Positioning means deliberately (and strategically) defining how your brand / product is the best at something that a defined market cares a lot about, in the context that market can easily get it.

It serves as the context-setting mechanism for your brand or product (or service), determining how prospects understand your unique role, relevance, and value.

Story99.com is a Storytelling Consultancy for B2B, Tech & Deeptech.

</aside>

1. Market & Competitive Positioning (Defining the Space & Opponent)

This category focuses outward. It establishes the boundaries of the market you operate in and dictates exactly how you interact with competitors.

Sub-Type	Focus	Pros	Cons	Best Use-Case
Category Creation	Defining a new market space	Absolute market leadership	High cost of market education	Radically new, paradigm-shifting products
Head to Head	Beating the leader at their own game	Market already understands the product	Brutal competition against giants	Unclaimed markets or demonstrably superior products
Repositioning Competitors	Shifting the opponent's perception	Makes competitors look obsolete	Can backfire if misjudged	Commoditized, "sea of sameness" markets

<aside> 🔔

Subscribe to https://learnstory99.substack.com/ where we notify you when we update our existing frameworks and insights around storytelling, marketing and brand-building.

</aside>

1.1 Category Creation (Create a New Game)

Focus: Inventing a completely new market space to avoid direct competition entirely. You sell the market on the problem before selling your solution.
Example: Eloqua coined the term "marketing automation" when investors and analysts couldn't understand how they fit into existing email or demand generation categories.
Pros: You get to design the purchase criteria to perfectly match your own strengths, virtually guaranteeing market leadership.
Cons: Extremely difficult, expensive, and slow, as you must educate the market from scratch.
Best Use-Case: Companies with deep pockets, patient investors, and a product that is demonstrably and inarguably different from anything in existing categories.

1.2 Head-to-Head (Competitive Positioning)

Focus: Competing directly against established competitors within a well-understood category to win on established buying criteria.
Example: Avis positioning itself directly against the market leader, Hertz, with "We try harder because we are No. 2".
Pros: Buyers already understand the market, the product, and why it is needed; no market education is required.
Cons: You must fiercely battle powerful incumbents who already dominate the space.