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Competitive Positioning Map Tool
Place the brands your customers buy today on two things they weigh, add your promise, and check whether it lands in open space or is already taken.
This tool also runs as a stage in a playbook, which takes you through several tools in order:
- Expand into a new market Stage 6 of 6: is there room to stand against who is already there? Start at stage 1
Not following the playbook?
Two things buyers weigh when they choose
Take them from how your segment actually decides, not from what your team finds interesting. They must be independent: price and quality usually fail, because they rise together.
Your promise and the brands already there
The brands this segment buys today. No real rivals yet? Add the substitutes they buy instead.
Your notes never leave your browser
Brands, axes and positions stay on your computer and in your progress file. To write the diagnosis, only how the dots spread and how far your nearest rivals are are sent to our server. How it works
Place each brand where buyers see it
Drag the dots, or type positions from 1 to 10. Place your promise too. Don't move your dot to make the map agree.
If the spot is open: what makes it pay?
An empty spot can be empty because nobody can make money there. Which of your advantages lets you make money in it?
The map
The other axis pairs you tried
How to get in: the entry mode
Answer four questions. The suggestion follows the article's table: what you have, and what you lack.
Save your progress
Download your progress file to continue from this point any time, on any computer: choose it under "Coming back?" at the start of the tool. Each new file includes everything so far, including the earlier stages when they are connected, so keep the latest one. Your work stays in this browser only until you close it.
Not saved yet.
Take your results with you
A PDF of the map, the nearest rivals and the diagnosis. In the playbook, the full report of all six stages and the entry mode.
About the tool
Why it exists
Catch a position that is already taken on the shelf
A competitive positioning map is a simple chart: two things buyers weigh when they choose, one across and one up the side, with each brand placed where buyers see it. Then you see whether your promise lands in open space. Choosing the two axes is most of the work.
This tool works on its own, and as stage 6 of our playbook for expanding into a new market, where it checks the promise from stage 5 and ends with the entry mode, a first review date and the full report. For the method, see our guide to the Competitive Positioning Map.
The method
How the tool works
Independent axes. Once four or more brands are placed, the tool checks how their two positions move together. A correlation of 0.8 or more, either way, means they bunch along a diagonal: swap one axis. Up to three axis pairs are kept, because two or three tries is normal.
Your spot. Taken when a rival sits within 1.5 points of your promise, crowded within 2.5, open beyond that, on the 1 to 10 scale. An open spot raises one more question: which advantage makes it pay?
The entry mode. In the playbook, four yes/no questions suggest one of five ways in: export through a distributor, licensing or franchising, a joint venture, buying a local business, or your own subsidiary.
What leaves your computer. Brands, axes and positions stay in your browser and your progress file. To write the diagnosis, the page sends our server only how the dots spread and the distances to your nearest rivals, and the server keeps nothing.