Positioning That Means Something

"The features of our product and the value they provide are only unique, interesting and valuable when a customer perceives them in relation to alternatives."

April Dunford

Creative work is never judged in a vacuum. From the moment your work appears, it's compared to something else. A competitor. A cheaper alternative. A safer choice. That comparison isn't conscious. It's automatic. Positioning isn't a slogan or mission statement; it's the deliberate choice of where your work sits in someone's mind.

Done well, positioning frames your work before the audience has to think about it. It informs the audience about what it is, who it's for, and why it matters.

This chapter isn't about being different for the sake of it. It's about creating meaning through placement. We'll map out competitors, identify gaps, and establish a position that gives your work clarity and resilience. There is a significant difference between creative work defined by differentation, and that clarity doesn't come from aesthetics alone. It comes from structure, but first, we need to define our enemy.

The Battlefield

Positioning begins with orientation. Before you can claim space, you need to know who already holds that space: what competitors exist, how they present themselves, and where customers expect to find them. This isn't about critique. It's about identifying exactly who or what the opposition is. Think of it as drawing a map.

What are we mapping?

The dominant players – Who sets the norms? These are the brands your audience already knows and compares you to, whether you like it or not.
The peripheral players – Who's challenging the status quo? These are the outliers pushing at the edges, redefining expectations, or approaching the problem from a different angle.
The Empty Corners – Where are needs going unmet? What assumptions are competitors making that you can challenge? Where does the audience feel underserved, misread, or ignored?

Map the field by identifying the leaders, the challengers, and the gaps no one is filling.

Chart the Details

Audit Metrics Start with the basics. Collect price points, product ranges, distribution channels, and share of voice. But don't stop there. Examine how each brand presents itself. Pay attention to taglines, hero imagery, first-screen copy, color palettes, typography, and tone of voice. Catalog these elements side by side, and, above all, try to pin down what they are trying to achieve. Patterns will surface quickly.

Identify Claims Features overlap. Claims rarely do. Nike and On both sell running shoes, but Nike claims cultural relevance, and On claims engineered lightness. Identify the core claim each competitor is making. Where claims pile up, expect a price war. Where a claim stands alone, you've found space worth exploring.

Probe Weak Points Look beyond the marketing. Read product reviews. Scan social media. What keeps coming up? Complaints, frustrations, unmet needs. Weak points may be your competitors' failures, but they become your opportunities.

Test Empty Spaces A blank spot on the map looks promising. It isn't always. Gaps can exist because no one cares, which, if you remember, isn't the emotional pull we want. Test the waters to see if there's something there.

Document Everything With the terrain mapped and openings marked, you can choose where your big idea belongs and where it doesn't. Record your work. You'll need it.

Next, we transition from observation to interaction: listening to the market itself and allowing authentic voices to refine the map you just drew.

Listening to the Market

Mapping where your competitors sit is only half the work. You also need to hear what people want. We have already probed for weaknesses; now we must listen.

Think about weekday dinner. One person wants a meal with no leftovers because their fridge is packed. Another cares only that food hits the table in fifteen minutes. A third insists that every ingredient be local. Same task. Three different priorities. This is why sorting customers by demographics misses the point. What matters is the job they're trying to get done, the functional and emotional levers that drive their decision.

You don't need a research agency to find this out. Ask people. Friends. Colleagues. Strangers, if you have to. Listen to the media they consume. Read the forums where they complain. Look for the phrases that repeat when they vent. Focus on friction, what slows them down, and on aspiration, what perfection looks like in their mind.

Here's where many designers trip. They fail to connect the dots across products, media, and systems. If you find a human truth in one context, chances are it applies elsewhere. If the tension stays the same, the emotional response probably does too. You're not hunting for the perfect insight. You're looking for one that makes sense: something grounded, not invented from thin air.

The key is to stop assuming and start listening. Reality will tell you where the needs are.

Finalizing the Competitive Landscape

Now overlay those needs onto the competitor map you built earlier. Which promises already flood the category? Which ones does no brand even attempt to serve? Every boxed meal kit might claim speed, yet none mention its local sourcing. Mapping needs onto your competitive landscape reveals where the fundamental gaps are. That gap is your white space: a slice of market attention no one owns yet, but someone is looking for.

Keep only the gaps that meet three criteria. First, the demand must be apparent. Second, competitors need to overlook it. Third, your idea must be able to fill it without stretching itself thin. When those criterion align, you're no longer chasing insight. You're defining a position. And that's where your next step takes route, creating our big idea.

The Big Idea: Why Gravity Matters

A big idea is what makes the work actionable at an abstract level. It's the force that lets every part of a project operate as a single, cohesive system. Like gravity, it pulls everything into orbit and creates the connective thread that seems obvious upon creation. Without this central force, a project is merely a collection of well-made parts that never come together to form a cohesive whole. Each addition feels like a detour, a revision, or even a full-on reset.

Strategy teams call the big idea their foundation. But it's not static. It is both a structure and a source of momentum. It holds the work together and moves it forward. The big idea doesn't live in the brief. It lives inside the work itself. Taglines and problem statements are static elements that cling to the big idea. A big idea is operational. It does something. It organizes. It filters. It shapes every decision without needing to be named.

Consider LEGO. Their team built the brand on a simple insight: people are more creative when given structure, not freedom. A blank canvas overwhelms. A modular system unlocks. That truth gave rise to their big idea, and it runs through everything they do. Media, products, identity, all of it comes back to one core belief. The big idea? "Creativity itself is a system."

LEGO isn't just a toy. LEGO bricks aren't just playthings; they're constraints that invite imagination. That shift repositioned the brand from a toy to a problem-solving system, or so their marketing claims. That reframing opened doors to education kits, adult hobby sets, digital building software, and even corporate training programs. Each extension didn't dilute the brand; it helped it find a new market. The brick remained the foundation, not just of the product, but of the idea itself: creativity is built, not found.

This is why the big idea matters. It isn't a campaign hook. It's the backbone of how a brand positions itself in the world. And when that idea is clear, everything else has somewhere to belong.

Where the Big Idea Comes From

A big idea is built at the intersection of three forces.

First, the human truth. We built this last chapter. Something universally felt or understood. A belief, a behavior, or a tension that frames how people see the world.
Second, a real audience. Not a demographic segment, but people with emotional needs and reactions you are designing for. The audience grounds the work in reality. They become a test of the relevance to the use cases in which the product is used.
Third, that beautiful strategic shift. The reframing that lets you see the problem differently. It's the moment where you stop accepting the category's defaults and carve out your own space.

A big idea takes shape where these forces overlap. It becomes the structure that guides what you build next, the positioning, branding, and messaging.

Positioning, Branding, Messaging

A big idea doesn't exist in isolation. Once found, it has to take shape. That's where positioning, messaging, and branding come in; not as phases or deliverables (the actual pieces we make), but as practical tools for structuring how the work enters the world. Each plays a distinct role. Each serves the system.

Positioning is how the idea claims space in someone else's head. It's the deliberate decision to plant your idea in one spot, not another. It's not a statement of what you are. It's a decision about where you belong. Everything else is noise.
Messaging is how the idea explains itself. This isn't slogans or tone of voice. Messaging is the operational language of the work. It's the way your idea speaks to people who don't know, or care, what you're trying to build. It's the clarity that lets your idea survive first contact with the market.
Branding is how the idea is felt. It's the form it takes in the world. Color, typography, interaction, tone. Not decoration. Not aesthetics. Branding is the operational skin of your idea. It's how people experience the structure you've built.

What you're building isn't three separate layers. Positioning, messaging, and branding are the means by which the big idea enters the world. Together, they create the gravitational pull we talked about earlier. These are the tools that protect the idea, shape it, and translate it into forms your audience can recognize, believe in, and adopt.

But an idea doesn't earn its place just because it exists. The market is already whole. Competitors have staked their claims. Customers have built mental shortcuts. Every position you might want is already occupied—or worse, invisible from overuse. A strong idea, poorly positioned, gets ignored.

Before you can claim your space, you need to see the map. Who owns what? Who's fighting over the same ground? Where is there open space for something new to land?

Crafting the Value Proposition

A value proposition is marketing stripped to its essentials: one or two clear lines that tell a prospective buyer, “Here's why this matters to you.” It's not a manifesto, tagline, or mission statement. It's the promise you nail to the front door before anyone walks inside.

You can't write that sentence until you know the tension your audience actually feels. Picture the moment of decision at the shelf, on the phone, in the feed. What's the itch they want scratched? If their pain is reheated leftovers, do not lead with "chef-crafted artisanal menus." Lead with "dinner, fresh in fifteen."

Building the Line: A Practical Scaffold

Who – the specific people you want to reach
Need – the tension or desire that's front-of-mind for them
Offer – the product or service you're putting on the table
Benefit – the single outcome that makes them nod "yes"
Proof – a fact, metric, or mechanism that shows you can deliver

A strong value proposition is a single, clear promise that connects your offer to a real need, with proof to back it up.

Write your draft, then interrogate every word. Strip out the jargon your audience would never use. The goal is a sentence that lands with the ease of a recommendation from a friend, not a billboard ad with superlatives and hyperbole. Clarity invites belief; anything unclear invites doubt.

Repetition and filler aren't just style problems; they signal that you have not decided what matters. Eliminate the impulse to catalogue every feature. A value proposition filled with half a dozen "benefits" leaves none of them memorable. Likewise, category shortcuts such as "innovative" or "best-in-class" convey nothing that the reader can verify. Trade hollow adjectives for specifics: a number saved, a task removed, a risk avoided. Credibility grows when a claim connects to something tangible.

With that sentence in place, you're no longer guessing. You're framing strategy.

From Strategy to Surface

Your value proposition sets the promise. Messaging makes that promise operational.

Messaging is not about copywriting. It's the structured system that ensures your brand communicates with focus, even as it speaks in different voices, channels, and contexts. Not by repeating the exact words, but by consistently reinforcing the same ideas. If positioning is where your brand stands, messaging is how it moves.

At the core of any strong messaging system are two components: messaging pillars and proof points.

Messaging pillars are the key themes your brand needs to communicate consistently. These are the strategic arguments that explain why your brand deserves its market position. Think of them as the core messages that support your value proposition from different angles.

Proof points are the pillars that tell people what to believe, and as a result provide a reason for people to believe in the overacrching narrative. Proof points are specific, verifiable details that back up your claims: a feature, a result, a fact, a customer story, or an operational capability that competitors can't claim.

Pillars are structure. Points provide credibility.

When built correctly, this system shapes every part of your brand's communication: from product pages to packaging copy to how your sales team explains your service. It ensures you're reinforcing your position with every message, even when no one is quoting the value proposition directly.

We'll break down how to craft pillars and proof points later, when we tackle language and tone in The Role of Language & Tone. For now, treat them as what they are: the framework that carries your positioning out into the world.

But writing the system isn't enough. Once your messaging is in play, you need to know if it's working, which means measuring whether your positioning is holding.

Measuring Positioning Effectiveness

Positioning isn't judged by what you say. Positioning lives or dies by what people remember.

The goal is simple: does your audience understand your position, without help? Does your core idea survive contact with the real world? You won't get a survey to tell you that. But you can watch for signals.

Start inside your work. Look at the touchpoints within a project you've created. Do they reflect the same idea? Not the exact words. The same argument. If each asset tells a different story, your position isn't sticking.

Next, listen to your audience: not through focus groups, but through critique. When people explain your brand back to you (or describe your work to others), what do they say? Are they repeating the idea you intended? Are they addressing the points of difference you designed? Or are they defaulting to surface traits: price, convenience, aesthetics?

Finally, check your comparisons. Who do people associate you with? Are you being grouped with the competitors you chose, or ones you didn't? If people are filing you under the wrong category, you haven't claimed your space.

Positioning is working when:

The same idea is evident throughout your work.
Customers describe you the way you framed yourself.
The competitors you planned to challenge are the ones you are challenging.

If these aren't true, revisit your positioning until your audience and your work are in sync.

Practical Illustrations: Positioning Made Tactile

Bottling Nostalgia

Hector Beverages launched Paper Boat to revive childhood drinks like "aam panna" and "jaljeera" in single-serve pouches. The position—"Taste of memories"—was reflected in sepia-toned ads, story-book packaging, and festival-themed limited runs. The result? Revenue climbed 16 percent year-over-year, while losses fell by nearly half, demonstrating that nostalgia can be profitable in a price-sensitive market. Source

Takeaway: Anchor the flavour to the feeling, then let the numbers prove that sentiment sells.

Liquid Death Murders Your Thirst

Canned mountain water wrapped in heavy-metal graphics flipped a commodity into a cult. By positioning water as punk rebellion—"Liquid Death" instead of "pure spring"—the brand became Amazon's top-selling still water. It reached $263 million in revenue last year, up from $110 million the previous year. Source

Takeaway: In a crowded category, creating a point of difference out of thin air can become a viable strategy.

Scroll, Crave, Order

Saudi delivery app HungerStation noticed users scroll past an average of 135 food posts a day, yet reorder the same burgers and fries. The team reframed its service around that tension: "Any dish you see online, you can order." The Social Feed feature lets users DM any food photo on Instagram; AI identifies the dish, finds a nearby restaurant, and adds it to the basket. In the first quarter, the tool attracted 100,000 new users and increased average sales by 17 percent. Source

Takeaway: By turning passive scrolling into active ordering, it seized a white space that competitors ignored.

Drill: Claiming A Position

Pick one campaign you admire. Treat it like a crime scene. Your job is to figure out how the team behind it claimed its shelf in the market.

Name the campaign with a plain one-line description.
Spot the Big Idea driving every choice. Write it as a clear statement.
Reconstruct the value proposition you believe the team wrote.
List three to five messaging pillars that show up across touchpoints.
Note the proof points—data, features, or stories—supporting each pillar.
Identify the real competitor the campaign set itself against.
Find an echo: a review, comment, or headline repeating the core promise.

This drill helps you reverse-engineer how a campaign claims its space and builds a memorable position.

Closing Note

Positioning turns creative work from decoration into direction. A Big Idea anchors the effort; mapping the field shows where it can live; a sharp value proposition plants the flag. Messaging pillars give that flag a frame, proof points provide it with weight, and simple checks—does the market repeat your promise? Do teams stay on script?

You now know how to carve space in a crowded world. Next, we shift from where an idea resides to how it expresses itself. Reading the Room explores the semiotics behind every choice—symbols, colours, type, and images—so your design says what you intend in any culture. We've surveyed the terrain. Now we zoom in.