What is a brand really? Is it a name, logo, design or a combination of all of these? Yes it is all of these and yet, only the physical attributes of a brand don’t capture it’s true essence.
In its most basic form, a brand is simply a collection of perceptions in the minds of the consumers.
Hence brand positioning is creating, maintaining and developing a unique perception (or speciality) about a brand in the mind of the consumer.
Brand positioning refers to the strategy that a company uses to differentiate its products or services from its competitors and establish a distinct image in the minds of the target audience.
So it’s all about perceptions. But are you making sure the perception you are creating for your brand is the right one?
Does your brand own a speciality? If not, you are not doing brand positioning correctly.
In the modern world (where supply and choice far outweighs demand) positioning is the crux of the branding process. Successful (or unsuccessful) positioning can make (or break) a brand.
For example, Mercedes stands for “luxury and class”, while BMW stands for “power and performance” reflected in their slogan “the ultimate driving machine.”
Coca Cola is positioned as “the real cola” or the “classic cola” while Pepsi positioned itself as a cola for “the generation next” to create differentiation with Coke.
While 7Up, which was a late entrant to the market, and couldn’t really compete with the other two, positioned itself as the “uncola” providing an alternative to people who don’t like cola.
In each of the above cases, the brands “own” a speciality they have carefully chosen for themselves, through heavy advertising and other awareness campaigns.
Element of Brand Positioning
The three most critical elements for successful brand positioning are:
#1. The speciality should be different/unique – You have to make sure that the speciality you are choosing for your brand is unique and is not owned by anyone else.
#2. It should be credible – The speciality should be believable. If you choose a speciality that is too fantastic, the audience will not take it seriously and it will not stick.
#3. It should be relevant/important – The speciality should be relevant and important for your brand or category
Again, in the above examples, the specialities the brands own are unique, credible and relevant and important to their audiences.
Brand Positioning Process
You will find a lot of ways to determine successful brand positioning in various books and articles. But the one I find the most practical and effective is this.
Step 1: Identify the key specialities in the industry you are operating in.
Step 2: Narrow down the specialities into those that are unique, credible and relevant.
Step 3: Identify which other companies in your industry own these specialities.
Step 4: If there is any speciality left, you own it. If not, you create a new sub category (aka speciality) in your industry and become the number one in that sub category.
Step 5: Once you have decided a speciality for yourself, go hammer and tongs promoting your speciality and associating your brand to it, by every possible means. Don’t lose your focus and try to target other specialities.
It is far better to own a lesser important speciality (resulting in smaller audience size) no one owns, than to focus on a very important speciality, which is owned by a strong competitor.
And your product may have many benefits, but stick to only the attributes you have chosen for yourself, to communicate in your advertising. No one remembers more than one idea. If you say too much, you say nothing, you are just making noise.
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