Build on solid ground

If you follow me, you’ll know by now that I believe market positioning has a positioning problem. How can a practice which directly impacts the success of every business be so often overlooked?

Now it’s tempting to overdramatise this for clicks in the ol’ socials, but it’s based on hard experience; for most ventures I meet, the connection between poor sales and weak positioning is drawn far too late. So forgive me for the occasional serving of hyperbole as I get this off my chest!

Market Positioning provides the commercial foundation

Brand Positioning brings those choices to life.

Why AI can't do the thinking for you

I’d like to blame all this on a conspiracy by a secret cabal of Brand Agencies to steal the strategic lead but sadly it’s not so dramatic; it's just a spiral of perceptual anchoring. When we associate positioning solely with communication, it becomes a tool for more clearly expressing existing assumptions, rather than creating new competitive advantage. At best thoughtful communication masquerading as strategy; in the old days I used to be called by people who only wanted a Value Proposition written, no intent to optimise the underlying strategy, just a dogged determination to deliver a coherent statement.

Today those requests are largely replaced by people asking their friendly local LLM to generate a value proposition, positioning statement or messaging framework. The problem isn't the AI. It's that these are outputs of strategic thinking, not substitutes for it.

Commercial choices before communication

These days I use a blunter reframe of positioning practice, so there can be no confusion. Market Positioning isn’t just about finding better expressions of a business, but enabling superior commercial choices.

This means choosing your ideal customer, choosing the product features they need, choosing price and choosing channel. Those choices will ultimately influence your value proposition, your communications, your customer experience and your brand, but they begin with deciding where you want to win next and what you have to stop doing to get there.

In a positioning project, the net result of all the choices you make is an update of your business model. With that commercial foundation in place, Brand Positioning can build understanding, belief and connection around those choices. Articulating your value to that customer remains an important part of every market positioning project, but it’s most certainly the output, not the purpose.

None of this diminishes the value of Brand Positioning, which remains essential. If anything, it provides it with a stronger commercial foundation. The disciplines are distinct, complementary and most effective when each builds on the other.

The building blocks of positioning

Product-Market Fit

Have we built something that a specific customer genuinely needs?

When we’ve proved that a specific customer type needs our product. We’ve found Product-Market-Fit.

Market Positioning

Have we made the commercial choices that define where and how we'll compete?

When we've clearly chosen our ideal customer, category, offer, pricing and route to market, we've established Market Positioning.

Brand Positioning

How do we want those commercial choices to be understood and experienced?

When our ideal customers consistently recognise, value and prefer us for those choices, we've built a well-positioned brand.

Build the foundation first

Strong brands are built on sound commercial choices. Market Positioning provides the foundation. Brand Positioning builds understanding, belief and connection on top of it. Get the foundation right, and everything that follows becomes stronger.

Article from the July 2026 re:position

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