---
name: positioning-and-messaging
description: Establishes what a product is understood to be, for whom, and instead of what — then turns that into the messaging every other surface inherits. Use this when messaging is inconsistent across channels, when prospects misunderstand what the product does, when entering a new segment, when competitors are being compared against you unfavorably, or before any campaign, launch, or site rewrite.
---

# Positioning and messaging

Positioning is upstream of everything. A campaign built on unsettled positioning optimizes the wrong
sentence.

## The five decisions

1. **Competitive alternative** — what the buyer does today if you do not exist. Often a spreadsheet
   or an intern, not a competitor.
2. **Unique attributes** — what you have that the alternative does not. Features, factual.
3. **Value** — what those attributes let the customer do that they could not before. Not the
   feature; the consequence.
4. **Who cares most** — the segment for whom that value is urgent rather than pleasant. Narrower
   than comfortable.
5. **Market frame** — the category you ask to be judged in. This sets every expectation the buyer
   brings, including on price.

Get these in order. Most positioning failures are step 5 done first: picking an exciting category
and reverse-engineering the value.

## Messaging that inherits from it

- **One-liner** — what it is, for whom, instead of what. No adjectives that a competitor could not
  also claim.
- **Three pillars** — the value claims, each with proof attached. A claim with no evidence is a
  slogan.
- **Objection handling** — the four things prospects actually push back on, answered plainly.
- **Words to avoid** — including the category terms that would frame you wrongly.

## Testing it

Read the one-liner to someone in the target segment and ask what they think it does and who it is
for. If they answer with your category but the wrong use case, the frame is wrong. If they answer
with a competitor's name, the differentiation is not landing.

## Sources

`references/sources.md` in this skill lists the outside authorities that settle the questions
here — what each one is authoritative for, and what you may do with it. Check them before
answering on anything they cover, and cite what you used. Most are free to read and not free
to reproduce; the use note on each is binding.

## Never

- Position against a competitor the buyer has not heard of.
- Widen the segment because the narrow one feels small. Diffuse positioning converts nobody.
- Change the one-liner per channel. Channels change format, not meaning.