Glossary

Repositioning

Repositioning is changing the claim a business makes about what it is and who it is for, rather than changing how that claim looks.

A reposition changes the sentence a customer would use to describe you to a colleague. It touches what you sell, who you sell it to, what you decline, and what you charge. The visual identity may or may not change as a consequence, but the identity is downstream of the decision, never the decision itself.

The tell that a business needs a reposition rather than a refresh: five people inside it, asked separately, write five different one-sentence claims. No amount of design resolves that, because the disagreement is commercial, not visual.

Repositioning is uncomfortable in a way redecoration is not, because it requires saying no to markets, customers and revenue that currently exist. That discomfort is the work.

Often confused with

A rebrand, which changes expression while leaving the claim intact.

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