Co-founder and CEO, ZOOM Marketing, Silicon Valley's first and longest-lasting positioning agency.
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Does your organization need branding, positioning or both? While there’s plenty of overlap, and the terms are often used interchangeably, I believe branding is more focused on emotion, visual identity and personality, while positioning is focused on category leadership and competitive differentiation.
Let’s take a closer look at the differences between branding and positioning, and how they work together.
Branding Vs. Positioning
The distinction between branding and positioning is rooted in their history. Branding dates back thousands of years to the practice of branding livestock to signify ownership. From there, branding evolved to logo and visual illustrations, with Coca-Cola, Colgate and Ford Motor Company among the early pioneers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Conversely, positioning emerged in 1969 through the insights of the original Mad Men, Jack Trout and Al Ries, as the idea of category creation and differentiation in the minds of customers.
With roots in visual art, branding revolves around the art of standing out through imagery and forging an emotional rapport with the audience. Apple’s unforgettable bitten apple connects with those who dare to “Think Different,” the Nike swoosh invites you to embrace the “Just Do It” ethos, and the Virgin brand playfully taps into your fun side.
With origins in category design, positioning is successful when the market embraces your terminology, definitions and, ultimately, leadership. Customers, prospects, press, review sites and even rivals validate a brand’s positioning. For example, the market has widely accepted the smartphone category led by Apple and the CRM category led by Salesforce. Frequently, the market also reaches a consensus on distinctions within a category, like how Apple is renowned for its exceptional design, or how Patagonia stands out as one of the most earth-friendly retailers.
While there are exceptions to every rule, here is my definitive list of the key differences between branding and positioning.
Branding
• It’s focused on visual identity and personality description.
• It’s intangible, like the magical feeling of childlike wonder you might experience at Walt Disney theme parks.
• It seeks to connect with the customer’s heart. For example, have you ever adorned your water bottle or laptop with brand stickers? Most likely those brands resonate with your heart.
• It answers the question “How do we look and feel?”
Positioning
• It’s focused on category definition and competitive differentiation.
• It’s tangible. Categories, their contents, competitor strengths and weaknesses, and often category leaders are defined and agreed upon by the market.
• It owns a place in the customer’s mind. For example, if you say “pretzels,” I think Snyder’s.
• It answers the question “What category do we lead and how do we stand out?”
Blending Branding And Positioning For Maximum Impact
Both positioning and branding have become more sophisticated, and the modern digital marketing mix includes a sharp understanding and execution of both. Marketers want to stand out with a story that appeals to the customer’s head and heart.
Here are several pointers to steer you toward a unified positioning and branding strategy:
Engage Your Leadership Team
Involve key players from sales, marketing, and the product and business units to shape your positioning and branding strategy. This collaborative approach fosters ownership and moves beyond a marketing-centric endeavor. From the outset, set the intention that the outcome will be a companywide initiative, ensuring that the positioning and brand promise permeate every customer interaction.
Start With Positioning
Positioning is the compass that provides you with clarity on your identity and differentiation. Initiating the process with positioning ensures that your visual and brand identity will bring home a unique narrative. As one of my agency’s clients aptly put it, “I would absolutely recommend doing the positioning before branding to make sure the visual brand supports the positioning.”
Embrace An Outside-In Perspective
Anchor your positioning and branding in the perspectives of customers and prospects, aiming to uncover the rational and emotional drivers that guide their decisions.
Consider these insights we learned from a client specializing in accounting software: Emotionally, accountants tend to perceive themselves as unique, distinctly logical and undervalued, and they often suspend their personal lives during month-end close. Rationally, accountants connect with the fact that our client’s founders are accountants and their product includes features that reduce busy work and speed month-end close by three days.
Weave A Unifying Theme
Aim to develop a theme you can use to drive your brand across every touchpoint.
For our accounting software client, we came up with “Created by Accountants for Accountants.” This theme is woven into every touchpoint, from an accountant-focused podcast and an HR drive to employ more accountants to a YouTube comedy series centered around accounting department tribulations.
Chart A Path To Deliver On Your Strategy
Once you’ve established your competitive differentiators, ask yourself how you can enhance them in your products, services and more. Envision the future, and morph it into a platform for thought leadership.
A client from a software giant likened his marketing strategy to ascending a ladder. Each precisely defined rung served as both a steppingstone to triumph and an additional testament to their leadership. Extending the ladder analogy, what does it look like when you’ve reached the top? What new features, products, services, pricing models or partnerships further bring home your differentiation?
Define the characteristics for success in your market and make a daring proclamation, much like our AI-powered analytics client recently did: “Dashboards are dead.” Assemble your vision of the future into a narrative that entices customers to share your tale. After all, a good story is one the market can’t stop talking about.
Likewise, once you can fathom how you resonate with customers emotionally, map out ways to captivate and engage them with your narrative. Because a memorable story is one that refuses to remain untold.
Key Takeaway
Positioning and branding collaborate in weaving your story. Positioning steers you toward the category you aspire to dominate and the tangible reasons for your leadership, while branding forges an emotional bond with your stakeholders. A truly exceptional brand story seamlessly blends both elements.
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