How to Define Your Brand Positioning
A brand isn’t simply your logo.
Your brand encompasses everything your business is. It includes why you got into business and what you want to achieve. It is the story of your company ethos distilled and honed into an emotional core.
Brand positioning is different from marketing. It’s that gut level reaction customers have to your brand. It creates an emotional connection between the consumer and the product. It creates excitement and engagement. It changes your business from static to alive.
We have rounded up the key questions to ask yourself when you want to define your brand positioning.
Tell a Good Story
The key to creating a compelling brand position is by asking yourself — What is the story of my brand?
The first step to creating a brand that customers and clients engage with is by having a concrete narrative and guidelines to follow. Just like Hollywood, we all love a good origin story.
Family owned business? Make that a cornerstone of your brand. Organic products? Focus on why you’ve chosen to go natural. Noticed a gap in the market? Use your own experience to guide your brand. The more personal — the better!
Take a company like Apple. We all know what comes to mind when we think of their brand — It’s not simply their products. There’s a reason why we all remember that Apple started in a garage. It makes the brand authentic, an image of a lone creator making something brilliant.
What Apple has achieved is perfect brand positioning. What is your brand’s origin story?
Pinky Promise
Your brand is also your promise to consumers.
Apple isn’t just selling the latest laptops — it’s the promise of a connected world. The average consumer doesn’t really care all that much about the technical specs but they do care about what Apple offers them — to think differently.
Ask yourself — What do I want my customers to think of when they hear my brand? What do I promise when they use my business?
If you’re family owned, customers expect personal care and attention to every detail. The promise is to be treated like family. If it’s organic products, the promise is that every item you sell is healthy and sustainably sourced. A concrete brand promise allows you to emotionally engage with your customers.
Point of Difference
There are plenty of products and businesses out there — but remember none of them is yours.
It might be time to check out the competition. What are they doing well? More importantly — what are they missing?
Your direct competition is a faceless corporation? Create an emotional bond with your family run business. A company promises organic but doesn’t disclose its sources? Incorporate sustainable sourcing into your brand. Give your customers a reason to trust your business and make it stand out. Worried about branding in an overcrowded market? Don’t be!
Ask yourself, what do you want to achieve? Steve Job’s mission statement was “To make a contribution to the world by making tools for the mind that advance humankind.” Here is when brand positioning becomes an active market force — It’s not simply a computer, but a tool for individual greatness. There’s a reason Apple has been so successful and it’s not due to only their product. It’s their brand positioning.
Defining your brand positioning is key in creating a business that will thrive. It’s the difference between simply a product and a memorable customer experience. It is clever brand positioning that keeps your customers coming back again and again.
