---
name: positioning-and-messaging
description: Decide what you are, who for, and against what alternative, then say it in words customers use. Use when nobody can explain the product in one sentence or the same product is described differently everywhere.
---

# Positioning and messaging

Positioning is a decision about the market you compete in; messaging is
how you say it. Products described as everything to everyone are chosen
by nobody, because the buyer cannot tell whether it is for them.

## Method

1. **Name the alternative you are replacing.** Positioning is relative,
   and the honest alternative is often a spreadsheet or doing nothing
   rather than a competitor (see competitive-strategy).
2. **Pick one primary audience.** The message that resonates with a
   specific buyer beats the one that mildly interests everyone.
3. **Lead with the outcome, not the mechanism.** Buyers care what
   changes for them; the technology matters only as evidence it works.
4. **Use the customer's words.** Language taken from interviews and
   support tickets converts better than internal vocabulary, which
   describes the product rather than the problem (see
   customer-interviews).
5. **State one differentiator you can defend.** A claim any competitor
   could make is not positioning, and three differentiators are none.
6. **Write the one-sentence version and use it everywhere.** Site,
   deck, and description agreeing is what makes a product feel
   coherent (see agent-brand-guardian).
7. **Test it on someone unfamiliar.** If they cannot repeat back who it
   is for and why it is better, the messaging is not working yet.

## Boundaries

Positioning shapes perception; it cannot make a product fit a market it
does not serve. It requires saying no to segments, which is
uncomfortable and is the entire point. Repositioning an established
product is expensive and confuses existing customers.