If your message isn’t landing, start with your positioning

Most companies think they have a messaging problem, but in reality they have a positioning problem.

They tweak taglines, rewrite copy, and change tone but nothing sticks. The reason is that they’re trying to polish the paintwork before deciding what the building actually is.

Positioning defines what you stand for; messaging tells the world. Mix them up, and your story changes faster than people can keep up.

In this article, we’ll break down what each really means, how they fit together, and how to tell if you’ve been mixing them up.

Why this distinction matters

When your positioning is clear, messaging becomes easy. When it’s fuzzy, every conversation turns into guesswork.

“Positioning is the foundation of go-to-market success. Messaging is the translation of that foundation into customer language.” - Gartner

In practice, though, many teams reverse the order. They start writing before they’ve truly decided what they want to be known for.

The result can be: 

• Marketing that sounds fine in isolation but inconsistent across channels.
• Sales decks that contradict the website.
• Founders who can’t explain in one sentence what the company actually does.

Clarity here isn’t just a brand exercise, it’s a business advantage. 

McKinsey found that companies with consistent, customer-aligned positioning outperform peers by up to 20% in growth and 25% in profitability.

What is positioning?

Positioning defines where you stand in the market. It says who you serve, what problem you solve, and why you’re different. It’s a strategic decision, not a sentence.

Good positioning answers questions like:

• What category are we playing in (or creating)?
• Who are we really built for?
• What pain do we solve best?
• Why us, not them?

Think of it as the strategic context that shapes every move you make.

“Positioning defines how your product is the best in the world at delivering something that a well-defined set of customers cares a lot about.” - April Dunford, author of Obviously Awesome

If your team hasn’t had that conversation, you’re not ready for messaging.

What is messaging? 

Messaging is how you express your positioning. It’s the language, narrative, and structure you use to communicate what you stand for.

While positioning is internal, messaging is external. It brings the strategy to life in words your audience understands.

Good messaging has several benefits: 

• It turns positioning into a story your audience can feel.
• Adapts tone for different contexts (web copy, investor decks, recruitment pages).
• Evolves over time, but never strays from the same underlying truth.

Where teams go wrong is treating messaging as a silver bullet by rewriting copy endlessly instead of checking whether the foundation makes sense.

If your story keeps changing, your problem isn’t messaging. It’s that your positioning never got nailed down.

Signs you’re mixing them up

If any of these feel familiar, you’ve probably blurred the line:

• You’re revising your website copy every few months but still don’t sound clearer.
• Sales says “we do X,” marketing says “we do Y,” and neither feels wrong.
• You describe your product differently depending on who you’re talking to.
• You can’t finish the sentence: “We’re the only company that…”

These are positioning gaps misdiagnosed as messaging challenges. Until you decide what you stand for, every new piece of communication will sound like a different brand.

How positioning and messaging should work together

Here’s a simple structure that keeps both aligned:

1. Clarify your positioning first. Define your audience, problem, promise, and proof. 
2. Build messaging pillars. Translate your positioning into three or four themes that form the backbone of your story.
3. Craft your core narrative. Turn those pillars into the short version (one-liner) and the long version (website, sales deck, job ad).
4. Test for consistency. Ask: would a customer reading our copy, a candidate reading our careers page, and an investor deck all describe us in the same way?

If yes, your positioning and messaging are working in sync. If not, you’ve got some realignment to do.

Summary

Positioning defines your truth. Messaging amplifies it. Get the order wrong, and you’ll always sound off-key, no matter how clever your copy is.

The companies that win aren’t just better storytellers; they’re clearer thinkers. They know who they are before they decide what to say.

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