Brand Positioning: a Complete Guide

WHO

WHO do you envision your company being 1 year from today? Write it out in one sentence and don’t think too hard about it. Here is an example: “Poppy’s Hot Air Balloon Co. is the leading Balloon Experience Company in Mississippi - recognized for exciting, romantic, and memorable air travel” Other ways to go about this is by writing a 1 sentence Mission, Vision and Promise.

DESIRED FUTURE STATE

We’ve already mentioned thinking into the future (1 year from today) so let’s lock in your desired future state. Go through these adjectives 1 by 1 and mark the first ones that stand out to you. Again, don’t think too hard about it, just mark. Then, start thinking more critically about WHO your company is, what it stands for, and how you want it to be perceived. Try to stay away from words that are too common - but consider what makes you different.

WHERE WILL MY BRAND LIVE

In bullet points, think of anything and everything where your Brand, or Brand Mark (logo) may live. By live, we mean appear. Don’t go too crazy here, but think of the unquestionable places your brand is living right now, or will be in the near future. Here is an example:

• Instagram
• Website
• Products (Box Packaging)
• Heavy Sweaters
• Billboards

EMPATHY MAP

This is the beginning of what some may consider most important: Building an Empathy Map helps us place ourselves in the hearts and minds of our consumers. When we place ourselves in the hearts and minds of our consumers, we can create an experience they love. There are many ways to gather this information. The best way (from our perspective) is by simply considering your current customer base. Another way is to look up demographical data - you can do this using tools like a simple Google search, SEM Rush, Answer the Public, or running a Survey on Survey Monkey.

When considering questions related to...

• Hobbies
• Food & Drink
• Apps
• Technology
• Branding
• Age
• Gender
• Ethnicity
• Location

... think about the products or brands your consumers are interacting with on a day-to-day.

INSPIRATION, COLOR & TYPE

When it comes to making decisions on our brands Visual Identity (color, typography, graphic design, etc) It’s important we are careful - as sometimes it’s easier to make decisions based on things we like, and not what our consumers like. The more we can stop, take a breath, and have enough discernment to make decisions for our consumers, the quicker we will arrive in a place of true industry authority.

How do we determine what our consumers like? Here is how we do it.

Step 1. Find inspiration and place it in a Google Slide Presentation or (in our case) Adobe InDesign. Here are some SICK resources… you’re welcome.

For Websites https://godly.website/https://www.awwwards.com/

For Branding https://dribbble.com/

For Typography https://legacy.thedesignersfoundry.com/

For Color https://www.pantone.com/https://coolors.co/

For Photography https://behance.com/

”but b.b.G!! What do I do with all of the above?” Take screenshots of a bunch of things you both like and dislike… anything that stands out to you, organize it in a folder, and then place it on your Google Slides presentation. If you’re on a mac, hold COMMAND + SHIFT + 4, click and drag.

Step 2. Ask your real clients their first impressions of each element you show them, and take notes. Earn an understanding of why your consumers might resonate with one image, or color over another. If you don’t want to use clients, use Survey Monkey! or post in a related Facebook Group.

Step 3. You have officially done solid research on what your consumers like and dislike, so that you can start working on creating a better experience for them. This has already given you a step above majority of your competition… which leads us here.

COMPETITOR RESEARCH

The best way to do honest competitor research is to simply Google your products and services (respective to your location, or lack there-of)

example: Search “Hot Air Balloons Mississippi” and the pay close attention to the first organic (and paid) companies that appear. Here is what we found:

https://natchezballoonfestival.com/
‍https://www.champagnesunrise.net/
‍https://deltabreezehotairballoon.com/balloon-rides

It’s important to note that even if a company isn’t a direct competitor, but is still found towards the top of your Google Search, you want to keep them noted in your research phase. This type of research allows us to “Position” ourselves in the market and consider ways in which we can provide a better experience for our users.

VALUE PROPOSITION

The purpose of your Value Proposition (or Positioning Statement) is to write 1 sentence describing what differentiates you from your competition. Focus on these two things: Specialization and the End-Result of your users.

In Blair Enns' The Win Without Pitching Manifesto he provides 12 proclamations to live by for business owners. One of these proclamations is titled “We Will Specialize”

Enns highlights that by becoming a specialist, a firm reduces competition and positions itself as a unique expert in its field. This approach increases trust and allows for more freedom in executing strategies, as clients rely on the firm's expertise to achieve desired outcomes.

Here is a comical (but honest) example of this.

”Poppy’s Hot Air Balloon Co. is the #1 choice for Romantic Balloon Air-Travel in Jackson, Mississippi”

Do you see what we did here? We specialized ourselves as being a leader in Romantic Hot Air Balloon Travel (vs any type of air travel) and niched ourselves down from the whole state of Mississippi, to a city.

Where many businesses believe that being less-specialized will help open up the market for more consumers; they actually end up hurting themselves as they are seen as a commodity and less as an expert. When we shift away from a commoditized business model, we can be more confident in our value, as we will know consumers are coming to us because we are the best at solving their specific problem.