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Our Perspective

What this means for leaders navigating growth, change or transformation in their organisation.

The Real Constraint

Strong products can carry a brand for a time, but they rarely outrun foggy positioning. The constraint isn’t capability, it’s clarity: a shared definition of who you serve, the precise problem you solve, and the reasons to believe. Without it, organisations default to busy activity that looks like progress but fractures effort, elevates risk, and weakens conviction in the market.

Treat positioning as an operating system, not a slogan. It aligns go-to-market, pricing and product choices so each one reinforces the next. When that happens, growth becomes more predictable and trust compounds, because customers see consistency between what you say, what you ship, and what you charge.

Pricing Power Emerges

Pricing is where clarity proves itself. Confidence in value is hard to project when your offer could plausibly be “for everyone.” Marketing Week (Kantar & Google research) reports that 87.9% of marketers believe stronger brands can command higher prices, yet only 58.9% say their own organisation actually does—evidence that belief without clarity doesn’t translate into price realisation.

Positioning that narrows the playing field makes comparisons easier, not harder. It teaches buyers how to choose you, reduces doubt in the deal, and gives sales teams the narrative and proof to hold their line. That, more than any price tactic, is how pricing power shows up.

Operational Payoffs

Clarity pays back in everyday execution. Teams stop hedging. Product bets stack up behind one thesis. Marketing works the market you’ve defined, not the one that drifted onto a slide. From our experience this normally shows up as a reduction in noise across roadmaps, planning, and partner choices.

Look for tangible effects:

• Shorter sales cycles as qualification tightens and relevance increases.
• Fewer detours in product development because trade-offs are pre-decided.
• Cleaner pipeline health as messaging attracts the right demand.

Leadership Choices

Positioning is a leadership act—choosing what you will not do so that the right things can compound. Three moves matter most when the goal is sustainable growth and trust:

• Choose the market you intend to win, then align investment against it.
• Codify proof early—customer evidence, usage data, partner endorsements—so claims carry weight.
• Design clear comparison frames; help buyers see the cost of alternatives and the value of yours.

Make these choices explicit and measured. The return on investment improves not through louder promotion, but through fewer conflicting decisions.

Trust As A System

Trust doesn’t arrive as a campaign; it accrues from consistent signals over time. Clear positioning anchors those signals so every touchpoint—pricing, product, service—tells the same story. Referrals rise, partnerships get easier, and risks are surfaced earlier because teams share the same map.

The organisations that win are not the loudest; they’re the clearest. As markets shift, clarity turns into a stabiliser, enabling adaptive moves without losing the thread customers recognise and believe.

Sources:

• Marketing Week – 2025 Language of Effectiveness research — Marketing Week (Kantar & Google research)

1. The Positioning Myth: Why Trade-Offs Drive Strategy
2. Prioritise Clarity Over Category to Win Buyers
3. Messaging Consistency: Balancing Clarity and Context