# Brand Positioning > Product positioning, customer-research-driven messaging and website copy, and brand identity briefs, informed by the work of April Dunford, Georgiana Laudi, Claire Suellentrop, Michael Johnson and Alina Wheeler. Use when positioning or repositioning a product, choosing a market category or target segment, planning customer or JTBD research, writing or rewriting homepage, landing-page or sales copy, a value proposition or tagline, naming a product or company, briefing a rebrand, logo, visual identity or brand architecture decision, or critiquing existing positioning, messaging, a name or a brand against expert criteria. Not for ad campaigns, SEO, or channel/growth tactics. - Skill: `connorads/brand-positioning` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 5 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add connorads/brand-positioning` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/connorads/brand-positioning/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Marketing & Growth - Author: connorads (https://skillmd.com/u/connorads) - Updated: 2026-09-09 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/connorads/brand-positioning --- # Brand positioning Every brand artefact sits on three layers: > **EVIDENCE** (what best customers actually did and said) > → **STRATEGY** (positioning, the chosen Job, brand definition - derived from > evidence in a fixed order) > → **EXPRESSION** (copy, name, visual identity - expressing the strategy). Work **downward** only; critique **upward** - a fault at one layer usually originates one layer up. Filling in a template with assumptions is the failure mode every framework here exists to prevent. Whenever a downstream decision feels arbitrary, the upstream step was skipped: go back up. ## Standing rules (hold for the whole session) 1. **Never output the classic one-sentence positioning-statement template** ("For [target], X is a [category] that…") as a positioning deliverable. It records assumptions instead of testing them; deliver a positioning canvas instead. The sales-story category line (messaging.md §2) is a downstream expression of already-derived positioning and is allowed. 2. **Derive positioning strictly in order**: competitive alternatives → unique attributes → value (with proof) → who cares most → market category → optional trend. Starting anywhere else imports a frame customers don't share. 3. **"Competitor" means what best customers would actually do if the product vanished** - often a spreadsheet, manual work, an intern, or nothing. 4. **Real data or declared hypothesis.** Ask the user for customer research, reviews, or support transcripts before generating; never invent customer or competitor facts. If no evidence exists, label every customer-dependent element a hypothesis and name the research step that would validate it. 5. **Research ecstatic recent customers only**; questions open-ended and about past behaviour, never opinion or hypotheticals. Customers' verbatim words become the copy. 6. **One at a time**: one prioritised Job, one gateway value first, one big idea with at most three key messages - a coursed meal, not a buffet. 7. **Strategy before expression**: agreed meaning before any name, mark, or copy is shown. Naming and architecture sit *between* strategy and design - keep the narrative unlocked until design talks back. 8. **Strategy scenarios and design routes come as options: 3-5 genuinely distinct scenarios or 2-3 routes differentiated by idea** - never one option, never a safe→radical spectrum, never merged mash-ups. This governs brand-strategy and design-route deliverables (brand-identity.md); the positioning canvas is a single evidence-derived artefact, and page copy derives singly from the master messaging document (taglines are the exception - messaging.md §7). 9. **Provable claims only.** "Easy to use" and "great support" are values in disguise: find the provable mechanism behind them or drop the claim. 10. **Positioning is a pricing and roadmap decision**, and the customer story ≠ the investor story (disruption language frightens buyers). Flag when marketing runs positioning without the business owner, and state adoption ownership in every deliverable. ## Routing | Task involves… | Read | |---|---| | Positioning or repositioning, market category choice, competitive alternatives, target segment, positioning canvas, repositioning triggers | [references/positioning.md](references/positioning.md) | | Planning or analysing customer/JTBD research, interview scripts, survey design, choosing the priority Job | [references/customer-research.md](references/customer-research.md) | | Homepage/landing/sales copy, value propositions, messaging docs, the sales story, taglines, tone of voice | [references/messaging.md](references/messaging.md) | | Brand strategy/definition: purpose, values, personality, big idea; naming, rebrand or logo briefs, visual identity direction, brand architecture, design route selection | [references/brand-identity.md](references/brand-identity.md) | Most real tasks read two files: the layer being produced plus its upstream layer (copy → messaging + customer-research; positioning → positioning + customer-research; brand identity → brand-identity + positioning). Multi-part tasks work the table top-down. ## Critique mode When reviewing an existing artefact: 1. Identify its layer and run the **Critique checklist** at the end of the matching reference. Findings cite the violated criterion, the observed evidence, and a concrete fix, ranked by severity - never general impressions or taste. 2. Trace one layer upstream: does this copy rest on a chosen Job and a positioning? Does this positioning rest on real alternatives from real customers? **A missing upstream layer is the primary finding.** 3. If no research sits behind the review, say so: the verdicts are structural, not empirical. The stranger test - pitch it to someone with no context and watch where they stall - is the cheapest empirical check. Symptom cues for routing: prospects can't parse the product, price pressure, long sales cycles → positioning.md. Page converts poorly or reads generic → messaging.md. Doubts about a name, mark, or architecture → brand-identity.md. ## Scope boundary This is not a channel or growth-tactics playbook: tactics without customer insight is petri-dish marketing. If asked for tactics, first check a prioritised Job exists; if not, route to customer-research.md.