How do you update your brand positioning statement as your brand evolves and grows?

A positioning statement isn't a magical statement to ninja your potential customers. Rather, imagine it like hitting a ball in the ball diamond. Do you want to bunt it or hit a home run? Consider, how well does my current statement share who I am, what I do, and why it matters?

I'm personally of the belief that brands ought to be constantly doing market research, even if it's something as simple as running an audience audit on their advertising campaigns to see if their conversions are coming from their ideal target users or not. But regardless of the Digital era, life is not entirely online and as such it is imperative to continue to nurture more traditional and in person channels. (Surveys, business analysis, competitor analysis, in person activations...) Brands that take the time to know and understand their space improve their odds of outlasting & outperforming those who simply cross their fingers and wish for luck.

While the research mentioned above is great, the best feedback you can get is actually from actually understanding what you customers are trying to do and the decision-making process they're undergoing. The 5 Rings of Insight are honestly the best way to understand what they need and the factors you can deliver on. They are as follows: #1 Priority Initiative. #2 Success Factors. #3 Perceived Barriers. #4 Buying Journey. #5 Decision Criteria.

Your updated statement should reflect the ability to meet their needs and highly a distinctive feature, capability or benefit. While again, its not going to ninja them into buying, your statement actually SERVES AS YOUR GUIDE for future materials, visually and verbally—to create consistency. For example: "The only underwater basket weaving platform for otters." "Home of America's Favorite soft, gluten-free cookies."

Testing your statement is only truly done when you have delivered your service and product, to ensure that it not only creates the right experience, but also resonates with the expected result. - did the otters have great baskets? - are the cookies actually soft and gluten free?

Feedback and reviews from customers is a great way to predict the future of the brand and where it stands. At the end of the day you are selling your product to them and they need to buy it, look at your product as a solution to something in their life. Understanding this needs and addressing it and then testing it a good litmus test. Most brands love the numbers and love to see the quantitative, but the insights come in from all those qualitative research that you do. Sometime you may think your statement says XYZ but it could mean ABC to the customer. How much you fine-tune your statement is a call you take given all the other data you have at hand.

You brand positioning statement is an INTERNAL statement that helps give focus and drive the connection between who you are, what you do, and why it matters. Implementing isn't copying and pasting, but seamlessly integrating the big idea into everything you do.

A brand positioning statement is an Internal statement but it is what will get reflected outside. That one statement needs to be so strong that it is where all your external communications start and end at. It will define the KPIs and the business goals.

Let's consider The Wendy's Company's evolution as a great example of the power of a good brand positioning update. Wendy’s used to be a folksy brand that leaned on their "family values" to differentiate itself from McDonald’s which couldn’t stop crowing, at the time, about their numbers “served” and global dominance. But fast food folksy is now cringe. So Wendy’s mustered courage to refresh its brand and became cool again by owning smart snark on social media. Brands that exert the courage it takes to respond to changes in the culture, in the market, and with their end users break through to consumers.