Run a Competitive Positioning test

How your work ranks against the category people already carry in their heads, and which brand they name first when they think of it.

Your work is not met in a vacuum. Competitive Positioning asks people to place it against everything else they have seen in the category.

What it measures

The primary question is a 1 to 7 ranking against other advertising for that kind of product, and the verdict is decided on the average for each version. Two open questions follow. The card labels this set research-backed.

What people are asked

• "Compared to other ads for this kind of product, how does this one rank?" on a 1 to 7 scale from "Much worse" to "Much better". This is the question the verdict rests on.
• "What makes it stand out?" in their own words.
• "When you think of this kind of product, which brand comes to mind first?" in their own words.

That last answer is worth the test on its own. A room that ranks your work highly and then names a competitor first has told you something the score never would.

When to pick it

Pick this when standing out in a crowded category is the argument, and when the versions differ in how they position rather than in what they say. Skip it when the audience does not know the category well enough to compare, because they will rate against nothing. For a broad read with no category framing, use Creative Comparison. If the question is whether your target sees themselves in the work, that is Audience Fit.

What the verdict looks like

A winner on the ranking is named when both groups reached the size committed at launch, dropout was balanced, and the gap stands clear of chance. Otherwise a directional advantage or "too close to call". See Understanding your verdict.

What it cannot tell you

This is a memory comparison against a category, not a controlled head-to-head against a named competitor. Nobody in the test is shown a rival ad, so the comparison runs against whatever each person happens to remember, which differs from person to person. It cannot rank you against a specific competitor, and it cannot tell you your share of anything. For the memory question about your own work, Ad Recall is the set built for it.

Formats

Competitive Positioning is available on video tests and on image tests.