Positioning as a discipline is deep enough that there are entire podcasts and books dedicated solely to it. I hadn’t realised this until now.

Positioning is about carving out a unique place in the mind of your buyer so they can clearly choose you over your competitors. It’s how you frame the problem you solve in order to differentiate yourself in a crowded market.

For example, while Figma and Sketch have a highly overlapping feature set, Figma positioned itself as a design tool for teams to collaborate in real time, whereas Sketch positioned itself as a Mac-native app for UI designers.

Similarly, Slack did not position itself as “a faster chat app” or a “messaging app for teams.” Instead, it positioned itself as the app “where work happens,” making it more central to teams and giving it access to a broader market.

In the minds of buyers, Slack was no longer competing with chat apps. It was competing with email as the system of record for work. That positioning:

  • Justified deep integrations with tools like Jira, GitHub, and Google Docs
  • Encouraged teams to move workflows, not just messages

If Slack had positioned itself as “team chat,” it would have remained a feature, not a platform.

How is positioning different from messaging or copywriting?

A simple mental model:

  • Positioning: Why us? Positioning is what actually sticks in the user’s mind after the messaging has been consumed.
  • Messaging: What should they understand? Messaging is the set of key ideas you want the user to remember. It is more strategic and changes less frequently compared to copywriting, which is more tactical and iterated on often.
  • Copywriting: What exact words do we use here? Copywriting is about how you phrase those ideas to drive action.

Let’s take Slack’s example.

  • Positioning: “Where work happens”
    • The idea is to be seen as the central hub for work, not just a chat tool
  • Messaging: The themes they keep reinforcing in across all communication channels:
    • Bring your team together
    • Organise conversations into channels
    • Integrate with all your tools
    • Make everything searchable
    • Reduce back-and-forth on email
  • Copywriting: How this actually shows up in what you read on the website or on product surfaces:
    • “Made for people. Built for productivity”
    • “Connect your team, align your work, and move faster”
    • “Channels keep conversations organised and accessible”