Positioning: owning one idea in the client’s mind

What you will be able to do

• Explain the difference between positioning, branding and a slogan
• Identify an idea in your category that no nearby competitor clearly owns
• Draft and test a one-sentence positioning statement using a fill-in template

A client planning a wedding in Toronto will look at perhaps a dozen vendors in your category and remember two or three. Positioning decides whether you are one of them. It is not your logo or your tagline. It is the one idea a client files you under, and the sentence they use when they recommend you to a friend.

Read the transcript

Positioning: owning one idea in the client's mind.

A client planning a wedding in Toronto will look at perhaps a dozen vendors in your category and remember two or three.

Positioning decides whether you are one of them.

What positioning is, and what it is not.

Positioning is a decision about where you sit in the client's mind relative to the alternatives.

The alternatives include your direct competitors, but also doing it themselves, asking a cousin, or not doing it at all.

Why one idea beats five.

Clients are busy and your category is crowded.

They cannot hold five reasons in their head, so they hold one, or none.

Where positions come from.

Strong positions in the event industry usually come from one of six places.

Pick the one that is true for you and that a competitor nearby has not already claimed.

The positioning statement template.

Write your position as one internal sentence first.

It is not copy for your website.

A quick test before you change anything.

Do not rebuild your website on a hunch.

Run the statement through this checklist first, and rewrite until it passes every line.

That is the lesson. The worksheet and the quiz are just below this video.

What positioning is, and what it is not

Positioning is a decision about where you sit in the client’s mind relative to the alternatives. The alternatives include your direct competitors, but also doing it themselves, asking a cousin, or not doing it at all. A positioning that ignores the cousin with a camera is incomplete if you are a photographer.

Three things are often confused with it:

• Branding is how the position is expressed: name, look, voice and the experience of working with you. Module 4 covers it. A strong brand with no position is a well-dressed stranger.
• A slogan is a line of copy. It may express the position, but it can change every year while the position stays put.
• A list of services describes what you do. Positioning describes why someone should choose you for it.

The test is simple. If a past client were asked, “Why did you book them?”, what would they say? If the honest answer is “They were available and the price was fine”, you have no position yet. You have a listing.

Why one idea beats five

Clients are busy and your category is crowded. They cannot hold five reasons in their head, so they hold one, or none. A caterer who claims to be fresh, local, creative, affordable and accommodating has said nothing a client will repeat. A caterer known as “the one who does a full halal menu that non-Muslim guests rave about” has said something a client can pass along in a single breath.

Owning one idea also makes every other marketing decision easier. It tells you which photos to post, which venues to approach, which inquiries to turn down politely and what to say in the first ten seconds of a sales call. The narrower the idea, the more often it does that work for you.

Where positions come from

Strong positions in the event industry usually come from one of six places. Pick the one that is true for you and that a competitor nearby has not already claimed.

Notice what is missing: “quality”, “passion” and “attention to detail”. Every competitor claims them, so none of them can be owned. Lesson 5 of this module deals with that problem directly.

The positioning statement template

Write your position as one internal sentence first. It is not copy for your website. It is a decision you can check every other piece of marketing against.

For [the specific client], who [their situation or need], we are the [category] that [the one idea you own], because [the proof].

Lantern & Lane, our running example, started with a statement that sounded fine and said nothing: “For couples in Toronto, we are a full-service planning studio that creates beautiful, stress-free weddings.” Priya and Marco then looked at their last two years of bookings. Eleven were couples hosting both families from two different cultures, often with two ceremonies on one weekend. Those couples had written the warmest reviews and paid the highest fees. The new statement read:

“For Toronto couples bringing two families and two traditions together, Lantern & Lane is the planning studio that runs both ceremonies on one weekend without either family feeling like the guest, because we have planned eleven of them in the last two years and our timeline template was built for exactly that.”

It is long, and that is fine. The website headline that grows out of it can be short. What matters is that it names a client, a category, an idea and the proof.

A quick test before you change anything

Do not rebuild your website on a hunch. Run the statement through this checklist first, and rewrite until it passes every line.

1. Could a competitor say the same sentence truthfully? If yes, it is not a position.
2. Would a past client recognize you in it? Read it to three of them and listen to the reaction.
3. Does it exclude someone? A position that welcomes everyone attracts no one in particular. Lantern & Lane will still plan a single-culture wedding, but it no longer leads with that.
4. Can you prove the because? If the proof is a feeling, find evidence or change the claim.
5. Is the market big enough? Lesson 2 shows how to do the arithmetic.

Then try it in conversation. For the next ten inquiries, describe yourself using the new idea and note which callers lean in and which drift away. Ten conversations will teach you more than ten drafts.

Positions for every kind of vendor

The method works the same way across the industry. A DJ in Mississauga might own “the DJ who plays to three generations at once”. A rental company in Vaughan might own “next-day replacement on anything that breaks”. A venue in Hamilton might own “the industrial room that is also accessible for every guest”. A food truck might own “the late-night snack that keeps the dance floor full”. Each one names a client or a moment, makes a promise a competitor has not made, and can be proven with photos, reviews or records.

Once you have chosen, repeat it everywhere and for a long time. Positions are built by consistency. You will be bored of your idea long before your market has heard it.

In Canada and the GTA

The Greater Toronto Area is one of the most crowded event markets in the country, and that changes how positioning works here. A couple in Etobicoke can drive to venues in Vaughan, Brampton or Oakville in under an hour, and a corporate client downtown can hire a performer from Hamilton or Oshawa without blinking. Geography alone is rarely a position in the GTA. “Toronto’s wedding planner” is a claim shared by hundreds of businesses.

Geography works better at the edges and in smaller markets. In Halton, Durham, Niagara or Simcoe, being the vendor who is truly local, knows the rural venues and has no travel fee can be a real advantage. Inside the city, combine place with something else: a client type, a cultural specialty or a format.

The GTA’s cultural mix creates positions that would not exist in most cities. South Asian weddings across Peel, Chinese banquets in Markham and Richmond Hill, Portuguese and Italian family celebrations in the west end, Caribbean events, Jewish life-cycle events and Persian, Filipino, Korean and Tamil celebrations each have their own customs, vendors and word-of-mouth networks. Owning one of these well, with genuine knowledge and relationships, is a durable position. Claiming it without that knowledge is a fast way to lose a community’s trust, because these networks talk.

Corporate positioning follows a different map. The financial district, the tech corridor along the 401 and in Waterloo Region, the pharmaceutical and life-sciences firms in Mississauga, and the convention business around the downtown core each buy events in their own rhythm. A performer or caterer who knows how one of those sectors buys, and speaks its language, can position on that knowledge.

Positioning claims and the law

A positioning statement is internal, but the headlines that grow from it are advertising, and Canadian law applies to them. Under the Competition Act it is reviewable conduct to make a representation to the public that is false or misleading in a material respect to promote your business. Claims about a service’s performance must be based on an adequate and proper test, and the person making the claim has to prove it. “The most reviewed DJ in Peel” or “the fastest gallery delivery in Toronto” are factual claims. If you cannot prove them, do not publish them.

Making a false or misleading representation knowingly or recklessly is also a criminal offence under the Act. The Competition Bureau’s guidance on false or misleading representations sets out how it approaches these cases.

Ad Standards, the industry’s self-regulatory body, administers the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards. Clause 1 says truthfulness is judged by the general impression an ad conveys, not by what you intended, and that footnotes must not contradict the main message. Clause 6 says ads must not unfairly discredit or attack competitors’ products or services. You can read the full text of the Code. In practice, position yourself on what you do, not on what a named competitor fails to do.

This is general information, not legal advice. If a headline makes a comparative or superlative claim, check the source or ask a lawyer before it goes live.

One local habit to watch: some GTA vendors call themselves “award-winning” on the strength of a directory badge or an online vote. If you use the phrase, be ready to say what the award was, who gave it and when, and keep the claim current. A client who checks and finds a badge from many years ago will doubt everything else you say.

Finally, think about French. Ottawa and eastern Ontario have large francophone and bilingual markets, and some Toronto corporate clients run bilingual events. If your position includes bilingual service, make sure you can deliver it on the night, not just on the website.

Worksheet

Download the worksheet and complete it for your own business, using Lantern & Lane as the model where it helps. Keep it with your marketing plan. It takes about 10 minutes.

Download the worksheet (PDF)