Determining Your Competitive Frame of Reference For Your Wellness Brand Before Brand Positioning

How to execute a competitive audit after establishing a frame of reference

Before You Ever Touch Brand Positioning For Your Wellness Brand

Most wellness founders assume they are competing with other wellness businesses. They are usually wrong. Your real competition is not defined by who offers the same modality, certification, or service. It is defined by what your prospective client considers doing instead of choosing you.

Your Client’s Real Competitive Frame of Reference

When someone considers working with a wellness business, they are rarely choosing between you and five similar practitioners on Instagram. They are choosing among options across emotional, practical, and psychological dimensions.

For example, a person considering therapy might decide to:

• Do nothing and tolerate the discomfort

• Talk to friends or family instead

• Use a teletherapy app

• Seek guidance from a religious or spiritual institution

• Numb the issue with distractions or coping behaviors

• Hire a direct competitor

• Meditate or self-regulate alone

Each of these is a competing option for attention, money, and emotional energy.

That is your competitive landscape. And most wellness brands never map it.

Why Assumptions Break Brand Positioning

Founders often assume they know what their clients are comparing them against. This is where positioning quietly collapses. The only way to identify a true competitive frame of reference is to ask. Not once. Not casually. And not only people who already like you.

You need patterns. That requires at least 10 conversations. But if you do not yet have clients, speak with people who resemble your target audience. Not in a survey. In conversation. These are informational interviews, not sales calls.

If your services are something friends or family might reasonably use, speak with them. But always frame questions in the context of your actual price point. Cost changes behavior. Always.

Questions That Reveal the Truth

Avoid asking people what they would do in an ideal world. Ask them what they would actually do. For example:

• If this service were out of your budget, what would you consider doing instead?

• What would feel like an acceptable substitute, even if it was not perfect?

• What would need to be true for you to still choose this option at a higher price?

These answers expose how people weigh value, trust, urgency, and perceived risk. That is positioning intelligence.

Frame of Reference Comes Before Differentiation

Once you understand what alternatives your audience is considering, you gain something most wellness brands lack. Context. Now you can position your work accurately. Not as “better,” but as different in a way that matters.

Your brand is not competing against everyone. It is competing against specific behaviors, beliefs, and coping strategies.

That difference should shape your messaging over time.

When Direct Competitors Actually Matter to Your Wellness Business

In some cases, your audience is choosing between you and other wellness businesses offering similar services. When that is true, a direct competitor analysis is useful.

A competitor analysis simply means studying businesses similar to yours in size, scope, and audience. Not industry giants. Not aspirational brands. Just 5 to 10 comparable options.

If you run a brick-and-mortar wellness business, search locally. If you are digital, search using service and outcome-based language that your clients would use.

Do not collect everything. Collect what matters.

What to Analyze and Why

As you review competitors, look for patterns, not inspiration. Pay attention to:

• Who they explicitly speak to

• What outcomes they promise

• How they explain their approach

• What emotional tone they use

• What they avoid saying

• What feels generic or interchangeable

Most wellness brands sound similar because they rely on surface differentiation. Certifications. Credentials. General claims of care. Few articulate a clear point of view. That is your opportunity.

Standing Out Without Performing

Differentiation in wellness is not about being louder or more visible. It is about being more strategic. Ask yourself:

• What do they assume clients already understand?

• Where do they overgeneralize?

• What emotional realities are left unnamed?

• What fears are being tiptoed around?

Your brand does not win by copying what works for others. It wins by naming what others avoid and explaining what others oversimplify. This is where brand messaging strategy becomes leverage.

Business Strategy Shapes Competition

Your competitive frame of reference is also shaped by your business model.

Are you focused on one core service or many? Are you specialized or broad? Are you serving a specific life stage, concern, or context?

The more focused your offering, the clearer your wellness brand positioning becomes. If your competition feels endless, the issue is not saturation. It is a lack of definition. But having a niche is not a restriction. It is clarity.

You do not need to attract every potential client. You just need prospects who recognize themselves in your message.

The Real Takeaway

Before positioning, before messaging, before content, you need one thing.

Accuracy. Accuracy about what your audience is choosing between. Accuracy about how decisions are actually made. Accuracy about where your work fits in their lived reality.

When you understand your true competitive frame of reference, positioning stops being theoretical and instead becomes grounded. Grounded positioning is what enables a wellness brand to be trusted, remembered, and chosen over time.

This article was written by Vanessa Matthew and Erica Koina