Crucial steps for brand positioning

Brand positioning is a creative process that must be distinguished from the more analytical process of crafting a brand strategy. The process of effectively creating a branding positioning comes with a mixture of experience and analytical skills that strategic managers must possess from time to time. The two processes (positioning and strategy) could also be complementary with the requirement of strategic alignment and synergy being pivotal to the success of the organisation.

As the name suggests, brand positioning entails taking the position as a brand. This is where the strategists in the organisation decide on the brand identity or how they would like to be seen by the external stakeholders as well as customers. The decision on what positioning to adopt needs to be a result of thorough research after all alternatives have been explored and the best/most practical positioning selected. Creative strategic managers do not allow others to tell them what their brand positions should be. They stay ahead of the process and objectively and firmly decide on what their positioning ought to be.

The difficulty with this is that in the era of the social media, the consumers want to tell the brands what they are instead of brands being the ones to communicate this. If the brand remains completely flexible and ready to adopt what the social media users are saying about it, it often ends up in failure as conflicting views generate confusion. On the other hand, ignoring the social media sentiments makes out the brand as arrogant, rigid and repulsive. This means that modern day brands must seek to engage with the social media where they can flexibly draw their opinions while directing conversations towards their predetermined brand positioning. This requires a practical, flexible, and highly creative approach.

Successful brand positioning must also be anchored in the real world. It ought to be practical in terms of its targeted aims. These must have a commercial aim to distinguish them from other social causes and non-profit organisations. The positioning should also be such that the consumers can identify with the organisation with ease. The brand should be unreal and too abstract. It should take cognisance of the usual realities that every consumer can acknowledge and probably want to be part of.

Another important element of good brand positioning is its ability to appeal to different categories of customers. This is what distinguishes brand strategy from brand positioning. The brand strategy focuses on execution of campaigns in which the organisation seeks to endear itself to a certain group of consumers. This means that the branding should be designed to be as specific as possible. On the other hand, the brand positioning needs to be one that can be adopted by different categories of customers. This would ensure that the brand positioning would not need to be changed each time an organisation intends to pursue market penetration strategies and go after an unusual group of consumers.

This means that while it is necessary for there to be alignment between the brand strategy and the brand positioning, the positioning must be done in a manner to accommodate a wide range of brand strategies as would be warranted in future.