What's up brand builders! Stephen Houraghan here of BrandMasterAcademy.com and in this
video you're gonna learn what brand positioning is so you can clearly
articulate it to your client so they finally understand exactly why they need
more than just a logo.
now if you're a subscriber welcome back if you're new to
the channel and you want actionable brand strategy tips and techniques to
grow your business well then make sure you hit that subscribe button and the
notification bell and you will be well on your way now the term branding has
absolutely been through the wars over the last decade or so because there are
literally millions upon millions of entrepreneurs out there that think that
branding their business is all about going out and getting themselves a
pretty logo and then deeming themselves branded but if you know anything about
branding and brand strategy you know that branding is about far more than that
branding is about bringing a business and an audience closer together to make
that business seem more appealing to that audience and you need far more than
visuals to do that now don't get me wrong good design is an absolute
prerequisite and non-negotiable if you're building a brand and you want
that brand to be as visually appealing as possible to who that audience is but
when it comes down to influencing decisions your audience wants far more
than just those good looks so let's dig a little deeper into what brand
positioning is and where it's come from now back in 1980 there was a book
written that's widely considered to be the bible of positioning now that book
although it is really dated now at this point it's over 40 years old it's still
very very relevant and in fact it's possibly more relevant today than it was
back then and that book the authors are called
Al Ries and Jack Trout and the title of the book is called Positioning:
The Battle For Your Mind now if you do have an interest in brand strategy and
positioning and you haven't read the book well then I highly recommend that
you read it but there's been a lot learned in the last 20 years through
neuroscience about our understanding of how humans behave how we work
how our mind works and it really pulls into context how ahead of its time that book
was that was back in 1980 and really over the last twenty years we've learned
a lot through neuroscience that confirms a lot about what we know from that book
and probably the biggest takeaway is right there in the title Positioning: The
Battle For Your Mind because it highlights the fact that the position
that you want to own is actually in the mind of your audience so branding
therefore is not a game of logos and fonts and colors and typography it's a
game of influencing perceptions and those perceptions live in the mind of
your audience now Marty Neumeier once famously said that your brand is not
what you say it is it's what they say it is and essentially here he's saying the
same thing he's saying that your brand lives in the mind of your audience and
they perceive it how they will perceive it and you don't really have any control
over that now you do have some influence but you don't have control and that
influence comes in the form of yes your brand identity how that looks your logo
and your messaging and more importantly your biggest tool of influence your
positioning so what exactly is brand positioning well it's how one brand
distinguishes itself to its audience from its competitors
so essentially what brand positioning is it's how a brand defines why they're
different to their competitors and why their audience should care now this is
critically important to new brands because as any new brand coming into the
marketplace they're never really coming into a place where there are no
competitors there are already competitors in the marketplace offering
products and services to your targeted audience and what you need to do as a new
brand on the block is come in there and show your difference there is absolutely
no point in you coming into the marketplace and offering what your
competitors are already offering because they have one up on you they already
have brand awareness they already have a brand presence their audience already
knows who they are and they don't know who your brand is so if you are coming
into the market as a new brand you better have a well-defined
positioning strategy and a well-defined differentiator to
highlight why you're different and why your audience should care now one of the
most critical components of an effective positioning strategy is going back to
the title of the book Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind your mind or your
audience's mind is such a critical component for effective positioning you
need to understand who this audience is you need to understand where they're
coming from the journey they're on what they're going through what their desires
are what their fears are and what outcome do they want because if you
don't have all of that information then you're not going to be able to
effectively position your brand only when you understand what it is they want
only when you understand the journey they're on or what they're going through
on what they already have in the marketplace as an option through your
competitors can you then define an effective positioning strategy so how do
you identify an effective position well it's all about defining the difference
that you're going to make in the lives of your audience so what are you going
to mean to them are you gonna be faster stronger quicker more convenient more
efficient newer better designs cheaper more luxurious what is the difference
that you're going to own in their mind what do you want your audience to
remember you for because at the end of the day if you come into the market and
again you're offering the same you're the same level of luxury as the other
brands you're the same level of efficiency you're the same price you're
the same design you're the same everything then you're not going to make
any kind of noise in the marketplace you're not going to get the attention of
your audience so defining your positioning strategy is really about
identifying clarifying and articulating the difference that you're going to make
in the lives of your audience when you become crystal clear on exactly what
that difference is and exactly why your audience should remember you and more
importantly the value of that difference to your audience well then you are on to
an effective positioning strategy now one of my favorite examples of effective
brand positioning is from the Dollar Shave Club now the Dollar Shave Club
broke on to the scene back in around about 2010 2011 as a start-up in the
men's razorblade sector now Gillette absolutely dominated
this sector they own about 80% of the market share but Dollar Shave Club came
into the market with a fresh positioning strategy so they understood the pain
points of their audience they understood that their audience didn't like paying the
high prices for razors that Gillette was charging they didn't like all the
unnecessary features that they were offering to justify those prices and
they wanted something simpler and more convenient so Dollar Shave Club
understood that they researched their audience they understood their pain
points and they came into the marketplace as a cheaper and more
convenient option their blades were much more affordable they had this convenient
subscription model where the blades were dropped right to their customers door
and they spoke to their customers differently to Gillette they spoke to
them with a sense of humor with this light-hearted tone and language and that
really appealed to who the audience was now the reason I love this example and
the reason I use it time and again is that Dollar Shave Club were just a
startup just like any other startup and they went into the marketplace with
little other than an effective positioning strategy and a unique tone
of voice but they were able to go in there and ruffle the feathers of an
absolute giant of a brand in Gillette and then they went on to steal a huge
amount of market share from them as well and nobody would have expected that and
it gives any startup real confidence that they can go into any marketplace
with an effective positioning strategy and just by understanding who the
audience is and understanding their pain points and presenting them with an
alternative they can put themselves on the map now I could sit here and give
you over 100 reasons why branding is more than just a logo or a website and
positioning is just one of those reasons but it's my go-to and the one that I go
back to time and again because at the end of the day when we talk about
branding we have to look at the end goal what is the end goal of branding well
it's to bring an audience and a business closer together and the best way the
most effective way that we can do that is by shaping their perceptions of what
that brand means to them and the biggest tool of influence here is your positioning
strategy it's by defining what difference you're going to make in the
lives of your audience and then clearly articulating that difference and
making it easy for them to understand and remember your brand if you'd like to
learn more about positioning including how to position your brand effectively
the different approaches that you can use and plenty more examples as well
well then I've got plenty more videos on positioning I'll leave some links in the
description below and some links above as well but I would love to hand it over
to you I'd love to hear from you as to what your challenges are when it comes
to positioning do you have processes in place and what are your experiences when
it comes to positioning brands please let me know what those challenges and
those questions are I'll do my best to answer all of those if you like this
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have until next time brand like a master and I will see you in the next video!