Positioning and Differentiation

What Positioning Is

Positioning is not your tagline. It is not your marketing copy. It is the specific mental space your product occupies in the customer's mind relative to alternatives.

April Dunford's Positioning Framework

Five components:

1. Competitive Alternatives — What would customers do if you didn't exist?
2. Unique Attributes — What do you have that alternatives don't? Must be defensible.
3. Value — What benefit do your unique attributes deliver? Translate every attribute into customer value.
4. Target Customers — Who cares most about the value you deliver? Specific segment, not everyone.
5. Market Category — What category does the customer put you in? Sometimes naming a new category is the right move.

The Positioning Statement

"For [target customer] who [need], [product] is a [category] that [key benefit]. Unlike [alternative], we [differentiator]."

Common Positioning Mistakes

• Trying to be everything to everyone — broad positioning = forgettable
• Competing on price alone — the weakest possible strategy
• Copying a competitor's positioning
• Feature-led positioning without benefit — "we have X feature" is not positioning

Key Takeaways

• Positioning determines the mental space your product occupies relative to alternatives
• April Dunford's 5 components: competitive alternatives, unique attributes, value, target customers, market category
• Translate every attribute into customer value — attributes are features; value is the outcome
• Specific positioning beats broad positioning — the narrower your target, the clearer your message