STP Builder
STP Builder
Segmentation, targeting, and positioning as one interactive diagram. Define your market's segments, narrow to the one you're targeting, and draft a positioning statement you can actually test.
What STP Is
Segmentation, targeting, and positioning (STP) is the classic sequence for turning a broad market into a specific campaign claim. Segmentation divides a market into groups whose needs or behaviour are similar enough to address with one message. Targeting selects which segment or segments to address, based on size, accessibility, competitive advantage, and strategic fit. Positioning designs the claim, message, and evidence that make the offering meaningful to that segment. The three stages are cumulative: segmentation without targeting is a map with no destination, targeting without positioning names an audience but not a claim, and positioning without targeting produces a polished message aimed at no one in particular.
The tool below walks through all three stages, then compiles the result into a campaign brief. It draws on the same STP framework taught in Week 2 of The Evidence-Based Digital Marketer, FlairMI’s open digital marketing textbook, where the underlying dot-cluster diagram this tool is built from first appeared as a static figure.
Who It Is For
Marketing students learning STP as a method, and early-stage founders or product marketers who have a broad idea of their market but have not yet written a positioning statement they could defend with evidence. The tool asks for the same four elements a real planning canvas would: a named segment, a frame of reference, a point of difference, and evidence.
The Positioning Statement Template
A positioning statement is testable when it names four things explicitly: the target segment, the frame of reference (what category the offering competes in), the point of difference (what it does better than alternatives in that category), and the evidence (what supports the claim). A statement built this way can be checked against real data and revised when the evidence calls it into question, unlike a vague claim such as “we serve busy professionals.”
Worked Example
A project-management SaaS company starts with one broad market: “people who manage projects.” That is not a segment, it is almost anyone. A first pass at segmentation might split the market into freelancers working alone, small agencies coordinating client work across a handful of people, and enterprise IT teams running formal change-control processes. Those three groups need different features, different price points, and different proof.
The company targets small agencies: large enough to need shared visibility across a team, small enough that enterprise tools are overkill for them. The resulting positioning statement: “For small agencies coordinating client work across five to twenty people, considering project-management software for small teams, this is the only tool that turns a plan into a live Gantt chart with no setup, evidenced by a median time-to-first-chart of under four minutes across forty pilot teams.” Each element in that statement is checkable. The evidence claim in particular should be verified before the campaign launches at scale, not assumed.
Build Your Own
Nothing you enter here is sent anywhere. The tool runs entirely in your browser and nothing is saved once you leave the page.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between segmentation, targeting, and positioning?
Segmentation divides a market into groups. Targeting picks which group to pursue. Positioning designs the claim that group will hear. They run in that order because each stage needs the one before it: you cannot target a segment that has not been defined, and you cannot position a claim to an audience that has not been chosen.
How many segments should I create?
Two to five. Fewer than two is not really a segmentation, and more than five usually means the groups are not distinct enough to act on separately. Three is a common starting point, matching the worked example above (freelancers, small agencies, enterprise IT teams).
Does STP Builder save or send my data anywhere?
No. Everything runs in your browser. Nothing you type is uploaded, stored on a server, or saved once you close the tab.
Is this for real campaign planning, or only for teaching?
Both. The framework and the positioning statement template are the same ones used in professional planning, drawn from the STP theory taught in Week 2 of The Evidence-Based Digital Marketer. Students use it to learn the method, marketers use it to draft a real statement before a campaign brief.
Why does a positioning statement need evidence?
Without evidence, a positioning statement is just a guess dressed up as a claim. Naming what supports it, a pilot result, a survey finding, a usage statistic, means the claim can be checked against real data and revised when the data disagrees, rather than repeated on faith.