A Positioning Statement is a tool that helps you to define what your business is about in terms that are relevnt to your customers and that differentiate you from your competitors - really, it defines what marketing is about.

Positioning is about the position you take in the mind of your customer - what you want them to think about you/your business/your brand.  The Positioning Statement is a useful technique that helps you position your business against your competitors.

It's for internal use within a business rather than something that can be used directly to promote the business to the outside world - don't use it on your web site or in your brochures.  It's much better used as a touchstone for your business decisions.

To come to your Positioning Statement, you need to answer seven simple questions:

1. Who are you?  This is simply your company/brand name and is usually the first and easiest question to answer - unless your doing this exercise for a brand new business, in which case the rest of the questions often inform the naming decision.
2. What business are you in?  Think about what problems you solve or aspirations you meet rather than just an industry sector.
3. For whom?  Your target market.
4. What need is met?  A more specific take question 2.
5. Against what competition?  Who else is serving that need (it might not necessarily be with the same type of product or service).
6. What is different about the way we do it?  Think in terms of what is also valued by your customers - we're talking USP or ESP here.
7. And what is the benefit to the customer/client?

Check the Positioning Statement that you arrive at by answering these questions against the following point to see how robust your postion will be.

• Important: it will be highly valued by a significant number of customers;
• Distinctive: it will not be offered by others or will be delivered in a distinctive way;
• Superior: it will be superior to other ways of obtaining the same benefit;
• Communicable: it will be easily communicated and visible to customers;
• Pre-emptive: it will be difficult for competitors to copy;
• Affordable: the customer will be able to afford to pay for the difference that the positioning makes;
• Profitable: you will be able to take that position in a way that makes you money.

Think about what you want to achieve by clarifying your position:

• Is it to strengthen your place in the market?
• Is it grab a new, unoccupied market position?
• Is it to de-position or re-position the competition and take what they think should be their space?

The Positioning Statement is a useful way of focusing attention and effort on the things that are strategically signficant to a business, defining not only what the business is but also what it is not.