but never leadership. It would be much more effective to find a fundamentally different position.

The right approach is to study what competitors do and find an opposite or complementary strategy. If everyone in the category talks about speed, you can bet on thoroughness. If everyone emphasizes technology, you can choose humanity.

It's especially important to avoid copying in visual solutions. If all banks use blue, red will stand out more. If all startups choose minimalist design, brightness and decoration will attract attention.

Promise-Reality Mismatch

If positioning promises premium service but the customer encounters chaos, reputation crumbles.

Positioning is a promise, and customers expect its fulfillment at every interaction stage. The gap between promise and reality not only disappoints but creates negative brand attitude.

United Airlines long positioned itself as "Fly the friendly skies." But a series of scandals with rude passenger treatment completely destroyed this image. Now any mention of United's "friendliness" causes irony.

Wells Fargo positioned itself as "the most ethical bank," but the fake accounts scandal showed the complete opposite. Reputation recovery took years and required enormous investments.

Correspondence is especially critical in the digital age, when negative experience instantly becomes known to thousands of people through social networks. One bad review can cross out months of positioning work.

Before claiming anything, make sure the entire organization is ready to ensure it. If you position as a customer-oriented company, invest in staff training, CRM systems, feedback processes.

Ignoring Market Changes

Positioning needs to be regularly checked and updated.

Markets change, new technologies appear, customer needs evolve, new generations of consumers arrive. Positioning that was effective yesterday may become irrelevant today.

BlackBerry was long synonymous with mobile business communication. "Business tool" positioning worked perfectly until the market changed. iPhone and Android appeared, smartphones became consumer devices, not just corporate tools. BlackBerry couldn't adapt and lost the market.

Kodak positioned itself as a photography leader but couldn't rebuild from film to digital photography. The company continued investing in old positioning, ignoring changes in consumer behavior.

Successful brands regularly review their positioning, adapting it to new realities while preserving the recognizable core. Microsoft evolved from "PC software" to "cloud and productivity solutions." Apple went from "computers for creatives" to "ecosystem of innovative devices."

It's important to track not only direct changes in your category but also cultural, social, technological trends. Social media emergence changed many brands' positioning, the pandemic forced priority reconsideration, environmental problems made sustainability an important choice factor.

Examples of Successful Positioning

Apple

"Think different" — the brand is associated with innovation, design, and lifestyle.

Apple created one of the most powerful positionings in business history. "Think different" is not just an advertising slogan, but a philosophy that turned a technology company into a cultural phenomenon.

The genius of Apple's positioning is that it appeals not to functional needs, but to people's identity. Buying an iPhone or MacBook, a person acquires not just a device, but a way to declare their values: creativity, innovation, striving for perfection.

Steve Jobs understood: people want to belong to a community of like-minded people. Apple created a tribe of "think different people" — those who don't settle for standard solutions, who strive to change the world. This emotional connection proved stronger than any technical specifications.

Importantly, Apple consistently embodied positioning in everything: revolutionary product design, innovative presentations, unique store architecture, special packaging, even advertising was non-standard. Every detail confirmed the main message.

The result — unprecedented customer loyalty, willingness to pay premium prices, queues for new products. Apple proved: correct positioning can turn a product into an object of desire.

Starbucks

Not just coffee, but a "third place" between home and work.

Starbucks created a new category by positioning its coffee shops not as drink sales points, but as a "third place" — space between home and work where people can relax, work, meet friends.

Howard Schultz, the company's founder, was inspired by Italian coffee shops but adapted the concept to American lifestyle. Starbucks became a place where you could spend time with a laptop, have a business meeting, or just rest from the hustle.

Positioning manifested in everything: comfortable chairs and sofas, free WiFi, atmosphere conducive to work and communication, diverse menu of not only drinks but also light meals. Even size names (tall, grande, venti) created special brand culture.

Starbucks didn't just sell coffee — the company monetized people's need for comfortable public space. This allowed setting premium prices and creating a global network.

Interestingly, the pandemic forced Starbucks to adapt positioning, emphasizing delivery and takeout, but preserving the idea of creating special experience even in new formats.

Positioning and Neural Networks

Neural Networks in Audience Research

AI helps analyze large data arrays and more accurately understand which meanings are important to customers.

Modern neural networks revolutionize consumer understanding. They can analyze millions of social media comments, reviews, search queries, revealing hidden patterns and insights impossible to discover with traditional methods.

Machine learning helps segment audiences not by demographic characteristics, but by behavioral patterns and psychographic characteristics. AI can discover that people with similar purchasing habits have similar values, even if they live in different countries and belong to different age groups.

Neural networks analyze not only what people say, but how they say it. Comment tonality, word choice, emotional coloring — all this gives an idea of real brand and category attitudes.

Sentiment analysis helps understand which positioning aspects truly resonate with the audience and which cause irritation or indifference. This is especially important when entering new markets where cultural features can dramatically change brand perception.

Creating Creatives

Neural networks like DALL-E or Midjourney can generate visual concepts reflecting chosen positioning.

Artificial intelligence opens new possibilities for positioning visualization. Neural networks can create an infinite multitude of creative variants, each reflecting certain brand aspects and resonating with specific audience segments.

Generative models allow experimenting with visual metaphors, color combinations, compositional solutions that traditional designers might not consider. AI can create hundreds of logo, packaging, or advertising layout variants in minutes, giving brands the opportunity to choose the most accurate embodiment of their positioning.

Especially valuable is that neural networks can adapt visual solutions for different channels and formats. The same positioning can be embodied differently in social networks, on billboards, in print advertising — AI considers each platform's specifics.

Creative personalization becomes possible at a previously unattainable level. Neural networks can create individual versions of advertising materials considering specific consumer preferences while maintaining brand recognizability.

Hypothesis Testing

Models allow quickly checking different message and visual variants.

A/B testing using neural networks reaches a fundamentally new level. AI can simultaneously test thousands of positioning message variants, analyzing audience reaction in real-time and optimizing communication on the fly.

Machine learning helps identify subtle perception differences that humans might not notice. For example, changing one word in a slogan can dramatically alter the emotional reaction of a certain audience segment.

Predictive analytics allows modeling different positioning strategies' success before their launch. AI analyzes historical data, behavioral patterns, cultural trends and predicts how the market will react to certain positioning.

Neural networks can test positioning not only on current audiences but also model potential customers' reactions who aren't yet familiar with the brand. This is especially important when entering new markets or launching new products.

Conclusion

When Anna's team launched the updated marketing campaign, no one was surprised by its success. Everyone already understood who they were, what they offered, how they differed from competitors. Sales grew steadily, without chaotic jumps. That's exactly why positioning is not just a marketing term, but the foundation of sustainable business.

Positioning translates a product from the "yet another" category to the "that very one" category. It helps customers understand value, teams focus on the main thing, businesses find their audience. And in conditions where the market is overflowing with offers and buyers' attention is scattered, clear positioning becomes a key element in the arsenal of marketers and startup founders.