# Sharp Edges: Brand Positioning

These are the positioning mistakes that doom brands to mediocrity or death. Each edge represents millions wasted on brands that never connected.

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## 1. The "Something for Everyone" Trap

**Severity:** Critical

**The Trap:**
"Our brand appeals to everyone who needs [broad category]."

Your positioning tries to be universally appealing. You avoid strong stances because you don't want to alienate anyone. Your messaging is generic and forgettable.

**Why It Happens:**
Fear of leaving money on the table. Stakeholders want broad appeal. "Everyone" feels bigger than "someone." Research shows people "like" your generic messaging (but liking doesn't mean buying or remembering).

**The Fix:**
Positioning is about sacrifice. Define who you're NOT for. The tighter your positioning, the more magnetic you become to your actual audience. Volvo doesn't say "we make good cars" - they own "safety." They sacrificed "sporty," "luxury," and "economical" to own one word.

**Detection Pattern:**
- Positioning uses words like "innovative," "quality," "best-in-class"
- Target audience is demographic (millennials) not psychographic (aspiring achievers frustrated by...)
- Can't complete: "We're the only X that Y"
- Messaging could apply to any competitor

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## 2. The Feature-as-Position Fallacy

**Severity:** High

**The Trap:**
"We're positioned as the fastest/cheapest/most feature-rich."

You position on a feature that competitors can copy tomorrow. Your "differentiation" is a temporary technical advantage, not a defensible mental position.

**Why It Happens:**
Features are tangible and easy to communicate. Engineers and product people love features. It feels substantive compared to "soft" emotional positioning.

**The Fix:**
Features support positions; they don't create them. Apple isn't positioned on specs - they're positioned on "think different" and design elegance. Specs support that story. Position on something competitors can't easily claim even if they copy features: heritage, origin story, philosophy, audience they serve, category they defined.

**Detection Pattern:**
- Positioning statement leads with feature
- Competitor could make same claim with minor changes
- Position would be invalidated by competitor's feature update
- No emotional or identity component

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## 3. The Category Prisoner

**Severity:** High

**The Trap:**
You accept the existing category definition and compete within it. You're "another CRM" or "another project management tool." You fight for share of a pie others defined.

**Why It Happens:**
Existing categories feel safe. Customers already have budgets for categories. Analysts have quadrants for categories. Creating new categories feels risky and requires education.

**The Fix:**
If you can't be #1 or #2 in an existing category, create a new one. Salesforce didn't compete in "enterprise software" - they created "cloud CRM." Drift didn't compete in "live chat" - they created "conversational marketing." Category design is the most powerful positioning lever.

**Detection Pattern:**
- Brand described as "X, but better"
- Competing in established analyst category
- Differentiation is incremental, not categorical
- Fighting on competitor's terms

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## 4. The Internal Positioning Delusion

**Severity:** High

**The Trap:**
Your positioning was created in a conference room by executives. It reflects what you want to be, not what customers believe. There's a massive gap between your brand aspiration and market perception.

**Why It Happens:**
Positioning exercises often exclude customers. Leadership's vision isn't tested against reality. Internal consensus creates groupthink. Nobody wants to admit the market sees you differently than you see yourself.

**The Fix:**
Positioning must be grounded in customer truth. Interview customers about why they chose you (in their words, not yours). Listen for the mental categories they put you in. Your positioning should articulate what customers already feel, not convince them of something new.

**Detection Pattern:**
- Positioning created without customer research
- Customers describe brand differently than internal materials
- High disconnect between brand promise and reviews/testimonials
- Positioning feels aspirational rather than actual

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## 5. The Repositioning Whiplash

**Severity:** High

**The Trap:**
Your brand changes positioning every 1-2 years. New CMO, new agency, new position. The market never forms a clear impression because you keep changing the story.

**Why It Happens:**
Impatience - positioning takes years to cement. New leadership wants to make their mark. Results aren't immediate, so position is blamed. Shiny new ideas feel better than consistent execution.

**The Fix:**
Great positioning takes 5-10 years of consistent execution to own. BMW has been "The Ultimate Driving Machine" since 1975. Commit to a position and defend it through multiple economic cycles, leadership changes, and competitive pressures. Change execution, not position.

**Detection Pattern:**
- Different taglines across brand assets
- Positioning changes with leadership
- Agency changeover triggers repositioning
- Customers confused about "what you stand for"

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## 6. The Functional-Only Position

**Severity:** Medium

**The Trap:**
Your positioning is entirely rational: speeds, feeds, features, price. You ignore the emotional and identity dimensions of brand choice.

**Why It Happens:**
B2B bias that buyers are "rational." Technical founders uncomfortable with emotion. Functional benefits are measurable and defensible.

**The Fix:**
Even B2B buyers are humans. They care about looking good to their boss, reducing career risk, feeling smart. Add emotional and identity layers to functional positioning. "IBM: Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM" is emotional positioning disguised as functional.

**Detection Pattern:**
- Positioning has no emotional or aspirational element
- All proof points are rational/quantitative
- No sense of what customer becomes by choosing you
- Brand feels cold or interchangeable

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## 7. The Commodity Spiral

**Severity:** Critical

**The Trap:**
You compete primarily on price. You've trained customers that you're the "cheap option." You have no margin and no loyalty - customers leave for the next cheaper option.

**Why It Happens:**
Price competition feels like the path of least resistance. Low price is easy to communicate. Short-term sales respond to discounts.

**The Fix:**
Price is the last refuge of the undifferentiated. Find any other dimension to compete on. Southwest doesn't compete on price alone - they compete on personality and simplicity. Dollar Shave Club didn't win on price - they won on convenience and irreverence. If you must be low-price, position it as philosophy ("democratizing access") not desperation.

**Detection Pattern:**
- Primary message is price or discount
- No clear answer to "why choose you at same price?"
- Customers describe you as "the cheap one"
- Margin pressure year over year

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## 8. The Borrowed Interest Positioning

**Severity:** Medium

**The Trap:**
Your positioning relies on a trend, celebrity, or cultural moment that isn't intrinsic to your brand. When the trend passes, your position evaporates.

**Why It Happens:**
Trends feel urgent and relevant. Borrowed interest provides shortcut to attention. It's easier than building genuine differentiation.

**The Fix:**
Build positioning on enduring truths about your customer, not temporary cultural moments. Trends can amplify positioning but shouldn't define it. If you removed the trend, would your positioning still make sense?

**Detection Pattern:**
- Positioning relies heavily on current trend
- Would feel dated in 3 years
- Connection to trend is superficial
- Underlying brand truth is unclear

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## 9. The Literal Positioning

**Severity:** Medium

**The Trap:**
Your positioning describes what you do, not what you mean. "We help businesses manage their customer data" instead of "We help you know your customers like friends."

**Why It Happens:**
Literal feels safe and accurate. Fear that metaphorical positioning is fluffy or unclear. Over-indexing on accuracy over memorability.

**The Fix:**
Positioning should create a mental picture and emotional response. "1,000 songs in your pocket" beats "5GB MP3 player." "Think different" beats "computers for creative professionals." Find the metaphor or transformation that captures your meaning, not just your function.

**Detection Pattern:**
- Positioning reads like a dictionary definition
- No metaphor or transformation language
- Describes category, not unique meaning
- Forgettable in 5 seconds

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## 10. The Positioning-Execution Gap

**Severity:** High

**The Trap:**
Your positioning says one thing, but your product/experience says another. You claim "premium" but your UX is clunky. You claim "simple" but require 12-step onboarding.

**Why It Happens:**
Positioning is done by marketing, execution by product. No enforcement mechanism. Wishful positioning untethered from reality.

**The Fix:**
Positioning must be true today, not just aspirational. Every touchpoint must reinforce the position. If you position on "simple," your billing page must be simple. Create a "position guard" - someone who rejects anything that contradicts the position.

**Detection Pattern:**
- Customer complaints contradict positioning
- Product team unfamiliar with brand position
- Touchpoints designed without positioning input
- NPS comments don't reflect desired position

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## 11. The Differentiation That Doesn't Matter

**Severity:** High

**The Trap:**
You've found something unique about your brand, but customers don't care about that dimension. "We're the only CRM built on Rust!" Cool, but do customers value that?

**Why It Happens:**
Internal excitement about technical choices. Confusing unique with valuable. Not validating differentiation with customers.

**The Fix:**
Differentiation must be on a dimension customers actually care about. Use the "So what?" test. Keep asking "so what?" until you reach a customer benefit they'd pay for. "Built on Rust" → "So what?" → "Faster" → "So what?" → "Less waiting, more doing" → Now you have a position.

**Detection Pattern:**
- Differentiation is technical or internal
- "So what?" can't be answered in customer terms
- Unique claim doesn't appear in buying criteria
- Customers unimpressed by differentiator

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## 12. The Heritage Hostage

**Severity:** Medium

**The Trap:**
Your positioning is trapped by your history. "We've always been the X company." Even when the market has moved, you cling to historical positioning that no longer resonates.

**Why It Happens:**
Heritage feels valuable and authentic. Fear of losing existing customers. Sunk cost in existing brand equity.

**The Fix:**
Honor heritage but don't be imprisoned by it. Evolve the position to remain relevant. Apple went from "computers for creatives" to "the intersection of technology and liberal arts" to "empowering everyone to create." The thread is there, but it evolved.

**Detection Pattern:**
- Positioning unchanged for 10+ years despite market shifts
- Younger customers don't relate to positioning
- Heritage celebrated but not evolved
- Relevance declining in core metrics
