The Five Components of Effective Positioning

Effective positioning can be broken down into five core components, plus an optional sixth. Understanding and systematically working through these components is a more effective approach than using a traditional positioning statement.

The five core components are:

Competitive Alternatives: What customers would do if your solution didn't exist.
Unique Attributes: The features and capabilities that you have and the alternatives lack.
Value (and proof): The benefit that those features enable for customers, backed by evidence.
Target Market Characteristics: The characteristics of a group of buyers that lead them to really care a lot about the value you deliver.
Market Category: The market you describe yourself as being part of, to help customers understand your value.

The optional sixth component is:

Relevant Trends: Trends that your target customers understand and/or are interested in that can help make your product more relevant right now.

These components are interconnected and should be considered in a specific order, starting with competitive alternatives. This is because your unique attributes are only unique in comparison to the alternatives, the value is derived from those attributes, and so on.

By breaking positioning down into these components, you can move from a "fill-in-the-blanks" exercise to a strategic process of discovery and decision-making.

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