Positioning is designing how a target audience thinks and feels about a product to occupy a distinct place in their mind. It should be developed based on research into customers' desired qualities, including their geographic, psychographic, demographic, and behavior characteristics. Effective positioning identifies the unique benefits and differentiation of a product compared to others, implanting this in customers' minds to show the higher value of adoption over competing options. Positioning guides the development of marketing messages and helps unify decision making, though it is meant for internal use only.