Positioning and Branding - Brand Identity Guru

Where is your brand positioned in the marketplace? How is it perceived, both positively and negatively? Can you identify your brand's core strength's and equities? What are the barriers or threats standing in the way? A brand strategy company will provide you with an objective assessment of your brand.

They can deliver specific solutions that will allow you to reach your strategic business goals and objectives, and clearly differentiate your brand and identity in the marketplace. Contact a branding company and they'll explore how they can help you develop a "BrandMasterpiece" branding and positioning strategy.

Many clients have the mistaken idea that they can't brand their company because it is too expensive. In fact, a smaller business can build a very strong brand in their sales area by being uniform in their image and message through a proactive and consistent campaign.

Corporate image and branding are strongly connected. In order for the brand to work effectively, the correct colors, font and design must be used in your corporate identity. It is not enough to say I need my logo to be blue; it's knowing what shade of blue, out of the 1000's to choose from. Remember your corporate identity is designed to attract your target markets, as well as represent your company.

Why Positioning

When people ask a branding company what exactly is it that they do, they unhesitatingly answer, "positioning". While they also perform other marketing-oriented activities for their clients, their philosophy is that the entire marketing mix hinges upon good positioning. If the client's product hasn't been positioned properly, it will fail. Period.

The strategies, tactics, messages, and creative are all directly dependent upon the development of appropriate positioning. Unsound positioning will weaken each of these endeavors and yet it's probably the least understood and most neglected of marketing activities. Many brand positions are hurriedly crafted by committee to placate management with obvious results. A landmark article by HCI once pointed out that fully 70% of new product positions mimic that of an established brand in the therapeutic category. That's not typically a formula for success.

A branding company believes that good positioning is born of thorough market and product understanding. Only then can a diligent, proven process craft the positioning that will drive proper strategic, tactical, and creative work.

Positioning Design

Positioning is arguably the most important and yet the most difficult responsibility of the marketing professional. That may be why a branding company's most popular service is a positioning design process. This unique, process makes use of a rigorous developmental methodology that designs brand positioning, and is quantitatively proven to create a positive product perception and generate incremental new prescriptions.

Whether it's a new product requiring positioning developed from scratch or an under-performing product needing re-positioning, a branding company can enhance your product's performance.

A branding company utilizes a disciplined, proven process to engineer an optimal brand positioning and an actionable communications blueprint. The process is broken down into three distinct phases: Surveying, Design and Engineering, and Brand Blueprint.

Researching Phase

The Researching phase includes the development of the initial strategic assessment based on an evaluation of the currently available information regarding the product, audience, and marketplace. This phase also includes recommendations for additional market research and exploration. The Researching activities include, but are not limited to:

• Qualitative evaluation and situation analysis

• Product and market differentiation

• Customer segmentation, needs and problem analysis

Qualitative / quantitative research and analysis

Strategic Phase

A branding company should believe that strategy, message, and tactics all flow from a well-structured positioning. In the Strategic phase, positioning development, evaluation, and testing lead to the formulation of an effective strategic framework for the Brand. Only with a thorough understanding of that brand positioning, can key messages for offline as well as online delivery be crafted and evaluated. The Strategic phase activities include, but are not limited to:

• Positioning workshops and option development

• Strategy creation, mapping, and metrics

• Attribute articulation / messaging

Blueprint

The Blueprint is a unifying document that provides strict guidance on the tactical application of the strategy and positioning to the full cadre of outsource communications partners (i.e., professional and consumer promotional agencies, public relations, publication planning, e-promotion resources, etc.) A primary goal of the Blueprint is to ensure consistent, cohesive, and synergistic promotion for the Brand across all tactics and media. The Blueprint:

• Creates appropriate relationship between science & marketing

• Increases cohesiveness of internal and external teams

• Is a focusing tool for tactical partners

To measure how strong your brand image is click on this link: (http://brandidentityguru.com/bightml/brandmasterpiece.html) or copy and paste. Then click "Take the brand strength test". This is a short survey that measures the strength of any company's brand. It's a great tool to see where you are today.

Scott White is President of Brand Identity Guru (http://www.brandidentityguru.com), a leading brand consulting and market research firm located in Easton, Massachusetts, USA, near Boston.

Brand Identity Guru specializes in creating corporate and product brands that increase sales, market share, customer loyalty, and brand valuation. Over the course of his 15-year branding career, Scott White has worked in a wide variety of industries: high-tech, manufacturing, computer hardware and software, telecommunications, banking, restaurants, fashion, healthcare, Internet, retail, and service businesses, as well as numerous non-profit organizations.

Brand Identity Guru clients include: Sun Life Financial, Coca Cola, HP, Sun, Nordstrom, American Federal Mortgage, Simon (America's largest shopping mall manager) and many others, including numerous emerging growth companies.

Scott White is a very enthusiastic speaker and has the gift of being able to explain the principles of branding in a compelling and entertaining manner so that people at all levels can understand.

More Resources

Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting

More Branding Information:

Related Articles

Hurricanes and Corporate Branding
No businessman takes joy in making money on other people's misfortune such as a devastating hurricane during the 2005 Atlantic tropical hurricane season. However, a smart business or corporate image program which specializes in branding can actually make the most of it by putting their marketing efforts toward helping the local community that was devastated or destroyed by the damage.
Good Logos Make Great Sales Tools
Every day, the average person is exposed to millions of visual stimuli including hundreds of company logos.A logo is a unique visual image that represents a company or its products.
What is Private Franchising? It is Nothing Someone Made It Up
The Federal Trade Commission has an obligation to the general public, their stated consumer education mission and to the over regulated franchising industry and the small business operators running Biz Ops to separate the two business models by way of legal definition. Any failure to completely separate them will trigger additional problems down the road and cause the current on-going process of rule review to continue, without any formalization for decades.
Logo Design - Branding - Brand Identity Guru
Do you have any idea how important your company logo is? Well you should. It appears on everything from your corporate identity system, brochures to your website, reaching customers, prospects, vendors and the press.
The MOST Expensive Mistake You Can Make
Most people who own a small business have a huge passion and talent for the product or service they provide. Some people have a business degree.
Is It Legal? - Indecent Naming With Tradition
When Mitsubishi launched a new car with the name "Pajero" on the Spanish market, it became obvious very soon that the name chosen was not optimal because it immediately was the subject of jokes due to its homophony with a Spanish expression related to masturbation.The same happened to Ford's model "Pinto" (Portuguese for male genital) in Brazil where it was quickly renamed into "Corcel"(horse).
Does Your Message Pass the Test?
Develop an effective benefit message and you're well on your way to building your company's entire marketing program. After all, you need focus to create success.
Your Business Bio Length
Obviously your introduction bio should vary according to what group you are addressing. An introduction in front of the Securities and Exchange Commission would be different than the bio introduction used for a speaker about to give a high school commencement address, even though it is the same speaker presenting.
Brand Identity - Corporate Identity and Brand Value
Companies work hard building the strength of their brands - it is critical to the ongoing brand management process to have meaningful and actionable data-driven measures of these efforts.Building a brand, cultivating its strengths, pruning its weaknesses, and making it more valuable to its owners is the bottom line job of marketing.
Brand Components
Your brand is the culmination of everything about you and your business. It is how people come to know you.
Branding 101: Why Its Critical to Business Success and How to Do It Right
What's Your Brand?A brand is a product/company personality that helps distinguish it from the competition. It evolves out of the product essence.
What About Me? What You Need To Know About Me-Marketing
What about me? Are you asking yourself this question? If not you should be. Don't wait until you are in crisis mode when you are losing your job or your business before you think "what about me?"Here are a few points to consider.
John Deere and NASCAR; Excellent Use of Brand
We should all recognize the marketing efforts of John Deere especially as we have spoken before with regards to their TOYS. They have a complete line of nearly every tractor or agricultural attachment they make available in small, micro size.
Branding Mistakes - Brand Identity Guru
1. It "sells itself.
Creating Powerful Names for Products, Services, and Your Business
The name of your business is important--it's one of the first things potential customers know about it. And having unique names for each of your products and services can be a powerful selling tool.
Boston Brand Building - Brand Identity Guru
"Make no little plans, they have no magic to stir your blood..
How A Crazy Branding Stunt Can Bring Results For Years
As a beginner, you would be forgiven for thinking that marketing is simply advertising your product or service, how wrong you are.Marketing is the art of allowing people to know that your business exists.
What The Holidays Teach Us About Branding
When it comes to creating and building a brand name, most companies feel compelled to file trademarks and establish “guidelines” to protect their image. Yet some of the most well known brands in the world today are holidays – wide open to use and abuse in the public domain.
Living Your Brand on the Web - Part 1
OK, so you took the plunge and purchased your internet domain. Good for you! Now what? According to Google.
Internet Branding
Having been in the franchising business all my life and understanding how hard it is to build a brand, I have probably read every other popular book on the subject. Some are good and most are excellent, as each one helps give you ideas on setting the stage for your brand marketing objectives.