A Brand Positioning Statement defines how your brand shows up in the market. Many brands are negligent in failing to define and differentiate themselves. Importantly, I will provide you a logical approach to get more emotional. To start, match what consumers want with what your brand does best. Furthermore, we have cheat sheets for you to find the ideal functional benefits and the ideal emotional benefits. Conversely, if you don’t position your brand the way you want, your customers and competitors will do it for you. And, you might not like how they do it. If you came here looking for a brand positioning process you are in the right place. To illustrate, you will 20 different examples of brand positioning statements.
Can you describe your brand in seven seconds in a way that motivates consumers to engage and in a space that is own-able for your brand?
Essentially, we have brand positioning statement examples for a type of brand close to yours.
- Consumer packaged goods.
- Retail.
- Restaurants.
- Tourism.
- B2B.
- Cars.
- Beer and Alcohol.
- Healthcare an Pharma.
To illustrate, click on the brand positioning process diagram above.
Brand Positioning
To find your ideal brand positioning statement, you want to find the space that is most motivating to consumers. And, find the space that is most ownable for your brand. Our brand positioning statement process starts with a defined consumer target your brand will serve. Then, we focus on the emotional and functional benefits that differentiate your brand. Further, we use support points to help differentiate your brand from competitors.
Where your brand can win
Brand positioning is the conceptual space that a brand owns in the consumer’s mind. It’s what they think of you. Importantly, as you dig in on creating your own brand positioning statement, look for the space to play and then the ideal space can differentiate your brand to win in the market.
I introduce a Venn diagram, with three circles:
To illustrate, click on the brand positioning diagram above to zoom in.
It’s all about how to differentiate. To start, the first circle comprises everything your consumer wants or needs. Next, the second circle includes everything your brand does best. Finally, the third circle lists what your competitor does best.
Your brand’s winning zone (in green) is the space that matches up “what consumers want” with “what your brand does best.” Most importantly, you can own and defend this space from attack. Essentially, you can satisfy the consumer needs better than any other competitor can.
Your brand will not survive in the losing zone. (in red) This space matches the consumer needs with “what your competitor does best.” Consequently, you will fail to differentiate, and your competitor will beat you every time.
What happens when there is a tie?
As markets mature, competitors copy each other. It gets harder to be better with a definitive product win. Many brands play in this risky zone (in grey). As a rule, if you and your competitor meet the consumer’s needs in a relative tie, you can win the tie with emotions and innovation.
If you only focus on using product features to differentiate your brand, you will fail. As the market matures, competitors copy each other. And that winning green space gets very small. Instead, you can carve out a winning brand positioning space when you focus on the emotional benefits. In this article, I will show you our logical way to engage with our Emotional Cheat Sheet that has 40 emotional benefits to play with.
Avoid the dumb zone
Sadly, I always have to mention the dumb zone. (in blue) Here, two competitors “battle it out” in the space where consumers do not care. One competitor says, “We are faster,” and the other brand says, “We are just as fast.” However, no one bothered to ask the consumer if they care about speed. Both brands end up failing to differentiate and playing in the dumb zone.
Position statement example
There are 4 elements that make up a brand positioning statement. To start, define who you will serve. Then, lay out where you will play, and where you will win. To sum up, use support points for why consumers should believe you.
To illustrate, click on the brand positioning statement diagram above to push you to differentiate your brand.
1. Who is the consumer target?
First, define a slice of the population who is the most motivated by what your brand offers? However, don’t just think about who you want, but rather who wants your brand.
2. Where will you play?
Next, consider the competitive set that defines the space in the market your brand competes in. Brand positioning is always relative to who you compete against. For instance, a brand is never fast. It should be faster.
3. Where will you win
Most importantly, what is the main promise you will make to the consumer target? It should differentiate your brand to stand out as interesting, simple, unique, motivating, and own-able. Do not talk about what you do. (features) Instead, talk about what the consumer gets (functional benefits). And, talk about how the brand makes them feel. (emotional benefits)
4. Why should they believe us?
Finally, lay out the support points and features needed to back up the main promise. Moreover, these support points should close any potential doubts, questions, or concerns the consumer has after hearing the main promise.
Brand Positioning Map
Before you get started on the details of your positioning statement, you can sketch out where brands currently play. A brand positioning map allows you see the most cluttered space, and the open space. The brand positioning map provides some direction on where you could establish a unique positioning for your brand. But it doesn’t provide much detail. Importantly, our process will help narrow in on the specifics of your brand positioning statement.
Pick two dimensions that matter to consumers
Below, we can assess the market for sit-down chain restaurants in the US. First, we look at price; high verses low. Then, we might add in flavors; traditional American vs International. To illustrate, we see two gaps in the market; high-end International and upper-mid American. Moreover, we see a cluttered mess in the lower end American.
To illustrate, click on the brand positioning map diagram above that shows how differentiate a brand.
Consumer target
Focus on those who are the most motivated by what you do. There is this myth that a bigger consumer target will make the brand bigger, so scared marketers targets ‘everyone’. For instance, there seems to be an irrational fear of leaving someone out.
Moreover, a broad consumer target gives your brand a lower return on investment and eventually will drain your brand’s limited resources. Please focus. Below, you will find a consumer profile that sets up Gray’s Cookies as an example of brand positioning we use. We include consumer insights to give flavor to the target.
Building a Target Profile
To illustrate, click on the consumer profile above to zoom in.
Before you dig in on the brand positioning, you want to understand the needs of the consumer. We use 12 different functional needs and 12 different emotional needs. Knowing your consumer target, start thinking about what you think makes sense for them. These needs will come up later as we explore which consumer benefits to stand behind.
To illustrate, click on the consumer needs diagram above that can be used to differentiate your brand.
Identifying gaps in the marketplace
To identify where you have opportunity, you can use market research to help plot your competitors. Plot each brand based on the functional and emotional benefits, and you will begin to see space where there may be opportunity for you to win. Below, you can see how Gray’s Cookies and Oreo match up when it comes to functional and emotional benefits. The farther from the center, the stronger that brand plays on that element. Oreo wins on sensory appeal, experience, comfort, and feel good. To illustrate, you can see Gray’s has the opportunity to win on healthier, smarter, and stay in control.
To illustrate, click on the brand positioning spider map diagram above with options for how to differentiate a brand.
Use our consumer benefit ladder to find your differentiation
Turn your brand’s features into consumer benefits. Stop thinking about what your brand does. And, start thinking about what your consumer gets. As a result, your brand positioning statement comes alive.
The 4 steps to build a Consumer Benefits Ladder:
First, leverage all available consumer research to brief the team. Above all, define the consumer target profile with consumer insights, need states, and the consumer enemy.
Second, brainstorm all possible brand features that your brand offers, plus any brand assets. Importantly, focus on the features that give your brand a competitive advantage.
Next, move up to the functional benefits. Put yourself in the shoes of the consumer and for each feature on your list, ask “if I am the consumer, what do I get from that?” Keep asking with answers that differentiate and move into a richer zone.
Finally, move up to the emotional benefits by looking at each functional benefit and ask “so if I am the consumer, how does that make me feel?” Clearly, keep asking the question until you see a deeper emotional space that you can play in, that will help differentiate your brand.
To illustrate, click on the consumer benefits diagram above to show how to differentiate a brand
Beloved Brands playbook
Our Beloved Brands playbook goes in depth on everything you need to build a brand consumers will love. Learn to about strategic thinking, brand positioning, writing brand plans, advertising decisions, media planning, marketing analytics, and financials.
Our readers tell us they keep our Beloved Brands playbook close by for whenever they need to take on a new project. Clearly, we are thrilled that 89% of Amazon reviewers have given Beloved Brands a 5-star rating. Also, we wrote a B2B Brands playbook and a Healthcare Brands playbook.
Avoid ph-at words in your brand positioning
Ph-at Words are vague words that mean so many things, they mean nothing at all. For example, ph-at words include nice, great, interesting, or quality.
When you define your brand positioning, the specific words you choose must matter to your consumers. Importantly, your brand positioning statement should leave zero room for interpretation.
This type of thinking is part of our Beloved Brands positioning process. To help, keep reading below, to see how we provide two consumer benefit cheat sheets with 60 functional benefits and 40 emotional benefits to help you write with much more specific words that differentiate your brand.
Video Lesson: Brand Positioning
Our brand positioning statement video shows how to use our functional benefit cheatsheet and our emotional benefit cheatsheets. Importantly, we go through the process for how to build the ideal brand positioning statement.
To view, use the ▶️ controls to play or volume buttons.
How to write a positioning statement
Functional consumer benefits
To help brand leaders kickstart their brand positioning work, I have created 12 functional zones that expands to over 50 potential functional benefits. For instance, as you look through the list, gravitate to the functional benefits you think will fit the needs of your consumers and differentiates your brand by looking for words where your brand does it better than competitors. While you might start with our words, try to layer in your own creative language with the specific category or consumer language.
Use our functional benefit cheatsheet to determine where you can win
To illustrate, click on the functional consumer benefits diagram to find ways to differentiate a brand.
Emotional consumer benefits
Below is a list of 40 potential emotional benefits help build an emotional brand positioning statement that differentiates your brand. Importantly, you want to own one emotional space in the consumer’s heart as much as you own the rational space in the consumer’s mind.
Use our emotional benefit cheatsheet to determine where you can win
To illustrate, click on the emotional consumer benefits diagram above to find ways to differentiate a brand.
Namely, the emotional benefit zones include optimism, freedom, being noticed, being liked, self-assured, comfort, be myself, be in control, and knowledge. To own a space in the consumer’s heart, brands should own and dominate one of these zones, always thinking relative to what zone your competitor may own. Therefore, you should not choose a list of emotions from all over the map, or you will confuse your consumer. Use the supporting words to add flavor to your emotional brand positioning statement.
Gray's Cookies benefit clusters
To start, look at the two cheat sheets and narrow them down to potential clusters of the functional and emotional benefits. Ideally, match what consumers want and what your brand does best. Then, take three of the zones from each cheat sheet and add 2-3 support words per zone to create a cluster. For example, below are key benefit words we will use to set up Gray’s Cookies as one of our examples of brand positioning statements.
To illustrate, click on diagram diagram above to see how consumer benefits differentiate a brand.
Consumer benefit cluster
Once you focus on the main benefits, you will see a cluster of benefits come to life for your brand. I call this the brand thesaurus. Use these choices to build out a brand positioning statement. Also, you can hand this cluster to your execution team and tell them to stick to these words as they build out their day-to-day communication. To illustrate, below is a completed example of the benefit ladder for Gray’s Cookies.
To illustrate, click on the consumer benefit cluster to differentiate a brand.
Turn benefit clusters into benefit statements to differentiate your brand
Next, for each cluster, use the words to inspire a brainstorm of specific benefit statements that fit your brand, using the specific brand, consumer, or category words. For example, we’ll use Gray’s Cookies, which is a fictional cookie brand that combines great taste and low calories. Concerning functional benefits, I have chosen to build around functional clusters, such as healthy, sensory, and experiences, and emotional clusters such as control, knowledge, and optimism.
To illustrate, click on the consumer benefits brainstorm above to zoom in.
How to find the winning space that differentiates your brand in the market
To illustrate, I have created a 2×2 grid to help sort through the potential benefits to find the winners, according to which are most motivating to consumers and most ownable for your brand.
To illustrate, click on the brand positioning testing above to zoom in.
You will see the same four zones from the Venn diagram are now on the consumer benefits sort grid, including the winning, losing, risky, and dumb zone.
First, you can see the “guilt-free” consumer benefit is highly motivating and highly ownable for the brand, landing in the winning zone. This space is the best to differentiate your brand from others in the market.
On the other hand, the consumer benefit of “new favorite cookie” is highly motivating but already owned by the major power players, so it falls into the losing zone. Then, the “feel more confident” benefit falls into the risky zone. Finally, the benefit of “more comfort in choices” is neither motivating nor ownable, so it falls into the dumb zone.
Reasons to believe in marketing
I took one logic class at University and the only thing I learned was ‘premise-premise conclusion’. Easy class, but the lesson has stuck with me:
- First, all fish live in water (premise)
- Next, tuna are fish (premise)
- Therefore, tuna live in the water (conclusion)
In a brand positioning statement, the main consumer benefit is the conclusion, with a need for two support points as the premises. Therefore, the reason to believe (RTB) should never be the conclusion. If pure logic teaches us that two premises are enough to draw any conclusion, then you only need two RTBs.
Brands that build concepts with a laundry list of RTBs are not doing their job in making focused decisions on what support points are needed. With consumers seeing 5,000 advertising messages per day, having a long list of support points, risks having a cluttered mess in their brand communications. Claims can be an effective tool in helping to support your reason to believe and to help differentiate a brand.
There are 4 types of claims you can use on your brand:
Process Support
- First, look at how your product works differently.
- Then, showcase what you do differently within the production process.
- Finally, what added service/details do you provide in the value chain.
Product Claims
- First, what is the usage of an ingredient that makes you better?
- Then, look at the process or ingredient that makes you safer.
Third-person endorsement
- To clarify, who are the experts in the field who can speak on your behalf.
- To sum up, look to past users/clients with the proof support of their stories.
Behavioral Results
- To help, look at clinical test results.
- Most importantly, assess the in-market usage study.
- Finally, look at before and after studies.
To illustrate, click on the support point claims above to zoom in.
As you narrow in on the main benefit, look at it from the consumer’s vantage and see if there gaps you need to fill in with support statements. Use four types of claims, whether linked to what you do differently in the process, how your product works better, third-person endorsements, or behavioral results.
For process support, you can explain how your product works differently, showcase what you do differently within the production process, or talk about any added service you provide in the value chain.
To use product claims, highlight the usage of an ingredient that makes your brand better, different, safer, or cheaper.
Use third-person endorsements when you have access to experts in the field who can speak on your brand’s behalf or a strong collection of past users/clients who can demonstrate proof of performance based on stories or reviews. And, explore recognized awards, such as J.D. Power or whatever is recognized in your industry. Definitely, reach for behavioral results when you have a clinical test, in-market usage study, or before and after studies.
Example of a brand positioning statement
Consumer packaged goods brand
In conclusion, here is our Gray’s Cookies case study which serves as one of our examples of brand positioning statements. The guilt-free uses emotions to help differentiate the brand from other cookies.
To illustrate, click on the brand positioning statement example above to zoom in.
Brand Key Model
A Brand Key model is a tool from consumer marketing that allows marketers to lay out the unique selling proposition (USP) elements of their brand on one page. Essentially, this article will go through the Brand Key model explained with nine elements that build the USP. And, with each element, we will show you the work you need to do. Moreover, we will leave you with plenty of Brand Key examples so that you can see how it will work on a brand like yours.
Using the brand key model for a consumer brand
Below is the Brand Key example for Gray’s Cookies. They are shifting from a product-led to an idea led brand, trying to own “The best tasting yet guilt free pleasure so you can stay in control of your weight.”
To illustrate, click on the Brand Key Example for a consumer packaged goods brand.
Brand positioning for B2B brands
As you did with Gray’s Cookies, start by looking at the two cheat sheets and narrow down to potential clusters of the B2B functional and B2B emotional benefits. Most importantly, match what customers want and what your brand does best. I recommend that you take three of the zones from each of the two cheat sheets that will best differentiate your brand, and then add 2-3 support words per zone to create a cluster. Below, you will see the benefit clusters that set up our Gray’s Stage Lighting brand. In short, Gray’s Stage Lighting is an example of B2B brand positioning.
Customer benefit clusters for B2B
To illustrate, click on diagram diagram above to see B2B customer benefits.
Taking the clusters and brainstorming brand positioning benefit statements
To illustrate, click on the B2B brand positioning statement example above to zoom in.
B2B Brand Positioning example
Most importantly, we use Gray’s Lighting as a B2B case study that serves as of our example of brand positioning statements. If you are a B2B marketer, we have created a unique page to help explain what you need to be successful: B2B Marketing
To illustrate, click on the B2B brand positioning statement example to show how to differentiate a brand.
Using the brand key model for a B2B brand
Below is the Brand Key example for Gray’s Industrial Products, which is a successful experience led brand who sells tools into the construction industry. The brand idea is “Same day deliver backed by the smartest advice in the tool business.” The delivery is relatively a table stakes benefit that must be said, but the real discriminator is the hiring of retired tradespeople who can provide advice as part of their service. As Gray’s now battles Amazon, which is mainly price/speed, they’ll have to catch up to Amazon on speed to neutralize that main benefit. But, they can continue to win by playing up their unique selling proposition of peer-to-peer advice.
To illustrate, click on the Brand Key Example for a B2B brand.
Video: B2B Brand Positioning
To illustrate, our B2B brand positioning statement video shows how to use our functional benefit cheatsheet and our emotional benefit cheatsheet. In summary, this helps build the ideal brand positioning statement.
To view, use the ▶️ controls to play or volume buttons.
Brand Strategy
Does your brand have unrealized potential?
Here are five questions you need to be able to answer about your brand:
- First, can you describe your brand in seven seconds in a way that motivates consumers to engage and in a space that is own-able for your brand?
- Second, are you making the right investments that will create a market impact for your brand, and lead to a performance result for your business?
- Next, does everyone on your team know their role and know how they contribute to building a successful brand?
- Does your marketing execution establish your desired brand positioning and move customers to purchase?
- Finally, are you investing in your people to ensure they make smarter decisions and produce exceptional work that drives business growth?
If you cannot answer these five questions, your team will be confused. Clearly, your brand investments will be scattered and won’t pay back. You will see inconsistent execution in the market. The consumer will not know how to define your brand. And, you won’t grow! It is time to make decisions.
Can you describe your brand in seven seconds in a way that motivates consumers and in a space that own-able for your brand?
Everyone should know what your brand stands for. Every employee, every partner, and every customer should all use the same words.
At Beloved Brands, we will help you define your brand to set you up to win in the marketplace. To start, we define your ideal consumer, and work with you to build a brand positioning that is balanced with functional and emotional benefits.
We summarize your brand by creating a brand idea that you can stand behind and steers everyone who works behind the scenes of the brand.
We leave you with the brand positioning elements of a brand book. Undoubtably, everyone who works on the brand must know how to describe your brand in 7 seconds, 60 seconds, or 30 minutes.
We help brands define themselves so they can drive new growth opportunities.
At Beloved Brands, our brand strategy process will help you define your brand and map out a strategic plan for the best possible future for your brand.
We will help you define your brand positioning statement and narrow down to a brand idea that is your seven second pitch. Then, we challenge you to select the right strategic investments for your brand, and build a strategic plan that everyone can follow.
Importantly, you need your marketing execution to build your brand reputation in the market and moves customers along their purchase journey.
Brand positioning for healthcare
For Gray’s QuitFix, the three functional benefit zones include works better, sensory appeal, and helps you be healthier.
Next, take the supporting words within each zone to build a cluster.
Using the “works better” zone, we include powerful, details, and performance. For the “sensory appeal” zone, include the words subconscious, taste, and touch/feel. When using the “helps you be healthier” zone, include the words reduces, prevents, weight, and mental health. Take each of the benefit clusters to inspire a brainstorm of various benefit statements. Start each functional benefits statement with “I get.”
- For instance, the “works better” benefit cluster can drive a functional benefit statement is, “I get a smoking aid that successfully delivers the performance for me to quit smoking.”
- And, for the “helps you be healthier” benefit cluster, a functional benefit statement is, “I get to control my mental health while quitting smoking.”
Then, explore the emotional zones
- Using the emotional benefit of “stay in control,” the emotional benefit statement would be, “I feel in control of my weight and health to help me successfully quit smoking.”
For Gray’s QuitFix, the winning consumer benefit statements are staying in control and the optimism to be successful in quitting.
Below, we can show how to differentiate a pharma brand based on helping to stay in control. If you are a Healthcare marketer, we have created a unique page to help explain what you need to be successful: Healthcare Marketing
To illustrate, click on the Healthcare brand positioning statement example above to zoom in.
Brand Positioning for a technology brand
This same process can work with technology or service brands. For example, with GrayTech, the main B2B benefit to differentiate with is to “make your business more valuable.”
To illustrate, click on the technology brand positioning statement example to show how to differentiate a tech brand
We have created a Brand Toolkit that includes every slide you need to run your brand. If you are looking to build out your brand positioning work, you can engage our Brand Positioning presentation template. If you are looking to find the right brand positioning on your brand, we do run consulting workshops with teams to help come up with the ideal solution.
Brand positioning template
Use our brand positioning presentation template to showcase your great thinking to your boss and team.
Brand positioning examples
Most importantly, we know that our brand positioning process works on any type of brand. To illustrate, click on any of the brand positioning examples to explore new ways to differentiate your brand. Above all, we have almost any type of business covered. To illustrate, click on any of the examples to zoom in for details.
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To illustrate, click on the brand positioning statement example above to zoom in.
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Brand Positioning Skills
Our marketing training program takes participants through every stage in defining the brand positioning. We teach your marketing team the four elements of brand positioning: who you serve, where you play, where you win, and why consumers should believe you. As a result, these four elements make up the consumer target, marketplace definition, consumer benefit, and support points.
Too many times, brands try to be everything to anyone they end up being nothing to everyone. Without a clearly defined brand positioning, the brand never establishes an ideal reputation with consumers. This allows competitors to define the brand. Essentially, the team who executes lacks direction, so the brand messaging appears random and confusing.
With our marketing training, we start by determining the ideal target market. Participants learn to add flavor to the target market definition with moments of accelerated needs, consumer insights, and the consumer’s enemy. Most importantly, the deeper understanding marketers can gain about the consumer, the easier know how to address their needs.
Engaging our consumer benefit cheat sheets
Next, we show how to turn product features into consumer benefits–a balance of functional and emotional benefits. Uniquely, we introduce our “Benefit cheat sheets” to allow participants to play around with 60 different functional and 40 emotional consumer benefits.
Brand positioning will be stronger if summarized it in a space that is highly motivating to consumers and highly ownable for the brand. In addition, claims and support points help finalize the final brand positioning statement.
Your marketing team will learn how to come up with a brand idea that can organize all stakeholders who work with the brand. Also, we provide tools to turn your brand’s unique value proposition into a brand concept. We also show how to build a brand story or credo to help steer the culture and operations behind the brand.
The brand positioning skills we build through our marketing training
- First, the best marketers define an ideal target market (consumers, users, shoppers) framed with accelerated need states, insights and enemies.
- Next, marketers must take a consumer-centric approach to turn product features into functional and emotional consumer benefits.
- Then, know how to find the winning brand positioning space that is own-able for the brand and motivating to your target, summarized with a positioning statement.
- Finally, be able to develop a brand idea that can steer how the brand shows up to every touchpoint, and organize everyone who works on the brand so they deliver.
To illustrate, click on any of the models below.
Learn about Brand Concepts
Only a fool would start writing a brand concept without doing the necessary homework. I will show you how to write a brand concept that uses the brand idea, consumer insights, functional and emotional consumer benefits, and support points. Our brand concept process can also work for product concepts. Furthermore, I will provide a few different brand concept examples. Think of your brand concept as you would a 30 second TV ad or a digital billboard. Most importantly, stay focused on your most essential messages. If you start with a blank piece of paper, you will end up with a random chance at success.
To illustrate, click on the brand concept process above to zoom in.
Brand positioning statement reading
To illustrate, this Hubspot article is a great starting point.
Furthermore, try engaging this Cornell article for more insights.
Finally, you might enjoy this Ethos article on brand positioning.
Marketing Excellence
We empower the ambitious to achieve the extraordinary.
Without a doubt, our role at Beloved Brands is to help the ambitious marketers who are trying to improve their marketing skills. Most importantly, we will prepare you so you can reach your full potential in your career. You will learn about strategic thinking, brand positioning, brand plans, marketing execution, and marketing analytics. As well, we provide a suite of marketing tools, templates that will make it easier to do your job, processes that you can follow, and provocative thoughts to trigger your thinking.
Have you gone through an assessment of the marketing skills of your team? Take a look below:
The fundamentals of marketing matter.
Our Beloved Brands marketing training programs cover different streams to suit the type of marketer you are. For instance, our marketing training covers consumer marketing, B2B marketing, and Healthcare marketing.
The marketing fundamentals that we show in this article are part of what we use in our marketing training programs. Ambitious marketers will learn about strategic thinking, brand positioning, brand plans, marketing execution, writing creative briefs, advertising decision-making, marketing analytics, and marketing finance.
Importantly, when you invest in our marketing training program, you will help your team gain the marketing skills they need to succeed. Without a doubt, you will see your people make smarter decisions and produce exceptional work that drives business growth.
Finally, I wrote our Beloved Brands playbook to help you build a brand that your consumers will love. If you are a B2B marketer, try our B2B Brands playbook. And, if you are a Healthcare Marketer, try our Healthcare Brands playbook.
We designed our brand templates to make it easier for you to do your job.
Moreover, we provide brand templates that help you run your brand. For instance, you can find templates for marketing plans, brand positioning, creative briefs, and business reviews. Altogether, we offer brand toolkits with all the presentation slides you need.
Beloved Brands video
Everything a Marketing must know about.
Importantly, Brand leaders need to know how to think, define, plan, execute and analyze with the best of them. Moreover, while the brand leaders don’t really know how to do anything, they are looked upon to make every decision. Have a look at our five minute video on everything a marketer must know. To read more, click on this link: Everything.
To view, use the ▶️ controls to play or volume buttons
If you are looking to make your marketing team smarter, we can help. To get started, email Graham Robertson at graham@beloved-brands.com
Brand Positioning FAQ
What are the major steps in brand positioning?
- First, define the consumer target. Use segmentation of different types of consumers, add in the consumer insights and the enemy.
- Second, list out all the product features. What do you do better or different than competitors.
- Third, turn those features into functional benefits and emotional benefits. In the voice of your customer, what do I get? And, how does that make me feel?
- Next, write benefit statements and test them with your target. Focus on the winning statements. Clearly, they should be motivating to your target. And, ownable for your brand.
- Then, add in two key support points or claims that back up your main benefit statement.
- Finally, put the brand positioning statement together with the target, category you play in, the winning benefit, and two reasons to believe.
Why is brand positioning important?
The main role of brand positioning is to align everyone who works on the brand, so that you can build a brand reputation that matches the brand positioning. While a reputation takes time, you want all of your communication, new product ideas, customer experience, and sales ideas to match up to the brand positioning. Importantly, explain how you will you use your resources to drive growth on your brand.
What are common brand positioning mistakes?
First, the most common mistake is having too many messages. It will confuse your target. They won’t know how to describe your brand, or know why they should buy your brand instead of a competitor. When they don’t know, they will only buy your brand when it is on sale.
Second, the other common mistake I see in brand positioning is too broad of a target. There is a lot of debate about the role of light buyers. My argument is that if they were light buyers before you told them your main message, they’ll likely stay light buyers after. Instead, having a base of loyal users can drive higher profits. That allows you to use their higher frequency to use the investment to keep building a larger base.
Third, marketers can be too logical and focus mainly on the functional benefits. Yet, there is a lot of research that shows the value of emotional benefits. Use our emotional cheat sheet to find those emotions that will make your brand stronger.
Finally, the mistake I see with brand positioning is not using it in the advertising. I see too many creative briefs with laundry lists of features and claims, and not enough with a focused main message.
What are the best examples of brand positioning?
We can see how brand positioning helps the best brands in the world. For example, Nike helps athletes go beyond their expectations. Or, Apple makes technology simple so people can do more and get more from their laptops, phones, or watches. And, Volvo is about safety. Clearly, T-Mobile is the un-carrier who goes against the norms of the communication industry. For example, Special K helps people stay in control of their weight.
Our best case studies
To view any of our marketing case studies, click on any of the logos below.
