Is Your Brand Well Positioned?: How To Stress Test (And Rethink) Your Brand Positioning

Is Your
Brand Well
Positioned?
How to stress test (and rethink)
your brand positioning
Rachel Thomas
January 2007
Is Your Brand Well Positioned?
How to stress test (and rethink) your brand positioning
Stress test your positioning.

Results of the State of the Brand Survey, conducted by MiresBall in collaboration with Luth
Research and the American Marketing Association, confirm what we face everyday as brand
marketers: a noisy, highly competitive environment.
The answer to the growing demands of today’s marketplace? Brand positioning.
A good brand positioning serves as a powerful tool for shaping both your brand and your business.
When used correctly, your brand positioning drives all aspects of your company’s communications.
Moreover, savvy companies use their brand positioning to make decisions related to product
development, customer interaction and business expansion.
Although it only takes a few moments to imagine the ramifications of operating with an off-base
or poorly developed positioning, many companies do. To ensure you are not falling into a classic
positioning trap, stress test yours against the following fundamental questions:
Is it simple?
By definition, a brand positioning is a single sentence that defines a brand relative to
the marketplace. If you haven’t culled your positioning down to one easy-to-grasp idea,
you will not be able to communicate it with the necessary clarity.
Is it differentiating?
If your positioning is not highly differentiating, especially in comparison to your competitive
set, it will not stand out in a crowded marketplace.
Is it credible?
If your positioning is not supported by your corporate culture and business activities, target
audiences will not perceive it as authentic.
Is it defensible?
If you don’t have the business operations and long-term commitment in place to sustain your
positioning, you cannot defend it against competitors.
Is it relevant?
If your positioning does not respond to the practical and emotional needs of your consumers,
they will reject it.
If your answers to these questions are not a resounding “yes,” you need to rethink your
brand positioning.
But how do you arrive at a positioning that quickly and succinctly communicates what makes
your brand unique? In the broadest terms, you should look inside your company to understand
what your brand is and outside your company—to your major competitors—to understand
what your brand is not. The most promising brand positioning pinpoints what makes your
brand most different from its competitors: It sums up your market position in a single
defensible sentence.
2
Define what your brand is.

Take a close look internally and articulate your company’s core competencies and business
strengths. Three critical questions should shape this exploration: What do we do? Why do we do it?
And how do we do it differently? All key departments, especially those that interact with the public,
deserve a voice in this process. It is not a marketing exercise; it is a brand exercise, and your brand
extends across all touchpoints with your company.
Next turn your attention to your brand’s relationship with customers. For this exercise to be
successful, you need to pinpoint the practical and emotional benefits you offer them. A positioning
based solely on practical benefits suffers in two important areas: It is more difficult to defend,
and it fails to make a coveted emotional connection with consumers.
Consider FedEx. The shipping giant’s primary practical benefit is on-time delivery, but the company
ultimately delivers peace of mind. FedEx understands this distinction and focuses on this emotional
benefit in its brand communications. For example, the company’s 2006 Super Bowl ad, which
depicted a caveman’s package meeting an undesirable fate, culminated with the memorable
exchange: “Did you use FedEx?” “No.” “Then you’re fired.” Talk about appealing to a customer’s
emotional drivers. (An interesting side note: With its broader emphasis on guaranteed convenience,
FedEx was also well positioned to acquire Kinko’s in 2004 and expand its offering to include small
business services.)
A word of caution: For this exercise to be effective, you need to practice the art of detachment.
Why customers choose your brand—particularly their emotional motivation—may not correspond
with why you would like them to choose your brand. Your brand lives in the minds of your potential
and existing customers. To understand why it’s unique, you need to understand how your brand
fits into their lives.
Define what your brand is not.

Unless you are a first-mover in an industry or have a particularly innovative business model, odds
are very few elements of your brand profile are unique. To get a clearer picture of what your brand
can claim as its own you obviously need to understand how your brand relates to its competitors.
But how inclusive should this exploration be?
When defining your competitive set, keep this in mind: It is easier to create differentiation
when you are positioning your brand against an obvious competitor. The brand wars between
Coke and Pepsi, McDonald’s and Burger King and Apple and Microsoft illustrate the strength of this
strategy: A simple, highly differentiated positioning helps consumers make brand choices, and often
both brands benefit from the obvious contrast. A note on this: Although you should focus on a key
competitor (or a key competitor in each major vertical market), make sure your competitive audit
is comprehensive. Today’s seemingly insignificant up-and-comer can easily grow into a brand that
challenges your market position.
3
Once you understand how your brand differs from its competitive set, the opportunities for
differentiation become more pronounced. For example, although Volvo manufactures high
performance, luxury vehicles, BMW is known for performance, and Lexus is known for luxury.
The result? Volvo did not position its brand around performance or luxury; it wisely chose safety.
Detachment is also important when you are auditing competitive brands. You undoubtedly have an
inside perspective on your competitor’s business, but it may not align with customer perceptions
of their brand. Similar to your own brand, your competitor’s brand lives in the marketplace. Despite
any realities such as high return rates or limited product features, if customers believe a competitor’s
brand is the premium brand in your industry, for all practical purpose it is the premium brand in
your industry.
A brand does not need to have the most credible claim to a positioning, just a credible claim. Often
a competitor simply benefits from being the first brand to carve out a particular market position.
Position to differentiate.
Once you understand how your brand stacks up against competitors’ brands, you can identify
your most promising positioning opportunities. Remember, your end goal is to choose a single
straightforward positioning that is 1) differentiating and 2) supported by your brand strengths. In
this context, “differentiating” does not mean somewhat different. Your brand must be noticeably
different—both simply communicated and highly unique—to attract the attention of today’s
overloaded consumers. Think in terms of black and white, not shades of grey.
If you see an opportunity for differentiation that is underdeveloped, by all means consider seizing it.
Your positioning can be aspirational so long as you have the business foundation and wherewithal to
support it over the long-term. For example, before Staples so adeptly positioned its brand around
“easy,” the company wasn’t telling an ease-of-use story. But Staples had the foundational elements
in place, such as a broad product offering and customer support programs, to successfully claim the
position. As an aside, Staples’ “easy” positioning also illustrates the power of making an emotional
connection with consumers and the positive impact positioning can have on business operations.
A quick search of the Staples’ website illustrates how the company has infused “easy” into every
corner of its business.
If you don’t see any viable opportunities for your brand, you have a few critical choices. You can
change the game by reengineering your business or redefining your category. Or you can partner
with an outside brand consultancy for a fresh, fully detached perspective on your brand.
Although both are major undertakings, the alternative is moving forward with an ineffective
positioning and facing potentially devastating results. Do not fall into the trap of underestimating
the importance of brand positioning. When wielded to its full potential, your brand positioning
shapes all elements of your brand communication, influences the way you conduct business and
serves as a litmus test for new business strategies. It literally positions your brand and your
business for success.
Rachel Thomas serves as Marketing Director and Brand Strategist for MiresBall.

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Is Your

Stress test your positioning.

The answer to the growing demands of today’s marketplace? Brand positioning.

Deﬁne what your brand is.

Deﬁne what your brand is not.

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