Positioning
Notes and perspectives from the Value Proposition Studio.
Notes from the studio.
01 / Positioning
Core values · Oct 5, 2026
Abercrombie & Fitch: from a premise that insulted to a premise that welcomes
In the 2000s Abercrombie & Fitch made exclusion its selling point, and by 2014 it was in decline. Under Fran Horowitz it changed its audience, its product and its tone, and reached record sales in the 2020s. A case on premise, repelling and the difference between filtering and insulting.
Read articlePositioning · Sep 21, 2026
Lululemon: a premise written by yoga teachers, and what happens when it gets wider
Lululemon grew by recruiting local instructors as the face of each store and selling to people who practised. Between 2024 and 2026 its home market stalled, rivals took share and the founder fought the board. A case on premise and the cost of widening it.
Positioning · Sep 17, 2026
Birkenstock: the orthopaedic sandal that fashion kept coming back to
A German maker of contoured footbeds became a fashion staple, starred in the Barbie film and listed in New York in October 2023. A case on a premise that stayed still while the culture moved toward it.
Adoption · Sep 5, 2026
Canva: the design tool that started from what users could not do
Canva grew to more than 265 million monthly users by making design possible for people who were never trained in it. A case on adoption, on ability as the real bottleneck, and on what changes when a beginner's tool starts courting professionals.
Abercrombie & Fitch: from a premise that insulted to a premise that welcomes
In the 2000s Abercrombie & Fitch made exclusion its selling point, and by 2014 it was in decline. Under Fran Horowitz it changed its audience, its product and its tone, and reached record sales in the 2020s. A case on premise, repelling and the difference between filtering and insulting.
Core values · Positioning · Rebrand · In the news
Read articleLululemon: a premise written by yoga teachers, and what happens when it gets wider
Lululemon grew by recruiting local instructors as the face of each store and selling to people who practised. Between 2024 and 2026 its home market stalled, rivals took share and the founder fought the board. A case on premise and the cost of widening it.
Positioning · Channels · Premise, promise, proof · In the news
Read articleBirkenstock: the orthopaedic sandal that fashion kept coming back to
A German maker of contoured footbeds became a fashion staple, starred in the Barbie film and listed in New York in October 2023. A case on a premise that stayed still while the culture moved toward it.
Positioning · Core values · In the news
Read articleCanva: the design tool that started from what users could not do
Canva grew to more than 265 million monthly users by making design possible for people who were never trained in it. A case on adoption, on ability as the real bottleneck, and on what changes when a beginner's tool starts courting professionals.
Adoption · Positioning · In the news
Read articleXiaomi: how a phone company made a car rhyme
Xiaomi went from software to phones, to a web of connected devices, to electric cars, and each step echoed the one before. A case on portfolio rhyming, and on what the rhyme cannot settle.
Portfolio and rhyming · Positioning · In the news
Read articleTechnogym sold a word before it sold a machine
In the early 1990s a fitness equipment maker from Cesena put "The Wellness Company" on its logo and spent thirty years making the word true. A case on category design, and on what happens when your category's name becomes everyone's vocabulary.
Category design · Positioning · Brand history
Read articleBud Light in 2023: one sponsored post, two audiences and an undeclared premise
In April 2023 a single Instagram partnership set off a boycott of Bud Light, which lost its place as America's best-selling beer within weeks. A case on premise, channel spillover and why a response that tries to please every audience can lose all of them.
Positioning · Channels · Autopsy · In the news
Read articleNike went back to sport, and back to the shops it had left
Nike's push to sell direct cut back its wholesale partners, and by 2024 growth had stalled. A case on channels as part of the value proposition, and on the premise a brand returns to when it loses its footing.
Channels · Positioning · In the news
Read articleWhy isn't Sony Spotify? The company that sold every format and missed the listening
Sony owned the Walkman, the CD and a record label, and still left music listening to Apple and Spotify. PlayStation shows what the same company does when it reads the job right.
Portfolio and rhyming · Positioning · Brand history
Read articleBack to Starbucks: the room was the promise customers paid for
Brian Niccol became Starbucks' chief executive in September 2024 and launched Back to Starbucks: a shorter menu, ceramic mugs, handwritten notes and more staff. A case on the third place as the brand's original promise.
Premise, promise, proof · Positioning · In the news
Read articleTesla in Europe: when the founder's public persona becomes a core value
Tesla's European registrations fell steeply in 2025 while the electric car market grew. Several causes overlap, and one of them is the CEO's political profile. A case on what happens when a founder's persona becomes part of the brand's core values.
Core values · Positioning · In the news
Read articleCostco: a membership card as the premise, a hot dog as the proof
Costco charges people for the right to shop, and has kept its hot dog and soda at 1.50 dollars since 1985. A case on a premise customers pay to accept, and on a proof anyone can check at the exit.
Pricing and scarcity · Positioning · Premise, promise, proof · Brand history
Read articleSamsung spent a decade mocking Apple, and Apple stayed the reference
From queue jokes in 2011 to the UnCrush ad in 2024, Samsung has made Apple the subject of its advertising, then quietly deleted some ads once it made the same choices. A case on adversarial bandwagoning and the frame a challenger borrows.
Positioning · Core values · Brand history
Read articleOld Spice talked to the woman holding the basket, and an old brand found a new voice
In February 2010 Old Spice launched an ad that addressed women about a men's body wash, and turned seventy years of age into a claim of experience. A case on choosing the recipient of a promise when the buyer and the user are different people.
Rebrand · Premise, promise, proof · Positioning · Brand history
Read articleASML: a monopoly in lithography that still keeps digging its moat
ASML is the only company that makes the EUV machines advanced chips depend on. A case on a USP-led strategy, and on why even a unique machine is defended with customers, suppliers and shared roadmaps.
Moat · Positioning · In the news
Read articleGLP-1 and the food aisle: when the customer's job changes under the brand
Weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy changed how millions of people eat, and food brands rushed to reposition. A case on positioning when the customer's jobs move, read through Nestlé's Vital Pursuit and the 'GLP-1 friendly' label.
Positioning · Adoption · In the news
Read articleNintendo Wii: the console that counted the people who did not play
In 2006 Nintendo launched a console with less power than its rivals, at half the price of the PlayStation 3, and sold more than 100 million. A case on a premise written for non-customers, and on how hard it is to keep them.
Positioning · Category design · Brand history
Read articleNetflix ended free password sharing and had its best year since 2020
In 2023 Netflix began charging for accounts shared outside the household, against widespread predictions of a backlash, and added about 29.5 million subscribers that year. A case on pricing and on what customers were really paying for.
Pricing and scarcity · Positioning · In the news
Read articleCoca-Cola at Christmas: the brand that arrives when the joy is already there
For almost a century Coca-Cola has placed itself inside moments people already love, from Sundblom's Santa to the Christmas trucks. In 2024 and 2025 it remade the trucks with generative AI, and the reaction showed where this kind of brand power is fragile.
Positioning · Core values · In the news
Read articleRyanair tells some customers no, and fills its planes with the rest
Ryanair has never pretended to offer comfort: a low fare, a paid extra for everything else, and a social media voice that teases its own passengers. A case on the premise as a business model, and on how far a premise can be stretched.
Positioning · Premise, promise, proof · Pricing and scarcity
Read articleWeWork promised a higher consciousness and signed fifteen-year leases
WeWork reached a 47 billion dollar valuation in January 2019, withdrew its IPO that September and filed for bankruptcy in November 2023. A case on a promise, an offer and a business model that described three different companies.
Premise, promise, proof · Positioning · Autopsy · In the news
Read articleDomino's read its worst reviews on air, and the new recipe did the rest
In December 2009 Domino's ran ads in which its own executives read customers calling the pizza tasteless, then changed a recipe it had used for decades. A case on closing the gap between promise and perception, and on why the admission only worked because the product changed.
Premise, promise, proof · Positioning · Brand history
Read articleVolkswagen, 'Think Small': a premise that told most buyers to look elsewhere
In 1959 Doyle Dane Bernbach sold the Beetle to an America that wanted big cars by saying plainly what the car was. A case on an honest premise, a refused value, and proof you can picture.
Positioning · Premise, promise, proof · Brand history
Read articleYETI: a cooler priced like equipment, built for the guide and bought by everyone
Two Texan brothers took the cheapest object on a fishing trip and priced it like equipment. A case on a premise written for a few serious users, and on what stays defensible once the design is copied.
Positioning · Pricing and scarcity · Moat · Brand history
Read articleThe milkshake that competed with bananas and bagels
Clayton Christensen's best-known teaching story is about a fast-food chain that tried to sell more milkshakes by asking buyers what they wanted. A reading of the anecdote, what it teaches about competition, and how to use it without treating it as data.
Positioning · Value to Market · Brand history
Read articleOatly: a carton that argued with the dairy aisle, and a café that proved it
From 2012 Oatly rewrote itself as a voice against dairy, entered the US through coffee shops and went public in 2021, then struggled to turn the category it opened into profit. A case on category design and channels.
Category design · Channels · Positioning · Brand history
Read articleLiquid Death: the canned water that wins by telling you to go away
Liquid Death turned the purest commodity there is into a 1.4 billion brand with no product advantage. Its real asset is a premise that repels.
Premise, promise, proof · Positioning · In the news
Read articleIKEA's flat pack: when the customer's effort is part of the price and the value
IKEA has shipped furniture in flat boxes since the 1950s and asks customers to build it themselves. A case on effort as part of the value proposition, and on what researchers named the IKEA effect.
Pricing and scarcity · Positioning · Brand history
Read articleHäagen-Dazs: a Bronx ice cream with an invented Danish name
In 1960 Reuben and Rose Mattus gave their dense, expensive ice cream a name that means nothing in any language and sounded like Scandinavia. A case on borrowing a value from elsewhere, and on the product work that made it the brand's own.
Positioning · Pricing and scarcity · Brand history
Read articleDove's Real Beauty: twenty years on a value, and the cost of every slip in proof
In 2004 Dove moved its brand from product claims onto a value: real beauty. A case on a brand that lives on one value, and on what happens when the proof around it slips.
Core values · Positioning · Brand history
Read articleCrocs owned the ugly clog, and the punchline became a business
Crocs went from a 2008 loss and years of jokes to record sales by leaning into the shoe everyone mocked. A case on a rejected value turned into a premise, on identity, and on the channels that carried both.
Core values · Channels · Positioning · Brand history
Read articleBurger King's Moldy Whopper: an ad that let the product rot
In February 2020 Burger King filmed a Whopper decaying for over a month to announce it had removed artificial preservatives. A case on proof that costs the brand something, and on what such a proof commits you to.
Premise, promise, proof · Positioning · Brand history
Read articleAvis, 'We try harder': a promise built on admitting you are second
In 1962 Avis told America it was only number two in car rental and turned that into its reason to be chosen. A case on an honest premise, a promise you can check, and the risks of defining yourself against the leader.
Positioning · Premise, promise, proof · Brand history
Read articleThink Different: Apple spoke its values a year before it could prove them
In 1997 Apple was losing money, its catalogue was a maze, and its first big campaign after Steve Jobs' return showed no computer at all. A case on core values as the first asset of a turnaround.
Core values · Positioning · Brand history
Read article- 01Abercrombie & Fitch: from a premise that insulted to a premise that welcomesCore values
- 02Lululemon: a premise written by yoga teachers, and what happens when it gets widerPositioning
- 03Birkenstock: the orthopaedic sandal that fashion kept coming back toPositioning
- 04Canva: the design tool that started from what users could not doAdoption
- 05Xiaomi: how a phone company made a car rhymePortfolio and rhyming
- 06Technogym sold a word before it sold a machineCategory design
- 07Bud Light in 2023: one sponsored post, two audiences and an undeclared premisePositioning
- 08Nike went back to sport, and back to the shops it had leftChannels
- 09Why isn't Sony Spotify? The company that sold every format and missed the listeningPortfolio and rhyming
- 10Back to Starbucks: the room was the promise customers paid forPremise, promise, proof
- 11Tesla in Europe: when the founder's public persona becomes a core valueCore values
- 12Costco: a membership card as the premise, a hot dog as the proofPricing and scarcity
- 13Samsung spent a decade mocking Apple, and Apple stayed the referencePositioning
- 14Old Spice talked to the woman holding the basket, and an old brand found a new voiceRebrand
- 15ASML: a monopoly in lithography that still keeps digging its moatMoat
- 16GLP-1 and the food aisle: when the customer's job changes under the brandPositioning
- 17Nintendo Wii: the console that counted the people who did not playPositioning
- 18Netflix ended free password sharing and had its best year since 2020Pricing and scarcity
- 19Coca-Cola at Christmas: the brand that arrives when the joy is already therePositioning
- 20Ryanair tells some customers no, and fills its planes with the restPositioning
- 21WeWork promised a higher consciousness and signed fifteen-year leasesPremise, promise, proof
- 22Domino's read its worst reviews on air, and the new recipe did the restPremise, promise, proof
- 23Volkswagen, 'Think Small': a premise that told most buyers to look elsewherePositioning
- 24YETI: a cooler priced like equipment, built for the guide and bought by everyonePositioning
- 25The milkshake that competed with bananas and bagelsPositioning
- 26Oatly: a carton that argued with the dairy aisle, and a café that proved itCategory design
- 27Liquid Death: the canned water that wins by telling you to go awayPremise, promise, proof
- 28IKEA's flat pack: when the customer's effort is part of the price and the valuePricing and scarcity
- 29Häagen-Dazs: a Bronx ice cream with an invented Danish namePositioning
- 30Dove's Real Beauty: twenty years on a value, and the cost of every slip in proofCore values
- 31Crocs owned the ugly clog, and the punchline became a businessCore values
- 32Burger King's Moldy Whopper: an ad that let the product rotPremise, promise, proof
- 33Avis, 'We try harder': a promise built on admitting you are secondPositioning
- 34Think Different: Apple spoke its values a year before it could prove themCore values