Positioning is leadership
Done properly, positioning is too upstream, too strategic, for a CEO to leave it to anyone else. Here’s why.
Positioning is much more than marketing. It’s more CEO than CMO. It’s two-faced work in that its internal effects are as important as its external impact. A brand’s irresistible truth, expressed through its positioning, makes sense of the business behind it at the same time as making its shop window work harder.
Positioning is leadership is the premise behind most of my work. Here’s the logic:
⦿ A leader is someone whom people gladly follow. That’s not the same as having a C in your title.
⦿ If you want to be gladly followed, you need to make sense of things and give direction, such that progress feels both feasible and worthwhile.
⦿ Positioning is the answer to two sense-making and direction-giving questions. What are we great at? And who cares?
⦿ In other words, to what are we dedicated and to whom are we dedicated? These are strategy questions.
⦿ Positioning is leadership because it works inside the organisation to make sense of the business and sharpen the elevator pitch. It gives people something to believe in, belong to, and get behind.
⦿ Positioning is leadership because it works externally to create strong preference amongst buyers, which translates into robust demand and pricing power, which lead to sustainable profit.
Get in touch if your positioning needs a leadership overhaul. Email phil @ philadams dot co (philadams.co).
Hiring me is leadership.
Strategic Narrative
Also for founders and CEOs. Strategic narrative is a coherent and compelling story that rallies the troops. It’s a narrative that important stakeholders will get behind and get on board with.
The brandrunner
What a CEO has in common with a TV showrunner. My newsletter article arguing that every business leader is a brandrunner.