The Difference Between Category and Positioning

Category and positioning are often confused. They're related but different.

Getting this wrong makes everything harder.

What Category Does

Category answers: "What kind of thing is this?"

When users encounter your product, they need a mental shelf to put it on. Email tool. Design software. Productivity app. CRM.

Without a category, users don't know how to think about you. They can't compare. They can't evaluate. They often just leave.

"Category creates the context for evaluation. Without it, your product floats in an incomprehensible void."

Al Ries and Jack Trout first articulated this in Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind (1981): "The mind works by relating things by category. To create a new brand, you must create a new category."

What Positioning Does

Positioning answers: "Why this one?"

Once users know the category, they compare options. Positioning explains why you're different from the alternatives on that shelf.

"We're a CRM" is category. "We're the CRM that updates itself so you don't have to" is positioning.

"Category gets you considered. Positioning gets you chosen."

Salesforce's category is CRM. Their positioning (originally) was "no software" — cloud-based instead of installed. Category established comparison. Positioning established preference.

The Relationship

Category comes first. You can't position within a category you haven't established.

If users don't know you're a CRM, telling them you're the best CRM is meaningless. They have no reference frame.

The sequence: 1. Establish category (what shelf) 2. Establish position (why this one) 3. Reinforce both consistently

Skip step one, and step two is wasted.

Creating a Category

Sometimes the right category doesn't exist.

Notion didn't fit into "note-taking app" or "project management." It needed a new shelf: "connected workspace."

Creating categories is risky but can be powerful.

Christopher Lochhead, co-author of Play Bigger, advocates for category design: "If you can create and dominate a new category, you capture disproportionate value. But you have to teach the market what the category is."

"Brand foundry" isn't an established category. But it's more memorable than "branding tool." The work is teaching users what it means.

"New categories require more explanation. You're not just saying why you're different. You're explaining what you are."

Only create a category if the existing ones actively misrepresent you.

Choosing the Right Category

The right category is the one where your differentiation matters.

If you position against "email tools," you're competing with Gmail and Outlook. Hard.

If you position against "email tools for customer support teams," you're competing with a smaller set. Easier to differentiate.

April Dunford calls this "category positioning": "You want to be a big fish in a small pond. Choose the pond where your strengths matter most."

The narrower the category, the easier the positioning. But the smaller the initial market.

This is a tradeoff. There's no right answer. Just a choice you have to make.

The Vox Animus Example

Category: Brand foundry for indie builders.

Not "branding tool" (too broad, competes with Canva). Not "brand strategy agency" (wrong format entirely). A specific thing for a specific audience.

Position: Structures intent into enforceable schemas you can paste into AI tools.

This differentiates from agencies (no meetings, no revisions) and from AI copywriters (structured output, not word salad).

"Category and positioning work together. Neither is optional."

When explaining Vox Animus, category comes first: "It's a brand foundry." Then position: "It forges your product intent into constraints you can actually use."

Category-Position Statement

Try combining them in one sentence:

"[Product] is a [category] for [audience]. Unlike [alternatives], it [positioning]."

Stripe: "Stripe is financial infrastructure for the internet. Unlike traditional payment processors, it's built for developers first."

Linear: "Linear is issue tracking for high-performance teams. Unlike Jira, it's fast, keyboard-first, and opinionated."

Your turn.

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Ready to define your category and position? Try the Vox Animus demo to build your Brand Schema.