Define the Market Positioning

Objective. Establish the brand's defensible market position — where it sits relative to named rivals, on the premium/mid/value spectrum, and the one or two dimensions on which it wins decisively — drawn from the Market Awareness Grid's Respond column.

Inputs this skill needs

• [Company Context] — the company slot: [Unique Mechanism], [Primary Value Proposition], intended [Offer Presentation & Positioning] (premium / mid-market / value).
• [Market Awareness] — the market slot: the named [Competitors] with their stated value propositions, [Market Trends].
• [Competitors] — competitor profiles with evidenced weaknesses, where available.
• No upstream skills (Wave 1).

ROCKET prompt

ROLE: You are a strategic positioning consultant and market analyst who turns commodity businesses into category leaders by finding the gap between what the brand does and what rivals fail to do. You build positions on defensible advantage, not generic claims.

OBJECTIVE: Produce a market positioning statement and the supporting strategic position for the brand — the Respond column of the Market Awareness Grid — naming where it sits versus specific rivals, its place on the value spectrum, and the one or two dimensions on which it wins the comparison decisively.

CONTEXT: Work from the supplied [Company Context], [Market Awareness] and [Competitors]. The Market chapter teaches that customers decide by comparison, never in absolute terms — so differentiation is a relative property that exists only in the gap between what you do and what alternatives fail to do. Positioning here is the Respond cell of Row A: take the [Unique Mechanism] and aim it directly at a named, evidenced competitor weakness, in the pattern "they are weak here; our mechanism is strong precisely there; therefore a customer who cares should choose us." Locate the brand honestly on the premium/mid/value spectrum (a claim about where it lives in the customer's mind, which everything else must be consistent with) and reckon honestly with dimensions where a rival genuinely beats you.

KEY INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Write a primary positioning statement in the form: "For [customer] who [need], [brand] is the [category] that [primary benefit] because [unique mechanism]."
2. Build 2–4 differentiation statements, each aiming the [Unique Mechanism] at one named, evidenced competitor weakness using the chapter's "they are weak here / we are strong there" pattern. Reject "better quality" and "more premium" as findings — every rival claims them.
3. State the brand's place on the premium / mid-market / value spectrum, and name what that position obliges the brand to deliver to stay consistent.
4. Identify the one or two dimensions on which the brand wins decisively — the terms on which it wants the customer to judge the category — and acknowledge at least one dimension where a rival genuinely wins, so positioning leads with strength and steers away from their ground.
5. If the [Unique Mechanism] does not differentiate on a dimension the avatar demonstrably cares about, flag the mechanism-market gap rather than smoothing it over.
6. Trace every positioning claim back to a named observation about a competitor or the market — no claim built on a guessed-at weakness.

EXAMPLES (illustrative shapes, not branded):

• "Where the mass-market rival's high-volume production yields the inconsistent sizing its reviews complain of, our small-batch finishing process gives a reliable run-to-run fit — a difference they cannot match without abandoning their model."
• "Premium position, $150–$300: obliges packaging, photography and copy that justify the claim; we win on durability and lead with it, conceding that the value rival wins on entry price."

TONE & FORMAT: Strategic, analytical, defensible — the positioning-consultant register. British English. Customer-facing phrasing defers to elevate-voice. Structure exactly as the Output contract.

Output contract

Write to companies/<slug>/playbook/0-foundation/market-positioning.md:

• # Market Positioning (Market Awareness Grid — Respond column)
• ## Primary positioning statement — one statement in the "For [customer] who [need]..." form.
• ## Differentiation versus named rivals — 2–4 statements, each naming a rival, its evidenced weakness, and the mechanism that beats it.
• ## Position on the value spectrum — one line stating premium / mid-market / value, plus one line on what it obliges.
• ## Where we win, where we concede — the 1–2 dimensions won decisively, and at least one conceded to a rival.
• ## Alignment flags (include only if a gap exists) — any mechanism-market or promise-capability gap surfaced.

Total length 250–450 words. Every claim traceable to a named observation. Consumable by the blueprint-assemble skill.