Why the Art of Brand Positioning is Also a Science

How you position your brand is crucial to your company’s success. It is how you differentiate yourself from your competition. Brand positioning is what drives customer perceptions and buying behavior.

Every business has a brand. Let me repeat: every business–large or small–has a brand, but it’s what they do with it that indicates success or failure. In other words, you will always have a brand, but are you shaping it with intent and research and preparation, or are you letting it happen to you? You will always have a brand, but it may not be the one you want if you aren’t willing to be proactive about establishing it.

Brand Positioning is the Heart and Soul…

Your positioning statement is the heart and soul of your company and its mission. Heart and soul aren’t really terms synonymous with “cold hard facts”, it’s more about emotions.  You can see how you must realize your positioning is a living breathing thing…much like the customers you so want to attract. You want to appeal to their emotions, which is a high drive for purchasing power and long-lasting impressions.

Your positioning statement is something you use internally to charter your route from startup to success so that every team member is reminded in a clear and succinct way why they are doing what they are doing that day and every day.

…Yet Also a Science

And yet it is also a science. Successful brand positioning requires strategy, a formula even. There are multiple ways in which to position your brand, but it’s not about which way is right–it’s about your intent. Today, customers want to feel like you really know who they are.

The biggest, most successful brands (think: McDonalds, Starbucks, Coca-Cola) are not wishy-washy or undefined in any area, really. Research has provided a few tried-and-true rules about brand success, and if you answered any of the questions below with the best brands out there in mind, you would have no problem.

So can you do the same for your own brand when reading these questions?

Do you know how your customer feels when they think about you?

Do you know if they think of something specific and desirable when they hear or read your company name?

Are you applying your values to every single thing you do?

From your logo to the way you answer your phones to your website communication, you must be clear and consistent.

Are you united across your company?

Is everyone in agreement about the company’s intention in the marketplace?

Do you know what you want to be known for?

Let’s be clear here–what you want to be known for is NOT the same as you making a claim about your company. A claim about your product or service is not the same as a positioning statement, no sirree.

A positioning statement that is well-crafted will bring clarity, unity, and focus to every single action in your marketing strategy going forward, from decision making to attracting new customers, to setting yourself apart and above the competition.

Onward!