Brand Positioning Defined

Establishing strong, defensible brand positioning is a make or break proposition. Yet many companies view their brand initiatives only in terms of communication, or fail to effectively link their branding efforts to the overall business strategy.

Many people have different interpretations about what brand positioning means. It’s one of those concepts that’s hard to pin down, yet at the same time is so important to the success of your brand. Positioning is at the heart of your brand. It’s essentially the summation of everything your brand is about. Positioning is built from what you know to be true about your customer. It takes the benefits you’ve outlined and makes them meaningful to customers. In its simplest of forms, positioning is the mental space you want to occupy in your customer’s mind. It’s the first thing you want your customer to think about when they hear your brand name.

Positioning is more about emotions and less about the facts. Once nailed, your brand’s positioning becomes the basis for building the brand experience across the entire marketing and business plan. The key is to make sure the actual brand experience delivers on what was intended in the positioning.

Positioning defined

Positioning is the conceptual place you want to own in the target consumer’s mind — the benefits you want them to think of when they think of your brand. Successful brands and businesses must:

· Be relevant to consumers

· Be unique versus the competition

· Be credible and attainable

Positioning Statement

Your positioning statement is the first step on your brand development roadmap. Four components need to be considered in determining an effective positioning statement.

To (target audience) Product X is the only (frame of reference) that (benefits delivered) because (reasons to believe)

Deconstructing the above will allow you to determine the following:

1. Definition of your Target Market — Who is the brand being built for?

2. Category Frame of Reference — What is the competitive context? What should the product/service category be called?

3. Key Benefits Delivered — What benefits should the brand stand for and deliver on?

4. Reasons to Belief (Proof Points) — What are the reasons-to-believe the positioning?

There are several templates available for writing a positioning statement. Geoffrey Moore, an American organisational theorist, management consultant and author of Crossing the Chasm, suggests this format:

· For (target customers)

· Who (have the following problem)

· Our product is a (describe the product or solution)

· That provides (cite the breakthrough capability)

· Unlike (reference competition),

· Our product/solution (describe the key point of competitive differentiation)

Beloved Brands suggests this format: For the target market (a) Brand X plays in the market (b) and it gives the main benefit ©. That’s because of the following reasons to believe (d).

There is no right or wrong format — use what works for you, as long as you are clearly identifying your target market, the main benefit you provide that audience and your rationale. I use my own proprietary Key Message Mapping to distil and define clients’ brand positioning. Another thing to be aware of is that your positioning can change. As new competitors enter the market, you may find that you need to shift position. What works at one point in the lifecycle of a product or service may not work at another point.

Brand Positioning Strategy Objectives

Key objectives of brand positioning include relevance, differentiation and credibility/attainability.

Relevance is priority #1. Customers must find the brand appealing. If not, the brand won’t make it into the consideration set, regardless of how differentiated or credible it is.

Differentiation is critical and the key driver of positioning success. The brand must be unique vs. competitive offerings.

Credible and attainable is the final measure. If you cannot credibly provide the offering, the customer is left with an empty promise.

In Reis and Trout’s bestselling Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, the idea is to identify and attempt to “own” a marketing niche for a brand, product, or service using various strategies including pricing, promotions, distribution, packaging, and competition. The goal is to create a unique impression in the customer’s mind so that the customer associates something specific and desirable with your brand that is distinct from rest of the marketplace. Reis and Trout define positioning as “an organised system for finding a window in the mind. It is based on the concept that communication can only take place at the right time and under the right circumstances.”

Brand positioning occurs whether or not a company is proactive in developing a position, however, if management takes an intelligent, forward-looking approach, it can positively influence its brand positioning in the eyes of its target customers. It is always best to work with an external brand consultant to develop your brand strategy and proposition to ensure objectivity and a professional approach throughout the process.

Your brand positioning should never be an afterthought. It is the element of your brand strategy which connects everything you do and everything you say. It helps to identify key experiences that will support how you want to be perceived in the minds of your audience and allows you to shape those experiences in everything you do. It is the ultimate place that smart brands should strive to uniquely dwell within.