Services / Growth Marketing / Positioning & Messaging
Clear positioning — before the ad budget starts.
Performance marketing doesn't compensate for unclear positioning. I do the foundation work: market research, audience sharpening and a messaging framework — so every channel speaks with the same voice.
Differentiation
What you do differently from the other three in your market — and how you say it so your audience gets it.
Audience clarity
Jobs-to-be-Done, personas backed by evidence instead of assumptions, a clear priority on which segments come first.
Consistency across channels
A messaging hierarchy that uses the same words in ads, landing pages, sales decks and customer calls.
What you can book
Six building blocks, individually or as a package
The foundation phase works best as a single sprint — the blocks build on each other and deliver less value on their own.
Market & competitor analysis
Top-10 competitor audit, messaging map, USP-gap analysis, brand trends.
Audience research
5–8 customer interviews, JTBD analysis, personas backed by sources, segment priorities.
Positioning framework
Positioning statement, differentiation axes, brand promise, brand-story hooks.
Messaging hierarchy
Value props per segment, headlines library, tone-of-voice guide, FAQ answers.
Story architecture
Brand-story arc, origin story, manifesto. For web, sales and talent pitches.
Sales / pitch material
Investor pitch deck, sales one-pager, talking points. Optional as an add-on.
How do we differ?
Three ways to sharpen positioning
Strategy consultancies deliver dense decks, brand agencies pretty visuals. I combine both with performance reality — here's the honest comparison.
| Strategy consultancy Simon-Kucher, McKinsey Branding | Brand agency Wolff Olins, Karlsson Wilker | Truong Suarez Strategy + performance bridge | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Output | 150-slide strategy deck | Brand manual + style guide | Messaging doc + ad headlines + landing-page copy library |
| Depth of research | Very high, often 6+ weeks | Qualitative, short discovery | 5–8 customer interviews, competitor audit, 2 weeks |
| Connection to marketing ops | Rare, often a handover break | Visual-identity-focused | I build performance — so messaging is directly testable |
| Price range | €30–150k+ | €15–80k | Fixed-price sprint €2,490, follow-up engagement as needed |
| Best phase for you | Corporation, brand portfolio | Brand refresh, premium launch | Founders & mid-market coupling foundation + performance |
Comparison based on publicly available information, as of 2026. If your situation would be better served elsewhere, I'll tell you so in the intro call.
How we work
Five phases, one point of contact
A 2-week sprint with concrete artifacts. Not a 6-month strategy marathon.
Market
Competitor mapping, trend scan, category language. Output: market map.
Audience
5–8 interviews, JTBD analysis, pain map. Output: persona profiles with quotes.
Positioning
Differentiation axes, positioning statement, brand promise.
Messaging
Headlines library, tone of voice, value props per segment. Output: messaging doc.
Handover
Half-day workshop with the marketing/sales team. Output: adoption roadmap.
Stack
What we work with
No black-box tools. Everything we use, you can run yourself — if you want to.
Research
- Customer-interview templates
- Tally / Typeform surveys
- SimilarWeb (market data)
- Reddit/X mining (JTBD signals)
Frameworks
- Jobs-to-be-Done
- Strategyzer Value-Prop Canvas
- Positioning by April Dunford
- Brand-onion model
Workshop / docs
- Miro
- Notion
- Figma (storyboards)
- Loom (async sync)
Output templates
- Messaging doc (Markdown/Notion)
- Persona profiles
- Sales one-pager (Figma)
- Pitch-deck templates
Recommended entry point
The path when you're rebuilding the foundation
Positioning can't be diagnosed in a quick check — it's worked out. That's why there's exactly one path here: research, framework and messaging in a focused sprint.
For you if
A launch, rebrand or new market is coming up
You're rebuilding the foundation or sharpening a positioning that no longer holds. You need research + framework + messaging, not just a diagnosis — output your marketing can start with the day after.
2 weeks · report + workshop
Growth Sprint
- – Market & competitor analysis
- – 5–8 customer interviews with personas
- – Positioning statement + differentiation
- – Complete messaging doc
- – Half-day workshop with the team
Not sure? The symptom triage on the audits page helps you choose. The audit fee is credited toward a follow-up project.
When this becomes relevant
Typical starting points
Three recurring situations where positioning & messaging is the right first step.
Launch
Launch with landing pages
Why positioning clarity belongs BEFORE building landing pages — and how that shapes the performance funnel later.
Relaunch
Relaunch without SEO loss
When the brand appears anew: how sharpened messaging and structure carry over without burning visibility.
Visibility
Visibility in LLM answers
Clear positioning and consistent messaging decide how AI searches describe your brand.
FAQ
What clients often ask before the first collaboration
When should we position — before or during marketing?
Before. Performance marketing doesn't compensate for unclear positioning — it just makes it more expensively visible. Ideally: positioning sprint (2 weeks) → landing pages + messaging adaptation (2 weeks) → performance launch.
How do you measure whether the positioning works?
Indirectly: click rate on headlines (performance data), branded-search volume (trend in GSC), unprompted playback of the positioning statement in the sales call. Directly: brand-awareness surveys after 6 months and repeat JTBD interviews.
Who from our team should be involved?
Baseline: founder or marketing lead. Ideally also a sales lead (knows the customer's language), a product owner (knows the feature roadmap) and someone from customer success (collects JTBD signals).
What's the difference between re-positioning and a complete rebuild?
Re-positioning: sharpening an existing brand, often by extending the audience or adapting to market shifts. A shorter sprint (~10 days). Rebuild: launch or complete brand restart — the full 2-week foundation. We choose the right format in the intro call.
Do you also do the visual branding?
No, not as the core. I do strategy + messaging + storyboard; the visual design ideally runs with a specialized brand designer (yours or from my network). If it should run alongside in one sprint, we carry it as a parallel track with a clear brief.
Let's talk
Three paths — depending on where you are.