Brand positioning is all about how you relate to (compare/contrast with) other businesses in your market. It’s the anchor of your brand strategy and how you express your differentiator. AKA why people need to work with you.

So, even though a positioning statement is often short and sweet, it does some serious heavy lifting for your business and your brand! It’s a summation of your brand position in a memorable, meaningful, and simplified statement. And it’s the most concise representation of everything that makes up your brand strategy.

Just because the statement is simple… the time, care, and consideration that goes into creating your brand strategy is anything but! Don’t worry, though, because I love talking about brand strategy, so we’re going to dig into positioning statements today and clarify the high-level details of what it is and why you need one!

What is a Positioning Statement?

A positioning statement is an internal document that clearly articulates the core elements of your brand strategy and guides all strategic brand efforts (marketing, identity, etc). It serves as the guiding light for all of your external material so you know it’s on brand, on message, and in alignment with what your business stands for.

If this document sounds important to have…you best believe it is! A brand without a positioning statement is like a barbeque without the chips, cornhole, and cold beers… you can still have a party, but not a lot of people are going to know why they should bother coming!

In your positioning statement, you should have a clear articulation of 4 core components of your brand:

• Who you are
• Whom you serve
• What you do
• What makes you unique

There’s often a “bonus” 5th component — the reason to believe. That’s the benefit-oriented reasoning that supports the other 4 components to give them value. It pulls in emotional language and the compelling and/or believable reason people can and should buy into the promise you’re making!

Related Reading: Brand Strategy Glossary: 16 Terms You Need to Know

Types of Positioning Statements

Because your positioning statement is your “stake in the ground” or the thing you want your business and brand to be known for, it’s important to know where you fall among your competitors. There are a few types of positioning statements based on those 4 core components.

For all of these, it’s important to have a fairly robust understanding of your competition so you can understand where you stand in the market (or what your position is). Then, you can use your knowledge of your position to strategically make choices about your message, marketing, sales, and so on.

Parity

A parity position is when someone else in your industry can claim this position, and already has. It doesn’t mean this is a bad position to have, but it does mean you’ll likely need a significant marketing budget to increase awareness — aka to try to “say it louder” than the other business who has this similar position. With a parity position, you have to be seen more and be heard more so you can capture some of the attention and stand out among your competition.

Preemptive

Similar to a Parity position, a preemptive position is where someone else in your industry can claim this position, but the good news with a preemptive position is that they haven’t done it yet. So you can get to it first! Preemptive positions are very common, and really require clarity in your brand so you can determine the position you want to own and become known for it before someone else beats you to the punch.

Truly Unique

This is the strongest position you can have. A unique position is, like the name says, where nobody else in your industry can take this position or claim it from you because it’s based on something truly unique about your brand and your business. A caveat of this is that you can’t Frankenstein together a position. (For instance, you can’t say “We’re the only business that starts with the letter B, is located in Punxsutawney, and is open on Mondays that does… you get my drift.) It has to be inherently true about you in the broadest sense for it to be sustainable and believable. So, while it’s often the most difficult position to define, it’s definitely the strongest. 
Learn more about the types of positioning statements in my Two-Minute Tip video!

Related Resource: Two-Minute Tip: What is a Positioning Statement?

Why You Need One

Because you do. Next!

I’m kidding, though you really do need a positioning statement. It’s like a lasso that gathers your core brand components for you. When you understand and can clearly articulate your brand’s positioning statement, you’ll be able to use it as the backbone of external resources like your brand identity, copy, marketing, business planning, and so on.

Again, this is an internal document, but what you create with it will be customer/client-facing. So, it’s important to be as thorough as possible when creating it because it’ll help you see where you are in relation to your competitors and how you can make effective decisions based on where you want to be in the market.

Related Reading: Brand Strategy and Branding: What’s the Difference?

Like I mentioned at the beginning, a positioning statement is the most concise representation of everything that makes up your brand strategy — your mission, values, audience, what you do, what makes you unique, and so on. It’s the heart of your brand strategy and the anchor point for everything you do internally and externally, but really serves as the guiding light for all of your external material.

And, when done well, it connects the thread between all of the core components of your brand. Clearly, a positioning statement is a very important aspect of your brand strategy and business as a whole!