About Nic von Schneider
Globally Recognized Positioning Leader
UNFAIR BRAND GROWTH
Considered the #1 authority on competitive differentiation, I've gained multiple regional, national, and global recognitions working for some of the most aggressively growing companies in the world.
The market is filled with exceptional products, talented teams, and ambitious leaders that never achieve the growth they deserve because customers struggle to understand why they matter.
That's where I do my best work. I help companies create competitive positions so clear and differentiated that customers stop comparing them to alternatives altogether.
My approach is shaped by a simple belief: The goal of strategy isn't to describe what makes you better. The goal is to decide what makes competitors irrelevant.
Throughout my career, I've operated at the intersection of corporate strategy and startup execution. I've seen how established organizations defend market leadership, and I've seen how smaller, faster companies disrupt entire industries by challenging assumptions everyone else accepts as fact.
If you're looking for generic branding exercises, safe positioning, or messaging that sounds like everyone else in your industry, I'm probably not the right fit.
But if you're building something meaningful and want to create the kind of market position competitors can't easily copy, challenge, or ignore, you're in the right place.
"THE PURPOSE OF POSITIONING ISN’T TO DESCRIBE WHAT YOU CAN DO. IT’S TO DECIDE WHAT YOUR COMPETITORS CAN’T."
Nic von Schneider
POSITIONED TO WIN
Market Positioning
Positioning is where I've dedicated my career. Market Positioning is the discipline of defining both the physical and mental territory your brand owns and defends. It determines how buyers perceive your business, how they compare you against competitors, and why they should choose you. Strong positioning creates relevance, clarity, and preference before a sales conversation ever begins.
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Competitive Differentiation
My approach to differentiation makes you become the only choice, not just another option. Competitive differentiation is the process of creating structural distance between your brand and the alternatives available to customers. Rather than competing on features or price alone, differentiation often identifies a single unique advantage that competitors cannot easily replicate, helping businesses command unfair attention, loyalty, and market share.
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Consumer Behavior
Consumer behavior explores how people make decisions, evaluate options, and ultimately choose one solution over another. By understanding customer motivations, fears, biases, and decision-making processes, businesses can create more effective products, experiences, and strategies that align with real buying behavior.
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Brand Strategy
Brand strategy aligns business objectives, customer needs, and market opportunities into a unified visual and verbal direction for growth. It serves as the foundation for decision-making across products, marketing, customer experience, and communication, ensuring every action strengthens the brand's position in the market.
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Growth Marketing
Growth Strategy and Market Expansion focuses on identifying and pursuing the most effective opportunities for expansion. Whether entering new markets, launching products, increasing market share, or acquiring customers, a growth strategy provides the roadmap for sustainable and profitable business development.
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Strategic Messaging
Conversion-Focused Sales Messaging transforms complex business strategy into clear, compelling communication that resonates with customers. It defines how a brand communicates its value, differentiation, and relevance across every touchpoint, helping audiences quickly understand why the business matters and why it is the right choice.
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THE CHALLENGES I SOLVE
Most companies don't realize they have a positioning problem until it starts showing up somewhere else.
Sales become harder. Competitors become harder to separate from. Marketing loses effectiveness. Customers become more price-sensitive. Growth slows despite continued effort.
These are often symptoms of a weakening competitive position in the market. My work focuses on identifying the root cause and rebuilding the strategic advantages that drive category creation, market preference, customer demand, and long-term growth.
ENDLESSLY FIGHTING COMPETITION
Most companies react to competitors instead of shaping the market themselves. As new challengers emerge and existing competitors evolve, many brands find themselves trapped in a cycle of imitation, constantly responding to moves they didn't initiate.
I help companies regain control by creating positions competitors are forced to react to rather than copy.
BRAND DILUTION + BUYER HESITANCY
If you aren't actively shaping perception, the market will do it for you. Over time, messaging drifts, value becomes harder to communicate, and buyers struggle to understand why your company deserves their attention.
The result is hesitation, lower conversion rates, weakened loyalty, and a brand that becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish from alternatives.
LACK OF DIFFERENTIATION
Many companies believe they're differentiated because they're feel different internally. Customers don't see it that way.
True differentiation exists only when the market clearly understands why your solution is meaningfully distinct and more relevant than competing alternatives. I help companies uncover, develop, and communicate advantages competitors cannot easily replicate.
SLOWED OR STAGNANT GROWTH
Growth rarely slows without warning. You see market share stall, margins shrink, and win rates decline. Customer acquisition becomes more expensive.
Most organizations focus on the symptoms while missing the underlying cause: the market no longer perceives enough value to justify continued momentum.
Positioning reveals why growth has slowed and what needs to change to restart it.
DISCONNECTION FROM AUDIENCE
Markets evolve and customer expectations change. What worked two years ago may no longer resonate today.
When companies lose alignment with their audience, marketing becomes less effective, sales become harder, and customer loyalty weakens. I help brands reconnect with the needs, motivations, and expectations driving buying decisions in today's market.
INTERNAL BUSINESS CHANGES
My personal favorite area to work in: Acquisitions, mergers, leadership transitions, new product lines, and evolving business models all alter how a company creates value.
Yet many organizations continue communicating as if nothing changed. When your business evolves, your market position must evolve with it.
I help leadership teams reposition their brand, messaging, and competitive strategy to reflect the company they've become—not the company they used to be.
Who I Partner With
My perspective on positioning was forged long before I became a consultant.
Early in my career, I led a Market Validation team inside a startup accelerator. Our job was simple in theory and brutal in practice: determine whether a new company could beat the competition. If so, prove it.
Every opportunity had to survive a single test: Could it create enough value to earn market share from established competitors?
To answer that question, my team conducted market validation, customer research, competitive analysis, and strategic due diligence for early-stage, venture-backed startups.
Some opportunities required inventing entirely new markets. Others required identifying weaknesses in existing competitors and building a faster, more compelling alternative.
Since 2014, I have worked independently as a Market Positioning Consultant, helping organizations identify market opportunities, sharpen differentiation, align messaging, and create strategic advantages that competitors struggle to replicate.
While my experience spans Fortune 500 companies, venture-backed startups, and private equity initiatives, I hold a special passion for helping competitive-focused mid-market businesses and post-Series A companies apply the same strategic tools typically reserved for much larger organizations.
Today, I advise companies on positioning, differentiation, category strategy, and conversion messaging. I am the founder of GLYPH Marketing, a multi-award-winning branding agency, work alongside venture and investment groups evaluating growth opportunities, lead The War Table Mastermind, and continue developing the frameworks that power my consulting work, including my upcoming book, Winning the Brand War.
At its core, my work has always been driven by the same question:
What makes customers choose one company over another?
TAKE YOUR BRAND ON THE OFFENSE
Ready to transform your market position and achieve unparalleled success? Partner with us to leverage strategic insights and innovative solutions tailored to your business needs. Let's redefine your competitive edge and secure your market leadership.