What Is Brand Positioning (and How to Create a Brand Positioning Statement!)

Brand positioning is the spine of your marketing strategy and holds the answers to why and how you perform your marketing efforts.

It filters through every aspect of your business, including your:

• Brand identity design
• Advertising
• Sales
• Marketing

And if you’re in the B2B space, positioning matters even more. You’re not just appealing to one buyer — you’re trying to influence a team of decision-makers. Each person needs to clearly understand why your brand is the right fit, from procurement to the final sign-off.

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Your brand positioning helps to inform it all. It can even help you decide how your staff should greet your customers.

Ready to learn more about your brand positioning? Let’s jump in.

What is Brand Positioning?

Your brand positioning is where you sit amongst your competition. Nothing more, nothing less.

Essentially;

Are you trying to fit in? Or are you trying to make your brand stand out and disrupt the competitive landscape?

It’s a simple concept to nail, but it often gets confused with other components of building a brand, such as brand strategy and brand identity.

All of these things factor into each other, sure, but isolating and identifying your brand position by creating a brand positioning statement is a fundamental point to cover when creating your corporate brand.

In B2B markets, for example, brand positioning plays a crucial role in shortening long sales cycles and building trust at scale. When buyers are comparing multiple suppliers or partners, your positioning helps them quickly grasp what sets you apart and why you’re worth the investment.

By definition, brand positioning shows you where to focus in terms of your sales and marketing.

It’s important you create an easily digestible framework for your customer to form their opinion from. If you overcomplicate things or are too vague in your positioning, your customers won’t know WHY they’re picking you over someone else. This is why establishing solid brand values from the outset is crucial for your growth and long-term success.

By consistently delivering on your promises and building brand loyalty, you can start to transform casual buyers into lifelong fans.

Ask yourself:

• What solution do you offer that fits their lifestyle?
• Why are you a better choice than your competitors?
• And why do your customers care?

Answer these questions, and you’re on the right track to crafting an excellent brand positioning statement.

What is a Brand Positioning Statement?

Your brand positioning statement is pretty straightforward. It should be a well-crafted sentence that outlines:

• What market you are in
• Who your target audience is
• Why they should choose you
• What proof you have for the claims you make

Your brand positioning statement tells customers where you sit amongst your competition, helping them to understand the brand story that you are selling and realise how you suit their needs better than your competitors do.

Brand Positioning Strategies and Types

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to brand positioning. How you stand out depends on what your audience values and how you deliver it.

Here are a few of the most common positioning strategies:

• Value-based positioning – Emphasising the unique value or outcome customers get from choosing you.
• Quality-based positioning – Focusing on premium craftsmanship, materials, or attention to detail.
• Innovation-based positioning – Leading the way with creativity, technology, or first-mover advantage.
• Price-based positioning – Competing through affordability, offering “best value for money.”
• Customer service-based positioning – Winning loyalty through standout support and personal experience.
• Experiential or symbolic positioning – Building emotional connections through lifestyle, community, or shared values.

Choosing the right approach starts with market segmentation — understanding who you’re speaking to, what matters most to them, and how your offer fills that gap.

It’s also where competitive positioning comes in: what’s your edge, and how can you express it in a way no one else can?

For example, in B2B brand positioning statements, you’ll often see a blend of value-based, innovation-based, and service-led statements. Businesses want partners they can rely on — not just the cheapest option. That’s why strong positioning often focuses on expertise, efficiency, and long-term ROI.

Building Trust with Your Brand

While positioning your brand in the market is essential, it’s equally important to ensure that your customers trust your brand.

No amount of brand positioning work will help you overcome a lack of trust from your customers.

And trust isn’t just built overnight. It’s built with the right strategies, and it becomes the bedrock of long-term success.

Find out more about building brand trust.

Getting Your Brand Positioning Right

It’s essential to get your brand positioning statement correct from the start. Once you do, you’re then able to refer back to it when creating the other components of your brand strategy and make sure you’re positioning yourself properly.

Read our guide on brand strategy creation to help.

There’s always a degree of fluidity when it comes to brand strategy, and your positioning is no different. Competitors come and go, and with them, the landscape changes.

You should write your brand positioning statement for the now, but you shouldn’t be afraid to adapt it when the time comes.

Markets evolve, competitors shift their strategies and customer perceptions change. That’s why measuring how well your positioning is working (and adapting when it’s not) should be a crucial part of your brand strategy.

Tools like Qualtrics or simple customer surveys can help you understand how your audience perceives your brand, and perceptual mapping will help you to visualise where you sit versus your competitors. If perception doesn’t match your intended position, it’s time to fine-tune your value proposition or messaging.

Sometimes, subtle tweaks are enough; other times, a full repositioning may be needed to stay competitive. Either way, measuring and adapting over time keeps your brand strategy strong and your positioning sharp.

The Connection Between Brand Positioning and Your Mission Statement

While your brand positioning defines your place in the market, your brand mission statement articulates your overarching purpose and direction.

Together, they create a powerful narrative that guides every business decision, making sure that your positioning is not just effective but also meaningful and aligned with your long-term business and strategic goals.

What Does Looking into Your Brand Positioning Involve?

Firstly, let’s take a step back and look at your product from your consumer’s perspective.

You need to understand what motivates your target audience’s purchasing decisions.

Is it:

• Cost
• Speed
• Quality
• A unique quirk?

How would the customer categorise you?

You know where you are aiming to sit in your marketplace – but do they?

Customer Personas

Brand positioning is there to not only help you find your position in the marketplace, but also find your position in the mind of your target audience.

Delve into customer personas in as much detail as humanly possible. Create an initial skeleton by thinking asking:

• How much do they earn?
• What do they do in their free time?
• How will they see your ads?
• What is the best way to target them, and when?

Engulf yourself in market research, think of those focus groups on The Apprentice that have zero chill.

Now take it one step further. You want to find out:

• Where do they work?
• Where do they spend their free time?
• What apps do they scroll through when they’ve got 5 minutes?
• How do they get about? What is their main mode of transport?
• What is their family setup?

Create a map of their lifestyle through the whole week to make sure that you have really gained a deeper understanding of the individual that you want to sell to.

This means you can then open up and explore all avenues of targeting them as closely as possible, and make those sales.

Understanding Brand Archetypes and How They Influence Positioning

To craft a strong brand position, it’s crucial to first understand your brand’s archetype. Archetypes are universal symbols or characters that resonate deeply with human emotions and experiences. They help anchor your brand in the minds of consumers by aligning your brand’s personality with established patterns of behaviour and expectations.

By defining your brand archetype, you can create a strategy that naturally informs your positioning. It allows you to build a consistent brand and compelling narrative that resonates with your target audience.

For example:

A brand living the “Hero” archetype would position itself as bold, confident, and front-and-centre in its market. Think of well-lit, standout photography that showcases the product’s strength and dominance. This brand isn’t shy; it leads with power and clarity.

On the other hand, a “Caregiver” archetype would take a more reserved approach. It would focus on the benefits to the customer, providing helpful guidance and support, often using softer, more muted colour palettes to convey a sense of calm and trustworthiness.

Competitors

Being aware of your competitors isn’t enough; you need to look closely at:

• Who’s cheaper, and why
• Who’s positioned themselves on the high end, and what strategies have they used to get themselves there
• Is there potential for anyone to adapt over time and hit your target market
• How does your competitors’ brand messaging & branding affect their position on the market

You can answer all of these questions by conducting a thorough competitive analysis for your brand.

Your USP

Your USP should always be at the heart of your brand positioning.

A USP is a unique selling proposition. It’s the reason you’re unique when sitting amongst your competitors. It’s the thing that makes people want to choose you.

Clearly communicating your USP means that consumers will understand and therefore buy into your brand. It’s all about giving that one specific reason for your prospective customer to make the decision to go with you over someone else.

And every time you convince a person to make this decision, it grows your brand.

Your USP needs to be solid and stamped into everything you do.

Your Price Point

Your price point reflects the service you offer.

If you’re asking customers to pay a premium for your product, your branding, packaging design, advertising, and other marketing or branded output should reflect this, justifying your cost in the mind of the consumer.

The same goes for the other end of the scale.

If your brand is more humble, then there is no need to spend huge amounts on fancy packaging materials or adverts in the back of Tatler.

We’re not saying “do your designing with a Sharpie on printing paper” – you still have to make sure your customers know who you are and why you’re there for them!

Here are some examples of how brand positioning looks at different ends of the spectrum:

If you’re more expensive than your competitors, then you can offer a better level of service, or if you are a smaller team, then you can be more agile and responsive.

A great example of next level brand positioning is Greggs.

The salt of the earth, high street bakery, who reinvented themselves as the go-to food vendor for your break time.

Greggs is the ultimate nemesis of the packed lunch.

With a hugely competitive price point, they make sure they’re cheap enough and substantial enough to not make people think too much about how much money they’re spending instead of bringing their lunch in.

Their good humoured PR stunts and cheeky approach to marketing have made them a huge talking point, but they’ve never strayed from their working class target audience, and their brand positioning has stuck fast and strengthened as a result.

They poked fun at high end brands and themselves, with tongue in cheek press samples for their much anticipated vegan sausage roll. No prizes for guessing who they’re trying to emulate.

“Pastry Layers: 96, Flake Resolution: Optimal, Taste Level: Maximum, Mega Bites: 10.”

And is that placement of the Greggs logo a cheeky hint at Windows vs Apple, reigniting the age old Mac vs. PC debate? FYI – it’s Mac, every time.

On the B2B side, think of HubSpot.

Their brand positioning focuses on helping businesses grow better — not just selling marketing software. By framing themselves as an educational, empowering partner, they’ve built loyalty that goes beyond product features.

The Element of Proof in Brand Positioning

One of the elements to consider when creating your brand positioning statement, is the element of proof.

Saying you’re better than the rest? Prove it.

Cheaper than everyone else? Prove it.

You don’t have to stay in your lane, but you have to be able to back up any big claims you’re making.

Here’s another way to think about your brand positioning, and something to avoid if you’re in the restaurant space:

You’re an exclusive restaurant, and have positioned yourselves as the go to destination for special occasions and date nights; events where people want to splash out. But there are other restaurants in town hot on your heels…

Annoyingly, you’re experiencing a bit of a lull in custom. Friday nights aren’t as busy as they used to be. You panic and immediately think: discounts.

Putting a discounted deal on an external voucher site like Wowcher will affect your branding, your reputation, and your brand positioning against your competitors.

Sure, it’ll get folk through the door and bums on seats – but what’s the likelihood of these people coming back as repeat customers and paying full price in your premium restaurant? Not very likely.

It also means that from then on, people will be reluctant to pay full price in your venue, knowing that it’s available heavily discounted. This can then put a question mark over your initial price point for your original customers.

Avoid cheapening your brand and letting another restaurant squeeze itself into the top spot in your marketplace.

In this situation, offering something like a live pianist or overhauling your cocktail menu would be a more suitable move to keep your brand positioning right where you want it to be.

It’s important to stay steadfast in your brand positioning, building your marketing strategies around it.

So, on to that all important question…

How Do You Create Your Brand Positioning Statement?

Let’s jump in and give this a go.

Brand positioning starts with your competitors.

Try to list 3 of your key competitors.

Now, add in what the three main attributes are that they say about themselves.

Once you’ve done this, think of an opposite attribute for each of your competitors.

Think:

• Cheaper > more expensive
• Trendy > traditional

The idea behind this is so you can spin what your competition doesn’t do.

For example, fast food focuses on a speedy meal. ‘Slow food’ focuses on high-quality ingredients.

Every positive will always come with a negative, something that has been sacrificed, which can be spun into a positive when marketing it from the opposite angle.

Take 3 of your most workable options from above and try drafting your positioning statement around each of them:

For example: “Our competition provides a cheaper service, but we provide a bespoke service for each client and that requires more time and focus from senior professionals, which is ultimately a premium service.”

Time to add some proof. What can be said about your business to back your statements up? What results do you have, or what do people say about your service?

Now, you should be at a point where you have 3 key positioning statements with evidence, so it’s time to check your positioning.

For a solid start when settling on your brand position, ask yourself these 5 questions:

• • Can you own this position completely? Who or what are the risks to that?
  • Are you able to deliver on your promise?
  • How viable is this positioning over the next decade?
  • Are there any technological advancements or industry developments that could undermine your new positioning?
  • How close are any of your competitors to this positioning?

Stake your own claim. Don’t position yourself in the same way another already established company has; you don’t want to risk being another “us too!” business.

Is your positioning concise enough to be summed up in a few words? That’s great!

Still struggling? Try this fill in the blanks exercise:

Our [offering] is the only [category/service/product] that [benefit].

How Has Influencer Marketing Affected Brand Positioning?

The rise of influencer marketing has thrown a total curveball into the online advertising industry and brand positioning world.

You now see people on Instagram advertising things. Or “casually posing” with products that are, ahem, definitely not ads.

Lower-end products and fast brands that, before the rise of social media, would have struggled to gain brand recognition within their market have recognised the benefit of ploughing a healthy portion of their marketing budget in the direction of influencers and affiliate links.

They’ve flourished simply from choosing the right influencer at the right time.

Influencer and affiliate marketing are now the main focus for many new brands’ marketing strategies. It’s a great tool to add to your digital strategy, but we don’t suggest simply relying on just that if you’re looking for longevity with your brand.

Choosing your influencers wisely. But more importantly, don’t use this single channel as the only way you market your business.

Also try:

• • • Creating valuable content
    • Engaging with your audience organically
    • Paid advertising

It seems obvious, if you are going to go down the influencer route, do some digging. Check out their media pack and engagement stats. The last thing you want is to give free products or pay somebody to ‘influence’ 20,000 bot accounts

Even if they’re relevant in your industry, make sure their stats show that their main target audience aligns with yours, or are they tapped into a market you specifically want to attract?

Does their brand positioning align with yours?

If not, as much as it seems great to have their name linked to your brand, it’s not worth the money if their audience simply isn’t going to buy your stuff.

Brand Positioning FAQs

We’ve covered quite a bit in today’s post, and we hope we haven’t lost you! It’s easy to get carried away when discussing brand positioning and diving into examples across the world, so let’s strip it back and go through a few of the basic questions you need answers for before we wrap up.

What Is Brand Positioning (and How to Create a Brand Positioning Statement!)

Creating a solid brand positioning statement will give you a springboard for all of your marketing efforts and make sure you aren’t firing arrows in the dark.

Every single piece of communication that you put out for your brand will be there with a direct purpose, aiming at a specific target, and should have a substantial impact on its intended audience.

Distinct brand positioning gives you a clear way of communicating with your customer (more on tone of voice later!), and tells them exactly why you are the brand for them.

It will help you and your team plan your next moves, and each marketing effort will have a point behind it; you will always have a target.

If it hits other people along the way, then great, but focusing your efforts on one group of people will cement your brand positioning in the market and serve to strengthen that brand identity.

Remember:

Your brand positioning is crucial, but it’s just the beginning.

To keep your brand evolving and relevant, you’ll need a solid approach for your ongoing brand development to keep your brand moving forward.

Tony Hardy

Founder & Director

Tony specialises in B2B brand strategy, high-performing websites, and SEO-led content. He works with marketing teams to identify what’s holding their marketing back, and turn it into clear, commercially focused action. With over a decade of experience across branding, web, and content, he leads on strategy, ensuring every project is built to drive measurable results, not just look good.