references/canon/ries-trout.md

# Ries Trout

## Principle

Positioning is a choice about the mental frame through which buyers understand the offer relative to alternatives.

## Use when

- Buyers struggle to understand what the offer is.
- The category is crowded with similar claims.
- A company needs to choose the competitive frame and difference it wants remembered.

## Do not over-apply

- Being first in a verbal category is not automatically valuable.
- A positioning statement does not create a defensible product advantage by itself.

## Decision questions

- What alternatives does the buyer compare?
- Which category frame makes the product easiest to understand?
- What difference is relevant and credible?
- What proof or experience makes the difference believable?

## Counterweight

Pair mental positioning with product truth, distribution, availability, and evidence of what drives category buying.

## Sources

- `source:ries-trout-positioning`