Brand Positioning: A Practical Guide for Saudi Companies

Brand positioning is the decision about where your company sits in the customer’s mind: who it is for, what it is compared against, and why it is the better choice for those people. Many Saudi companies commission a new logo when the real problem is that nobody inside the business can state that decision in one sentence. This guide explains what positioning is, how it differs from identity and branding, and a step-by-step process you can run with your own team, with the Saudi-specific questions that generic guides skip.

What is brand positioning?

Brand positioning is the chosen context in which customers should understand your offer: the category you compete in, the alternatives you are measured against, and the specific value you deliver better than those alternatives for a defined group of customers.

The idea was popularised by Al Ries and Jack Trout, first in a three-part series of articles in Advertising Age in 1972 and then in their book Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind (1981). Their central argument is that positioning happens in the mind of the prospect, not in the product: people file brands into mental categories, and a brand that does not own a clear slot is easily forgotten. April Dunford’s Obviously Awesome (2019) turned the concept into a working process, breaking positioning into components a team can define and debate. This guide draws on both books, paraphrased; read them for the full argument.

Brand positioning vs brand identity vs branding

Positioning is the strategic decision, identity is how that decision looks and sounds, and branding is the ongoing work of expressing both consistently. The terms are often used interchangeably, which is why companies end up briefing designers on a strategy question.

How to do brand positioning: a five-step process

The most practical way to position a brand is to work through five components in order, because each one depends on the one before. The sequence below follows the components Dunford sets out in Obviously Awesome: competitive alternatives, unique attributes, value, best-fit customers and market category. Run it as a workshop with people who talk to customers every week, not only with senior management.

1. Define the competitive alternatives

Start with what your best customers would do if you did not exist. The answer is often not a direct competitor: it may be an in-house employee, a spreadsheet, a cousin who does it as a favour, a WhatsApp group, or simply doing nothing. List the real alternatives your customers mention, not the rivals your team worries about.

2. List your unique attributes

Next, write down what you have that those alternatives do not: capabilities, features, expertise, delivery model, locations, relationships or a way of working. Keep them factual and provable. “Quality” and “passion” are not attributes; “same-day installation across Riyadh” or “Arabic-first software built for Saudi e-invoicing” are.

3. Translate attributes into value

Then ask “so what?” for each attribute until you reach a benefit the customer actually cares about. Group the answers into two or three value themes. For every theme, note the proof you can show: a process, a guarantee, a certification, a demonstration or a customer story you have permission to use.

4. Identify your best-fit customers

Your best-fit customers are the ones who care most about that value. Describe them by characteristics you can act on, such as company size, situation, trigger events or buying occasion, rather than broad demographics. This is where most positioning work gets uncomfortable, because choosing a best-fit customer means accepting that some buyers are not your focus.

5. Choose the market category

Finally, pick the category frame that makes your value obvious to those customers. The category tells buyers who you compete with and what to expect. A clinic, a “medical spa” and a “wellness centre” may offer overlapping services but trigger very different comparisons and price expectations. Dunford also recommends checking whether a relevant trend can make the positioning more timely, used carefully, since trends fade.

Positioning statement template (with a fictional example)

A positioning statement is an internal sentence that summarises the five decisions above; it is not a tagline and customers never need to read it. A common structure is:

For [best-fit customers] who [need or situation], [brand] is the [market category] that [primary value]. Unlike [competitive alternative], we [unique attributes and proof].

Fictional example. The company below is invented for illustration; it is not a client, and no results are implied. Imagine a hypothetical Riyadh café chain, which we will call “Café A”, with branches inside residential neighbourhoods rather than malls.

• Alternatives: mall coffee chains, drive-through kiosks, and hosting friends at home.
• Unique attributes: walkable neighbourhood locations, separate family seating and quiet work areas, both Saudi coffee and specialty coffee, open late.
• Value: a comfortable place to meet or work close to home, in the evening, without the drive and noise of a mall.
• Best-fit customers: residents of the surrounding neighbourhoods, especially families and small groups meeting in the evening.
• Category: “neighbourhood café”, rather than “specialty coffee roaster”, which would invite comparison on beans and brewing alone.

Statement: For families and friends in north Riyadh neighbourhoods who want somewhere comfortable to meet in the evening, Café A is the neighbourhood café that is a short walk from home. Unlike mall chains and drive-throughs, we offer family seating, quiet corners and both Saudi and specialty coffee until late. Notice what it excludes: tourists, commuters and coffee purists are welcome but are not who the brand is built around.

Brand positioning in Saudi Arabia: what is different?

The process is universal, but Saudi companies face three decisions that global templates rarely cover: which language leads, which Arabic register to use, and whether the name can legally be used and protected.

Arabic-first messaging

Write the positioning statement and value themes in Arabic first, then adapt them into English, not the other way round. Translated positioning tends to keep English sentence structure and loses the words customers actually use. If your team works in English, draft both in the same workshop and treat the Arabic as the master version for customer-facing copy.

Saudi dialect or Modern Standard Arabic?

There is no single right answer; decide the register by channel and audience. Modern Standard Arabic (فصحى) suits contracts, government-facing material, investor documents and formal B2B content. A Saudi dialect register often reads more naturally in social content, app microcopy, WhatsApp messages and consumer advertising. Many brands use both and define in their tone-of-voice guidelines exactly where each applies, with example sentences, so writers do not improvise.

Bilingual naming, trade names and trademarks

Check a name’s legal availability before you fall in love with it. Two separate systems are involved:

• Trade name (Ministry of Commerce). In a July 2025 announcement, the Ministry of Commerce said trade names are reserved online through the Saudi Business Center; that a trade name may be in Arabic or Arabized words, letters or numbers, or in English; and that it must not cause confusion, resemble an already reserved or registered trade name, or resemble a globally known or registered trademark in the Kingdom.
• Trademark (SAIP). The Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property offers a free online search of the national trademark databases, and a separate online trademark registration service. SAIP lists the registration fees as SAR 1,000 for the application, SAR 500 for publication and SAR 5,000 for registration and the certificate, with a stated execution time of 90 days. Applications filed from 19 December 2023 onward go through SAIP’s Unified Intellectual Property Platform. Fees and procedures change, so confirm them on saip.gov.sa before filing.

For bilingual names, decide early whether the Arabic and English versions are a transliteration of the same word or two different words with the same meaning, and search both. This is general information, not legal advice; for anything contested, use a qualified trademark agent.

How do you test brand positioning?

You test positioning by checking whether real customers recognise it as true and relevant, before spending on identity or campaigns. Three methods cover most situations:

• Qualitative customer interviews. Talk to recent customers one-to-one. Ask what they were using before, what nearly stopped them buying, and how they would describe you to a friend. Listen for your value themes in their words.
• Win/loss reviews. For B2B companies, review recent deals won and lost with the sales team and, where possible, with the buyers themselves. Lost deals show which alternatives you are really up against.
• Message testing. Put two or three versions of the core message in front of best-fit customers, through landing pages, ads or sales conversations, and compare which one they understand and respond to. Test in Arabic, not only in English.

Common brand positioning mistakes

• Positioning for everyone. A statement that fits every customer does not help any of them choose you.
• Claiming values instead of attributes. Quality, trust and innovation are expected, not differentiating.
• Starting with the logo. Designing identity before the positioning is agreed leads to redesigns later.
• Translating instead of writing Arabic. The Arabic version ends up stiff and unlike how customers speak.
• Keeping it in a slide deck. If sales, customer service and the website still say different things, the positioning has not shipped.

When should a company reposition its brand?

Reposition when the facts behind your positioning change, not when the team is simply bored of the logo. Common triggers include a new product line that changes who you serve, entering a new city or segment, a competitive alternative that has changed customer expectations, a merger, or sales conversations that keep stalling on the same comparison. Repositioning does not always require a new identity; sometimes the messaging changes and the visual system stays.

How positioning flows into brand identity and messaging

Positioning is the brief for everything that follows. The market category guides naming and the visual codes you adopt or deliberately break. The best-fit customer shapes tone of voice and the Arabic register. The value themes become your messaging hierarchy: one core message, two or three supporting messages, and the proof points under each. Identity designers then have a way to judge options against a written decision rather than personal taste. If you are preparing to brief a designer or agency, our brand brief template is structured around these inputs.

What to expect from a branding consultant or agency in Riyadh

A positioning engagement should leave you with written decisions your whole team can use, not only visual files. Scope varies, but typical deliverables include:

• A research summary: customer interviews, competitive review and internal workshops.
• A positioning document covering the five components and the positioning statement.
• A messaging hierarchy and tone-of-voice guide, in Arabic and English.
• Naming support where needed, including availability checks.
• Identity design and guidelines built on the positioning.

Useful questions to ask before you hire:

• Will you speak to our customers, or only to our management team?
• Who writes the Arabic, and is it written or translated?
• What exactly do we receive at the end of the strategy phase, before design starts?
• How will the positioning be tested, and who decides if it needs to change?
• How will our sales and service teams be taught to use it?

Frequently asked questions about brand positioning

What is the difference between positioning and a tagline?

Positioning is an internal strategic decision; a tagline is one optional public expression of it. Many strong brands have no tagline at all.

How long does a brand positioning project take?

It depends on how much customer research is needed and how many decision-makers are involved. The research and workshops usually take longer than writing the statement itself.

Can a small business do positioning without an agency?

Yes. The five-step process above can be run by a founder and a few customer-facing staff. Outside help is most useful when the team disagrees, is too close to the product, or needs the Arabic and English messaging written professionally.

Should our positioning be written in Arabic or English?

For most brands serving Saudi customers, write the master version in Arabic and adapt it into English, choosing Saudi dialect or MSA according to the channel.

Do we need to register a trademark before launching a brand?

It is sensible to search SAIP’s trademark database and check trade-name availability with the Ministry of Commerce before finalising a name, and to take professional advice on registration timing.

How often should positioning be reviewed?

Review it whenever your offer, customers or competitive alternatives change significantly, and at least during annual planning, even if the conclusion is to keep it.

Sources & further reading

• Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property (SAIP): Trademark Registration service
• SAIP: Search Platform for Registered Trademarks
• Ministry of Commerce: Steps and Requirements for Reserving a Trade Name (27 Jul 2025)
• April Dunford, Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It (2019)
• April Dunford: A Quickstart Guide to Positioning (the five components of positioning)
• Al Ries: The history of positioning (1972 Advertising Age series and the 1981 book)
• Al Ries & Jack Trout, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind (1981; 20th anniversary edition, McGraw-Hill, 2001)

Eclipse Agency runs brand strategy and identity projects in Riyadh, or get in touch.