At trial lessons in an IELTS prep centre, the manager hears three different questions. "Why pay when it's all on YouTube for free?" "So how are you better than a tutor?" "The school near my home has an IELTS group too, what makes you different?" Each person is comparing the centre with something of their own, and in each comparison the centre wins or loses for a different reason.
The centre has already chosen its segment: people applying to a university abroad who take IELTS Academic by their own date. Now it needs positioning, the place among the other options it wants to hold in these people's minds (positioning in the OpenStax textbook). In practice that's four steps: decide what you're compared with, find a difference that matters to the segment, write a statement, and check it against what competitors say. The centre, its competitors and the numbers are illustrative.
Frame of reference: who you're placed next to
Before comparing prices and programmes, a person decides what kind of thing you are. If the centre calls itself "English courses", it gets compared with every language school in the city. If it calls itself "IELTS prep", it gets compared with tutors and other centres. The frame decides which criteria you're judged on and who becomes the yardstick.
| Frame | Compared with | Compared on | Centre is stronger | Centre is weaker |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English courses | Language schools | Monthly price, timetable, distance from home | - | Narrower programme, no conversational English |
| IELTS tutor | Private teachers | Attention to the student, flexible hours | The plan and mock exams are part of the course | Less attention per student, lesson times are fixed |
| Self-study | Books, videos, apps | Price and your own schedule | A teacher goes through your Speaking answers | It costs money and runs on a timetable |
| IELTS Academic prep for an exam date | Other centres, tutors, self-study | Being ready by the date and knowing where you lose points | A plan built back from the exam date, feedback on your Speaking answers | Of no use to anyone without a date |
You partly choose the frame yourself: through the words in your ads and Instagram bio, the categories on your 2GIS listing, which a company picks for itself in its business account, and the search terms your Google ads show for. If the centre buys ads on "English courses Almaty", it places itself next to the schools, where its programme loses on breadth.
Pick the frame in which the segment's main question matches your strength. An applicant cares about being ready by the date and knowing where they lose points, so the centre calls itself IELTS Academic prep for your exam date. In this frame, tutors, other centres and self-study remain rivals, while general English schools drop out of the comparison.
Which alternative you're actually compared with is better found out than guessed. The manager added a "how did you prepare before us" field to the CRM and fills it in at the trial lesson. Of the first 20 applicants, 11 had prepared on their own with books and videos, 6 had worked with a tutor and 3 had been to another centre. Self-study comes up more than anything else in these answers, so the centre takes it as the main alternative for its first statement. Twenty answers is not many, so in a month, once there are more, the choice will be checked again.
The same mechanics work in any niche. A payout reconciliation service that calls itself an "analytics platform" ends up compared with large BI systems, and there it has fewer reports. Called "payout reconciliation before the month closes", it sits next to the accountant's manual spreadsheet, and the main question becomes how many hours it saves at month-end.
Differences that matter to the segment
Candidate differences come from two sides. From the customers: what applicants say in interviews, chats and at the trial lesson. The centre already wrote this down while building its value proposition: the exam is three months away, pauses in Speaking, the fear of paying for three months and being disappointed. From the centre: what it does differently from the other options in the chosen frame.
Each candidate goes through three checks. Does it matter to the segment, meaning do applicants bring it up themselves, unprompted? Do competitors already have the same thing? And can it be shown before payment and then delivered every week?
| Candidate | Matters to applicants? | How to show it before payment | Verdict before the check |
|---|---|---|---|
| A preparation plan built back from the exam date | Yes: "the exam is in three months, I need the score for admission" | A sample plan on the website | A difference |
| Speaking feedback: 15 minutes of answers, 15 minutes of review | Yes: "pauses in Speaking cost points" | A trial lesson in the same format | A difference |
| A free trial lesson and level test | Yes: they're afraid of paying and being disappointed | The trial lesson itself | Depends on competitors |
| Experienced teachers | Yes, but anyone can say that about themselves | Can't be checked before paying | Not a difference |
| Cosy classrooms in the city centre | Nobody mentioned it | Photos | Not a difference |
Two candidates in the table look like differences, but the statement gets only one main one: "the most convenient and the most affordable" has to be proven twice, and a competitor can easily dispute either comparison. Some items, meanwhile, exist only so that you get considered at all. If every centre nearby offers a free trial lesson, the centre loses without one and doesn't win with one: nobody chooses on it. These items stay on the website but don't go into the positioning statement. The competitor check will show which candidate turns out to be that kind of entry ticket and which is a real difference.
The positioning statement
Inside the team, positioning is written to a template:
For [segment] who need [job], [name] is [frame] where [main difference]. Unlike [main alternative], [how you're better for this segment]. Proof: [what a person can check before paying].
The centre filled it in like this:
For people applying to a university abroad who already know their exam date, our centre is IELTS Academic prep on a plan built back from that date. Unlike self-study, a teacher goes through their Speaking answers, and they find out where they lose points long before the exam. Proof: a free trial lesson with a level test and Speaking feedback, and a sample plan on the website.
This is an internal document, not a slogan, and words like "the best", "high-quality", "professional" or "for everyone" have no place in it: anyone can write them about themselves, and none of them can be shown before payment. The ads, the first screen of the site, the Instagram bio, the description on the 2GIS listing and the manager's first message all grow out of the statement. Each place carries its own part of it, but none of them contradicts it. If an ad promises "IELTS 7.0 in three months" while the statement talks about a plan and error review, people will come for a score the centre doesn't promise.
Checking against what competitors say
The statement is checked where the buyer compares options. In Kazakhstan that means several places, and each shows something different.
- Instagram. The bio, pinned posts and Highlights show what a competitor calls itself. The Meta Ad Library shows all of its active ads, that is, what it is paying to promise right now.
- 2GIS. The categories and description on the listing tell you which frame the competitor put itself in. The reviews show what people praise and what they complain about, in the customers' own words.
- Google. Search for "IELTS prep Almaty" and look at the ads above the results: who is buying the same demand and what they promise in the first line. Your own results show only the ads Google served to you; a competitor's ads can be looked up by its name or website in the Ads Transparency Center.
- Kaspi. If your client sells goods, read the reviews on competitors' product cards. Buyers leave them from their orders within 90 days of purchase, and a cancelled or returned order can't be reviewed (how reviews work on Kaspi.kz).
The centre found three competitors and put what it saw into a table:
| Competitor | Calls itself | Promises in ads | Praised on 2GIS for | Criticised on 2GIS for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A language school with an IELTS group | "English for everyone" | Experienced teachers, a convenient timetable, a free trial lesson | The atmosphere, the teachers | The IELTS group mixes students with different goals |
| An IELTS centre in another district | "IELTS prep" | "7.0 Guarantee", a free trial lesson | Mock exams | Didn't get through the programme before the exam date |
| A tutor with an Instagram blog | "IELTS from zero to 7.0" | An individual plan | Attention to the student | Rescheduled lessons, not ready by the date |
Read the table row by row against your statement. Nobody advertises a plan built back from the exam date: the tutor promises an individual plan but says nothing about the exam date. And the reviews of two competitors complain precisely about not being ready by the date. The difference is unclaimed, and it matters to the segment. A free trial lesson is offered by two competitors out of three, so it's an entry ticket: it stays on the website but can't be the main difference. The reviews say nothing good or bad about Speaking feedback, so they can't tell you whether it matters. The centre keeps it in the statement because applicants raised pauses in Speaking themselves.
The "7.0 Guarantee" from the second centre is a separate matter. There's no need to answer it with a bigger promise: the score depends on the student, and the centre doesn't promise one. It answers with what it can show: a plan built from the date and a trial lesson where the person sees for themselves where they lose points.
If a competitor already says what your statement says, there are two ways out. You can find proof it doesn't have: a sample plan, a recording of a review session, deadlines you actually meet. Or you can narrow the segment, for example to people applying to UK universities. Saying the same thing louder won't help: the buyer hears two identical promises as one.
Don't carry other people's wording over to yourself, even when it works. If "IELTS from zero to 7.0" works for the tutor, on the centre's site that line would promise a score and put the centre in the "tutor" frame, where it is weaker.
A month later: has the frame stuck?
The team writes the positioning, but buyers decide whether it holds. A month after the centre changed its ads, Instagram bio and 2GIS listing, the manager looks at two CRM fields: "how did you prepare before us" and "why did you choose us". If applicants mention the plan for their date and the Speaking feedback, the statement has landed. If people at the trial lesson are again asking about the monthly price and comparing the centre with the language school near home, then somewhere the centre is still sitting in the "English courses" frame. Look for that spot in the ads, the 2GIS categories and the Google search terms.
A month will bring a couple of dozen answers, so read the wording itself rather than counting shares.
Exercise: the statement and the competitor table
Take the segment you chose for your own project when working through STP.
You end up with a three-sentence statement and a table covering three competitors.
Start the review with the difference. If it sounds like an adjective ("high-quality", "convenient", "caring"), it can't be shown before payment, and any competitor can write it about themselves. Rewrite it in terms of what you do: what exactly the person gets, and when. If even one competitor advertises the difference, you need proof it doesn't have, or a narrower segment. If the difference never came up in customers' answers or in reviews, it matters to you, not to them: keep it on the website, but don't build the positioning on it. And if the main alternative in your statement is "other centres" while your customers had prepared on their own, you're comparing yourself with someone the buyers don't compare you with.
Video: brand positioning
After watching, write down your frame, your main alternative and one difference a buyer can check before paying.