What a Tiny Coffee Cart Taught Me About Positioning
It was a rainy Thursday when I first opened the lid of my tiny coffee cart, parked between a bookstore and a dry cleaner. I had no fancy branding, no followers, and certainly no budget for ads. But I had a hunch: what I lacked in noise, I could make up for in nuance. That day, without knowing it, I began to learn the art of positioning—by selling coffee.
At first, it felt like shouting into a void. Customers walked past, barely noticing the cart. So I started asking myself, 'What makes them stop?' Was it the smell of beans, the design of the cart, or the fact that I remembered their names after one visit? The answer, I discovered, was less about what I served and more about how I stood out.
Positioning Is About Perception, Not Product
Al Ries and Jack Trout, in their classic book *Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind*, argue that the fight is not in the marketplace but in the mind. And they’re right. My cart didn’t just compete with other coffee shops—it competed with habits, routines, and expectations. To win, I had to make my brand easier to remember than to ignore.
So, I narrowed my offering. I didn’t serve pastries. No syrups. Just three kinds of coffee—each sourced with care and described in plain, poetic English. Instead of a full menu, I had a sign that read: 'We make coffee for people who walk fast and think deeply.' That one sentence changed everything.
A well-positioned offering doesn’t shout—it resonates instantly with the right people.
Designing for the Margins Leads to Market Wins
In *The Laws of Simplicity*, John Maeda writes, 'Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful.' That’s what I did—by eliminating complexity, I made space for clarity. I discovered that when you design for the edges—people in a hurry, thinkers deep in focus—you actually end up delighting the center too.
One customer, a writer named Leila, told me she passed four coffee spots to get to mine. 'I know what I’m getting here,' she said. 'I don’t have to think.' That’s what good positioning does—it reduces friction in decision-making. It lets customers self-select into your story.
What You Leave Out Is Just As Important
Positioning isn’t about being better; it’s about being different in a way that matters. I didn’t have the best beans in the city. But I had a voice. I told stories on takeaway cups. I played Miles Davis in the morning and Nina Simone in the rain. I stayed open until 11 a.m. and closed the cart with a sign: 'Go do great things today.'
Seth Godin says, 'Marketing is no longer about the stuff you make, but the stories you tell.' My coffee cart didn’t sell caffeine—it sold rhythm, mood, and a few quiet seconds of reflection in a noisy city.
From Cart to Company: The Bigger Lesson
Years later, when I launched my own product studio, the lessons of that coffee cart followed me. We didn’t try to build for everyone. We built tools for freelancers who value quiet over clutter, simplicity over scale. And it worked—because the best positioning still begins with one question: 'Who are you really for?'
If you're building a brand, a business, or even a blog—start small. Find the edges. Make bold decisions. And remember, as Marty Neumeier says in *Zag*, 'When everyone zigs, zag.' That tiny cart taught me this: Positioning is not a vibe. It's a decision. A declaration. A design.