GlossaryGrowth & analytics
What is positioning in marketing?
Also called: product positioning, market positioning, positioning statement
Definition
Positioning is how you define your product's place in a customer's mind: what category it belongs to, who it's for, what it's compared against, and why it's the better choice for that customer.
Positioning, explained
Positioning happens whether you choose it or not. If you don't frame your product, customers compare it with whatever they think it resembles, often something bigger that you'll lose to. Choosing your positioning means choosing the comparison.
April Dunford's book "Obviously Awesome", widely used by B2B startups, breaks positioning into components: the competitive alternatives customers would use if you didn't exist; the unique attributes you have that those alternatives lack; the value those attributes deliver; the customers who care most about that value; and the market category that makes the value obvious. The order matters: start with what customers would do otherwise, not with your features.
Competitive alternatives are often not direct competitors. For many startups, the real alternative is a spreadsheet, an intern, an agency or doing nothing. Positioning against the spreadsheet ("stop rebuilding your client reports by hand") can be far stronger than positioning against a big software brand.
Good positioning shows up everywhere: the tagline, the homepage headline, the launch description, the category you choose in directories, the comparison pages you write, and how sales calls open. It should also be consistent enough that search engines and AI assistants describe you the same way.
Signs of weak positioning: visitors ask "so what is it?", prospects compare you with the wrong products, and your best customers describe the product differently from your website. Listen to how those best customers describe you, then use their words.
Why it matters for founders
Positioning decides who pays attention and what you're compared with. For a small startup, choosing a narrow, winnable position is often the difference between being ignored and being chosen.
Example
A reporting tool positioned as "a BI platform" loses to big BI vendors. Repositioned as "client reporting for marketing agencies", against spreadsheets, its conversions rise and sales calls get shorter.
Common mistakes
- Positioning against a category leader you can't beat.
- Starting from features instead of customers' alternatives.
- Using different positioning across your site, launches and directories.
Sources
Checked
Related terms
- Value propositionA value proposition is a short, clear statement of the specific benefit a product delivers, to whom, and why it's better than the alternatives. It's the promise your marketing makes and your product has to keep.
- Ideal customer profile (ICP)An ideal customer profile (ICP) is a description of the type of customer, usually a company or person with specific traits, who gets the most value from your product and is most valuable to your business in return.
- TaglineA tagline is the one short line that tells people what your product does and who it's for. On launch platforms and directories, it's often the only text people read before deciding whether to click.
- Comparison page (X vs Y)A comparison page puts two or more products side by side, usually targeting "X vs Y" searches, and helps a buyer decide which fits them based on features, pricing, trade-offs and use cases.
- Go-to-market (GTM)A go-to-market (GTM) strategy is the plan for how a product reaches and wins customers: the target market, the positioning, the channels that bring buyers, how they buy (self-serve or sales), and pricing.