THE BRAND POSITIONING HANDBOOK

A handbook to take you from blending in to standing out.

Get clear on your brand’s difference and cement yourself in your audience’s mind.

I’M EMILY

Brand Strategist & Designer.

I’m a self-confessed type-a who loves to mix creativity with strategy to make beautiful things that actually work. My favourite part of the job is helping founders build something that matters, and building it in a way that feels unmistakably like them.

If you’re here, you probably started your business to put a bit more good into the world while building a life you actually want. I’m here to help you do exactly that, as a strategist, designer, and the person who asks the useful questions early. Because all too often, founders feel pressured to rush into the logo and the pretty stuff before there’s a plan underneath it, and end up with something that looks nice but doesn’t hold up, doesn’t feel like them, and quietly runs out of road.

That’s the bit I care about ending. Most founders think they have a design problem. Usually, it’s a clarity problem. So let’s sort the clarity first, and let everything else get easier from there.

Emily xo

Before we begin

Before we begin

What is brand positioning?

What is brand positioning?

Brand positioning is pretty much what it says on the tin. It is how your brand is positioned in the minds of your audience. It’s about identifying the special sauce that creates a unique experience for your customers and using it as a backbone to be recognised and remembered for.

Brand positioning is pretty much what it says on the tin. It is how your brand is positioned in the minds of your audience. It’s about identifying the special sauce that creates a unique experience for your customers and using it as a backbone to be recognised and remembered for.

Essentially it is defining the strategy to make your brand the go-to, not just another option.

The process of positioning your brand is about figuring out what makes your business different. It’s uncovering how you are going to stand out above the rest and carve your own unique space in the market, as well as in the minds of your audience.

Essentially it is defining the strategy to make your brand the go-to, not just another option.

The process of positioning your brand is about figuring out what makes your business different. It’s uncovering how you are going to stand out above the rest and carve your own unique space in the market, as well as in the minds of your audience.

Why it matters

Your audience will position you, whether you like it or not.

As humans, we don’t walk around thinking about brands; we think about the problems we currently have in our lives and how brands can help solve those problems.

Consumers are constantly evaluating where your brand is going to fit into their lives, not the other way around. So if you don’t have a clear reason for your brand to stand out and make their lives easier, better, or more enjoyable, then (tough love incoming) they won’t care about you. That’s why having a strategy to influence their decisions is so important.

This guide will provide you with 6 different ways that brands use to position themselves, in the hopes that it will inspire you to think about how you can position your own brand in a way that stands out and feels authentic.

“Brand is not what you say it is. It’s what they say it is.”

Marty Neumeier

The six strategies

Six ways to position your brand.

You don’t have to pick just one. Read through each, and notice which ones already feel like you.

01

Strategy One

Signature Methodology

A way of doing things that’s yours alone.

People commonly use being set in their ways as a bad thing, but in this case, they’re wrong. This strategy is all about a certain way of doing things.

The brand that always comes to mind for me here is Marie Kondo. If you've not come across her, she's the tidying expert who turned her particular way of decluttering into the KonMari Method, right down to that now-famous question of whether something "sparks joy". She didn't invent tidying up, but by naming her method and making it hers, she built an entire brand, a series of books and a Netflix show off the back of it.

You don't need to be world-famous for this to work. Perhaps you have a particular step-by-step method that you take your Reiki clients through. Or maybe your skincare products are formulated in a unique way that is specific to your brand alone. Whatever it is, hone in on exactly what you do that is unique to your business and create a signature methodology that makes you stand out.

This method is great because it positions you as an authority: you know enough about the market that you developed your own way to help people in the most effective way possible. It can also add intrigue to your brand. Leaving people curious is a great way to build brand excitement. So having a signature method that you can name-drop, leaving people wanting to know more about what you do and how you do it, can help to build that excitement.

02

Strategy Two

Purchase Experience

Change how buying from you feels.

The brand that comes to mind for me here is Function of Beauty. Buying shampoo is usually a bit of a guessing game: you stand in the aisle, read the promises on the back of the bottle, and hope you've picked the right one for your hair. Function of Beauty flipped that. Before you buy, you take a short quiz about your hair type, your goals and even the scent and colour you fancy, and they formulate a bottle of shampoo and conditioner made specifically for you, with your name on the label. They took a completely ordinary purchase and made it feel personal and considered.

Now I'm not suggesting you have to go and formulate a bespoke product for every customer, but simply use this as inspiration of what's possible. It's not that their shampoo is wildly different, it's that the experience of buying it feels different.

Perhaps you are a brand photographer who has decided to charge on a monthly subscription basis rather than the traditional per session, to give your clients constantly fresh content for their marketing and socials. You are giving your audience a unique purchase experience to better serve their needs and make your business stand out from the crowd.

03

Strategy Three

Origin & Heritage

A story only you could tell.

If there’s one thing that becoming a Marvel fan has taught me, it’s to never underestimate the power of an origin story. If your brand has a unique heritage that lends itself to the storytelling world, then don’t be afraid to use that story as your way to stand out.

One of my favourite examples of storytelling through heritage is Jack Daniels, who uses their origins to create beautiful, compelling story-based marketing campaigns, as well as their entire brand positioning strategy built around this heritage and the excellence it has bred. Now you might be thinking, this is great, but I started my brand last year, not in 1864, I don’t have a heritage story. That’s totally fine. You don’t need to be 100 years old for this to work.

Perhaps your brand was created through a funny story that you think will resonate with your ideal customer. Or perhaps you started making dresses alongside your gran when you were 5 years old, and now you pass down this generational wisdom through hand-crafted timeless pieces that can go on to create their own story. This method is all about connecting to your ideal client, hooking them in with emotions and creating a compelling story that they will connect with.

04

Strategy Four

Specialisation

Go deep, not wide.

This is a method of differentiation that you will be familiar with as it is one of the most commonly used. It highlights a trust factor that we inherently have, and that is that if someone is specialised in a certain field then they are likely better at what they do.

To put this into context, if you are a mother looking to lose weight after having your baby and you saw two adverts for workout coaches; one is a general workout coach for women and the other focuses on post-partum workouts for new mothers. Which would you go for? Most likely you’d go for the one who is specialised in post-partum workouts, because you likely feel that the results you get with this coach will be better due to the fact they have specific experience in your area.

In essence, it’s about choosing an area of expertise and going deep in that rather than wide and general. It allows you to build trust with your audience quicker and become more of a go-to option, rather than leaving things down to other, more fickle factors, like price.

05

Strategy Five

Shared Values

Stand for something, then live it.

As humans, when we look for a new friend, partner or connection, we often look to the values of the other party to try and take a quick check of whether we believe we'll be a good fit. We want to confirm that our beliefs, values and, by extension, actions will be in alignment with each other. That is what makes having a strong set of values such a powerful differentiation strategy.

A brand that does this brilliantly, in my opinion, is Tony's Chocolonely. Their whole reason for being is to make chocolate 100% slave-free, and they don't just say it, they build it into everything. Even the chocolate bar itself is divided into uneven, mismatched chunks, to represent the inequality still baked into the cocoa industry. You can't miss what they stand for, because their values show up in the product in your hand, not just on their About page.

And that's the key, because just having values is not enough. As a brand, if you create a set of values and file them away in a metaphorical (or literal) drawer, then you are missing out on a whole world of potential connection. Instead, create a strong set of values and then use them to create a set of commitments that you uphold through every action your brand does, says and is. That is what will garner you true brand fans.

Remember though: although all of these methods are rooted in authenticity, this particular positioning strategy lives and dies with it. If you're creating your brand's values purely because it's what you think your audience want to hear, then they'll be able to tell. All it takes is one statement, one misaligned action, and your audience will come down on you, not only losing you sales but losing your integrity and their trust. So be truthful. And remember, actions speak louder than words.

06

Strategy Six

Convenient Distribution

Fit into their real life.

For me, the brand that nails this is Bloom & Wild. They deliver flowers, which sounds unremarkable until you notice the genius decision underneath it: they designed their bouquets to fit through your letterbox. That single choice quietly solves the most annoying thing about getting flowers delivered, which is having to be home to receive them. No waiting in, no missed-delivery card, no sad bouquet wilting on a doorstep. They're just there when you get home.

Everyone else in their category was competing on the flowers. Bloom & Wild competed on the getting of them. Their convenience is built into the format, removing a friction nobody else had bothered to question.

That's what makes this such a strong differentiation strategy, and one I think gets more valuable as the world gets busier. So how do you use it? Get deep into your audience's actual life, the real one where they're short on time, and find the small, accepted annoyance in how they get or use your product that your whole category has quietly agreed to live with. Remove that, and you've genuinely made their life easier.

A 2026 note to add

Now your positioning has a second audience: AI.

The six strategies are timeless. Here’s the one thing that’s changed. Your positioning used to only need to land with humans. Now it also has to be legible to the AI systems people ask before they ask you. When someone types “best postpartum coach near me” into a chatbot, something decides whether your name comes up.

So the clearer your difference, the easier you are to recommend, to a person and to a machine. Vague positioning isn’t just weak marketing anymore. It’s invisibility. (Worth a try tonight: ask an AI “what is my brand and who is it for?” If the answer is fuzzy, that’s the same gap your customers meet.)

“Vague positioning isn’t a marketing problem now. It’s an invisibility problem.”

Positioning considerations

Before you commit, run it through three checks.

While these strategies show how positioning can play out, it isn’t a case of just picking one and being done with it. Your positioning is rooted in your offerings, your audience, and your brand’s very reason for being. So before you create a positioning strategy, consider these three things.

Valuable

Is the differentiation point you’re using actually important to your audience? If you position around something they don’t really care about, it won’t be effective. So make sure you know your customer well enough to know they’ll care about what you’re pinning your difference around.

Experience

Are you creating a completely unique experience for your audience, that they wouldn’t find anywhere else? This isn’t saying they won’t find a similar product or service to yours, that’s almost impossible. But the experience you create for your customers should be completely unique to your brand.

Sustainable

Is the difference you’re positioning around sustainable for you as a business? If you position around a uniquely high level of customer experience, consider whether you can sustain it when things get very busy. If not, your positioning will be weakened. So make sure the difference you want to be known for is one you can keep up in the long run.

Finally, remember

The only limit is your own creativity.

So have fun with it. The words strategy, positioning and differentiation can all sound so technical and intense, but it doesn’t have to be. Uncovering your brand’s key difference and positioning your brand is about making your business more appealing to YOUR people, so that you are THE choice for your audience. It’s creating a unique experience for your customers that makes them want to choose you over someone else.

This means that every touch point in your customer’s journey is a chance for your brand to be different. So don’t limit yourself. Just because you have one difference doesn’t mean you can’t find more ways to become a fun, unique experience for your audience and further cement yourself as their go-to choice. The only limit here is your own creativity.

Now it's your turn

The Positioning Diagnostic.

Answer honestly and I'll show you which of the six lanes you're already best placed to own. Takes about two minutes. Nothing is stored, and you'll see your result straight away.

01The fundamentals

A sentence each is plenty. These are yours to keep.

02How unique is your…

1 = pretty standard, 10 = totally unique.

Product or service5
Pretty standardTotally unique
The way you deliver your product or service5
Pretty standardTotally unique
The look of your product or service5
Pretty standardTotally unique
How you charge for your product or service5
Pretty standardTotally unique
03Do you…

Quick yes or no.

Have a signature method or framework?
Have a special history or origin story?
Have a strong set of values that are integral to how you do business?
Have a unique brand personality?
Using your highest scores to point you at a starting strategy.

what’s next?

This guide is a stepping stone in your brand’s journey.

If you’re looking to DIY it and build your brand solo, I hope this (and the other free resources we have) helps you on your way. If you’re looking for a little more support, we’re here for you too. Part of our process here at Pretty Deep is to help our clients curate a sustainable strategy that sets them apart and reinvigorates not only their brand but their place in it. If that sounds like something you’ve been dreaming of (even if only for the last five seconds) then follow the links below.

Explore our Services

Work With Us