ChatGPT for Marketing Strategy and Positioning

#01What does ChatGPT do well in strategy work?

#02How do you build positioning with ChatGPT?

Work through it in one project chat, pasting evidence as you go.

POSITIONING FROM EVIDENCE
Here are notes from [n] customer interviews: [paste].
Here are our top 5 win and loss reasons: [paste].
Here are competitor homepage headlines (Competitor A-D): [paste].
1) Group what customers value into 3-5 themes, quoting them.
2) For each theme, say whether competitors already claim it.
3) Propose 3 positioning statements using the format:
For [audience] who [need], [product] is the [category] that
[benefit], unlike [alternative], because [proof].
4) For each, list the evidence that supports it and what's missing.

MESSAGING HIERARCHY
Using positioning statement [paste], build a messaging
hierarchy: one core message, three pillars, and for each
pillar two proof points from this list only: [paste].
Flag any pillar without enough proof.

#03How do you stress-test the plan?

RED TEAM
Here is our plan for [launch/quarter]: [paste].
Act as a sceptical CFO, then a head of sales, then a target
buyer who has used Competitor A for three years. Each gives
their three strongest objections. Then list what would have
to be true for this plan to fail, and how we'd know early.

PRE-MORTEM
It's six months from now and this campaign failed. Write the
internal post-mortem: the three most likely reasons, the early
warning signs we ignored, and what we should change today.

Our view: the pre-mortem prompt surfaces risks people won't raise in a meeting. Run it before every major launch.

#04Worked example: Ledgerline's positioning reset

Ledgerline is a fictional accounts-payable tool. Details are illustrative.

Ledgerline's homepage said "AI-powered AP automation", the same category phrase Competitor A and Competitor C used. The team pasted twelve interview summaries and their win-loss notes. ChatGPT grouped customer value into four themes; the strongest, quoted in eight interviews, was "approvals stopped getting lost in email".

None of the competitor headlines claimed it. The team chose "approval control for finance teams that outgrew email" as the positioning. The red-team prompt raised a fair objection from the "head of sales" persona: larger prospects would assume email-based approvals were already solved. The team kept the positioning for the mid-market and wrote a separate angle for enterprise.

#05What should you check before the next lesson?

• Gather five or more pieces of real customer evidence before you prompt.
• Run the positioning and red-team prompts on one current plan.
• Save the agreed positioning rules to your brand project.
• The Claude track covers the same ground in Claude competitor and SERP research.

Next: Market and audience research with ChatGPT. Or return to the ChatGPT for Marketers track.

#06Common questions

Can ChatGPT write my marketing strategy? It can draft one, but a strategy built only from ChatGPT will be generic. Use it to structure your thinking, generate options and argue against your plan, using your own customer evidence as input.

Which ChatGPT mode is best for positioning work? A reasoning model or higher thinking setting usually gives more careful trade-offs. Use search only when you need current competitor facts.

How do I stop ChatGPT agreeing with everything? Ask it to argue the opposite case, to play a sceptical buyer, or to list what would have to be true for your plan to fail.