When thinking about “positioning”, most of us knowledge workers are thinking in abstract terms.
The position you are defending, or aiming for, is very likely to be a mental representation.
I always try to link this concept to the word “terrain”.
Maybe it is because my mother tongue is French, and it comes more naturally to me, but I think this word reintroduces some materiality to the concept.
It brings us back to a time when a position was very likely to be a physical one.
Once you think of your position as something physical, it helps you keep your competition in mind, and, more importantly, how each of our actions, and the actions of other players, are always modifying that terrain.
Any time you, your competition, or external forces, are acting, making decisions, you are impacting the terrain.
It is never the same, once you start practicing strategy.