Positioning Statement Template
The classic six-part sentence: for whom, what, unlike whom, and why you.
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For [target customer] who [statement of need], [our product or service] is [what it does that matters]. Unlike [the main alternative], we [the difference that matters].
The parts, separately
| For | [target customer] |
| Who | [their need] |
| Our offer is | [category] |
| That | [key benefit] |
| Unlike | [alternative] |
| We | [differentiator] |
What is a Positioning Statement?
A positioning statement is one sentence naming who the product is for, what category it sits in, the single benefit it delivers and why that is believable, usually alongside the alternative it is chosen over. It matters because it is the reference every other piece of copy is written against. Without one, the homepage, the sales deck and the pitch to an investor each describe a slightly different product, and nobody notices until a customer does.
Founders write one before commissioning a website. Product marketers write one per product line so that campaigns stop contradicting each other. Agencies ask for one on day one and write it themselves if the client cannot supply it. It is the document you return to after a pivot, when half the team is still describing the old product. It is internal: its job is to settle an argument among the people who write the customer-facing words, not to be one of them.
The moment any part of it becomes public, advertising rules apply, and they differ by market. Comparative and superlative claims — the only, the fastest, unlike any other — need substantiation under the CAP Code in the UK, FTC advertising rules in the US, the ASCI code in India, the Australian Consumer Law, and national implementations of the EU unfair commercial practices rules. There is also a trade mark question: the category word you choose may be someone's registered mark in your market. Have both checked before the sentence leaves the building.
It is not a tagline. Taglines are short and evocative; a positioning statement is long, plain and slightly awkward by design, because it is a working definition rather than a piece of copy. It is not a mission statement, which is about the organisation rather than the buyer. And it does not fix a product problem: if the honest version of the sentence is unconvincing, the answer is a change to the product or the target customer, not a better adjective.
What to put in a Positioning Statement
These are the details this template asks for. Anything left blank is marked in red on the preview so you can see what is still missing.
| Field | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Business name | For example: Barton Supply Co. |
| Your address | For example: Unit 7, Barton Road, Columbus, OH 43212 |
| For (target customer) | For example: independent builders and joiners running small jobs |
| Who (need) | For example: need materials in small quantities without a three-day wait |
| Our product is | For example: a trade counter and next-day delivery service |
| That (key benefit) | For example: stocks and picks specifically for orders under twenty units |
| Unlike (competitor) | For example: the national merchants |
| We (differentiator) | For example: make small orders profitable to serve, so we actually want them |
How to write a Positioning Statement
Name a customer specific enough to list
The target has to be narrow enough that you could produce an actual list of organisations or people who match it. 'Independent veterinary practices with two to six vets' passes that test. 'Businesses that want to grow' excludes nobody, guides no channel choice, and is the version that gets written when the team has not yet decided anything.
Use the category the buyer already searches for
Name the shelf your buyer already looks on. Inventing a category means paying to teach the market what it means, which is a strategy some companies choose deliberately and most adopt by accident. If buyers type 'appointment reminder software', that is your category, however much more interesting your internal description of it happens to be.
Choose one benefit, not a bundle
Pick the single outcome the buyer would most miss if it disappeared, and leave the rest for the feature page. Three benefits joined by 'and' produce a homepage headline that never gets written, because there is no way to lead with all three. The discipline of choosing is the whole exercise; the sentence is just where the choice is recorded.
Name the real alternative, including doing nothing
Write what the buyer does today if they do not choose you: a named competitor, a spreadsheet, a manual process, an agency, or nothing at all. The alternative determines what has to be argued. Displacing a spreadsheet needs a different case from displacing a paid rival, and confusing the two is why messaging aimed at the wrong opponent falls flat.
Add a reason to believe you could prove
End with the mechanism or the evidence that makes the benefit credible: how it works, an independent certification, a published result, a guarantee you honour. 'Because our platform is best-in-class' is not a reason to believe, it is the same claim restated. If nothing survives this step, you have found the real gap in the positioning.
Common mistakes
- Writing a target customer so broad that nobody is excluded leaves the sentence unable to guide a single channel, headline or feature decision.
- Choosing a category name that nobody searches for hides the product from exactly the buyers who were most ready to purchase it.
- Stacking three benefits with an and guarantees the homepage headline is written by whoever gets to it first, using whichever benefit they personally prefer.
- Publishing a superlative from the statement without substantiation turns an internal working sentence into an advertising claim you may be asked to prove.
- Treating the statement as a tagline and putting it on the homepage produces the clunky, over-qualified sentence that positioning statements exist to prevent.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between positioning and a value proposition?
Positioning is where you sit relative to the alternatives: the category, the target and the point of difference. A value proposition states the benefit to the customer in their terms, and is usually written closer to the words a buyer would use. Positioning is the decision; the value proposition is one expression of it. Both are internal reference points rather than final copy.
Is the classic six-part template still worth using?
As a drafting device, yes. Forcing yourself to complete for, who, the, that, unlike and because exposes exactly which of the six you have not decided. The output is not copy and should never be published as written. Once the six are settled the sentence has done its job, and the marketing team can write freely against it.
How specific should the target customer be?
Specific enough to build a target list, and no broader. Most teams under-narrow, because narrowing feels like turning away revenue. In practice the narrow statement wins more of the segment it names than the broad one wins of everybody, and it can always be widened later once the first segment is genuinely well served.
Can we have more than one positioning statement?
One per product line, or per distinct segment where the alternative and the benefit genuinely differ. What you cannot have is two competing statements for the same product aimed at the same buyer, because then the sales deck and the website will diverge. If two are needed, write down which audience each applies to at the top of the page.
Who signs off a positioning statement?
Whoever is accountable for revenue on that product, with input from sales, product and support. It is not a marketing-only document, because sales will be the first to notice if the sentence does not survive contact with a buyer. Fix a review date at the same time, and revisit after any pricing, product or market change.
This page explains general practice and is not legal advice. Requirements differ between countries and, in some cases, between states — check what applies where the document will be used.