Positioning Map

Decide who you are for, what you are compared with, and the one difference worth owning. Then check on a map whether that place is empty because nobody serves it or because nobody wants it.

Practice, not research: positioning is an untested practitioner idea (Ries & Trout, 1981) and the statement format is working craft (Moore, 1991). Perceptual mapping is an established marketing-science method when the map is built from customer perception data (Hauser & Koppelman, 1979). A map built from your own opinion is a hypothesis. Scales on this page are rules of thumb.

Use it when:

• Customers or colleagues describe you differently, or as "just another" provider of your kind.
• You are entering a new market or segment, or a competitor has moved and you need to decide whether to answer.
• You need one sentence for a website, a pitch or a recruiting page that says what you stand for.

Skip it when:

• You do not yet know whom you serve: use 6.1 Who Are Our Customers.
• You need the claim and its proof, not the competitive place: use 6.7 Value Proposition Canvas.

Positioning claims that the contest takes place in the buyer's memory. People who face many messages file each offer in a simple slot relative to what they already know, so your task is to choose and own one clear slot rather than communicate everything (Ries & Trout, 1981). That is an untested practitioner idea, and the statement template that pins it down is craft too (Moore, 1991). One part carries stronger method research: perceptual mapping, the technique behind the grid, is an established tool whose accuracy has been compared across approaches, as long as the map comes from customer perception data (Hauser & Koppelman, 1979).

That split tells you where to be careful. The statement is craft: its worth is forcing a choice of target, category, benefit and named alternative in one breath, since a position that excludes nothing positions nothing. The map is where the research standard applies. The axes must be dimensions customers use to tell offers apart, and the placements should come from asking them, or the empty corner you find is an artifact of your own flattery. Step 5 checks whether the slot exists in anyone's head but yours.

Name the customer and the category they would put you in. List what they would compare you with: direct rivals, indirect alternatives and doing nothing or doing it themselves.

Strong answer: "Target: owner-run dental clinics with two to five chairs. Category: booking and reminder service. Set: two booking apps, the receptionist's paper book, and 'do nothing'." Not: "Target: healthcare. Competitors: everyone."

Target customer (from 6.1):

Category the customer would put us in:

Illustrative example: the business and all numbers are made up.

A three-person IT support firm in Umeå serves small architecture and design studios. Prospects call it "just another IT shop".

Step 1: target: studios with five to twenty staff and no in-house IT. Set: two regional IT firms, a national managed-services provider, a freelancer, and "the partner who is good with computers".

Step 2: from nine customer conversations, two things recur: how fast someone answers when a file server fails before a deadline, and whether the provider understands design software. Axes: response speed and knowledge of design workflows.

Step 3: the national provider scores high on speed and low on design knowledge; the freelancer is the reverse. Open space: fast and design-literate. Three of nine asked for exactly that.

Step 4: difference: a technician who knows the studio's software and answers within an hour on deadline days (copy-hard 3, valued 5). Parity: backups, security patches, invoicing per month. Trails on purpose: no 24-hour night desk.

Step 5: "For design studios without in-house IT, we are the IT team that knows your software and picks up within the hour, unlike national providers who treat you as a ticket." Three of five repeat it correctly.