Brand Positioning: Why Most Companies Sound the Same
Brand positioning is the decision about who you serve and why you beat the alternatives. Without it, every page of your marketing starts to sound like your competitors.
Key takeaways
- Brand positioning is a set of decisions about customers and alternatives. The tagline comes last.
- April Dunford breaks positioning into five parts, starting with what customers would do without you.
- If a competitor could use your homepage copy unchanged, your positioning needs work.
Open the websites of five companies in your category and read the first line of each. Most promise quality, service and results. Swap the logos around and nobody would notice. That is a brand positioning problem, and it bleeds money quietly, because every ad and sales call has to work harder to explain why you are different.
What brand positioning actually is
Positioning is not your slogan. It is the set of decisions behind the slogan: which customers you are for, what they would do if you did not exist, and what you do better than those alternatives. The copy comes after those decisions, so it gets easier once they are made.
April Dunford’s book Obviously Awesome, published in 2019, gives a practical structure. She breaks positioning into five parts:
- Competitive alternatives. What customers would use if you were not an option, including a spreadsheet, a new hire or doing nothing.
- Unique attributes. The capabilities you have and the alternatives lack.
- Value. What those attributes make possible for the customer.
- Target customers. The customers who care most about that value.
- Market category. The frame of reference that makes your value obvious.
The order matters. Most companies start with the category and the tagline instead, so they end up describing themselves the way every competitor does.
Why most companies sound the same
Three habits produce generic messaging. Teams describe what they do rather than what the customer gets. They also try to appeal to every possible buyer, so the message has to stay vague. Finally, they borrow the language of the category leader, because it feels safe.
Each habit makes sense on its own. Together, though, they produce a homepage that could belong to anyone. Buyers then compare you on the only thing left to compare, which is price.
A one-hour test for your brand positioning
Run these checks with your leadership team before you change any copy.
- The logo swap. Put a competitor’s logo on your homepage. If nothing reads wrong, your position is not doing its job.
- The alternative question. Ask five recent customers what they would have done without you. When the answers surprise the team, your messaging is aimed at the wrong comparison.
- The value chain. Take your main claim and ask what it lets the customer do. Then ask again. The third answer is usually closer to what buyers care about.
- The best-fit customer. Name the customer who gets the most value from you. If the team names everyone, you have not chosen yet.
How to sharpen it
Start with your best customers, not your whole list. Look at the clients who bought quickly, stayed longest and referred others. Then ask what they have in common and what they were comparing you against when they chose you.
Next, write down the one or two attributes those customers mention again and again. Ignore features that only your own team gets excited about. After that, choose the market category that makes those attributes look like an advantage.
For example, a bookkeeping firm that only serves dental clinics could call itself a bookkeeper with a niche. It could also present itself as the finance team for dental practices. The second frame changes who it competes with, so it changes what it can charge.
Finally, test the new position in sales conversations before you redesign anything. If prospects grasp the difference faster, the website and ads can follow.
What a strong position changes
Clear brand positioning makes every later decision cheaper. Your ads need fewer words. Your sales team spends less time explaining. Pricing also has a reason behind it, because you are no longer one of many similar options.
A weak position shows up in your numbers too. Look for long sales cycles, heavy discounting and leads who ask what exactly you do. Our marketing audit guide covers how to spot those symptoms in your data. If you want help defining your position, book a free diagnosis.
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