Why your positioning still isn’t working.

You’ve already asked ChatGPT

That’s fine. Most people have.

It’s a sensible place to start. You give it your services, your sectors and a few notes, and in thirty seconds you’ve got a positioning statement, three value propositions and a tagline. It reads well. It’s probably better than what’s on the website now.

Then nothing changes. The homepage gets a new line, the enquiries stay the same, and six months later someone suggests doing it again.

The AI didn’t do a bad job. It did what it’s good at. AI is brilliant at the obvious, and if the decisions behind your positioning haven’t been made, the obvious is all it can give you back.

Five signs it hasn’t worked

If two or more of these sound familiar, the thinking isn’t finished.

• It still sounds vague. “Trusted partner. Tailored service. Experienced team.” It reads well, sounds like everyone else and says nothing a competitor couldn’t say.
  Why AI can’t fix it: it averages what you give it. Vague notes in, polished vague copy out.
• There are too many ideas and nobody will choose. Four possible positions, three audiences, and a list of value propositions that keeps growing.
  Why AI can’t fix it: it’s very good at giving you options and it can’t make the decision. Five positions is the same as none.
• Nobody’s confident saying it. The MD hedges when someone asks what you do. Sales goes back to the old pitch. The homepage line gets reworded every quarter.
  Why AI can’t fix it: this isn’t a wording problem. The team never agreed, and no prompt will make them.
• It doesn’t feel like you. It’s correct and it’s tidy, and when you read it out loud you wince a bit.
  Why AI can’t fix it: it has never met your clients or heard why they stay. It writes the expected version of your category.
• You went straight to tactics. A campaign, some SEO, a refreshed website, because they’re visible and you can start on Monday. The positioning is hard and nobody has a spare week.
  Why AI can’t fix it: it will happily plan the campaign as well. Ask it what the classic mistake is and it’ll tell you: teams “jump straight to social media, SEO and a new website.”

What it costs

Tactics are the fun bit. Strategy is the hard thinking everyone skips past.

And skipping it costs more than it saves.

• The traffic arrives and doesn’t convert. You pay to bring people to a page that doesn’t tell them why you, so they leave and compare you on price.
• Every piece starts from a blank page. Without an agreed position, every blog, campaign and sales deck is a new decision about what to say.
• Marketing gets the blame. The activity is visible and the results aren’t, so the budget conversation comes round again.
• It still won’t feel like you. So the team doesn’t use it, and a year later you’re back here.

Four free brand positioning tests

Each one shows you a gap. None of them fills it, because the answer has to come from your team.

Why it’s hard to do from the inside

It’s not a criticism. It’s just how it usually goes.

Most teams believe they could do this in-house. It usually doesn’t happen, for one of three reasons. Some people have the idea but not the skill to make it. Some have the skill, but get into the detail too early and the ideas stop there. And most are simply too busy. They’re doing the business as usual marketing, so they never get to the strategic work, even though it’s the work they’d most like to do.

There’s one more. When the decisions involve the leadership team, the person being managed is rarely the one who can make them agree.

Questions

How do I know if my positioning is working?

People understand what you do the first time they hear it. Your team describes it the same way. And you stop being compared on price with firms you don’t think of as competitors. If none of that is true yet, start with test 1.

Can’t we just use ChatGPT?

For the writing, yes, once the decisions are made. It writes well from a clear position. It can’t make the decisions for you, and it can’t get your team to agree on them.

Is this a pitch for your workshop?

Partly, and we’d rather say so. Every test on this page works without us. If they show you’re in good shape, you don’t need us.

How long does it take?

Tests 1 and 2 take ten minutes. Test 3 takes half an hour. Test 4 takes a few days, because you’re waiting for people to reply.

What if all the answers match?

Then your positioning probably isn’t what’s holding you back. Look at how it shows up instead: the 9 step rebrand audit is a good place to start.

What about the logo and visual identity?

They come after this. Once the position is agreed, design has something to be judged against instead of personal taste.