Real buying choices
Each axis should be something buyers weigh when they decide: price, specialism, level of service, pace.
Make your map
Start with the brands buyers compare you with most often. Four to six is usually enough.
Drag a dot, or use the sliders. Nothing is sent anywhere while you work.
Get a written reading of your map
Where your brand sits, who is closest to you, the emptiest area on the map and what to test next, in plain words.
Your map, read
The reading updates as you move the dots.
Next: turn your position into one sentence with the free positioning statement worksheet, check how clearly your brand reads with the Brand Positioning MRI™, or book a free 30-minute call with Martina.
In short
A brand positioning map plots you and your competitors on two axes buyers care about, so you can see where the market is crowded and where you stand apart.
Make yours below in a few minutes.
A brand positioning map puts you and your competitors on one chart, using two choices buyers really make. In a minute it shows who is crowded together, where you stand apart, and which combinations nobody offers.
Choose your axes, place each brand where buyers would put it, then download the map as an image or share it with a link. It works as a perceptual map template too: plot what customers tell you rather than what you hope.
A map shows where you sit; a positioning statement says why that place is yours. Turn the map into one sentence with the free positioning statement worksheet, or see how it fits into brand strategy consulting.
Choosing axes
Each axis should be something buyers weigh when they decide: price, specialism, level of service, pace.
If the axes move together, such as price and quality, every brand lands on one diagonal and the map says nothing.
Place brands where customers would put them. Reviews, sales calls and competitors’ own words are your evidence.
A gap can be an opening or a place nobody wants to be. Test it with buyers before you move there.
Reading it
If several brands sit close to you, buyers will compare you on price. Something has to set you apart.
A brand near the centre on both axes is usually the hardest to remember. Most strong brands sit near an edge.
The brand closest to your dot is the one you most need to explain the difference from, in one sentence.
Straight answers
A simple chart with two axes, each one a choice buyers make when they compare options, such as price or approach. You place your brand and your competitors on it to see who is crowded together, where you stand apart, and which combinations nobody offers yet.
Almost. A perceptual map plots how buyers see brands, ideally from research. A positioning map is often drawn from the team’s own view. This tool works for both: the result is only as good as the evidence behind each dot.
Pick two things buyers actually weigh when they choose, that are not the same idea twice. Price and quality usually move together, so they make a weak pair. Price and approach, or specialism and level of service, tend to separate brands better.
Where buyers would put it, not where the brand would like to be. Use what you hear on sales calls, reviews and competitors’ own pages. Better still, ask five customers to place the brands and average their answers.
Not on its own. Some combinations are empty because nobody wants them. Treat empty space as a question to test with buyers before you build a strategy on it.
Yes, it is free, and the map and PNG download need no email. Use the image wherever you like; please keep the small credit line. The written reading of your map unlocks when you add your name and email.
One step
The next step is saying why that place is yours, in words buyers remember. The free Brand Positioning MRI™ shows how clearly your brand reads today.
In this topic
Written by Martina Boshra, founder of iBrand Identity and creator of The Transmutation Method™. Brand strategist for founders and service businesses across the US, Europe and the Gulf.Last updated: October 2026
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