10 tips to write a brand positioning
Brand positioning is a pretty big topic in marketing. Sure, not everyone will develop a brand positioning in their career. But we all will be involved in some aspect of it: from how to write it, to how to execute it. Or at least you want to know what a good one looks like!
Here are 10 tips we think might help.
10 tips to write better brand positioning statements
Creating a good brand positioning statement requires solid ground work. Make sure you do your research. From qual to quant to stakeholder interviews, among others. The more, the merrier.
Stakeholders’ insight and point of view is vital. Their words can be your sword and your shield.
Make sure you cover the audience need, the description of the category you’re in, the product benefit, and the reasons to believe. These four elements need to be present, and in harmony. It needs to make sense, otherwise it’s just fluff!
Start with rough territories before writing the actual brand positioning statement. This will help you get a broad idea, and initial buy-in of where you’re going, before obsessing over which is the perfect word you need to look up on Thesaurus. 😉
Work out/feel out the right level of benefit. Avoid bullshit. Don’t go too far up the ladder (“we elevate the world”). And avoid making it boring. A boring benefit leads to boring comms. An interesting benefit can lead to interesting comms.
Your words contain worlds. Be precise.
Explore dimensions around your brand positioning statement to find the most motivating one. A lot of this will be writing, reading out lout, editing, re-writing, re-reading, and so on. Trial and error, baby.
Manifestos can bring it home emotionally. (This is different from your ad being your manifesto!)
Make sure your brand positioning statement ia directive. Can you use it to generate tactics? If not, it needs more love.
Can you get the brand to commit to an action to ensure words aren't just words? Remember, the point is that someone can take this and run with it for their own work!
A quick brand positioning exercise
Think of a knackered brand. One that really needs some love. One that is misaligned with culture, or a true audience need.
Practice writing a brand positioning for it. Develop a statement or two based on insights you find from different sources.
“Test” the validity of your concepts by coming up with a few new product concepts/services, and the next ad campaign.
Run it past a simple template: FOR… [audience need/sentiment], BRAND X IS THE… [unique descriptor] THAT… [powerful and distinct benefit] BECAUSE... [list of reasons to believe]
Have fun!
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