Why investors, boards and scaleup leaders must actively manage how a business is seen and where it is gong next: brand positioning

Brand positioning for Scaleups

Most scaleups don’t stall because their product fails or demand disappears - they stall because their positioning stops working.

In these situations, revenue may still be strong, the product may still outperform peers, but growth becomes harder to unlock.

The tell tale signs are things like; customer acquisition costs rise, sales cycles stretch and your marketing becomes louder (and more costly) but, frustratingly less effective.

At this stage, many boards start to debate: “Do we need a new agency?”

In our experience, the better question is: “Have we outgrown the way the market understands us?”

Positioning is not simply just a branding exercise. For scaleups and investor-backed businesses, it is a core growth mechanic - one that directly affects valuation and future exit routes.

Positioning Has to Work for the Market and the Investment Case

Strong positioning does three things simultaneously:

1. It reflects how customers actually see the business today.

2. It explains why the company is meaningfully different (not just better).

3. It creates a credible bridge to where the business needs to play next.

Most companies focus only on the middle point, whereas Investor-ready businesses manage all three deliberately and continuously.

Because positioning that worked at Series A often becomes a constraint at Series C or PE entry. The market evolves, customer expectations shift, and Capital demands a different growth profile. Your positioning needs to evolve as your business grows.

Category Entry Points: The Real Growth Lever

One of the most underused growth levers in scaleups is category entry points.

Category entry points are the situations, needs, or moments that cause a buyer to think: “I need a company like this.”

They are not taglines or features; they are buying triggers, and this is exactly how easyJet unlocked its next phase of growth.

In its early years, easyJet focused on a narrow set of entry points: low price, speed, efficiency - competing directly with Ryanair. You'll no doubt remember the ads "Get to Rome for £49.99" etc.

As the business scaled, that positioning limited their growth, and they looked to move their positioning to a more premium quadrant, but instead of jumping to full-service premium and competing head-on with British Airways or Virgin Atlantic, easyJet expanded its category entry points:

• Reliable European travel

• Time efficiency for business flyers

• Accessible 'experience' at scale

It didn’t abandon cost discipline; it owned the low-cost side of a more premium quadrant.

This repositioning unlocked new routes, customer segments and partnerships, without breaking the operating model.

The "Get Out There" campaign is a major, ongoing brand platform for easyJet developed by VCCP London, designed to move the airline away from solely price-driven marketing toward a more emotional, lifestyle-oriented, and memorable position.

Launched in 2023, the campaign emphasises the liberating, joyful, and, at times, "therapeutic" experience of travel, positioning easyJet as the premier choice for European city breaks, beach, and ski holidays. 

Why This Matters to Private Equity and Boards

From an investor perspective, category entry points are a growth risk signal and narrow entry points mean:

• Dependency on fewer channels

• Higher volatility in performance spend

• Limited narrative flexibility

• Constrained future optionality

Whereas multiple, clearly owned entry points mean:

• Broader addressable demand

• Greater resilience across cycles

• Stronger brand pricing power

• Clearer international or category expansion routes

This is why positioning and growth strategy must be aligned with the investment stage, because what works pre-institutional capital rarely works post-deal.

ROI Changes as the Business Scales, and Positioning Must Follow

One of the most common scaleup mistakes is applying the same ROI logic at every stage of growth.

Early stages prioritise speed, traction and short-term efficiency, whereas later stages require durability, margin protection and brand-led demand. you can easily end up in a frustrating situation when your positioning doesn’t evolve. leading to:

• Performance marketing becomes overworked

• CAC rises faster than revenue

• Brand spend gets questioned because its role isn’t defined

• Boards struggle to see a clear growth narrative beyond “more of the same”

At OSER, this is usually where we come in, to help leadership teams explicitly define:

• What growth means at this stage

• How performance and brand investment should work together

• Where brand builds future demand rather than vanity metrics

This is where investor confidence is built, not through volume, but through clarity.

Positioning Needs to be a Planned Movement, Not a "Rebrand"

Effective scaleups map out their current market position (reality, not aspiration!), their desired future position (aligned to investment goals) and the credible steps required to move between the two.

That movement then informs:

• Proposition design

• Pricing logic

• Sales enablement

• Agency briefing

• Channel strategy

• Brand narrative

And this is why “changing agency” rarely fixes the problem, because without strategic clarity, agencies optimise activity (not growth).

What This Looks Like in Practice

OSER has worked with businesses including Bayley & Sage, Suits Me and Citywire to evolve positioning in line with international expansion, category stretch and investor expectations.

The work focused on:

• Clarifying what the business genuinely owns

• Expanding category entry points

• Aligning growth narrative with board-level priorities

• Enabling in-house teams and agencies to deliver against effectiveness

The OSER Role: Strategic Alignment Across Capital, Teams and Agencies

OSER works directly with founders, CEOs, boards and investors to diagnose current positioning and growth constraints, identify category entry points that unlock future demand, define positioning aligned to investment horizon, design a credible transition strategy and align internal teams and external agencies around ROI and effectiveness.

We do not replace agencies; we make them more effective.

We sit at the intersection of strategy, brand, capital and execution - where most scaleups quietly struggle.

How Leaders Figure This Out

The most effective way to do this work is not in isolation.

We typically run offsite strategy sessions with the senior leadership team, often including investor or board representation, to:

• Pressure-test how the market sees the business

• Map current and future category entry points

• Align growth ambition with investment reality

• Define the rules for brand and performance investment

• Create a shared growth narrative that teams and agencies can execute

This alignment work is where momentum is unlocked.

Contact OSER ->

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Frequently Asked Questions

What is brand positioning in a scaleup context?

Positioning is how the market understands your value, difference and relevance and how that perception supports growth at your current investment stage.

What are category entry points?

They are the situations or needs that trigger customers to consider your business. Expanding them increases demand without increasing noise.

How does positioning affect ROI?

Clear positioning reduces wasted spend, improves conversion efficiency, and builds long-term demand that lowers dependency on performance channels.

When should a scaleup reposition?

Typically at inflection points: post-funding, pre-international expansion, ahead of PE entry, or when growth efficiency starts to decline.

How do investors assess positioning risk?

By looking at demand resilience, brand clarity, category ownership and the credibility of future growth narratives.