Positioning and Messaging Go Hand in Hand but Their Meaning is not Interchangeable

I’ve found colleagues in and outside of marketing sometimes use these phrases interchangeably. However, they really aren’t interchangeable. They have distinct meanings though I can understand why there sometimes is confusion. Let’s define here.

Positioning

Positioning represents all of the considerations and intent that go behind your offering. This includes:

  • Capturing the pain/challenge or desired outcome you are trying to solve in the marketplace
  • Your target persona(s)
  • Your target organization size(s)/segment(s)
  • Your target industry(ies)
  • How your solution will solve
  • How your offering will be differentiated from the competition
  • Value and benefit to customers
  • Example use cases
  • How the offering fits within your broader portfolio
  • What Routes-to-Market are best
  • How it will be priced (model and actual pricing)
  • Naming

Your positioning is reliant on the following “pre-work:”

  • Market and competitive analysis
  • Business case analysis
  • Analyst feedback (in some cases)
  • Current customer feedback
  • Use case analysis
  • Sales feedback
  • Beta testing feedback (in some cases)

Positioning is strictly for internal usage.

Messaging

Messaging is the actual external language or guidance on external messaging you use to convey positioning. Positioning is the precursor to developing your messaging.  

Messaging can take the form of:

  • Value Proposition statements + Features + Benefits + Outcomes
  • Other value statements
  • Taglines/Slogans
  • Data sheet copy
  • Web copy
  • Slideware messaging
  • Messaging tailored to Sales
  • Verbal messaging
  • Other