Your approach and mindset about positioning needs to evolve as your business grows. To maximize growth you may need to speed up, or slow down through the positioning hourglass.
The positioning hourglass is a mental model to visualize the range of options your brand might explore at different phases of growth – and what the focus should be for each phase.
Within the hourglass, there’s a natural progression where you:
- Start wide to find market fit
- Narrow down to create focus
- Expand back out to explore new segments
The goal of positioning is to find alignment between the needs of a specific audience and the unique value your business delivers to solve those needs.
And the idea of speed in this context refers to how fast you should iterate and test your positioning to find that alignment.
Each phase of the hourglass centers on a different level of business maturity, so each phase requires a different approach – and speed – to optimize positioning.
Here’s the definition, recommended speed, and key positioning goal for each phase.
1: The Startup Phase
Definition:
Usually we think of a startup as a business that, well, just started. But in this context the definition is more broad.
For the sake of the positioning hourglass, the Startup Phase refers to any brand that hasn’t locked in clear product-market fit.
With this expanded view a lot of brands can fall into this category. A business can operate for years in some cases before it locks in the alignment between their customer and offering in a way that can scale.
In this phase the brand may still consider lots of options around customer segments to pursue. This creates a lot of opportunity for confusion.
Of course with limited resources and revenue, it’s impossible to pursue a wide range of segments effectively.
This often leads to diffused efforts across segments and weak positioning that doesn’t align with any specific audience.
Speed Tip:
Go fast!
Your brand should research and define its position, and then test and iterate quickly to figure out where your unique value can best serve a focused segment of customers.
Key Positioning Goal:
The top focus here is on product-market fit.
On the business side you have to get crystal clear on the points of value where you deliver at the highest level and have the greatest separation from competitors.
On the customer side you need to find the segment that:
- Benefits most from your brand’s unique value
- Can be acquired consistently
- Can be acquired profitably
- Sticks around the longest
This may require making some hard choices around your offerings and who you serve. To get focused and lean you often need to cut some fat.
2: The Growth Phase
Definition:
The primary characteristic of this phase is that your brand now has consistent alignment with a particular customer segment.
When your business hits this phase the focus shifts from starting a fire to pouring fuel on it.
But just because you have fit it doesn’t mean your positioning work is done!
Speed Tip:
Slow down!
You can now move from fast testing and iteration to deep focus and refinement.
Key Positioning Goal:
This phase is all about building equity around your unique position in the market.
You need to double (or triple!) down on the points of differentiation that make your target segment think of your brand as the ideal fit for their needs.
To do this you have to get an even deeper understanding of your customer’s needs and ensure that everything you communicate consistently reinforces the core points of your positioning.
For a lot of brands this phase may be all they ever need to sustain a long, profitable existence.
3: The Expansion Phase
Definition:
For brands that max out their core audience and seek new ways to grow, there’s the option to expand into new segments.
There are some similarities here with the startup phase but now the brand has the benefit of more equity and resources.
Once again the brand can explore new flavors of positioning, this time to help align existing or new offerings with the specific needs of new customer segments.
Speed Tip:
Ramp back up.
This phase requires new research efforts, new adjustments, and new cycles to test and iterate on positioning for each segment.
Key Positioning Goal:
In addition to fine-tuning positioning for each new segment, the brand also needs to consider an umbrella positioning for the entire brand.
It’s important that any new areas of growth support one another strategically so that it doesn’t dilute the global brand’s equity.
There’s a ton of opportunity for new growth at this stage but it does take a lot more effort around research and positioning.
Different phases, different speeds, same approach
Even though each of these phases has its own specific needs they all use the same fundamental process:
- Customer research: to find, deepen, and maintain alignment with each audience segment’s motivations and needs.
- Market research: gather data about the strengths and weaknesses of key competitors to maximize differentiation within the landscape.
- Positioning process: get beyond default ideas and understand who you serve, what unique value you provide, and how you can create meaningful separation from the other solutions your customers consider.
As you look at your current state think about where you are in the positioning hourglass and what your focus should be, consider the following:
- Do you need to speed up, iterate quickly and find product market fit?
- Do you need to slow down and double down on a position that’s working?
- Do you need to speed back up to explore new segments and spark growth?
No matter which phase you’re in, the positioning hourglass mental model helps you understand the right focus and the right speed to maximize your brand’s growth.
