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Mission Versus Positioning Statements
Posted By: Bern.gorecki* on 7/17/2005 4:23 PM (CST) 250 Points
How do Mission Statements differ from Positioning Statements? What's the difference between an organization's corporate ideology and corporate identity? And where the does the word "brand" fit into all of this? There is a lot of literature on each component of the preceding but nothing that ties them them all together.

Posted by: ccoldren Member Response
7/17/2005 6:09 PM (CST)
Bern, a mission statement specifies the organization’s purpose or reason for being. It is the target at which all plans and programs should be aimed. It is a plan to be accomplished, and has a time frame of 3-5 years (typically).

It is different from a vision statement which describing the organizational picture at some future time (e.g., “to be the most trusted name in healthcare”). A vision sets the overall direction of the organization, and is what the organization strives to be, and is an ambition to be pursued.

Now, your position is the reality of how you are now perceived in the minds of your prospects or target market.

A positioning statement, on the other hand, is something YOU do to cause a change of perception in the prospect’s mind. Therefore a positioning statement describes how you wish to be perceived and what you intend to do to create and maintain it. (And to further clarify positioning, one positions a company by creating a strategy that allows the company to make the positioning claim the new reality (e.g., we are the best, the low-cost provider, the deliverer of the best service, etc.).

As for your question on brand and where it fits (along with corporate identity), I’d like to refer you to the answer we gave in our January newsletter -- it gives the full description you’re looking for.
(http://www.rethinkmarketing.com/newsltrs/2005/v05_is01.htm#QA ).
 
Posted by: Carl Crawford Member Response
7/17/2005 6:21 PM (CST)
http://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/qst_question.asp?qstid=5656

http://www.google.co.nz/search?hl=en&q=organization+%22corporate+ideology%2...

http://www.google.co.nz/search?hl=en&q=organization+%22corporate+ideology%2...
 
Posted by: mgoodman Accepted Answer
7/17/2005 9:23 PM (CST)
ccoldren nailed it. The only thing I'd change is the timeframe for the mission statement. If you do a really good job of crafting the mission statement, it can/should stay meaningful for 15 years or more.

In many cases, the mission statement is pretty close to the vision, though the vision should be a "forever" statement (even if it does change every generation).

The positioning statement, too, may have a pretty long life -- as much as 10-15 years, in some cases. The positioning statement is what you'd like the brand image to be.

A brand's image -- "the brand" -- is the sum total of all experiences your target audience has with your product, service, company, communication, or anything else that is associated with it. It's much more than the positioning statement, though you'd like to be sure they're consistent.

For example, if your product is always out of stock at a retail location, that becomes part of your brand image -- "The product that's never there." If it's priced too high: "The product that's way too expensive." If it's even more effective than you promise: "A pleasant surprise ... great value." Etc.

If all those things are pretty normal, then the positioning statement has a decent chance of becoming the brand image.

Hope this helps.
 
Posted by: ccoldren Member Response
7/17/2005 10:26 PM (CST)
In my experience particularly with mid-market companies, they HOPE it doesn't take 15 years to accomplish one mission!

Think of a mission as with the Apollo project -- "to land a man on the moon." That took less 10 years (it was Kennedy who proposed it), and it was a big, motivating mission. And when it was accomplished, NASA had to find another mission.

For a mid-market company that may need to hit certain targets, five years is a long time. For a Fortune 500, 7-8 years may be more in line. But 15? -- companies come and go too fast.

Impossible, lengthy missions lose momentum (those like that need to be broken down into more do-able chunks).

Remember a mission is to galvanize and invigorate people -- to rally them to a cause. It needs to be achievable.

A vision, on the other hand and as I mentioned, should be much more enduring and lofty.
 
Posted by: SageHill Member Response
7/18/2005 6:09 AM (CST)
You may find this website interesting to answer how many of these terms can be simplified and worked into an easy-to-use planning and development structure:
Web URL deleted by staff - see profile
Those who succeed in starting or building a business find the traditional business plan’s myriad details and terminolgy overwhelming, much too time consuming. They find their way through a more fluid, less structured format.
The Core Value Proposition: connects to 5 Value Drivers and sets up a simple, easy to use 4-step planning process.
 
Posted by: Bern.gorecki* Author Response
7/18/2005 9:22 AM (CST)
Exactly what I was looking for. I wanted to be able to explain the differences in a clear succinct manner.
THX

BG
 
Posted by: mgoodman Member Response
7/18/2005 9:41 AM (CST)
ccoldren:

Your point is well taken. I will back off the 15-year timeframe for the mission statement. I've been involved with several companies where the timeframe was, and is, 15 years, but for most, I would agree with 5-7 years.

Remember that much of my corporate and consulting experience has been with very large, Fortune 100 companies, where they take a long-term view of their markets ... DuPont, IBM, Louisiana-Pacific, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, etc. (Even some of those are shortening their horizons, of course.)

And with several smaller companies, we've often inherited vision statements that seem so long-range (and unattainable) that the mission statement is required to make things seem possible/realistic ... at 10, 12, or even 15 years.

If you're starting from scratch, though, I would agree with your indicated time-frame.
 


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