What are the most common mistakes students make about Positioning?

Why this trips students up

The most common error is positioning on something the firm wants to be true rather than something the customer can perceive and verify. The second is choosing a position no one cares about — a defensible difference is worthless if it does not change purchase decisions.

Definition refresher

Positioning is the act of designing the company's offering and image so that it occupies a distinct, valued place in the mind of the target customer relative to competing alternatives. Positioning lives in the customer's perception, not in the firm's slide deck.

The framework students should anchor to

A robust positioning statement names the target customer, the frame of reference (the category we are competing in), the point of difference, and the reason to believe. Positioning maps — typically two-dimensional plots of competing brands along two attributes the customer cares about — surface gaps in the market and reveal whether the desired position is genuinely available. Positions can be built around attributes, benefits, use occasions, user types, against competitors, or by category redefinition.

An example that exposes the pitfalls

When Volvo positioned itself around "safety" decades before crash-test ratings were widely publicized, it owned a single attribute that mattered to a specific buyer. Competitors who later added safety features still struggled to dislodge that mental association. Compare with a brand that positions on "high quality at a fair price" — a claim every brand makes, and therefore a position no brand owns.

A self-check before submitting

Test a position with three questions: Is it relevant to the target? Is it different from competitors' positions? Is it credible — can we deliver and prove it? If a position cannot survive all three tests, revise it before committing media spend.

Source basis: Open Textbook Library: Launch! Advertising and Promotion in Real Time