Originally posted 2021-10-06 19:56:08.
Brand Positioning
“Talent Does What It Can;
Genius Does What IT Must” – Edward Goerge Bulwer-Layton
For many years, I have been guiding clients from BIG MNCs to startups on building a brand. A brand that is infinite changes people’s lives. They all come from diverse backgrounds, and they have different aspirations, mindsets, and goals.
All because I love to help people, and I know what it takes to build a brand. Brand Positioning is that step towards it.
Today’s article is a guide for every founder who wants to position their brand or if they’re going to teach their CEOs how to position a brand. In simple, easy, step-by-step, I’m going to tell you what you need to do from the time you think of the brand positioning idea to become market-ready.
It is a go-to article, like a dictionary, if you have just started with brand positioning or thinking of starting with it. It answers some basic questions:
Q1. What Is Brand Positioning? Why Do I Need It?
Q2. What is a brand positioning statement?
Q3. How to define Brand Positioning?
Q4. How to write a Brand Positioning Statement?
Q5. How Does A Firm Establish Brand Positioning?
Q6. How can you become a pro and help your CEO with Brand Positioning?
Q7. Positioning a product or brand requires various tactics. What are they?
Q8. How to Improve Brand Positioning?
Q9. How to Implement Brand Positioning Strategy?
Q10. What are the results of effective brand positioning?
These are critical steps in building your brand. Yet, you have not had access to one source that can provide the answers to all these questions. It is not a read-and-forget article. It is like a map that you can keep coming back to every time you want to know the next turn.
Make the most use of this guide on a step-by-step process towards brand positioning used by 99% of experts.
Let’s get started
What Is Brand Positioning? How Do We Define Brand Positioning?
We pour our heart into building a brand, learning everything about branding. Get ambitious to do more things, take a long-term view, want our company to flourish, invest our time, energy, and finances. We improve over time and want to do the right thing, making our brand better and focus on making something great.
And all this is to win the hearts of our customers, improve the lives of as many people as we can.
Brand Positioning can be defined as the positioning strategy of the brand to create a unique impression in the customers’ minds and the marketplace.
Supporting every effective brand is a positioning strategy that drives planning, marketing, and sales. Brand positioning evolves to create openings in a continually changing market, a market in which consumers are saturated with products and messages.
Brand positioning takes advantage of changes in demographics, technology, marketing cycles, consumer trends, and gaps in the market to find new ways of appealing to the public.
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What Is a Brand Positioning Statement?
A brand positioning statement is a communication statement that tells your brand’s unique value to your brand targeting an audience. It means why you should choose them over their competitors. You can also take an example of the onlineness statement that your brand has.
To have a brand positioning statement, we need to have a brand positioning strategy to clarify first. Suppose we are not clear on how to proceed further, how we will convey the brand’s message to others. So let’s find out what you should do to build your brand positioning statement.
How To Create A Brand Positioning Statement? What Should You Do To Build Your Brand Positioning Strategy?
There is no room for lack of clarity, and we need to be straight to the point. To do so, follow these 4 steps to create a best-in-class brand positioning statement:
1. Define Brand Targeting Audience
2. Reasons To Believe
3. Be Unique
4. Be Clear
Let me clear this one by one.
1. Define Brand Targeting Audience
Be very specific to whom you want to work. Name any five industries you want to work and collaborate with. For example:
a) A Mexican Restaurant
b) An Automobile parts manufacturing company
C) Logo design and Packaging for car interior designing company that caters to sports and luxury cars)
D) Providing branding for trucks and heavy automobile insurance companies
2. Reasons To Believe
If you are a well-known brand and think people will just come in, buy and become loyal, you are wrong. There are always new competitors every day in the market providing the same thing which you do. So there should be reasons to believe that no matter what you do, you will provide the best solution to their problems, whether you are providing warm clothes, fashionable items, or working on humanity. You have to give reasons to people for what you do, why you do. Provide value to them.
For example, Nike gave a week off to their employees for a mental health break. It’s essential because they understand the value of employees and how much hard work they are putting in to build the brand that Nike is today.
3. Be Unique
There was a time when there was a war between Apple and Google. In the book by Mr. Walter Isaacson, he mentioned that both the companies were competing with Mobile operating systems. Apple iOS is more of a controlled approach that has strict guidelines for developing apps. Anyone can use android, create apps freely. Steve Jobs didn’t want others to have control so that they don’t ruin the user experience. The beauty of design and the simplicity of the whole system, which made Apple so unique, cannot be controlled by anyone.
So you have to be unique in every way possible and look for solutions only you can solve. Like I went to the bank yesterday where I saw this ugly cash counting machine and bulky tab. Bank Associate uses a fat tablet to enter the denomination of notes. I thought, why this cannot be slim, look better, use color appealing to eyes?
It happens most of the time because people don’t go the extra mile to make beautiful products. They want the functionality; that’s why they lack. So try to be unique and create something which provides an unforgettable user experience.
4. Be Clear
Make a double star on this point. Whenever we start with something, we are not clear. That’s fine because getting started is always challenging but not impossible. Everyone goes through this phase, and I recommend hiring a branding expert to get more clarity.
Why Is Brand Positioning Important?
According To Branding Journal:
“Brand positioning strategies are directly linked to consumer loyalty, consumer-based brand equity, and the willingness to purchase the brand.”
When a brand is perceived as people’s favourite, it is treated differently, and trust them over brands, is because of the influential brand positioning strategies.
So if a founder or CEO is looking for an effective brand positioning strategy, be open to ideas and see what the best thing you do is.
Brand Positioning Strategy Example
Consumers used to treat Apple as a world-changing product when Steve Jobs left and lost everything… When Steve Jobs joined Apple again, he saw significant problems going on. There were many copies of Mac OS, engineers were working on different things, and they all lacked focus.
He called a meeting where he asked various questions and got to know the main problem. He decided to build only 4-5 great products, which will bring them on track. This way, everyone will focus on one thing and leave the other crap. That strategy worked and helped them position their brand once again in the market. Not only this, he managed to control each and everything which was tightly controlled by one system.
We get to know 3 things:
1. Understand what your consumers want
2. Understand what your company’s and brand capabilities are
3. Understand how each competitor is positioning their brand
Steve Jobs understood all these 3 things while building incredible products when he entered personal computers, the music industry, or cloud space.
I’m glad that I read Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, and it taught me so many things.
Let me give you more brand positioning examples and statements from famous brands to get more things clear.
12 Brand Positioning Statement and Example That Every Founder Should Know
These 12 brand positioning statements are from various industries and are very popular. Not only this, they have lived up to consumers’ expectations, survived hard times, and then flourished. They are the actual examples of Brand Positioning Statements.
01. Mount Woods brand
02. Tiffany brand,
03. Apple brand,
04. Puma brand,
05. Dove brand,
06. Nike brand,
07. Coca Cola brand,
08. Red Bull brand,
09. Coca-Cola brand,
10. Rolex brand,
11. BMW brand,
12. Uber brand
Let’s get to know their brand positioning statement one by one.
01. Mount Woods Brand Positioning
Connecting With Roots
Mount Woods Studio is a global Branding and Consultancy agency solving design problems for successful CEOs and organizations, helping them grow into a unique brand identity.
Everything revolves in one place, whether it is internally or externally. We are not any branding agency; we are the only agency that builds brands that inspire. Mount Woods doesn’t just dress up from the outside; we work hard on what we are putting inside.
We love to connect with people through our unrivalled designs and graphics, which have been an amalgamation of the ideas of our distinctive team and our esteemed clients. At Mount Woods believe we can make our customers one of the only few brands on their block, giving a great experience. Building a “Culture of excellence”, which we are proud of.
02. Tiffany Brand Positioning
Their brand position is deeply rooted in an emotional connection between consumer and brand, strengthened by cultural references, cinema, and celebrity. Because of this, even before it is opened, their signature blue gift box is immediately recognized as a symbol of elegance, affluence, and love.
03. Apple Brand Positioning Statement
Apple knows they are more than just a company that sells computers. They are known for innovation, an unforgettable experience, and being a world changer. When we think of innovative technology, Apple is the first to do that, and its brand position gives the strength, freedom to keep continuing for a long time.
04. Puma Brand Positioning
It has always positioned itself as a brand that inspires the one to move ahead in life and achieve the greatest. Puma uses a value-based positioning strategy for the same.
05. Dove Brand Positioning Statement
Dove is a personal care brand owned by Unilever, a multinational corporation with more than 400 brands mostly selling toiletries. It is sold in more than 35 countries and is used by both men and women but mainly focused on women. Dove offers antiperspirants, deodorants, body washes, soap bars, moisturizers, hair, and skincare.
When we look at dove brand positioning statement, they say:
We believe beauty should be a source of confidence and not anxiety. That’s why we are here to help women everywhere develop a positive relationship with the way they look, helping them raise their self-esteem and realize their full potential.
06. Nike Brand Positioning Statement
Nike is a world-famous brand that everyone loves. It was started in 1962, but the story is different.
Its founder Phil Knight started his shoe career selling imported Japanese shoes from Onitsuka, not by manufacturing his own. His original company was called Blue Ribbon Sports. He sold his first shoes at track meets out of the trunk of his car, and their design and quality became a hit. The story of Blue Ribbon Sports before it became Nike.
With time they grew very much, and with the 1987 campaign” Just Do It”, they surpassed their competitors. Moreover, it got connected with the consumers, which touched their emotions and feelings.
Their alignment to the most successful athletes on the planet in critical sports such as NFL, NBA, Tennis, and Soccer has associated the brand with an idea.
“Nike is a brand for winners”.
Talking about innovation, Jimmy Fallon collaborated with Nike and invented Nike Go FlyEase. He pitched them the idea, and Nike said they have been developing this for 20 years.
So, Nike knows what its consumer wants, and they are ready to do anything for them.
07. Pepsi Brand Positioning Statement
Pepsi stands out by being a youthful, forward-thinking company that has been around for many years.
The key takeaway to consider: The drive behind Pepsi’s statement is powered by the idea of a unique product and general experience.
08. Red Bull Brand Positioning Statement
Red Bull Gives you wings…
We have seen this advertisement and how playful it is. It’s simple, creative, and fun. The same is the brand that resonates with the youth and has built a reputation. It’s an energy drink popular amongst the younger generation. Adventure lovers, risk-takers, for the doers, fun lovers, and those who like to stay fit, red bull is for them. People share their stories because they love the brand so much.
The concept of Red Bull being positioned as Red Bull Gives you wings is a metaphor that is at the centre of all positioning strategies of the company.
09. Coca-Cola Brand Positioning
Coca-Cola stands for refreshing happiness, which can always be seen everywhere.
Coca-Cola products inspire happiness and make a positive difference in customers’ lives, and the brand is intensely focused on the needs of consumers and customers.
10. Rolex Brand Positioning
The positioning strategy of Rolex is to project the product as a luxury brand that strived for excellence. Their brand’s target audience is wealthy people, starting from the young generation to the old. Rolex watches are considered to be the masterpiece and those who make them are called artists. It is a masterpiece that will be with you your whole life.
I once read a line that touched my heart:
“Those who may at any time purchase any creation of Rolex wizards, and those who are just dreaming about their first Rolex”
I admire their work and how they put everything into creating such a masterpiece. I’m one of those people who dreams of purchasing a Rolex, and hopefully, one day, I’ll have it.
11. BMW Brand Positioning
BMW stands for first-class individual mobility and contributes to the sustainable development of our planet. It’s not a typical automobile company that builds cars. It’s a company with a rich heritage, the brand that stood in the world war and is now moving ahead towards the future.
MBW is the “The Ultimate Driving Machine”. Its aggressiveness in styling and the way it rules the road without saying much give the sense of mysterious power. Nothing can match the brand.
12. Uber Brand Positioning
Before Uber came in, the scenario of hiring a taxi and finding the perfect comfortable ride was horrible. I still remember we used to call our uncle to check if he was available or not. Sometimes negotiating because the fair he takes was too much. In cities, it was even worse because of the terrifying experience.
It was for me, and I’m sure you might have faced the same thing once in your lifetime. But now, with uber, things have changed. Its technology, transparency, comfortable, safe, and affordable rides make us feel good. With one click, we can book our cabs, and it’s that easy.
Uber’s brand positioning statement is moving the world with motion – treating its customers to outstanding services. It improves lives, exceeds expectations, and is everywhere for everyone.
Conclusion:
It’s essential to have a brand positioning strategy to get closer to our consumers. We want to win hearts, build a trusted brand, and see the glorious days in the future. Become an example of others how to become an infinite player in the market.
Please implement the learnings practically to see the results you got and share them with me. If you have any knowledge which can add value to this article and our readers, please don’t hesitate to share it. You can comment down below or send me an email. I’ll be happy to add.
Contact us if you need any help in your project or looking for a branding agency to help you achieve goals. Let’s talk about your project and get started.
