# Ekram > Notes on positioning. AI can replicate your product, but not your position. Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. Use `/llms-full.txt` for consolidated page and post context. Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`). ## Pages - [About](https://www.ekram.xyz/about.md) - The rules for winning are being rewritten. AI and crypto are reorganizing institutions, power, and what becomes inevitable. Positioning decides what the world chooses next. I work on that layer. Trained under Steve Jobs’ strategist, Andy Cunningham. No LinkedIn. Only X. — ekram - [Notes](https://www.ekram.xyz/notes.md) - 1. Start with Positioning, not Branding 2. Sacrifice to Find your Position 3. Anchor the Market 4. Think Response, not Stimuli 5. Walk Headless 6. Don't Confuse Taglines for Positioning Statements 7. Polarize your Position 8. Rizz-up 9. Bundle and Breakaway 10. Do it Missionary 11. Form the "Agains… - [Clients](https://www.ekram.xyz/past-clients.md) - FACEBOOK GOOGLE CLOUD PHILZ COFFEE BLACKBERRY ORACLE CLOUD YANDEX AVAYA 23ANDME TILE LOOKOUT SECURITY FUNDING CIRCLE EIGHT SLEEP YEXT HALLMARK ASAPP PRODUCTBOARD TEVA PHARMACEUTICALS COLLIBRA WRIKE KABAM ADDEPAR ABBYY OPENGOV SLING AVG VIRTA HEALTH SUPPLYFRAME BCD TRAVEL PATHLIGHT FLEXENGAGE SYNAPT… ## Posts - [10 interview questions to ask marketing leaders](https://www.ekram.xyz/10-questions-for-marketing-leaders.md) - I get asked to interview marketing leaders/CMOs often. Here are the top 10 questions that I like to ask, presented in no particular order: 1. Which project does the best marketing and branding in our industry? Which project is most cringe? 2. What cognitive bias do you most exploit in your marketin… - [Issue full disclosure](https://www.ekram.xyz/full-disclosure.md) - Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth ~ Mike Tyson Sometimes, your brand is in the midst of crisis. Discord is buzzing. Twitter is pounding. Your network is down. It could be a bug or worse, a hack. What do you do? Get ahead of the story Everything can and will come out. The key i… - [Set (Unwritten) Rules](https://www.ekram.xyz/unspoken-rules.md) - "Social norms are the invisible rulers of society" ~ Unknown After a week-long strategic onsite in the Rockies, my colleague Gabriel and I found ourselves unwinding in a hot tub. It was a Friday night, and the last thing we wanted to discuss was work. Curiosity sparked, I asked Gabriel about his li… - [Counter-position](https://www.ekram.xyz/counter-position.md) - "Giants are not what we think they are. The same qualities that appear to give them strength are often the sources of great weakness" ~ Malcolm Gladwell Positioning against the market leader offers unique advantages. You can steal their mindshare, hijack their word-of-mouth, or refocus the market c… - [Be the Essential Ingredient](https://www.ekram.xyz/include-the-essential-ingredient.md) - “Don’t always go through the tiny little door that everyone is trying to rush through...go around the corner and go through the vast gate that no one’s taking." ~ Peter Thiel In some cases, the impact of your technology remains unseen by the general public. Whether you're involved in microprocessor… - [Establish the Hierarchy](https://www.ekram.xyz/establish-the-heirarchy.md) - A deck of cards is built like the purest of hierarchies, with every card a master to those below it, a lackey to those above it ~ Culbertson At the core of all communication lies a simple goal: to take root in the human mind. Your message needs to spread like wildfire. It should be so contagious th… - [Dub Dinosaurs](https://www.ekram.xyz/dinosaurs.md) - Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive ~ Andy Grove, Former CEO of Intel Corporation Every industry has its own champion - the market leader that dominates the competition with its massive market share, trend-setting innovation, and renowned brand reputati… - [Sound Alarm](https://www.ekram.xyz/sound-alarm.md) - We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by people we have never heard of ~ Edward Bernays Narratives hold immense power in driving behavior. People are moved by stories. They can have a profound impact on the way we view the world around us. For techno… - [Be the Alternative](https://www.ekram.xyz/be-the-alternative.md) - "Do not wait for a coronation; the greatest emperors crown themselves" ~ Robert Greene Positioning is a strategic game of creating a distinct identity in the mind of market. It requires drawing clear and polarizing lines in the sand that define your brand's unique value proposition. These lines can… - [Form the "Against" Position](https://www.ekram.xyz/form-the-against-position.md) - Begin by seizing something which your opponent holds dear; then he will be amenable to your will ~ Sun Tzu Positioning is not an absolute, but rather a relative concept. A brand's positioning cannot be considered in isolation, but rather in relation to its competitors in the market. To be successfu… - [Do it Missionary](https://www.ekram.xyz/do-it-missionary.md) - Power is the pivot on which everything hinges. He who has the power is always right; the weaker is always wrong ~ Machiavelli There exists a class of brands that differentiate themselves solely through the strategic principle of cultivating a cult of personality. These brands possess a deep-seated… - [Bundle and Breakaway](https://www.ekram.xyz/bundle-and-breakaway.md) - In the world of marketing, attention is the ultimate currency. Brands must capture the attention of their target audience, and sometimes that means figuring out where the industry's attention is focused at the moment and how to grab it. But let's be honest, some brands don't just capture attention,… - [Rizz-up](https://www.ekram.xyz/raise-the-rizz.md) - Does the brand fu*k?!? Brand marketers are faced with a perplexing question: how do we break through the noise and capture people's attention? One such strategy that has proven to be powerful is harnessing the emotional trigger of 'rizz.' This elusive quality, often described as a blend of exciteme… - [Positions polarize](https://www.ekram.xyz/positions-polarize.md) - "Love me or hate me, but whatever you do – just don't like me" Every strong and focused brand, just like every strong and focused person, creates a love-hate dynamic. In fact, the better you are at creating a strong, clear brand position, the more likely you are to find a group of people who really… - [Tag-lines ≠ Positioning Statements](https://www.ekram.xyz/dont-confuse-tag-lines-for-positioning-statements.md) - Taglines are not the same as positioning statements. A tagline is a short, catchy phrase that summarizes the brand's message and creates a memorable impression in the minds of users and developers. The main goal of a tagline is to create brand recognition and differentiate the brand from its compet… - [Walk Headless](https://www.ekram.xyz/go-faceless.md) - Brands can come in two forms, with or without a head. A head-brand has a human being at the forefront, serving as the charismatic leader of the organization or group. These figures become synonymous with the brand they represent, such as Elon Musk at Tesla and SpaceX, Richard Branson at the Virgin… - [Think Response, not Stimuli](https://www.ekram.xyz/think-response-not-stimulus.md) - When it comes to brand positioning, it's not just about creating a catchy tagline or flashy logo. The true power of branding lies in creating a strong differentiation that sets you apart from the competition. Etymology And where does the term "brand" come from? It actually hails from the world of f… - [Anchor the market](https://www.ekram.xyz/position-or-be-position.md) - There's a phrase I constantly repeat: position or be positioned. In today's fast-paced world, the act of positioning is happening constantly whether we like it or not. Market players all have the potential to shape the narrative around our brand. In other words, the act of positioning happens wheth… - [Sacrifice to find your Position](https://www.ekram.xyz/sacrifice-to-find-your-position.md) - You are either a wandering generality or a meaningful specific. To be successful, you need to understand that you cannot be all things to all people. Us marketers call this the 'everything trap'. Instead, you must focus on what makes your brand unique and relevant to a specific group, and then make… - [Start with Positioning, not Branding](https://www.ekram.xyz/position-first-then-brand.md) - Positioning is yin. Branding is yang ~ Andy Cunningham Everyone wants to build a brand. Few actually do. Why? Because here's a truth: you can't actually brand something. You can, however, earn a brand. Building a brand is a strategy, not an objective. In other words, brand is a noun, not a verb. Th… ## Optional - [RSS Feed](https://www.ekram.xyz/rss/) - [Sitemap](https://www.ekram.xyz/sitemap.xml) - [Full content of pages and posts](https://www.ekram.xyz/llms-full.txt)