{"id":2946,"date":"2025-09-04T09:18:28","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T13:18:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/?p=2946"},"modified":"2025-09-04T12:21:26","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T16:21:26","slug":"why-most-positioning-experts-dont-actually-understand-positioning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/why-most-positioning-experts-dont-actually-understand-positioning\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Most &#8216;Positioning Experts&#8217; Don&#8217;t Actually Understand Positioning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Let&#8217;s break down what&#8217;s really happening here, because Sara and Fletch have fundamentally misunderstood positioning while claiming expertise in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/embed\/feed\/update\/urn:li:share:7369037093651595264\" height=\"2329\" width=\"504\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" title=\"Embedded post\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Sara Thinks She&#8217;s Describing<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Sara believes she&#8217;s making a sophisticated critique of strategic narrative. She thinks she&#8217;s being practical and buyer-focused by saying companies need to explain &#8220;what you are&#8221; and &#8220;what your product does&#8221; instead of telling stories about change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She thinks positioning = clear product description + differentiation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Sara Is Actually Describing<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>She&#8217;s describing <strong>messaging and marketing<\/strong>, not positioning. Every single thing she advocates for (explaining what you do, what problem you solve, how you&#8217;re different) is tactical communication, not strategic positioning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She&#8217;s confused the map for the territory. She thinks the words you use to describe yourself ARE the position, when actually the position is the mental territory you own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Reality She&#8217;s Missing<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Look at her examples of &#8220;generic narratives&#8221;:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&#8220;Data is the new oil&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;The way we work is broken&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>These aren&#8217;t failed strategic narratives. They&#8217;re not even strategic narratives at all. They&#8217;re <strong>generic observations that no one owns<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A real strategic narrative would be like Tesla&#8217;s: &#8220;Transportation must be sustainable, and we&#8217;re making it inevitable.&#8221; That&#8217;s not generic, it&#8217;s specifically tied to the mental territory Tesla owns (the future of transportation).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Makes This Worse<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Sara&#8217;s &#8220;solution&#8221; (focus on features, benefits, and differentiation) is precisely the trap that keeps companies in commodity hell. When you define yourself by what you do rather than what you mean, you&#8217;re forever stuck competing on features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Think about it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Volvo doesn&#8217;t win by explaining their safety features better<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Red Bull doesn&#8217;t succeed by describing their ingredients clearer<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Supreme doesn&#8217;t thrive by detailing their manufacturing process<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>They win because they own concepts in minds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Katelyn Comment Reveals Everything<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"449\" src=\"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/CleanShot-2025-09-04-at-09.11.48@2x-1024x449.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2947\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/CleanShot-2025-09-04-at-09.11.48@2x-1024x449.png 1024w, https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/CleanShot-2025-09-04-at-09.11.48@2x-300x131.png 300w, https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/CleanShot-2025-09-04-at-09.11.48@2x.png 1114w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>When Katelyn says strategic narratives need to start with &#8220;big, undeniable change in the world&#8221; and &#8220;those are just not that unique,&#8221; she&#8217;s revealing she doesn&#8217;t understand the framework at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The change isn&#8217;t supposed to be unique. <strong>Your position as the answer to that change<\/strong> is what&#8217;s unique. The narrative creates context for why your mental territory matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Sara&#8217;s Fundamental Confusion<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Her P.P.S. is telling: &#8220;Andy deserves credit&#8230; his framework works, but only for CEOs.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No. It works for anyone who makes identity-based decisions (which is everyone). The difference is that CEOs might have patience for poorly executed narratives, while users don&#8217;t. That&#8217;s not a framework problem; it&#8217;s an execution problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What She&#8217;s Actually Trying to Say (But Can&#8217;t)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Sara is noticing a real problem: companies using generic, borrowed narratives without owning unique mental territory. But she&#8217;s misdiagnosing the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The problem isn&#8217;t strategic narrative. The problem is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>No actual position<\/strong> (no mental territory owned)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Generic narrative<\/strong> (borrowed observations rather than unique POV)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>No integration<\/strong> (narrative doesn&#8217;t connect to what you uniquely own)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">my advice &amp; request<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s what Sara and Fletch need to understand:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Positioning is not about explaining yourself better. It&#8217;s about owning something in the mind.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you own mental territory (like Volvo owns safety), the strategic narrative explains why that territory matters now more than ever. The narrative doesn&#8217;t replace the position \u2014 it contextualizes and reinforces it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sara&#8217;s seeing companies with no position trying to use narrative as a substitute. That doesn&#8217;t work. But concluding &#8220;narrative doesn&#8217;t work&#8221; is like watching someone use a hammer wrong and concluding hammers don&#8217;t work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Ultimate Irony<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Fletch positions (well, at least they believes so) itself as positioning experts while demonstrating they don&#8217;t understand positioning at all. They&#8217;re actually messaging experts who&#8217;ve confused tactical execution with strategic foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is like a interior decorator claiming to be an architect because they both work on buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The tragedy? Companies following Fletch&#8217;s advice will get clearer messaging but remain positionally weak \u2014 competing on features in commodity markets, wondering why their &#8220;positioning&#8221; isn&#8217;t creating pricing power or customer loyalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The real test:<\/strong> Can you own a concept so powerfully that competitors are reduced to saying &#8220;us too&#8221;? If not, you don&#8217;t have positioning, you just have messaging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let&#8217;s break down what&#8217;s really happening here, because Sara and Fletch have fundamentally misunderstood positioning while claiming expertise in it. What Sara Thinks She&#8217;s Describing Sara believes she&#8217;s making a sophisticated critique of strategic narrative. She thinks she&#8217;s being practical and buyer-focused by saying companies need to explain &#8220;what you are&#8221; and &#8220;what your product [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-syng"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2946"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2950,"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2946\/revisions\/2950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}