By Jim Fitzgerald, Wheelhouse Strategy

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Yet, bizarrely, it's understood by so few. Why is that? Well, for starters, people often treat marketing like some kind of inborn talent—a soft skill that anyone can do if they "just have a knack for it." It’s a mistake.

 

The first hurdle is this: marketing is a giant catch-all term. It's broad, vague, and used by people who don’t always have the training to back it up. Look around—most people responsible for marketing in companies today aren’t formally trained in it. And, no surprise, they can’t quite nail down Positioning.

 

Here’s the second reason: Positioning isn’t science—it’s art. And what does that mean? It means Positioning is Strategy. Think Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. It’s all about the fundamentals, but with the freedom to create something new, unexpected, and, most importantly, effective. Unlike science, which gives you a formula to replicate the same result every time, art takes those fundamentals and makes something bold. Today, with tech saturating the marketing world, people mistake data for direction. But true Positioning? It’s about understanding human emotions. And you can't quantify that on a spreadsheet.

 

Lately, some marketers try to simplify Positioning by calling it "storytelling," and yeah, that’s a good start—but it’s just that, a start. It’s oversimplified, and frankly, it can leave brands in the dark about the real power of Positioning. At Wheelhouse Strategy, we break this down clearly for our clients. We don’t just lump everything together and call it marketing.

We separate Brand, Marketing, and Advertising. Brand is your why. Marketing breaks out the 4P’s: Product, Price, Promotion, and Placement. Advertising is how and where you tell your story. But Positioning—Positioning is the bedrock. It’s the foundation that holds it all together.

 

Simon Sinek might say to "start with why," and he's right. But start with your Position too. When you get that right, the results will make you realize just how inexpensive marketing really is.

 

Now, that's the real art.

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