Make It Obvious

“In positioning, subtlety is often suicide. What’s obvious to you is invisible to your customer.”

The Visibility Paradox

When David Hieatt co-founded Hiut Denim in 2011, he had a clear mission: to bring jean manufacturing back to Cardigan, Wales, where 400 people had lost their jobs when a factory closed. The company’s positioning seemed unmistakable to him – they were reviving a craft, employing skilled workers, and making only jeans.

Yet in Hiut’s early years, they struggled to stand out in a crowded market. As Hieatt recounted in interviews, potential customers would browse their website but often leave without purchasing, unable to articulate what made Hiut different from dozens of other premium denim brands.

It wasn’t until they distilled their positioning to the stark simplicity of “We make jeans. That’s it. Do One Thing Well” that conversion rates dramatically improved. What had been obvious to Hieatt wasn’t obvious to his customers until he made it explicit.

This is the visibility paradox. The gap between what you think makes your business special and what customers actually notice isn’t just wide—it’s a chasm.

Research on what psychologists call “the curse of knowledge” demonstrates this gap consistently. In their seminal 1989 paper, economists Colin Camerer, George Loewenstein, and Martin Weber showed that once people possess knowledge, they consistently overestimate what others know. In one famous experiment by psychologist Elizabeth Newton, participants who tapped out familiar songs estimated that listeners would recognize 50% of the tunes, when in reality only 2.5% were identified. This same bias affects how businesses communicate their differentiation. What feels distinctive and clear to you is often completely invisible to your market.

In the previous chapters, we’ve explored how to build a business with authentic essence, deliberate positioning, natural gravitational pull, and compelling storytelling. But none of these elements will deliver their full potential unless you make them unmistakably obvious to your customers.

The Subtlety Trap

As a British entrepreneur, I’ve observed that UK businesses are particularly susceptible to the subtlety trap. Our cultural predisposition toward understatement leads many to believe that quality speaks for itself, that competence is its own advertisement, and that anything too explicit feels uncomfortably boastful.

This isn’t uniquely British, of course. The curse of knowledge we just explored manifests differently across cultures, but it remains a universal challenge. Domain experts in every field consistently struggle to see their work through novice eyes. They perceive distinctions and value that remain completely invisible to the very people they’re trying to communicate with.

The challenge varies across cultures. American businesses often embrace more direct self-promotion, while Japanese companies might focus on technical excellence with minimal elaboration. German firms typically emphasize precision and heritage. Yet regardless of cultural context, the evidence suggests that businesses consistently hide their light—assuming customers pay far more attention to what they do than they actually do.

They don’t.

The lesson? If your positioning isn’t obvious, it doesn’t exist.

The Scanning Customer Reality

The uncomfortable truth about how modern customers evaluate options is that they don’t—at least not in the thorough, considered way we imagine. They scan.

Under conditions of information overload, the human brain switches to efficiency mode. According to research published in Frontiers in Neuroscience, consumers make increasingly poorer decisions when faced with too much information, relying on snap judgments and mental shortcuts.

The B2B environment is even more challenging. Gartner research shows the typical buying group involves 6-10 decision makers, each armed with 5-6 pieces of information they’ve independently gathered. In enterprise decisions, that number can rise to 11-20 stakeholders with varied priorities, criteria and concerns.

You’re not competing for deep consideration. You’re competing for recognition in a fleeting moment of attention.

When scanning options, customers don’t meticulously evaluate every aspect of your business. They look for clear signals that help them recognise if you’re potentially right for them. Without those signals, you simply disappear into the background noise.

Signposts, Not Subtlety

The antidote to the scanning customer is not louder marketing or more aggressive sales tactics. It’s strategic obviousness—creating unmistakable “decision signposts” that guide customers to you.

Hiut Denim offers a masterclass in signposting. Their positioning is captured in seven words: “We make jeans. That’s it. Nothing else.” Their website reinforces this singular focus: “No distractions. No compromises. No bobble caps. Only jeans.”

There’s nothing subtle about their positioning. They’ve created an unmistakable signpost that makes them immediately recognisable to their ideal customers.

Such clarity doesn’t diminish sophistication; it enables it. By making your core differentiation absolutely clear, you create permission to be nuanced and complex in your actual delivery.

Signposting isn’t shouting; it’s clarity in service of connection.

The Four Dimensions of Obviousness

So how do you transform your positioning from subtle to obvious without sacrificing authenticity? Focus on four critical dimensions:

1. Clarity of Claim

Simplify and amplify your core differentiation until it can be understood at a glance. This isn’t about dumbing down; it’s about distillation.

Monzo Bank exemplifies this principle. Rather than hiding behind traditional banking jargon, they’ve made clarity a competitive advantage. Their tone of voice guide explicitly states: “To make sure we explain things in a way everyone can understand, we use the language our customers use, even when things get technical.”

Even for their terms and conditions—typically the most impenetrable texts in financial services—they’ve pioneered a human-readable approach that transforms mandatory disclosure from barrier to benefit.

The Seven Words or Less Exercise

Can you express your core differentiation in seven words or less? If not, you haven’t distilled it sufficiently.

For Hiut Denim: “We make jeans. That’s it.” For Riverford Organic: “Ethical, organic veg from our farm.” For Brompton: “The folding bike people.”

What are your seven words?

2. Consistency of Expression

Your differentiation must be expressed consistently across every touchpoint, creating a cumulative effect greater than any single interaction.

This doesn’t mean identical messaging everywhere. It means consistent reinforcement of your core positioning through appropriate expressions tailored to each context.

Hiut Denim demonstrates this principle perfectly. Whether you’re reading their website, product labels, packaging, or social media, their singular focus on making the best jeans possible (and nothing else) remains unmistakable. This consistency builds recognition and trust over time.

The Touchpoint Consistency Audit

Inventory every point of customer contact with your business:

• Website and digital presence
• Sales conversations and materials
• Product/service experience
• Customer service interactions
• Physical environments
• Documentation and support

For each touchpoint, ask: “Would someone encountering only this expression of our business immediately understand what makes us different?“

3. Contrast Creation

Humans perceive through comparison. Without contrast, differentiation disappears.

Rapha exemplifies effective contrast creation in cycling apparel. Founded by Simon Mottram in 2004, Rapha deliberately positioned itself in stark contrast to the garish, logo-heavy cycling wear dominating the market. Their minimalist aesthetic, premium materials, and focus on the cultural aspects of cycling created immediate visual and philosophical distinction.

This contrast wasn’t accidental. As Wikipedia notes, Rapha deliberately positioned as “a cycling lifestyle brand focused on road bicycle racing,” creating a clear alternative to purely functional cycling brands.

The most powerful contrasts aren’t just statements about what you do differently, but why you do it differently—connecting your methods to deeper values.

The Contrast Amplifier Tool

For your core differentiators, explicitly identify:

• What most competitors typically do
• What you do differently
• Why this difference matters to customers
• How this difference connects to your essence

Then determine where and how to make these contrasts visible to customers.

4. Friction Removal

The final dimension of obviousness is eliminating reasons not to choose you. This means identifying and addressing anything that might create hesitation, confusion, or uncertainty for potential customers.

Friction often hides in unexpected places: confusing terminology, unclear pricing, complicated buying processes, or missing proof points that validate claims.

Riverford Organic Farmers excels at friction removal. Their commitment to ethical standards is explicit rather than implied: “We follow strict ethical rules for sourcing—from always paying fellow farmers fairly, to never using air freight or palm oil.” This clarity pre-emptively addresses concerns ethical food shoppers might have, making their choice simpler.

For B2B companies, friction often involves satisfying multiple stakeholders with different criteria. Remember those 6-20 decision-makers in the buying process? Each needs their concerns addressed to move forward.

The Barrier Elimination Checklist

Identify potential barriers in these categories:

• Practical barriers (price, accessibility, complexity)
• Emotional barriers (risk, trust, confidence)
• Stakeholder barriers (different decision-makers’ concerns)
• Industry barriers (certification, compliance, compatibility)

For each, develop explicit content, evidence, or process improvements that eliminate the friction.

Implementing Obviousness at Any Scale

The good news for smaller businesses is that obviousness doesn’t require massive marketing budgets. In fact, large corporations often struggle with obviousness because their positioning has been diluted by committees and compliance departments.

Your smaller scale can be an advantage. You can make decisions faster, maintain message discipline more easily, and create a more consistent customer experience across fewer touchpoints.

Start with the highest-impact opportunities:

1. Revise your core messaging everywhere it appears. Begin with website headlines, email signatures, social profiles, and sales materials. Apply the “Seven Words or Less” principle ruthlessly.

2. Create contrast-focused content. Develop simple one-pagers or social posts that explicitly contrast your approach with conventional alternatives.

3. Review your sales conversations. Most positioning clarity is lost in actual customer interactions. Script and practice explicit articulations of your differentiation that salespeople can deliver consistently.

4. Map the full decision-making unit. For B2B companies, identify all stakeholders involved in purchasing decisions and create addressing each role’s specific concerns.

5. Address industry requirements directly. Rather than seeing industry certifications or standards as separate from positioning, incorporate them as friction-removal elements of your obviousness strategy.

When Havwoods, a small specialist wood flooring company, implemented this approach, they transformed from a competent but overlooked supplier to “The Wood Flooring Specialists.” By making their specialisation obvious through consistent language, comparative content, and application-specific examples, they increased qualified inquiries by 34% in one year.

The Obviousness Audit: Assessing Your Current State

How obvious is your positioning today? Rate each dimension from 1-5:

Clarity of Claim

1: Our differentiation is explained through lengthy, nuanced descriptions. 3: We have a clear statement of difference but it’s not especially memorable. 5: Anyone encountering our business can immediately articulate what makes us different.

Consistency of Expression

1: Our messaging varies significantly depending on who creates it or where it appears. 3: We have consistent core messaging but application across touchpoints is uneven. 5: Our differentiation is reinforced consistently at every customer touchpoint.

Contrast Creation

1: We rarely explicitly compare our approach to alternatives. 3: We sometimes highlight differences but don’t make them central to our positioning. 5: The contrast between our approach and alternatives is unmistakable in our communications.

Friction Removal

1: Customers must overcome significant uncertainty or confusion to choose us. 3: We address some common objections but customers still raise concerns. 5: We’ve systematically eliminated reasons not to choose us for our target customers.

Gathering External Feedback

Your self-assessment is just the starting point. Ask these questions of recent customers, lost prospects, and neutral observers:

• “In one sentence, what would you say makes our business different from alternatives?”
• “What questions or concerns did you have that made choosing us difficult?”
• “What evidence convinced you that our approach was different?”

The gap between your assessment and theirs reveals your obviousness deficit.

Common Obviousness Blockers (And How to Overcome Them)

The Fear of Oversimplification

Many business owners resist clarity because they believe their differentiation is too sophisticated to simplify. They equate simplicity with dumbing down.

Solution: Remember that clarity creates permission for complexity. Make your core positioning unmistakable, then add nuance in subsequent layers of engagement.

The Temptation of Novelty

Marketing departments often prioritise freshness over consistency, changing messaging before it’s had a chance to register with customers.

Solution: Establish core positioning elements that remain consistent while allowing peripheral content to evolve. As Seth Godin says, “Marketing is a contest for people’s attention.” Consistency helps you win that contest.

The Expertise Curse

The more you know about your field, the harder it becomes to communicate simply. Your expertise creates a blind spot around what non-experts find confusing.

Solution: Regularly test your communications with people outside your field. If they can’t immediately grasp what makes you different, you haven’t been obvious enough.

The Industry Blindness

Every industry develops conventional ways of presenting offerings that customers find difficult to navigate.

Solution: Identify where industry conventions create barriers rather than clarity. Break from these conventions while still addressing underlying requirements.

Obviousness in Action: The Implementation Path

A successful transition to obviousness follows a clear sequence:

30 Days: Clarity First

• Complete the Seven Words or Less exercise
• Revise your core messaging across primary touchpoints
• Gather feedback on clarity from customers and non-customers

60 Days: Amplify Contrast

• Develop explicit comparison content for key offerings
• Train customer-facing teams on communicating differences
• Identify and address the top three friction points

90 Days: Systematic Integration

• Audit and update all customer touchpoints
• Develop measurement tools for monitoring obviousness
• Create mechanisms for maintaining consistency as your business evolves

The Obviousness Amplifier: Final Framework

The Obviousness Amplifier is a simple tool for continual assessment and improvement across the four dimensions:

Clarity

• Is our core differentiation expressible in seven words or less?
• Would someone encountering our business for the first time immediately understand what makes us different?
• Have we eliminated jargon and insider language that creates barriers?

Consistency

• Does every customer touchpoint reinforce our core positioning?
• Are we maintaining message discipline across departments and channels?
• Have we created tools that help everyone in the organisation maintain consistency?

Contrast

• Do we explicitly contrast our approach with alternatives?
• Have we made differences meaningful by connecting them to customer outcomes?
• Is our positioning distinctive enough to be recognisable at a glance?

Friction Removal

• Have we identified and addressed potential objections?
• Are we satisfying the requirements of all stakeholders in buying decisions?
• Have we made our evidence of differentiation as visible as the claims themselves?

Becoming Unmistakable

Your differentiation doesn’t exist unless customers can see it, articulate it, and remember it. The gap between what you think makes you special and what customers notice is where most businesses fail.

Being the obvious choice isn’t about shouting louder—it’s about signposting more clearly. It’s about making your essence, positioning, gravity, and storytelling unmistakable.

In the final chapter, we’ll integrate everything we’ve explored—from essence to obviousness—into a comprehensive framework for becoming and remaining the obvious choice in your market.

But first, a question: If someone encountered your business tomorrow, would they immediately understand what makes you special? If not, it’s time to make it obvious.