Positioning
See also: brand positioning
Positioning is the place a brand deliberately occupies in the mind of its audience relative to alternatives: who it is for, what it replaces, and why it is the better choice. It is the input a naming process works from.
In practice
Positioning answers a question the name then has to survive: if this is who we are for and what we replace, does this candidate help or fight it? Without that statement, name selection reduces to whoever in the room has the strongest opinion.
The idea has a traceable history. Al Ries and Jack Trout argued that positioning is done to the mind of the prospect, not to the product, and that it works with what is already there: in each category buyers hold a short ranked ladder of brands, and the top rung is hard to take. Their 1981 book is the usual reference, and marketing scholars dispute who devised the idea first.
In a naming project, positioning has to be a sentence the name can be held against: for whom, instead of what, and why better. The common failure is a position built on an attribute every competitor also claims, such as quality or simplicity. Every candidate then passes, and the name is chosen by taste again. A usable position is one a competitor could not sign.
Where this sits in the process
The studio treats this as part of a single run rather than a separate service: the category is read, the creative direction is chosen from what the research found, candidates are generated in volume and then cut against criteria that were written down first. See how the studio works for what that produces, or the naming module for the stages themselves.
Related concepts
- Differentiation: Sounding different and being different are separate problems.
- Brand strategy: What a brand strategy has to settle before naming begins, and what happens to creative work when it has not.
- Persona: A persona is a person, not a demographic bracket.
Further reading
- What is brand strategy? Why it starts with the name: Brand strategy is the decision about who a brand is for and how it differs. Why the name comes first, and how design, tonality and communication make it recognisable.
- Brand strategy for established companies, and the name: Why an established brand needs a strategy as much as a new one, how the name gets out of step with the business, and what to decide before keeping, extending or changing it.
Frequently asked questions
What is positioning in branding?
Positioning is the place a brand deliberately takes in the mind of its audience relative to the alternatives: who it is for, what it replaces and why it is the better choice. It is decided before the name, and the name then has to support it.
What is the difference between positioning and brand strategy?
Brand strategy is the full decision about audience, meaning and personality. Positioning is its sharpest part: the category you compete in and the reason a customer should pick you. A positioning fits into a sentence, a brand strategy needs a document.
What is a positioning statement?
A positioning statement is a short, written sentence that names the target audience, the category, the main benefit and the alternative being replaced. Its use in naming is as a test: a candidate either supports the sentence or works against it.
How does positioning affect a brand name?
Positioning decides what the name has to signal and what it can leave to other brand elements. A premium position in a crowded category asks for a different name than a low-price challenger, so naming without a position produces names that merely sound pleasant.
Sources
- [1]Positioning (marketing)— Wikipedia
- [2]Great Moments In Marketing: Ries, Trout & Positioning— Branding Strategy Insider
- [3]Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind (summary)— getAbstract