What Global Brand Positioning is and why it is Important for Your Business
Clarke Ricks School of Business,
Liberty University
BUSI 690: Policy and Strategy in Global Competition
Dr. Hicks
May 7, 2022
What Global Brand Positioning is and why it is Important for Your Business
When it comes to building a strong brand, a tagline or logo alone will not do the job. You
have to think about how you are going to be seen by customers and what will make you
different from other businesses offering similar services or products.
That’s why it is important to be strategic about positioning and make sure your brand
appeals to the right audience. But how exactly do you position a brand? Where do you start?
Let me try to break it down for you.
What is brand positioning?
Brand positioning is a process of getting your brand out there and establishing it as
something worth thinking about. It’s not a matter of what you do, but rather how you do it.
This may sound a little bit abstract, so let me put it into an example.
Take two hypothetical sunglasses brands: Company A and Company B. Both companies
provide protective eyewear and offer lenses with different prescription strengths. However, the
frames of brand A are made of steel, whereas the frames of brand B are made of titanium,
which is extremely lightweight and flexible.
Titanium frames will return to their original shape even after being bent — and it’s more
than just an interesting characteristic. This is the rationale explaining why brand B is the
manufacturer of the safest, most durable glasses on the market. And this is precisely what
separates them from the rest.
Why is brand positioning important?
Every business has a brand, but is it by default or by design? You can either work proactively
on your positioning or let others do it for you. Then, however, you have zero control over the
results. Brand positioning matters for a couple of reasons.
• It allows you to differentiate your brand. A company's brand is its identity. That is why
knowing what makes your business unique is crucial to capturing the attention of those
interested enough to take action. Brand positioning creates clarity around who you serve. It
also explains to your target audience why you are the best company for them and what sets
your products or services apart.
• It helps you justify your pricing strategy. The positioning of the brand can be used to
justify a pricing strategy. In other words, when the price of the products is high because of the
quality and exclusivity, and the brand positioning emphasizes these factors, the cost
automatically becomes reasonable in the eyes of the customers. This also applies to products
on the more affordable side.
• It makes your brand more creative. Although quite a few brands offer products and
services that are very similar to the same target market and audience, they differ and are
uniquely based on their brand positioning. That is why a good positioning can make or break
your brand. A creative, innovative strategy combined with strong execution will leave
customers coming back for more!
A few tips on how to position your brand in the market:
• Be unique. The importance of being unique cannot be overstated. You can't just try
following someone else’s road map because they're already established with their audience; if
people want something similar to Apple, they just go and buy Apple. So if a brand looks exactly
like its competitors, it will not stand out against its offerings.
• Be relevant. First and foremost, the brand must be appealing to customers. It doesn't
matter how credible or how unique the brand is; if it’s not relevant, it doesn't even get to the
consideration stage. Be sure those features that distinguish you from the competitors are
important to the customers. Identify what matters most to your clients and position your brand
around it.
• Be consistent. You can change your positioning but you must find a general direction for
your brand. People won't know what your brand stands for if you keep changing it. So make
sure that whatever you are doing is going to help build your brand over time. Think about what
you want it to represent five or even 10 years from now.
• Be credible. Some brands tend to overdo the truth, which doesn’t really help establish
trust between them and their audience. Make sure that everything you say about your
company is believable and will connect with customers on an emotional level, or else they
won't trust what it says. Everything has to fit with what is important to your client.
All in all, it’s not enough to just have a great product or service. You need an engaging
customer experience across all of your channels for that advantage you're trying so hard to
achieve to really shine through and be noticed by your customers. Positioning is more of a daily
commitment than a one-time event. But despite all the difficulty and commitment behind it,
the results are well worth the work.
Your brand is only as strong as the energy you put into it. Brand building and positioning
require synchronized efforts of several moving parts in order to create a perception in the
marketplace that drives your business forward.
Brand Positioning is perhaps the most critical and foundational component of a broader
brand-building process used by BRANDING FOR THE PEOPLE, a leading branding agency I
started for entrepreneurs.
What is Brand Positioning? And, why is it so important?
Let’s start with defining the term. Simply put, Brand Positioning is the place you want to
own in your target audience’s mind. It's exploring, identifying, and refining your distinctiveness
via a brand positioning strategy.
But why exactly is Brand Positioning so important? The results of honing your unique stance
in the marketplace may seem obvious, but without understanding the real significance, it's easy
to take Brand Positioning for granted. Doing so, you’ll join thousands of other entrepreneurs
who miss this critical component and make the mistake of going directly to choosing logo and
colors.
Here are seven distinct (and overlapping) reasons why Brand Positioning is so critical.
1. Brand Positioning creates market differentiation
Let’s face it: the world doesn’t need another widget. However, if your company, products,
or services provide a unique proposition, resolve an unmet need, or deliver a desired
experience, then Brand Positioning will help you stand out from the crowd by articulating how
you are different.
2. Brand Positioning breaks through the clutter of noise
A clear Brand Position enables you to efficiently and effectively communicate and reach
your target audience. Every day, we’re bombarded with marketing and sales messages at every
corner. Everyone is vying for your time and attention. In the midst of all this noise, your Brand
Positioning breaks through the clutter by speaking directly to the people you intend to attract.
Rather than shouting to an empty room or to a crowd who doesn't care about you, your brand
is seen and heard clearly (and not in the style of Charlie Brown’s teacher).
3. Brand Positioning makes it easier for people to buy from you
Consumers want easy decisions. They don't want to screen 30 alternatives in order to find
the right one for them. They want to know easily and quickly who to trust and what to buy.
Consciously and subconsciously, Brand Positioning triggers an emotional response from your
target audiences. If the right levers are pulled in the shortest amount of time, you increase the
likelihood for people to decide “yes.”
4. Brand Positioning enables you to compete on value (not price)
Whether your brand is consumed by the mass market or is a limited luxury item, Brand
Positioning gives you clarity on your specific value. Your value is what you offer customers, how
it satisfies their needs best, and how the alternatives offered by competitors are insufficient.
Without Brand Positioning, you have nothing to offer but ambiguity. No one values (or buys)
ambiguity.
5. Brand Positioning justifies pricing strategies
Sometimes, even when your value is known, your brand still needs price justification. Brand
Positioning is where you've identified and compared your brand to the competition and their
specific offering, which informs whether your price point is strategic and justified. Are you
higher? Lower? Is it clear why? Will consumers respond favorably?
6. Brand Positioning amplifies your storytelling, copy, and messaging
Without knowing your Brand Positioning, how can you write copy? How can you write
about yourself, if you don’t know where your brand sits on the spectrum? You can't. It's
impossible to communicate to an audience when you don't accurately understand your brand’s
uniqueness or its competition. You might as well try to sell ocean-front property in Arizona to a
fence post in Arkansas.
7. Brand Positioning makes your design more creative
Visual design must build off a clear story, which requires an understanding of positioning.
Would you pick blue or red without knowing what your competition uses? What if you didn't
know, for instance, that consumers’ taste for specific foods is? It really is no different than
writing copy, only the communication (and resulting perception) is through imagery.
All in all, Brand Positioning is the singular most important part of building a brand by
enabling you to identify where you fit in the sea of competition.
