← The Signal · #210
What positioning actually means
Most founders treat positioning as a statement to be written. It is actually a choice about who you will and will not serve — and what you will and will not promise.
Positioning is the most misunderstood concept in marketing.
Most people treat it as a writing problem. Find the right words. Fill in the template. Write the statement. Ship it to the website.
But positioning is not a statement. It is a strategic decision — a deliberate choice about the specific context in which you want to be the obvious option.
Al Ries and Jack Trout, who popularised the concept in the 1970s, were clear on this: positioning is not what you do to a product. It is what you do to the mind of the prospect. The goal is not to describe your business accurately. It is to occupy a distinct and valuable place in the memory of the people who matter most.
This is why most positioning statements fail. They describe the company from the inside out — what you do, how you do it, what makes you different — rather than from the outside in: what problem do you solve, for whom, in a way no-one else can credibly claim?
The discipline of positioning requires three things that most founders resist.
First, genuine specificity. Not "we help businesses grow" but "we help B2B SaaS companies in the £5m–£20m ARR range reduce churn through customer success strategy." The narrower the claim, the more powerful the position.
Second, a willingness to exclude. Positioning is as much about what you will not be as what you will. The brand that tries to mean something to everyone ends up meaning nothing to anyone.
Third, patience. A position is only valuable once it is established in memory. That takes time, repetition and creative consistency — none of which can be rushed.
The question to ask is not "what do we do?" It is: "in what situation would we be the only logical choice?"