What Is Brand Positioning? In Plain English, for Wellness Founders
Brand positioning is the specific spot you hold in someone's mind when they think about what you do. It's the answer to why a person would choose you over the ten other wellness brands doing something similar.
This is the first post in a five part series called In Plain English, where I take marketing terms that get thrown around constantly and explain what they actually mean, without the jargon. I'm starting with positioning because almost nothing else in your marketing works until this one is right.
Why wellness founders get this one wrong so often
I've spent years inside wellness brands, not just advising them from the outside. I ran marketing for an anti-aging clinic, I coached clients for years before that, and now I sit across from wellness founders every week helping them figure out what actually makes them different. The pattern I see over and over is the same one, no matter how experienced the founder is.
Most wellness founders didn't start their business because they wanted to become a marketer. You started because you're good at coaching, or teaching, or formulating, or treating people. So when it comes time to describe your brand, the instinct is to list everything you do. Every service. Every certification. Every way you can help.
That instinct feels honest. I understand it, because I've watched smart, talented founders do it to themselves. It also makes you sound like every other wellness brand listing the same things.
Here's a gut check. If ten other people in your specific niche disappeared tomorrow, would your ideal client notice a difference in what you offer? If the honest answer is no, that's not a content problem or a branding problem in the design sense. That's a positioning problem.
What positioning actually answers
Strong positioning answers three questions at once.
Who you're for, specifically, not generally. Not "people who want to feel better," but a real person with a real situation.
What you do differently than the other options that same person could choose instead.
Why that difference actually matters to them, not to you.
What this looks like across different wellness brands
Positioning isn't one formula. It shifts depending on what kind of wellness brand you're building.
A holistic nutrition coach might position around working exclusively with women navigating perimenopause, instead of general wellness coaching for anyone.
A supplement brand might position around clean, third party tested formulas for people who've been burned by mislabeled products before, instead of just being another wellness supplement company.
A yoga or movement studio might position around being the space for people recovering from burnout, instead of being a general fitness studio that also does yoga.
None of these are bigger or smaller than the others. They're just specific. And specific is what makes a person feel like you're speaking directly to them instead of to a general audience that includes them by accident.
The most common mistake
Trying to be positioned for everyone. It feels safer, because narrowing your audience can feel like you're turning people away. I see founders resist this constantly, and I get why, it's a scary thing to do on purpose. But in practice, the opposite happens. A wellness founder who says "I help women in perimenopause fix their energy without giving up their favorite foods" gets remembered, and gets referred. A wellness founder who says "I help people live healthier lives" gets forgotten by the time someone scrolls to the next post.
How to start finding your own positioning
Ask yourself these questions honestly.
Who is the one person I do my best work with, even if I technically work with a wider group?
What do I believe about wellness that some other brands in my space would actually disagree with?
If someone only remembered one sentence about my brand, what sentence would actually get them to book?
Your answers here should sound narrower and more specific than what's currently on your website. That's usually a sign you're getting closer, not further away.
This is the exact exercise I walk founders through before we touch a single word of website copy or a single Instagram caption. Positioning comes first, always. Everything else is just the outfit.
Frequently asked questions
What is brand positioning in simple terms? Brand positioning is the specific place your brand holds in a potential client's mind, based on who you serve, what makes you different, and why that difference matters to them.
Why is positioning important for a wellness brand? Wellness is a crowded space. Without clear positioning, a wellness brand tends to sound interchangeable with dozens of others, which makes referrals and content much harder to convert into clients.
What's the difference between positioning and branding? Positioning is the strategy, the specific space you occupy and the reason someone should choose you. Branding, like your logo, colors, and visual identity, is how that positioning gets expressed visually. Positioning comes first.
How do I know if my positioning is too broad? If your website or Instagram bio could describe several other wellness brands with the names swapped out, your positioning is too broad.
If you're a wellness founder trying to figure out what actually makes your brand different, that's the exact starting point I work through with clients. You can start that conversation at themaxwellmethod.com/lets-talk.
~ Natasha