Having just completed a Brandmap for a large shoe retailer and a Communications Proposal for an up and coming car manufacturer, it was interesting to see the similarities in their situations! The shoe retailer placed a lot of emphasis on price and range and the car manufacturer focuses on features like value for money, fuel economy and safety. Both businesses could see that a higher, more emotive level of positioning was advantageous but both were also concerned about giving up their current attributes. The truth is that most of those lower level positioning elements are mandatory – most consumers seek value, quality and safety etc. We can't neglect attention to those core elements or take them for granted but because many of the competition in the retail market or car industry or FMCG markets or banking realise that to, they are not often fruitful grounds for sustainable distinctive positioning.
So, in order to have a unique position we'd prefer to position a brand, not on mere features and benefits, but on consumer experience and company attitude facets. Regardless of the degrees of focus© we strive for in a brand, we must not forget, what I call, our Positioning Pillars – the foundations for the brand. And of course without a strong foundation we can't hope to support a higher, more emotional, more connected position for our brand. The point of this blog is to remind marketers that YES OF COURSE we should retain references to price, value, range and safety because they are Positioning Pillars but if we can deliver the message in a more emotive manner we'll get a stronger emotional connection to our consumer.
Branding and advertising doesn't have to be clever or esoteric to be successful but one of its fundamental jobs is to make the brand's Positioning Pillars relevant and distinctive from the competitors.
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