Field note · 2 March 2026
The difference between a tagline and a position
A tagline is allowed to be slightly false. It is a souvenir of a campaign, a line for a tote, a thing you can retire when the season turns. A position is not allowed to be slightly false. It is a constraint: offers you will not add, buyers you will disappoint, synonyms you will not print.
Boards ask for taglines because they are visible in a meeting. Positions are visible only when someone tries to sneak a contradictory SKU through finance. That is why positioning work feels unfriendly. It produces a refusal list. Tagline work produces applause.
In our Category Narrative Intensive, we ban tagline drafts until week eight. Participants hate this. They arrive with phrases that scan. Scanning is not occupying. A position must survive a hostile reader who knows your competitor’s invoice terms. If the line collapses under that reader, it was always a souvenir.
Keep the souvenir if you like. Print it on the coffee cups. Do not let it sit in the mandate document. The mandate names the seat, the cost of the seat, and the person who will say no when a new service line would blur it.