It’s a structured document that defines what your brand stands for, who it serves, how it’s different from competitors and what it promises its customers. It forms the strategic foundation from which all brand and marketing activity is developed.
Positioning defines where your brand sits relative to the market and competitors. A value proposition articulates the specific benefit you deliver to a specific customer. They’re closely related — positioning provides the context; the value proposition translates it into a customer-facing promise.
Positioning is the internal strategic statement that shapes how you want to be perceived. Messaging is how that positioning is expressed externally — the words, themes and phrases used in communications. Messaging flows from positioning.
Most positioning and messaging framework projects take four to six weeks. This includes a discovery phase, research, facilitated sessions with key stakeholders and iterations on the framework itself.
Customer and prospect interviews are strongly recommended and can be included in the scope. Positioning built on customer insight is significantly more robust than positioning built solely on internal perspective.
Ideally, senior leadership and anyone with a direct view of customers — sales, account management, marketing. The process benefits from diverse perspectives and its outputs are more likely to be adopted when key stakeholders have contributed.
It informs briefs to agencies, shapes the tone and content of marketing materials, guides sales conversations and ensures everyone in the business is describing what you do in a consistent and compelling way.
This is common and one of the most valuable things the process surfaces. Facilitated workshops are designed to work through disagreements and arrive at a shared view. Unresolved positioning debates are a significant drag on marketing effectiveness.
Positioning should evolve as the market, your business and your competitive landscape change. Most businesses benefit from a positioning review every three to five years, or sooner if significant business changes have occurred.
Absolutely. A well-constructed positioning and messaging framework is one of the most useful things you can give a creative agency. It removes ambiguity from the brief and gives them the strategic foundation they need to produce work that’s genuinely on-brand.