Examples of Well-Positioned Firms

I get asked for examples of well-positioned firms from clients and non-clients alike, so a few months ago I just started to collect them on a list. That list could be thousands of entries long, because there are more well-positioned firms than there ever have been.

That’s good, because there’s been a strong movement in this direction since the late 1990s, all brought about after widespread internet use destroyed the geographic moat around your business. Back then, a client chose a local firm and they narrowed the choice down to a few and then made the decision based on chemistry. Chemistry is now way down the list: a checkbox when everything else matches. Instead, sophisticated clients are looking for a strong overlap, whether that’s vertical expertise (industry) or horizontal (demographic or service offering design), the latter of which may need some strengthening. If this is all new to you, I’d start with the Business of Expertise book, or maybe look at the advantages of vertical and horizontal, the tests you’d apply, and countless other articles in the insight section or over in the podcast.

And one last note before we get into the examples: some of you have a very short runway, and the list you don’t want to be on is the “most at risk” one.

Vertical Examples

In the past, there were three verticals that you could choose, each of which got the job done: tech, finance, or healthcare. These days, those categories are so broad that it’s nearly meaningless unless you choose something narrower. Keep that in mind as you look at these examples. By the way, I’m not saying any of these websites are good (some are), but rather that the positioning is. More on your website here in an article and here in a podcast episode. (* = past or current clients, through varying degrees of influence: some were already well positioned)

• Propellic: travel and tourism.*
• Clever Digital: focused on home services, but with a twist (market exclusivity).*
• Venel: orthopedic practices, and as you would expect with any vertical, a full suite of service offerings. This one in particular is tough to pull off well because this target is not particularly sophisticated.*
• Transcend: another example of a narrower healthcare choice.*
• Kula: focused on manufacturers, particularly on digital. Notice their podcast, too, where discoverability isn’t the main point, but using it to connect to thoughtful prospects.*
• Hoyne: high end real estate.*
• Interrupt: building materials, with a courageous statement about their ICP.*
• Outside Source: tech, but narrower in focusing on developing connected products (emerging from IoT work).*
• Reason One: narrower than healthcare, but focusing instead on healthcare systems.*

There are so many more, but that’ll get you started.

Horizontal Examples

Here are some horizontal examples. Keep in mind that this can be defined in one of two ways: demographics (age, race, socio-economic status, geography, belief, etc.) or a very tight service offering (investor relations, employer branding, etc.). A good horizontal is very tough to pull off, and the ultimate test of a good one is whether it yields an addressable target.

• Fletch: just positioning, which itself would be too broad, but it’s good when applied to a specific market (B2B software).
• Archrival: helping brands reach youth.*
• Felix Rossknecht: helping scale firms at a specific point in time.
• Walter Audio: sound/audio, across brands. See also FlyteVu*, connecting brands to bleeding edge culture, but especially through music.
• SB Events: event management, writ large, but specifically for associations with 1,000-10,000 attendees who use a particular platform (Cadmium).
• Marketing for Change: helping create behavioral change across many verticals, but tightened with adherence to a theory of change.*
• Duarte: persuasion and presentation skills across industries.*
• Naming Group or Wild Geese Studio: high level, sophisticated naming of products and services.*

Next

If you’re ready to do better work for your clients, have a more efficient marketing plan, and make more money, the best time to plant that tree is right now. Socialize the decision but don’t democratize it, and after all, tighter positioning defines what you look for and not what you accept.

If you want my help with that, just reach out.