What is the Global Difference between Branding and Positioning?
Clarke Ricks School of Business,
Liberty University
BUSI 690: Policy and Strategy in Global Competition
Dr. Hicks
May 7, 2022
What is the Global Difference between Branding and Positioning?
Branding vs. Positioning
When we think of branding, we often refer to how customers and third parties view your
brand. In essence, branding is your company’s reputation as it is viewed by others from an
external perspective.
Your brand is composed of your company name, your logo, the colors you use in your
marketing materials, and how customers perceive your company when they see your products,
services, or advertisements as they go about their day.
Positioning, on the other hand, is distinctly different. Your brand’s positioning describes
how customers view your company with respect to what you offer and what value you can
deliver. In short, your positioning strategy creates a position in the mind of your customers, one
that they recognize and associate with your brand.
Your brand is a reputation.
Branding is about sticking out, being recognizable, and placing your brand on something
(i.e., logo, colors).
Positioning is helping your customers categorize your brand as the solution to a specific
problem, want, or need.
Getting Started in Branding
It can take as few as 5 impressions for people to remember a brand. When you imagine
companies, you think of the most popular international brands today. You’ll easily recognize
their logo, and if you see their brand colors on an object, you instantly associate the brand.
To get started with your company’s branding initiatives, choose your target audience. We
recommend using buyer personas to first establish the tone and voice you want to take as an
organization.
Next, you’ll begin forming the visual identity of the brand. You likely have a company name
already, so create a slogan that captures your mission statement and personality. Choose colors
that represent the tone and mood of the brand. According to the LogoFactory, the top three
colors used by companies are blue (in 35% of brand logos), red (30%), and grayscale (23%).
We recommend using an agency for branding to easily pull extra resources such as focus
groups to help establish your brand identity. Use these resources to establish your log and
other visual components.
As soon as you have a sense of branding under your feet, incorporate it quickly across the
board. Your branding will constantly be evolving, but it’s important to establish a baseline in
order for it to ever work.
The Powerful Value of Positioning
There are a few different approaches to take in regards to your brand positioning. These
are the things people will associate most with your brand. Here are a few examples:
Great customer service
Ease of convenience
Price-based (budget and value versus high-end luxury)
Quality-based
There are tons of other approaches to define your brand positioning. Maybe people will
associate you with your marketing efforts, your social media strategy, etc. Maybe your brand
offers a product that simply doesn’t exist elsewhere on the market, like industry innovators like
Netflix or Tesla. Perhaps your brand is positioned as an advocate for the community. The
options are endless, but you’ll need to figure out what your brand is aiming for and stay
focused on it.
88% of consumers want to shop from brands that are authentic. 46% are willing to pay
more from brands they trust
If you properly position yourself in the marketplace, you’ll immediately see effects such as
increased sales and a growing customer base.
Branding and positioning are two important marketing terms. But while they are related to
each other, they have very distinct meanings important for business leaders to understand.
Even the smallest companies need to spend time considering how they would like to be
perceived by their desired market segments. The first step, of course, is determining which
markets to serve, who is already serving those markets and how these competitors may differ.
Then organizations need to consider how they wish to be perceived by certain market
segments, understand how they are currently perceived and take steps to close those gaps.
Positioning: Identifying Target Market Segments
Positioning involves claiming a position or reputation in a market--or several markets--for a
company, product or service. The first step in positioning is specifically identifying the markets
to be served; these can be local, regional, national or even international. Within geographic
areas, marketers might segment by other factors, such as age, gender, income, or areas of
personal or professional interest. The more clearly these target market segments can be
identified, the more specifically marketers can design programs to reach out to an influence
those who occupy each segment.
Positioning: Differentiating From the Competition
Positioning also involves identifying ways in which your company's offerings differ from
competitors' offerings. Based on the target market areas, companies will identify competitors in
those markets, learn as much about those competitors as possible (in terms of product
offerings, pricing, distribution channels and promotional efforts) and determine how the
company might claim a different position based on its own marketing attributes. Once a desired
position has been established, companies will work to establish and strengthen a brand identity
designed to claim that position within the marketplace.
Branding: A Product Identity
In very simple terms, a brand is a personality. While the personality of a product, service or
company is ultimately determined by the target market, companies will often identify how they
wish to be perceived and then take steps to influence consumer perceptions based on product,
price, distribution and promotional elements of the marketing mix. For instance, two different
ends of a branding spectrum might reflect a desire to be seen as the upscale provider of fine
wines or the low-cost distributor of reasonably priced casual beverages.
Branding: Claiming a Brand Position
Companies will claim a brand position based on their actions. Just like individuals' personalities
are determined based on how they are viewed over time by others, the same is true of
companies and products. Claiming a brand position requires ongoing efforts to convey a
consistent image to target audiences through all company activities, from the attributes of the
product itself to the company's service to the company's employees and through promotional
activities. It is consistency over time, reflected through actual performance that will help a
company effectively claim a brand position.
All product categories have a specific life span called the product life cycle. The product life
cycle can pertain to unnamed products as well as those associated with a specific brand name.
Many factors, such as competition and technology, affect brands and their product life cycle.
Nevertheless, brands or products typically go through five stages of growth: development,
introduction, growth, maturity and decline.
The Development Stage
Technically, the development stage is the "incubation stage" of a brand's product life cycle,
according to the article titled "The Product Life Cycle" at NetMBA.com. The development stage
is where the product concept is conceived, developed, branded and even tested before being
introduced to the market.
Significant capital typically goes into the development stage, including product and advertising
costs. It is certainly conceivable that a poor concept idea or the lack of capital could end the life
of a brand before it is introduced.
The Introduction Stage
A brand life cycle actually commences in the public's eye during the introduction stage. During
the introduction stage, companies heavily advertise their brands and products; and execute
trade show and in-store promotions for potential wholesale and retail customers, respectively.
Company advertising is mainly focused on building brand awareness. Companies usually price
their brands relatively high during the introduction stage to recoup some of their development
costs. Competition is low or non-existent during this stage. Thus, a successful brand concept will
usually elicit heavy sales and propel the brand toward the growth stage.
The Growth Stage
Brands enter the growth stage of the product life cycle when sales start growing exponentially.
Brand managers may increase distribution during the growth stage to further enhance sales,
according to netmba.com. A company may also improve the quality of their product brands,
adding various flavors or features. Because of the success of one or more companies, more
competitors will enter the market with their own brands. Consequently, some competitors may
try to lower prices to gain marketing share.
The Maturity Stage
Because of increased competition, a company's brands will eventually reach the maturity stage
of the product life cycle. During brand maturity, competition for market share may be fierce.
New competitors will often have trouble successfully entering the market as market potential is
limited.
A company will often need to differentiate the brand of products toward a specific segment. For
example, the company that first entered the market may focus on being the quality leader. The
company may keep prices relatively higher to maintain its premium image. The target market
may include older users with a higher household income.
The Decline Stage
The decline stage is where sales start to fall for a company's product brands. At this point, it is
still possible to extend the life of the product by finding new markets for the brand like
international markets; or even finding additional uses by repositioning the brand.
For example, a small detergent manufacturer may extend the life of the brand by selling to
emerging markets, such as India. The company could also potentially extend the life of the
brand by marketing the detergent in car washes, hotels, schools and even hospitals. Ultimately,
a brand may need to be sold or gradually discontinued if it is no longer profitable.
