Brand positioning
Choosing specific mental space in the brain of the consumer.
Brand positioning in the 21st century is still a useful concept.
In markets with more or less interchangeable suppliers, "brand positioning" can help differentiate from competing brands clear. Brand positioning can give the brand a recognizable place of its own in the target group's brain. But when brand positioning is limited to advertising, it remains nothing more than a fleeting expression.
At BR-ND People we do certainly believe in brands' own mental positioning, especially if it is linked to an inspiring social purpose and an organizational strategy wherein vision, mission and values credibly reinforce each other. Brand positioning as a concept is then about a clear and compelling story that reinforces the organization's 'purpose', its vision of the world and the behaviour and beliefs of its employees.
It is important to create a beautiful and clear story that appeals to and moves people, internally and externally. In our opinion, the urge to capture and express brand positioning through one or two distinctive words has nowadays become less relevant. However, activating the brand through communication, it can help to summarize the brand story with a recognizable slogan, motto or claim. And often this in turn is called brand positioning.
Brand positioning is about the mental space that your brand occupies in the market with respect to the competition.
Often brand positioning is about the distinctive place a brand occupies in the minds of customers compared to competing brands. To position brands, you can emphasize distinctive features of a brand or you can try to create a relevant and distinct image. Once a brand has established a strong brain position, it can be difficult to change it again. Brand positioning is often seen as one of the most powerful branding strategies.
Brand positioning must be relevant to the target audiences: the brand must evoke something that is appealing.
Brand positioning must be distinctive from competing brands.
Brand positioning must be in line with the identity and strategy of the organization: it is not about 'window dressing', but really explaining what the organization stands for.
De klassieker uit 1981
Ries and Trout, both former advertising men from the USA, published the first articles on brand positioning in industrial marketing in 1969 and Advertising Age in 1972. By the early 1970s, brand positioning became a popular concept in the advertising world. In 1981, Ries and Trout published their now-classic book, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind. This "brand positioning thinking" became influential during the rapid growth of mass communication in the last century and has continued to develop among communication professionals.
Ries and Trout suggested that positioning is best summarized in a short line, which should signify the 'essence' of the brand.
The search for this short 'line' remains interesting; it is often the subject of many a heated discussion between executives, marketers and communication people.
Byron vs Ritson. Watch it!
Feud between professors Sharp and Ritson over the usefulness of brand positioning.
Professor Byron Sharp of the Ehrenberg Bass institute has studied how it is that brands grow. He argues that brand positioning plays little or no role in brand preference. According to Sharp and his associates, it does not really matter what the brand positioning is, as long as the brand is widely known and evokes a rich association network.
Mark Ritson, former adjunct professor of Marketing at Melbourne Business School, has a different view, and remains an advocate of the holy trinity of brand marketing:
Segmenting
Defining target groups
Positioning
The truth, as always, lies in the middle.
We think that brands need to become known to the various internal and external target groups; the better known the better. You can do this especially if you have large budgets for brand communication. Call it the Sharp vision. And further, we are convinced that if a brand evokes a richly filled associative network with all kinds of related meanings and positive feelings, the brand becomes more attractive. In short, the Ritson vision. You can do this even if you don't have big budgets. So make sure you are loved too. In our view, being loved is even more important than being distinctive.
Alexander Koene, founder of BR-ND People, already wrote an article about brand positioning in Adformatie (Molblog, in Dutch) in 2008. It was written quite some time ago, but is still worth reading.