Positioning statement examples: a template, a real case and 5 rewrites

A positioning statement is an internal sentence that names who you serve, what they would use without you, and why you win. You need one the moment you sit down to brief an ad agency and someone asks "what is our positioning?"

Most lists of positioning statement examples are guesses at famous brands. Below you get Geoffrey Moore's template, the order to fill it in, one documented case and five illustrative rewrites.

What a positioning statement is, and what it is not

A positioning statement records a decision your team has made about the market. It is not a tagline and not ad copy. Nobody outside the company needs to read it.

April Dunford, author of Obviously Awesome, defines the idea in her quickstart guide to positioning: "Positioning defines how your product is a leader at delivering something that a well-defined set of customers cares a lot about." Read "leader" narrowly: you lead for a defined group, not the whole market.

The format most teams start from is Geoffrey Moore's template. Stanford's Technology Entrepreneurship course notes give it in this wording:

For (target customer) who (statement of the need or opportunity), the (product/service name) is a (product/service category) that (statement of benefit). Unlike (primary competitive alternative), our product (statement of primary differentiation).

Besides the product name, that gives six slots. Each one is a choice, and each choice rules something out.

Keep three terms apart. The positioning statement is for your team. A value proposition is the customer-facing promise built from it. A tagline is the few words on the homepage or the ad. Write the statement first, before anyone opens a design file.

How to write a positioning statement in Dunford's order

Read the template left to right, but fill it in a different order. Dunford's guide says "the starting point had to be competitive alternatives". From there she moves to capabilities, value, customers and, last, the market category.

Dunford explains the order by what went wrong without it: "positioning that sounded good in the office, but it didn't work with customers because it wasn't differentiated." Starting from the alternative forces the comparison buyers actually make.

Step 1: competitive alternatives

Ask what customers would do if your product did not exist. Dunford notes that "Sometimes the answer to that question is 'Do nothing.'" In practice: "That could mean using a spreadsheet, using a manual process, or hiring an intern to do it."

The status quo is a real rival. Dunford writes that in her enterprise software work, "we typically lose 25% of deals to 'no decision.'" Treat that as her experience, not a benchmark for your market.

Leave out phantom competitors, which she describes as companies "you just never actually see" in deals or lose to. Pull the real answer from lost-deal notes and from sales calls where you asked "what do you use today?"

Step 2: differentiated capabilities

Dunford's next question is "What do we have that the alternatives do not?" List capabilities, not adjectives. Check the list against usage data: a capability retained customers never touch does not belong in the statement.

Step 3: value for customers

For each capability, ask Dunford's "So what for customers?" The answer is an outcome in the buyer's words. A product-market fit survey is a good source. Copy the main benefit that "very disappointed" users name, in their phrasing.

Step 4: target customers

Now find "who are the customers that care a lot about our value", in Dunford's words. Compare retention and churn reasons by segment, and check which segment gave the most "very disappointed" answers in that survey. Pick the group that stays and pays, even if it is smaller than you hoped.

Step 5: market category

Choose the category last, once you know what it has to make obvious.

The category slot decides what buyers compare you with. Dunford's guide frames the choice: "you can either choose to position your product in an existing market category or attempt to create a new category in customers' minds".

Her example of a narrowed existing category is "embeddable database for mobile devices". Buyers already know what a database is, and the qualifier says who it is for. A new category carries a cost: "you first have to make the category mean something in the customer's mind before it can serve as a meaningful context."

For a startup, a qualifier on an existing category is the cheaper path. You borrow the buyer's understanding and spend your budget on the difference, as Janna Systems did in the case below with CRM for investment banks.

Write three category candidates. Read each to a recent buyer and ask what they would compare it with.

A real example, before and after: Janna Systems

A documented case comes from Dunford's own career. In the same quickstart guide, she recalls running marketing for a company "that positioned its product as an Enterprise CRM."

The leader in that market was Siebel Systems, and every meeting brought the same question: "So how are you better than Siebel?" The gap was stark: "They had 400 customers and we had 6."

Janna's difference was technical: "we could model relationships in a different way." The value showed up with an investment bank customer: companies "could get insight into interpersonal relationships that sales teams could use to start new sales conversations and understand who might have influence over a deal in process."

Dunford writes: "We shifted our sales and marketing efforts on selling to investment banks, where we had a distinct advantage over Siebel." The new category followed: "we could win CRM for Investment Banks." Over the next 18 months, she reports, the company grew "from under $2M to close to $80M."

Read that as one company's account, told by the person who ran its marketing. Sales and marketing changed together, so do not credit the statement alone with the growth.

Before, written in Moore's template from Dunford's account (our reconstruction, not her wording):

For enterprises that need to manage customer relationships, Janna is an enterprise CRM that handles whatever a sales organization needs. Unlike Siebel, our product models relationships in a different way.

After, again our reconstruction in Moore's template from Dunford's account:

For investment banks whose deals depend on who knows whom, Janna is a CRM for investment banks that gives sales teams insight into interpersonal relationships, so they start new conversations and see who has influence over a deal. Unlike Siebel, our product models relationships in a different way.

Compare the two Unlike lines: they are identical. The rewrite kept the difference and changed who it was for.

Positioning statement examples by business type (illustrative)

The five pairs below are illustrative. We wrote them for this guide: they name no company and claim no results. Each pair ends with the fault the rewrite fixes.

B2B SaaS: scheduling for dental groups

Weak (illustrative):

For businesses of all sizes, [Product] is the leading scheduling platform that saves you time. Unlike other tools, our product is easy to use.

Stronger (illustrative):

For multi-location dental clinics that book by phone and track chairs in spreadsheets, [Product] is scheduling software for dental groups that fills open chairs across every location. Unlike spreadsheets and phone booking, our product shows each location's free chairs live and lets patients rebook online.

Fault fixed: everyone as the customer, "leading" as the claim, and an alternative nobody names.

Mobile subscription app: budgeting for freelancers

Weak (illustrative):

For people who want to manage money, [App] is a next-generation finance app powered by AI. Unlike the big banks, our product has better features.

Stronger (illustrative):

For freelancers with irregular monthly income, [App] is a budgeting app for variable income that sets aside tax and rent from each payment. Unlike a spreadsheet updated at month end, our product splits every payment the day it lands.

Fault fixed: a rival the buyer never weighs you against, and "better features" in place of a benefit.

AI tool: security questionnaires for sales teams

Weak (illustrative):

For teams, [Tool] is an AI-native knowledge orchestration platform built on advanced models. Unlike legacy tools, our product is built for the AI era.

Stronger (illustrative):

For B2B SaaS sales teams that answer security questionnaires before enterprise deals, [Tool] is a questionnaire answering tool that drafts answers from your past responses and policies. Unlike a shared sheet of old answers, our product hands the security lead a draft to review.

Fault fixed: a made-up category and a technology claim with no customer value.

E-commerce brand: work shoes for hospital staff

Weak (illustrative):

For everyone who cares about comfort, [Brand] makes the best shoes on the market. Unlike big sportswear brands, our shoes are high quality.

Stronger (illustrative):

For nurses with wide feet who stand through long shifts, [Brand] is a wide-fit work shoe brand that keeps feet comfortable to the end of a shift. Unlike generic sneakers bought a size up, our shoes are built on a wide last with slip-resistant soles.

Fault fixed: superlatives, and quality as a difference every rival also claims.

Service business: bookkeeping for multichannel sellers

Weak (illustrative):

For companies that want growth, [Firm] is a full-service partner offering end-to-end solutions. Unlike other agencies, we deliver results.

Stronger (illustrative):

For online stores selling on several marketplaces whose margins stay unclear until the quarter closes, [Firm] is a bookkeeping service for multichannel sellers that reports margin by product and channel every month. Unlike a general accountant working from bank statements, we reconcile marketplace payouts, fees and refunds line by line.

Fault fixed: no defined customer, no real alternative, and promised results in place of a mechanism.

Each stronger version names a narrow group, an alternative the buyer already uses, and a difference you could show in a demo.

Test the statement before it reaches ads

A positioning statement is a hypothesis until buyers and funnel data confirm it. Run these checks before it shapes copy or targeting.

• Read it to five recent buyers or lost prospects. Ask them to correct it, and note every word they change.
• Match the alternative. The "unlike" slot should name what buyers say they used before. If it does not, go back to step 1.
• Turn it into one landing page hero and one ad angle. If it does not translate into a headline, it is still too abstract.
• Judge by signups that activate. Clicks reward curiosity. Activated signups show the right people arrived, the test our SaaS landing page guide uses.
• Revisit when lost-deal reasons change. A new reason in your loss notes means the alternative has moved.

Once it passes, the statement becomes step one of your SaaS go-to-market strategy. Channels, pricing and message follow from it.

Kreto's Peerbie work shows positioning inside a wider program. The case page lists three parts of the work: a product-led growth engine, AI feature launches and positioning Peerbie as an AI-first workspace. Together they drove $500K in revenue and 150% customer growth. Those results belong to the whole program, not the positioning line. We run positioning as product marketing work tied to launches and the funnel.

Common mistakes

• Writing the tagline first. A catchy line written before the decision locks in a position nobody chose.
• Filling the template in a workshop. Opinions in a room produce the statement that only works in the office.
• Choosing the alternative your investors mention. Buyers compare you with what they use today.
• Squeezing two segments into one statement. Decide which group comes first, or write two statements.
• Leaving the statement in a document. If the homepage, ads and deck say something else, it is not your positioning.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a positioning statement and a value proposition?

A positioning statement is an internal decision: who you serve, what you replace and why you win. A value proposition is the external promise written from that decision, in the customer's language. The statement stays in your strategy document. The value proposition appears on your homepage, in ads and in sales decks.

How long should a positioning statement be?

Moore's template produces two sentences, and that is enough. If yours runs longer, you are probably describing several customers or several differentiators at once. Cut until each slot holds one answer. Polish belongs in the tagline and headline written from it.

How often should you revisit your positioning statement?

Revisit it when the evidence behind a slot changes. Triggers include a new reason in lost-deal notes, a segment that retains better, a competitor buyers start naming, or a major launch. Between those moments, keep it stable so sales, marketing and your funnel data stay comparable.

Does a positioning statement work for B2C or a consumer brand?

Yes. The template does not assume a sales team. For a consumer app or a DTC brand, the alternative is often a habit, a generic product or doing nothing. Evidence comes from reviews, support tickets, survey answers and retention by audience. The app and shoe examples above use the same template.

From statement to funnel

You now have a draft statement and a funnel to test it in. The harder part is making ads, landing pages and onboarding say the same thing. If your copy and targeting do not match the statement yet, that alignment is the product marketing work we do. Bring your draft and funnel numbers through our contact page.