How to determine the axes of my positioning matrix?
How to determine the axes of a positioning matrix or competitor matrix?It’s a question we often get from students, and the answer typically varies depending on the situation.
When you want to analyze the key factors for differentiation in a market, you need to determine these based on research. Investigate what the (future) key factors for differentiation are, place those on the axes, and choose the position of the brand and its competitors. Chances are, you will create multiple matrices and will have to make a choice.
The most practical approach is a marketing positioning matrix where we always distinguish two axes:
- Ego – Social
- Conservative – Progressive
The first axis revolves around the message: is the world or the customer central (social) or is the brand itself central (ego)? The second axis revolves around marketing; does a brand use other (more modern) methods than the rest of the market, or not (conservative)? In practice, many organizations find it incredibly helpful to have this clear picture.
Our reasoning is summarized below. This is a copy of the response we wrote to a student. For more information, of course, read our complete article on the Positioning Matrix.
The goal of a competitor matrix
The goal of a competitor matrix is to help determine a strategy and thereby behavior. So, you need to ask yourself: “What should this competitor matrix lead to?” Do you need to reposition, do you want to map out if you want to make adjustments, or are you perhaps introducing an entirely new brand to the market? That already greatly influences your choice.
Fortunately, we do have thoughts on this. Firstly, about positioning: how can we differentiate our service/offer from the competition in the consumer’s mind? How you market is a very relevant question in this regard. A brand that communicates solely through mail (think tax office) is inherently positioned differently than an online-only position (think of the Bunq bank). Therefore, we certainly include marketing activities as an axis. We like to use conservative <–> progressive, where what is common in the market stands in the middle. This makes you ask yourself, what is progressive in our market, and what is conservative? If you also think carefully about why you believe that, you already have the first building blocks for differentiation and know what your brand can do to distinguish itself in this area.
Differentiation ability
Differentiation is always a challenging axis; on what basis do you determine this? If Brand A focuses mainly on service, Brand B on price and fast delivery, but Brand C has a unique product range (think BCC, Mediamarkt, CoolBlue, and the Apple Store). Differentiation in this case cannot be captured on a single axis.
That’s why we often use the Ego <–> Social axis, where we look at the extent to which the brand (or organization) itself is central in the message or whether it is thought and spoken from the perspective of the world, market, or target group. In practice, we often see a nice division between brands that mainly talk about themselves (the largest, the best, most products, service, etc.) and brands that put the customer central based on their problem, worldview, wishes, dreams, etc.
Purpose and focus
Companies with a clear purpose are, for example, often more social than companies that primarily want to make money (with a good service).
