The Brand Positioning Reality Today

According to a report by Harvard Business Review, companies with a well-defined brand strategy can expect a revenue increase of 10–20%. Why is that, though? When you remain consistent with your identity on all platforms and channels, you build trust and loyalty among your audience. But that’s only one part of your brand positioning strategy. The core issue many eLearning vendors face is differentiating themselves from others in the field. You may have seen many of them using the same catchphrases repeatedly, including “engagement,” “AI-powered,” and “scalable,” among others.

However, to be a learning tech category leader, you must find key differentiators that propel you ahead of your competitors. If you and your direct competitors all offer AI-powered LMSs, why would anyone choose you? What difference can you make for their employee training? That’s why being placed in industry-specific top lists is monumental to gain recognition, credibility, and trust.

This article shows how to craft a category leadership narrative that wins mindshare and drives measurable sales results.

In This Guide, You Will Find…

What Is Brand Positioning And Why It Matters More Than Ever

Brand positioning, in today’s B2B landscape, is the space your brand occupies in your buyer’s mind. It’s the perception that makes customers choose you over dozens of lookalike competitors. In SaaS brand positioning, it’s not just about features or pricing, but about clarity, differentiation, and emotional connection. Positioning defines what you stand for, messaging is how you communicate that stance, and category leadership is what you earn when your market recognizes you as the benchmark.

In saturated spaces like LMS and HR tech, strong positioning is about survival. This is where product marketing manager skills make a real impact, translating tech capabilities into a story that sticks and gets people to buy your product.

So, why does it matter that much to create a thought leadership strategy?

• Growth: Clear positioning drives faster market traction and higher revenue potential.
• Engagement: It builds trust and loyalty by connecting emotionally with your audience.
• Opportunity: Strong category leadership attracts investors, partners, and top-tier customers.

The Link Between Brand Positioning And Revenue Growth

A strong brand positioning strategy is among the top growth hacking strategies that help you drive measurable revenue. When buyers clearly understand your value, it changes how they engage with your product, often shortening sales cycles, justifying premium pricing, and improving lead-to-customer conversion rates.

Take category leaders like Docebo, 360Learning, and Workday as an example. Their rapid growth isn’t accidental. It comes from a consistent, compelling brand narrative that makes it easy for prospects to see why they should choose them. Buyers immediately grasp their unique value, which accelerates decision-making and increases willingness to invest. Therefore, well-crafted brand narrative examples show prospects why you’re the obvious choice and get people to buy your product.

How a strong brand positioning strategy drives growth:

• Shorter sales cycles: Clear differentiation reduces friction in decision-making.
• Premium pricing: Buyers understand the value and are willing to pay for it.
• Better conversions: Messaging aligned with positioning turns leads into customers faster.

Steps To Write A Brand Positioning Statement

1. Conduct Market Research

You can’t really build a successful path unless you create a market intelligence report, doing research on three main things: your target audience, your competitors, and your industry and its trends.

• Starting with your target buyers, you must understand what their needs, challenges, and requirements are if you want to make your product appealing. This won’t happen if you don’t know their pain points and don’t pinpoint how your product addresses them.
• Then, it’s time for competitor analysis. What do your direct competitors offer, how do they market their solutions, and what sets them apart? Identify which positioning each competitor uses and find your differentiator.
• Marketing industry trends keep changing all the time. That’s why you should regularly review your niche and the trends that dominate or are projected to make an impact. A brand differentiation strategy should always factor in disruptions and potential shifts.

2. Create A Brand Essence Chart

Before you create a brand essence chart, think about your goal. Are you promoting a new product to your existing market, or do you want to break into a new one? Including the 7 components of such a chart in your brand positioning strategy makes your targeting more specific.

• Attributes: For SaaS products, you may need to focus on functionality rather than on features, as you may end up being too technical for most people to understand.
• Benefits: Time to focus on which problems buyers should expect to solve using your product and what results they will see.
• Personality: Remember that customers want to see a genuine character behind your brand image. So, focus on highlighting what sets you apart and why you can relate to people’s values and problems.
• Authority and support: Why is your brand the best option for your target audience? Underline your expertise and show off (gently) your awards, customer testimonials, and reviews. That’s why it might be more than necessary to register for eLI’s Top List Awards.
• What it says about the customer: Why would anyone work with you? For example, someone applying for eLI’s Top Lists means recognition, visibility, and authority in the eLearning sphere.
• How it makes them feel: People should understand that working with you makes them feel supported, safe, and more certain about their present and future success.
• Positioning/Brand essence: This isn’t your final positioning that sells, but an idea regarding your core messaging.

3. Define The Differentiators

This is where the best product marketing examples stand out, as teams manage to present their businesses as unique. How? By focusing on features, benefits, and qualities that their core competitors lack. There are three ways you can differentiate your product through your brand positioning strategy.

• Horizontal product differentiation: This type of differentiation is based on subjective preferences rather than measurable quality. Customers choose products because of personal taste, style, or design rather than because one is objectively better. Essentially, it is about what people like rather than what is “better.”
• Vertical product differentiation: Vertical differentiation is based on objective, measurable attributes such as quality, performance, or price. Products are distinguished by features that make one objectively superior or inferior to another. For example, an LMS may have superior AI and accessibility features compared to its competitors, making it popular among eLearning buyers.
• Mixed product differentiation: Mixed differentiation combines both horizontal and vertical factors, offering products that are both objectively superior and subjectively appealing. For instance, an LMS may have easy integration capabilities (vertical) while offering its users the opportunity to personalize the interface (horizontal).

4. Create Your Statement

Now it’s time to put everything into action and craft a short brand positioning statement that captures your offerings and how your product meets your customers’ needs. The spotlight isn’t on your product features but on what sets you apart from your competition. Knowing how to build a brand narrative helps your decision-makers to take steps toward your brand’s prosperity. When you make your brand positioning all about your customers’ pain points and challenges, you create a perspective focusing on bringing the desired outcomes.

So, start by answering these main questions:

• Who is your target customer?
• How is your product or brand different from your competitors?
• Why should your target buyers believe that you are different/better?
• Why are you qualified to deliver great results?
• Do you have any proof to convince your audience?

5. Build An Emotional Connection

There is considerable discussion regarding emotional versus functional brand messaging, and it is clear that creating an emotional connection is always a worthwhile goal. Sales prospecting isn’t about making your hard sales pitch. Instead, salespeople spend time hearing prospects, answering their questions, and asking what’s best for them. For any brand positioning strategy to be effective, you should establish an honest and meaningful relationship with your potential buyers. Focus on the impact your brand can make on your clients and how your team can offer the necessary support.

Brand Positioning Strategy Types You Can Use

1. Customer Service Positioning

SaaS brand positioning can easily focus on customer service, as products are usually complex and the buyer journey is long. Data shows that 68% of customers are willing to pay more when a company has an excellent reputation for its customer service. Take a look at your competitors and identify where they fall short. Do they have a faulty onboarding process? Do they usually take a long time to solve people’s problems? Start by refining your own processes and differentiate your brand positioning by turning your competitors’ weaknesses into your strengths.

As a result, you can justify higher prices. For example, Apple charges more than other similar brands because it’s known for its responsive and user-friendly interface.

2. Convenience-Based Positioning

Another brand positioning strategy you can create focuses on convenience. Why is your service easier to use than other, similar products? It may have supreme accessibility features, unique integration capabilities, and multiplatform support. These can be your category entry points, proving why your prices are a bit higher than the industry average.

However, offering a product across multiple operating systems requires talented developers who stay on top of things. Such a function increases your spending, which then answers the question of why your product is expensive.

3. Price-Based Positioning

While this may not be the smartest or most prosperous type of positioning, we need to mention it as an option. Usually, brands use this brand differentiation strategy to present their product as the cheapest in the market. Since people don’t like to spend large sums to buy things, this positioning can generate new leads quickly. However, B2B buyers are more conscious than ever, and an extremely low price might tell them that your product’s quality isn’t trustworthy.

Also, in the long run, you may encounter economic issues and growth problems. Being known as the cheapest in the industry makes it hard to increase prices and maintain all your customers. And due to inflation, increasing prices is your only realistic option.

4. Quality-Based Positioning

Do you have exceptional product quality and want to charge accordingly? Explain to your target buyers why your products are so expensive. Perhaps you offer premium services or cater to a select number of clients for specialized services. For example, a startup HR tech company may create highly personalized employee engagement software. This means that they can only accept a certain number of clients per month, increasing the cost for each customer.

Before you choose this positioning, take a look at your buyer personas. Do you appeal to small-to-medium-sized companies or large enterprises? The former will probably pick more affordable products, so if your target audience is mainly comprised of them, you should refrain from this brand positioning framework.

5. Differentiation

The eLearning niche has grown massively in the past decade. Right now, there are many brands that sound exactly the same and offer very similar products. When you focus your brand positioning strategy on differentiating yourself from your traditional competition, you show people that you have something new and exciting. However, if you don’t have any review or test use history, B2B buyers might be reluctant to pick you. In this case, show test trials that showed great potential. You may also invest in startup marketing tactics, including releasing press releases and attending conferences and other events.

6. Social Media Positioning

Your social media positioning strategy can be one of your biggest brand assets, but only if you use it intentionally. When you stay consistent with your message and tone, you build trust, boost visibility, and strengthen your market leadership positioning across every platform. The benefits are clear: you increase engagement, attract qualified leads, and turn brand awareness into revenue by creating content that truly connects with your audience.

However, poorly aligned messaging or inconsistent visuals can confuse followers and weaken credibility. Overposting or being too promotional can push people away instead of pulling them in. The key is to use social media to tell your story, not just sell your product, and your brand will stand out as a category leader.

7. Other Strategies

If none of these strategies sounds good to you, or you’re looking for something else, there are other options:

• Position your product or brand as the best solution for a very specific problem.
• Call out your competitors and explain why you are a better option. For instance, you may mention terrible B2B customer service examples and highlight why you are more efficient in that area.

How Top Learning Tech Brands Use Storytelling To Sell

Top learning tech brands leverage storytelling by highlighting concrete results and real user experiences that differentiate them in the market. For example, Cornerstone OnDemand shares stories of large enterprises reducing employee turnover through their learning programs, while TalentLMS highlights small businesses using their platform to rapidly onboard remote teams.

LearnUpon publishes case studies showing how global clients cut training time by 40% while increasing compliance scores. These narratives aren’t just marketing fluff, as they reinforce each company’s brand positioning strategy, showing measurable outcomes and unique value. By presenting specific success stories across webinars, social media, and client testimonials, these brands turn technical capabilities into relatable, persuasive stories that drive trust, faster sales, and higher adoption rates.

Brand Positioning Strategy Examples That Worked

Spotify focuses on the listener, offering personalized playlists like Discover Weekly and social features that make music feel like a shared experience. Apple Music, on the other hand, leans into its premium vibe. It’s sleek, curated, and perfectly synced with the Apple ecosystem. Spotify feels like your fun, music-loving friend, while Apple Music feels like the cool, polished professional. While Spotify is the winner for most users, both services are tremendously successful, appealing to different audiences.

Cash App and Venmo both let you send and receive money, but their “personalities” couldn’t be more different. Cash App feels bold, modern, and a little rebellious. It’s built for people who want to invest, buy Bitcoin, or support their favorite creators. Venmo, though, is all about fun and connection. With its social feed and emoji-filled payments, it makes money transfers feel light and friendly. They both do the same thing, but the value proposition design is vastly different, and that’s what makes them both successful.

When everyone started working from home, Zoom became the go-to because it was simple, stable, and easy to use. Its brand positioning strategy was to make connecting effortless, even for people who weren’t tech-savvy. Google Meet took a different approach. It focused on integration. If you already lived in Gmail and Google Workspace, Google Meet fit right in. Zoom built its success on reliability and clarity, while Google Meet won points for convenience and collaboration.

Tesla and Toyota couldn’t be more different in how they see the world, and that’s exactly what makes their brand differentiation strategy so effective. Tesla sells excitement, as it’s all about innovation, speed, and being part of the future. Toyota, on the other hand, sells peace of mind. Its story revolves around reliability, affordability, and vehicles that last for years without fail. Tesla attracts risk-takers and dreamers who want cutting-edge technology, while Toyota appeals to realists who value consistency and trust. Both brands dominate their markets, but for completely different reasons.

Common Positioning Mistakes To Avoid

• Vague Or Generic Messaging

Failing to clearly define your unique value weakens your brand positioning strategy, making it hard for prospects to see why they should choose you over competitors.

Mimicking other companies instead of highlighting differentiators undermines your B2B category creation efforts and makes your brand forgettable in a crowded market.

Not tailoring messaging to the specific needs of buyers results in ineffective marketing to B2B decision-makers, reducing engagement and conversions.

• Skipping A Positioning Statement Formula

Neglecting to use a clear positioning statement formula can lead to inconsistent messaging across channels and confusion among prospects.

• Focusing Only On Features

Emphasizing features instead of outcomes or impact prevents your brand from creating emotional connections, which are critical in B2B category creation.

• Overcomplicating Your Message

Too much jargon or technical detail can alienate your audience, weakening your brand positioning strategy and slowing decision-making.

How eLearning Industry Helps Vendors Build And Amplify Their Brand Narrative

Publishing thought leadership content like eBooks and ready-to-use templates on eLearning Industry helps vendors turn content into a powerful growth engine. By contributing high-quality resources, companies increase brand trust through editorial credibility, making prospects more confident in their solutions. Our featured content also ranks in AI Overviews and top search engine results, boosting visibility and driving brand awareness to revenue.

Additionally, sharing actionable insights and industry expertise positions vendors as authoritative voices, reinforcing category leadership in their niche. Whether it’s a custom eBook or a carefully crafted PPC directory listing, eLearning Industry provides the platform to amplify your message.

Explore eLearning Industry’s solutions for vendors to start building your narrative today.

Key Takeaway

In the fast-moving world of eLearning technology, having a great product isn’t enough. You need a story that connects. The brand positioning reality today is that buyers want more than features. What they want is to understand what makes you different and why it matters. A strong, consistent identity across every touchpoint builds credibility, while authentic storytelling turns that credibility into trust.

The brands that win are the ones that communicate clearly, stay true to their values, and deliver real results. By combining creative AI marketing ideas with data-driven brand perception metrics, you can measure what works and refine your message over time. When your positioning is clear and human, you build lasting loyalty and real business growth.

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