Write a Positioning Statement That Actually Works

A good positioning statement makes people say "Oh, I get it." A bad one makes them say "So what exactly do you do?"

Most positioning statements are bad.

The Problem With Vague Positioning

"We help businesses optimize their workflows."

This says nothing. It could describe a hundred thousand products. It creates no mental image. It doesn't stick.

April Dunford, author of Obviously Awesome, calls this "curse of knowledge" positioning: "Founders assume everyone understands what they do because they understand it so deeply. The result is vague statements that feel complete inside and empty outside."

"Vague positioning is worse than no positioning. It actively makes people forget you."

When everything sounds the same, nothing is memorable.

The Formula

A positioning statement answers four questions in one sentence:

1. Who is this for? (The specific audience) 2. What category is it? (What kind of thing is it) 3. What's different? (Why this instead of alternatives) 4. What do they get? (The outcome that matters)

The formula: "[Product] is a [category] for [audience] who [struggle]. Unlike [alternatives], [product] [key differentiator] so you can [outcome]."

This structure forces specificity. You can't be vague when every word has a job.

Example: Vox Animus

"Vox Animus is a brand foundry for indie builders who shipped something real but generic. Unlike branding agencies or AI copywriters, it structures product intent into an enforceable Brand Schema you can paste directly into your tools."

Let's break it down:

- Category: Brand foundry (we created this category) - Audience: Indie builders who shipped something real but generic - Struggle: Their product looks generic - Alternatives: Branding agencies, AI copywriters - Differentiator: Structures intent into enforceable schema - Outcome: Paste directly into your tools

"Every word does work. Nothing is vague."

Real-World Examples

Stripe

"Financial infrastructure for the internet."

Six words. Perfect clarity. They chose "infrastructure" (category), "financial" (what kind), and "the internet" (scale) with precision.

Linear

"Software project tracking built for high-performance teams."

They're not for everyone. They're for "high-performance teams." The exclusion is the positioning.

Notion

"The all-in-one workspace for your notes, tasks, wikis, and databases."

Specific about what it contains. "All-in-one workspace" creates category. The list creates comprehension.

The Specificity Test

Read your positioning statement out loud. After each phrase, ask: "Could my competitor say the same thing?"

If yes, the phrase is too vague. Rewrite it.

"We help businesses" passes to every competitor. Useless.

"For indie builders who shipped something real but generic" describes a specific person. Competitors might not even want this audience.

"Specificity excludes. That exclusion is the positioning."

Geoffrey Moore, author of Crossing the Chasm, recommends the "enemy test": if your positioning doesn't create enemies, it won't create friends either.

Common Mistakes

Too Broad Audience

"For businesses" or "For teams" means nothing. Who specifically?

Superhuman targeted "people who live in their inbox" — specific enough to imagine.

Missing Struggle

"For developers" vs "For developers who can't explain what they built." The struggle creates emotional connection.

The struggle is often more important than the category.

Weak Differentiator

"Better" or "faster" aren't differentiators. What do you do that others literally don't?

Figma's differentiator was real-time collaboration. At the time, no competitor offered it.

Outcome Too Abstract

"So you can succeed" is meaningless. What specific thing can they now do?

Vox Animus: "you can paste directly into your tools." That's concrete.

The One-Sentence Constraint

Positioning must fit in one sentence. Not a paragraph. One sentence.

This forces tough choices. You can't include everything. You have to decide what matters most.

"The constraint is the point. If you can't explain your product in one sentence, you haven't figured out what it is."

Andy Raskin, who advises companies on strategic narratives, pushes for even more compression: "If your positioning needs context to make sense, it isn't positioning yet."

Write, Then Iterate

Your first positioning statement will be wrong. That's fine.

Write it. Read it aloud. Apply the specificity test. Rewrite the vague parts. Repeat until every word earns its place.

The final statement becomes your anchor. Every marketing asset references it. Every explanation starts from it.

Get this right, and everything else becomes easier.

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Ready to write your positioning? Try the Vox Animus demo to structure your brand from the ground up.