Know-How Exchange : Branding

Your brand is what you stand for, what you are known for. The qualities and attributes that people think of when they hear the name of the brand, or see the visual marks of the brand. It is these attributes that people speak of when they talk about "brand personality".


While a brand may have a position in the market (e.g. Timex vs. Rolex), positioning relates more to the individual products and services. Product positioning should be consistent with brand positioning. For example, Rolex should not offer an inexpensive watch to compete with Timex, as this would be inconsistent with the brand values.

When you are thinking about product positioning, you want to look at specific attributes of the product, generally from the perspective of the consumer/buyer -- what problems does it solve, what does it have more of or less of than other products. "Tastes Great, Less Filling" is a positioning statement for a light beer that mentions these kinds of dimensions explicitly.

Tip: when you see a 2 x 2 matrix, you are probably looking at a positioning chart.

There are actually several good pieces in Marketing Profs that reference this topic. (if you want to learn more)

Hi Eric,

AKJ’s view that “Positioning is a more historical tool” or perhaps irrelevant seems somewhat premature. I think of positioning more as a process (as opposed to a tool) for building strategy, often based on SWOT as ozdesign suggested. Words can get tired and Al Ries and Jack Trout aren’t the last authors of positioning strategies. Is positioning a key component of branding? Check out this link to an article I wrote on the subject.

https://www.schraff.com/adv/helpdesk/brand_is.php

Also, a quick web search produced the following debate --

“The debate started when Jennifer linked to my post, Managing the Total Customer Lifetime and Tom replied with the following:

...But I believe that the Ries' quote is meant to convey his dated idea (my opinion) of positioning. In Ries' opinion, the word Chevy doesn't mean successful to his hypothetical car buyer. And Ries doesn't believe it ever could, because it already occupies a well-established place in the buyer's mind...

I replied with:
...Do you really think positioning is dated? I think it is still a valid concept - owning a place in the persons mind, it makes sense...”
see link:
https://jstrande.typepad.com/blog/2004/02/is_positioning_.html

I hope this helps,

Steve