Brand & Positioning Primer
Branding and positioning are endeavors that often require a plan of their own.
But, for smaller enterprises, they can often be addressed within the marketing
plan. It helps to cut down on all that paper flying around in your office.
Branding is more than simply slapping your logo on a letterhead, sign or the
side of a truck. Although there are loads of definitions, for our purposes, a
brand is a promise. And guess what? You don’t even own it. It resides in
the minds of your customers. It’s their expectations about doing business
with your company. It’s your reputation in their minds. It’s their
complete experience with your business.
Will it be a good experience or a bad one?
In as much as you don’t really “own” your brand, you do own your
brand assets. Those are the elements you use to express your brand promise and
make a connection with your clients. Brand assets can include your company name,
logo, tagline, colors, typography, uniforms and marketing materials such as brochures
and your website. They’re all the sensory touch points that your audience
has with your business. In addition to the visuals, companies are now moving
toward using scent and sounds as part of their branding arsenal. Beyond these,
branding elements also include your customer service, the interior design of
your location, architecture, even how
you answer the phone and such.
Your branding efforts should be authentic, differentiating, sustainable and consistent.
It’s important to look at your business’ touch points from the point-of-view
of your audience. Are you consistently fulfilling your brand’s promise?
Do you make it easy to do business with you? Are your branding elements consistent
across the board?
Positioning, on the other hand, is finding that place in your customers’ psyche
where your brand will set up housekeeping. Think of it as the frame of the branding
house.
The concept of positioning was introduced by Al Reis and Jack Trout in 1981.
Going to the source seems to make sense. Here’s their definition of positioning
from their book, Positioning: The battle for your mind:
“Positioning is an organized 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.”
The thing with positioning is being first in the customer’s mind. In most
cases, unless you’ve really got something new, you’re not going to
be in first place.Trying to unseat Numero Uno is a tough act, if not impossible,
for several reasons. Not the least of which is by trying to unseat them, you’re
essentially telling your prospects that they’re wrong. Folks generally don’t
like to be told that. How can you spin your positioning message to find your
niche in the customer’s
mind?
Think about Hertz and Avis. Hertz held the number one spot. Avis, as we all know,
is number two, but hey, they try harder. That’s their position - “We
try harder.” Or what about 7-Up®’s losing battle to unseat Coke® and
Pepsi®? Enter the “Uncola.” The
rest is history.
Finding your position takes some creativity. What spot isn’t owned by your
competitors? Which of your strengths can you play up without directly attacking
the competition or telling your prospects they’ve
been wrong all along.
That might mean developing a specialty in an area nobody else is covering, or
a new spin on a product or service. Or, it might mean focusing on an under-served
industry segment and learning all you can about it. In conjunction with your
marketing and public relations, over time, you can become the number one choice
for those prospects.
Sometimes, it can be accomplished by changing your job title or the names of
your products or services. This is akin to what ValuJet did after one of its
aircraft went down in the Florida Everglades. When that jet went down, their
positioning quickly changed to “The risky airline.” In an almost immediate
re-branding and positioning juggling act, they changed their name to AirTran.
The company is now thriving as one of the top low-fare airlines.
The big idea here is to find a way to zig when your competitors are zagging.
If you don’t, you run the very real risk of “me-too” marketing.
When that happens, you can only compete on price and that’s a lousy place
to be.
Don't forget to forward
this newsletter to your business associates.
The
Odell Team
330 Schneider Street, S.E.
North Canton, OH 44720
330.499.3441 voice
330.499.0596 fax |
