THE BRAND STORY; Establishing your brand and positioning

THE BRAND STORY; Establishing your brand and positioning

If you have been in business circles long enough or have read some books on starting a business, you have no doubt come across the terms “#brand” and “#positioning.” These are important bridge concepts between your company’s core #identity and your ability to #communicate with your audience in the marketplace. But even if you have heard these terms, you may not know exactly what they mean. So let’s begin with a couple of brief definitions:

A company’s #brand is the promise of a particular customer experience.

A #brand is what a company stands for. The McDonald’s #brand, for instance, has long been one of fast service at an affordable price. Nordstrom’s #brand is one of exceptional customer service. The Home Depot’s #brand is one of home-improvement expertise. The #brand represents how a #customer is likely to feel when interacting with the company.

A company’s #positioning is the place that the company holds in the #marketplace.

A particular grocery store may be the “value leader,”?“healthy food alternative,”?“gourmet grocer,” and so on. The positioning is often regarded as the word or words that the company “owns” in its customers’ minds.

There are a couple of interesting aspects about #brand and #positioning. The company’s name, logo, colors, and tag lines are obvious and concrete. You can write them on a piece of paper or see them on a sign. But #brand and #positioning are more abstract concepts. While you can state in words what you believe them to be or what you would like for them to be, they exist primarily as customer #perceptions. They are #experiences, rather than words or phrases.

Second, your company name, logo, colors, and tag line are completely within your control as the owner of your company. You decide what you want to call your business, you select the logo, and you choose the #tag-line. If you want to state that you are the “value leader” in your #product category, then you are certainly free to say that. But in the same way that you cannot control the #impression that another individual has of you as a person, you cannot control the #impression that customers will have of your company. For instance, you can say that your company is the value leader, but if your #customers don’t believe it, then in reality—in their minds, which is what really matters— you are not the value leader. Your #brand and your #positioning in the #marketplace will be determined ultimately by your customers—and not just by you—based in large part upon the experiences that they or others they know have had with your business.

In this sense, your company’s #brand is similar to its #reputation—it’s a lot easier to lose a good reputation than it is to acquire and maintain one. A #brand takes a long time to #build and is a very fragile thing. Repeated negative #customer #experiences can undermine or even destroy your brand, and no amount of #marketing or #publicity can rehabilitate it. So when companies speak about “protecting their #brand,” it’s a very important task. Your #brand precedes you—and that means it comes before your #advertisements, before your #marketing materials, and before your #salespeople. A good #brand can open doors before you get there; a sullied or negative #brand can slam them shut.

#Positioning has many features of a #brand, but it comes with unique challenges of its own. A number of companies can have a similar #brand in that they all can promise roughly equivalent customer experiences. But only one company can occupy a #market-position in a specific #category. That is, only one company can be perceived as the best according to a specific characteristic in the minds of its #customers. For instance, there can be only one low- cost leader in a given #category. If the position that you want to hold is already occupied, then you need to pursue either a different #position, a different #category, or a different #target-market (e.g., teenagers instead of adults, stay-at- home moms instead of all women).

The Bottom Line Your ability to define your #market, #customers’ motivation, as well as your company’s #brand and #positioning are just a few of the tasks you must address in starting a business. As you define each one for your business, you will discover how each one complements the others and as such, your business will come into sharper focus. But an idea without action is meaningless.

Many would-be entrepreneurs have mistakenly thought they could simply ride a “great idea” to success. Being a successful entrepreneur is more than just a #product or #service. It is being prepared to adjust your plans as conditions and opportunities change, without compromising your #vision. By using the information in this guide, you will have the tools to take hold of those opportunities and move forward in making your entrepreneurial dreams a reality.

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