Why Brand Positioning Matters More Than Ever with Clay Ostrom

It's 2026, and Clay Ostrom joins the show to kick things off with a great conversation about the importance of brand positioning in an age of copycats and technological parity. If you want to stand out this year and beyond, you need to look past product features and get to the heart of what drives your customers.

Clay and Itir cover a lot of ground, including: how AI and increased competition are making brand relationships more valuable, how Clay uses the Jobs To Be Done framework to connect product features to customer jobs, the distinction between internal strategic messaging and copywriting, whether project-based work beats retainers, and much more!

Clay Ostrom is the founder of branding and customer research agency Map & Fire and the brand positioning strategy and analysis platform SmokeLadder. He uses a mix of research, positioning, and messaging to help founders and marketing leaders connect with more customers and grow with confidence. Clay's writing on strategy and research has been featured in Foundr Magazine and AdWeek.

He's spent the last 20 years dreaming up and then bringing to life multiple startups as well as a wide range of digital projects. He's collaborated with countless passionate small businesses along with several Fortune 500 brands including Google, Sony, Universal Pictures, Mattel, FOX, Dreamworks, CBS, A&E, Home Depot, Roland Keyboards, G4 TV, and the LA Times.

Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/-9mRE66f0Ds

Connect with Clay Ostrom on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clayostrom/

If you have any questions about brands and marketing, connect with the host of this channel, Itir Eraslan, on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itireraslan/