How to work with positioning

I’ll say it right away: positioning is not an easy thing. Most likely you won’t “solve” it in one attempt. This article is meant to push you into doing the work.

How your positioning will take shape

1. First, you need to form a clear mental picture of it.
2. Then you do the rest of your business research: work through SWOT analyses, the 4P/4C marketing frameworks, and refine the “Target Audience Measurement Square” (a practical framework I use to describe and “measure” audience reality).
3. While working through #2, you’ll start seeing how your positioning is actually forming.

Why positioning matters

Positioning exists to help you stand out.

In everyday language, people call it “differentiating from competitors”. In more formal language, it’s “differentiation”. The essence of positioning is what you aim all your messages toward in the customer’s mind.

For example:

Samsung. Their positioning is built around being Apple’s competitor. Yet in practice, they compete not with Apple, but with other Android brands.

All Android smartphones are “competitors to Apple” by nature, but Samsung is explicitly trying to be the best Android phone — the strongest alternative to Apple.

Examples of value-area positioning

Product leadership — the best product. Elon Musk built Tesla as a replacement for other cars. In that sense, Tesla is a claim to “the best car”.

SpaceX, in my humble opinion, is the same kind of “claim to best-in-class”, but here it’s about  process excellence — they do what NASA (US), ESA (EU), Roscosmos (Russia), China’s and India’s space programmes do, too.
They developed reusable launch vehicles, which lowers payload launch costs. It’s still expensive, but cost reduction here is the result of a better process than most alternatives.

Deep customer knowledge — “we understand what the customer needs better than the customer does.” These brands act like innovators: they build products the audience didn’t explicitly ask for, yet ends up using. They consistently try to exceed expectations and prove that they know their customer better than others.

Examples of positioning by the way the offer is executed

Wendy’s, as fast food, positions itself via the  product/service dimension — dominance through “best service”. Other structural dimensions are slightly above market standards, like having pizza in the menu (assortment breadth) compared to KFC / Burger King / McDonald’s (as the original example states). Everything else stays roughly at market level. The point: they’re not slower than the competitors listed.

The Saint Petersburg pharmacy chain “Ozerki” positions structurally through price — they claim dominance in medication pricing: the cheapest or the best value. Service and availability can be slightly better than market average, while everything else remains at market level. They are a chain, so they’re widely accessible, and they also have a loyalty programme that reinforces an already strong price proposition. (For readers outside Russia: this is a local retail pharmacy chain; think “regional pharmacy brand competing on price + accessibility”.)

Value-added services as the main edge — while product and price are “a bit better” than others — this is the positioning path of M.Video.
For example, their recycling programme for old home and digital appliances removes the headache of “what do I do with the old device when I buy a new one?” The answer is: bring it to them. (For readers outside Russia: M.Video is a large Russian consumer electronics retailer, similar in role to big-box electronics chains in other markets.)

Apple already appeared in our example, and I want to use it to show that positioning is not a strict to-do list or a HOWTO — it’s a message concept: the meaning you deliver to the audience.
In this sense, positioning can be expressed through the customer experience. It’s not the clearest category, yet it can still be a positioning axis. It’s what the customer will think and feel after buying the product or service.

But it’s not that simple…

Values and positioning

• This is a deeper dive than “the market” — it’s about the brand and its identity.
• And here, not only the world around us helps — but also ancient philosophers.

Our task is to form a “compelling value proposition”.

And yes — something that students often love to criticise will help. Namely:

“Why do we even need philosophy?”

Meet:

This is Plato. Alfred North Whitehead (a British mathematician and philosopher) once said that “all philosophy is a series of footnotes to Plato.” Plato wrote “The Republic” — a foundational treatise on his view of how the world and society should be structured, and on enduring meanings and values. What guides a person in society, in Plato’s frame, are virtues.

In Plato’s model, virtues are grounded in properties of the soul:
— Wisdom rests on reason, courage rests on will, temperance rests on mastering sensual impulses.

A.F. Losev described temperance as “the chastity of the mind”. (Losev is a major Russian philosopher; for non-Russian readers: this is a local academic reference.)

Justice is a combination of the three previous virtues: wisdom, courage, and temperance.

And this is Aristotle. He formalised logic, and one of his key works is “Nicomachean Ethics”. Aristotle was Plato’s student, however…:

“Plato is my friend, but truth is dearer.”

His virtue ethics rest on the concept of the “golden mean”.

Virtue is the ability and willingness to find the middle between two extremes: a deficiency (endeia) of a quality and its excess (hyperbole).

He divided virtues into ethical (will/character) and dianoetic (intellect).

Let’s focus on Aristotle: he’s more useful for our marketing and business purpose (and yes, may my teacher from SSU forgive me — a local Russian university reference from the original text).

Examples of virtues of will (the golden mean):

• courage
• friendship
• magnificence / dignity (honour and dishonour)
• generosity

Examples of virtues of intellect (the golden mean):

• prudence
• wisdom

Since our civilisation stands on the platform of ancient culture, this work with balance and searching for the golden mean shows up in sales and advertising through storytelling — for example, in “Storynomics” by Tom Gerace and Robert McKee.

That’s enough philosophy for now… However:

Every business finds its position not only in the market, but also in culture. Market and culture are inseparable. There’s even the concept of “corporate culture”. “Positioning” is the sum of your positions across the fronts of market and culture.

That means your positioning can and should include value orientations — enduring meanings and virtues.
This later becomes the foundation of your organisation’s culture and your mission. It becomes the guiding idea that ties together, as one red thread, all the achievements and results of your business.

Two businesses competing at the level of values

Megafon’s previous message (a major Russian telecom operator) was: “The future depends on you”, by the way.

That kind of slogan is a result of positioning work grounded in enduring values.

And this kind of bold, postmodern ad — in our view — is also positioning, already inside the context of modern culture.

Your task is not to “create positioning” instantly. Your task is to think through possible variants:

1. Take your brand and describe what product or service your customer receives.
2. Which “first positions” could your product or service realistically pull toward?
   Best product, best service, best customer knowledge, process excellence, customer experience?

3. What do you value in people? Does your customer resonate with what you value in people?
4. What is valuable about your business? What values should the people building your business have? You, as the owner and engine of the business, are one of those people.

Your answers can help you develop your positioning.