Marketing & Brand Growth
If a customer cannot say what makes you different, they will compare you on price.
Many owners describe their business by listing everything they do. A customer, meanwhile, is trying to answer one question: why this one and not the others? This session helps each owner find a true, specific answer, check it against their competitors and their own customers, and put it into one sentence.
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Positioning is not a slogan. It is the reason you are in the shortlist.
A customer looking for a plumber, a tuition class, a bakery or a software vendor does not read everything. They scan, compare two or three options and pick the one whose reason is easiest to see. If your reason is vague, such as quality service at reasonable prices, it is the same reason every competitor gives.
Positioning means choosing the reason on purpose: a specific group of customers, a specific need and a true strength. It also means accepting that some people will not be your customer. That choice is what makes the rest of marketing cheaper and clearer.
What the session covers
35 topics across 7 areas. Seven parts, ending with a sentence tested on real customers.
What You Offer, in Plain WordsA stranger should understand it in ten seconds.5
- What you do, without jargon
- What the customer gets, not just what you sell
- Who it is for
- What it replaces or improves on
- Reading your own description as a first-time visitor would
If a family member cannot repeat it, it is too complicated.
What Customers Compare You WithOften not who you think.5
The honest competitor list is usually longer than the one an owner starts with, and the most dangerous entry is often doing nothing.
- Direct competitors nearby and online
- Doing it themselves
- Doing nothing
- A relative or a known person who helps for less
- Larger names or marketplaces
Finding What Is Actually DifferentTrue, specific and checkable.5
- Speed, location, language, specialisation, process, guarantee
- What customers say they value about you
- What you do routinely that others skip
- What you do worse, and are honest about
- Why “best quality” says nothing
Proof, Not AdjectivesA claim needs something behind it.5
- What you can show, such as photographs, process, samples or a written guarantee
- What customers will say in their own words, with permission
- Years, certifications or registrations, only where they are real and current
- Removing claims you cannot back up
- Avoiding comparisons that could mislead
Check advertising rules for claims about price, results or other businesses. Misleading claims can create real trouble.
Choosing Your GroundYou cannot be everything.5
- One customer group first
- One main reason to choose you
- What you will stop saying
- When price should be the reason, and when it should not
- How to stay consistent as you add offers
Writing the Positioning SentenceA simple template, then your own words.5
- We help [this customer] with [this need] by [this approach]
- Reading it aloud and shortening it
- Checking it is true on a bad day too
- Writing a Kannada, Hindi or English version if customers use them
- Two versions, then choosing one
Testing ItA sentence is a guess until a customer reacts.5
- Saying it to three recent customers and listening for “yes, that is why”
- Saying it to a person who did not buy
- What to change when people look confused
- Where to use it first: profile, signboard, WhatsApp, website
- Reviewing it in a few months
What participants leave with
- A draft positioning sentence and one backup
- A competitor and alternatives sheet
- A proof list: what they can show, and what they should drop
- A short script for testing the sentence on customers
- A list of three places to put the sentence this week
What this session is not
- A branding agency project
- A search for a clever slogan
- A promise that a new sentence brings more customers
- Legal advice on advertising or trademarks
How the session runs
Two to three hours, in a small group. The practitioner works through a hypothetical business as a worked example, then each owner drafts their own competitor list, strengths and sentence. Owners read their sentence aloud to the group, and the others say what they understood and whether they would remember it. Each owner leaves with a way to test the sentence on customers over the next week.
What your students leave with
- A one-sentence description of what the business does, for whom and why it is a good choice
- A list of what customers compare them with, including options that are not direct competitors
- Two or three real strengths they can prove, and claims they should stop making
- A way to test the sentence on customers within a week
- A clearer sense of when to compete on something other than price
- A short list of places where the sentence should appear first
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
Say what you offer, to whom and why, in one sentence a customer can repeat.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.