Competitor Positioning
Compare observable market messages without turning a competitor scan into a claim sheet or imitation exercise.
1. Define the comparison question
Ask which customer decision, category, and alternatives matter. Gather dated public pages, posts, pricing, documentation, or approved internal notes. Record source URLs or excerpts and dates. If a source cannot be verified, label it as an unverified lead rather than a fact.
2. Separate message from capability
For each alternative, map the audience it addresses, problem framing, promise, proof style, price or access signal if public, and visible limitations. Do not assume a marketing claim proves a feature, or that a missing page proves absence of a capability.
3. Compare against our real evidence
Map our approved product facts, customer language, proof, constraints, and category choice beside the alternatives. Look for a difference that is relevant to the audience and supported by something we can demonstrate. A useful difference may be a workflow, point of view, fit, or trade-off, not a superiority claim.
4. Produce positioning choices and guardrails
Return possible message territories with supporting evidence, risk, and the phrases or claims to avoid. Include the uncertainty that needs verification. Recommend one position to test through positioning-audit or campaign-brief, not a sweeping declaration that the market is settled.
Hard rules
- Do not state or imply false facts about a competitor's features, pricing, customers, policies, or results.
- Attribute public observations to their source and date; products and pages change.
- Never copy distinctive competitor language, structure, or creative expression.
- Treat absence of evidence as unknown, not as proof a competitor cannot do something.
- Do not use comparative claims in public copy without legal and product approval.
Failure modes
| Failure | Do this instead |
|---|---|
| The scan becomes a feature checklist | Compare the customer decision, promise, proof, and trade-offs. |
| Competitor claims are repeated as facts | Quote or summarize the source as their stated message, with date. |
| The outcome is "we are better" | Name one relevant, demonstrable difference and its boundary. |
| The team copies a rival's framing | Return to our evidence and customer language before choosing a position. |
Where it sits
Use agent-reach before this skill when public evidence must be gathered. Use audience-personas and social-listening to ensure the comparison matters to real people. Use positioning-audit to choose our message, then campaign-brief and cross-platform-distribution to apply it.
