Most markets look crowded until you look at them properly.

A long list of competitors all doing roughly similar things can feel like there’s no room left. But when you organise that same information visually — plotting each player on a map based on what actually matters to customers — something usually becomes clear: the crowding is uneven. Some areas are packed. Others are surprisingly empty.

That empty space is where opportunity lives. A positioning map is the tool that makes it visible.

What is a positioning map?

A positioning map is a two-dimensional diagram that shows where competing products, services, or companies sit relative to each other in a market. Each axis represents a dimension that customers care about — price, speed, quality, complexity, service level, or anything else that influences buying decisions in your specific market.

You plot each competitor at the intersection of those two dimensions, and the resulting picture tells you things a spreadsheet can’t: how clustered the market is, where there’s differentiation, and where there are gaps no one is filling.

Positioning maps go by a few other names — perceptual maps, competitive maps, market maps — but the concept is the same. Plot the players. See the landscape clearly.

Why a positioning map is more useful than a feature list

Feature comparison matrices are useful — they answer “what does each competitor offer?” But they have a problem: they show breadth without showing structure. A matrix with eight competitors and twenty features is information-dense but hard to read strategically.

A positioning map trades detail for clarity. Instead of twenty data points per competitor, you get two — but those two capture the most strategically important dimensions. The result is a picture you can discuss in a meeting, share in a pitch deck, or print on a wall.

More importantly, a positioning map answers a different question. A feature list tells you what competitors do. A positioning map tells you where they’ve chosen to compete — and where they haven’t.

How to build a positioning map that’s actually useful

Step 1: Choose the right axes

This is the most important decision in the whole process — and the one most people get wrong.

The default instinct is to use generic axes like “high price vs. low price” on one side and “high quality vs. low quality” on the other. These axes are almost always useless. Every company believes they offer better quality than their competitors. The result is a map where everyone clusters near the top-right corner and nothing becomes clear.

Useful axes reflect how customers in your specific market actually make decisions. Some questions to help identify them:

  • When a customer chooses between options in this market, what are the two things they’re trading off most often?
  • What are the most common reasons customers switch away from a competitor?
  • What dimensions of the product or service do customers talk about most in reviews and conversations?

For a software product, useful axes might be “self-serve vs. high-touch” and “SMB-focused vs. enterprise-focused.” For a services business, it might be “speed of delivery vs. depth of output” or “specialist vs. generalist.” For a consumer product, it might be “premium vs. accessible” and “traditional vs. innovative.”

The right axes will naturally separate competitors into distinct clusters — and leave some areas of the map empty. If all your competitors end up bunched together, either the axes aren’t specific enough, or the market is genuinely undifferentiated (which is its own useful finding).

Step 2: Define where each competitor sits

Once you have your axes, plot each competitor based on evidence — not assumptions.

Pricing pages, messaging, case studies, and customer reviews all provide signals. A company that leads with “enterprise-grade security” and lists case studies from Fortune 500 companies is clearly positioning itself at one end of the enterprise axis. A company with a self-service free tier and a chatbot as its main support channel is clearly at the other end.

Where the signals conflict, review platforms are often the most reliable source. Customers describe their own experience in terms that reveal positioning more honestly than any marketing copy.

Step 3: Place yourself on the map

Here’s where founders and marketers often pause. You know where you want to be — but where do you actually sit right now, based on how customers perceive you?

For an established company, this is worth testing with real customer conversations. For an early-stage startup, it’s more about where you’re deliberately positioning yourself — and whether that position is credible given what you currently offer.

Either way, the goal is honest placement. A positioning map built around aspirational self-perception isn’t useful. One built around evidence is.

Step 4: Read the map

Once all the players are plotted, three types of findings tend to emerge:

Clusters — groups of competitors who’ve all made similar positioning choices. Clusters indicate that this is a well-established way to compete in the market, but also that it’s crowded. Differentiating within a cluster requires something beyond positioning.

Isolated players — competitors who sit alone in a corner of the map. This might mean they’ve found a genuinely differentiated position, or it might mean they’re serving a niche that others have decided isn’t worth the effort. Understanding which it is matters.

White space — areas of the map with no competitors at all. This is what you’re looking for. White space doesn’t automatically mean opportunity — there might be a reason nobody is there. But it’s where the most interesting strategic questions live: is this space empty because customers don’t want it, or because nobody has tried?

Common mistakes that make positioning maps useless

Using axes that are too vague. “Quality” and “value” are almost meaningless without a specific definition. What does “high quality” actually mean in your market? Define it precisely before using it as an axis.

Placing yourself where you want to be, not where you are. A positioning map built to make you look good isn’t analysis — it’s wishful thinking. The value comes from accuracy, not flattery.

Only including direct competitors. Indirect competitors and alternatives shape customer perception too. If a customer’s real alternative is “doing it manually in Excel,” that belongs on the map somewhere.

Treating the map as a one-time exercise. Markets move. Competitors reposition. The white space that exists today may not exist in twelve months if a well-funded player decides to move there. A positioning map is most useful when it’s updated periodically, not created once and filed away.

What to do with a positioning map

A positioning map isn’t the end of the analysis — it’s a starting point for strategic decisions.

If you find white space, the next question is: why is it empty, and is it a real opportunity? That requires customer research, not just competitive research. White space in a positioning map means no competitor has claimed that position — it doesn’t automatically mean customers want someone to.

If you find that your current position is in a crowded cluster, the question becomes: what would it take to move, and is it worth it? Repositioning is possible but costly — it requires changing messaging, sometimes product, and almost always the customer you’re targeting.

If your position is already differentiated and defensible, a positioning map gives you the evidence to explain why — to investors, to new hires, to customers who ask how you’re different from the alternatives.

In all three cases, the map doesn’t make the decision. It makes the decision clearer.

Frequently asked questions

What’s the difference between a positioning map and a perceptual map?

Technically, a perceptual map is built from customer perception data — surveys, research, or interviews asking customers how they see different brands. A positioning map is built from competitive analysis and strategic intent. In practice, the terms are often used interchangeably, and both serve the same strategic purpose: showing where players sit relative to each other in a market.

How many competitors should I include on a positioning map?

Five to eight is a practical range. Fewer than five and the map doesn’t reveal enough pattern; more than eight and it becomes cluttered. If you have more competitors to track, consider building two maps with different axes rather than crowding one.

What software do I use to build a positioning map?

For a basic version, a PowerPoint or Google Slides slide with a simple scatter plot works fine. For something more polished, tools like Figma, Miro, or even a custom chart in Excel do the job. The quality of the axes and the accuracy of the placement matter far more than the tool you use to render it.

Can a positioning map work for a service business, not just a product?

Yes — and it’s often more useful for services, where the intangibles (speed, depth, quality of output, level of involvement) are harder for customers to compare than a feature list. For a service business, axes like “done-for-you vs. self-serve” or “fast and focused vs. thorough and slow” tend to reveal meaningful differentiation.

Every competitor analysis we deliver at inaday.ai includes a positioning map — built on the axes that matter most in your specific market, not generic ones. See what’s included →