Brand positioning tips and strategy

Learn about brand positioning and building a strong brand identity by tips and strategy advice from professionals. If you were to brand your company, what would your brand look like? Branding originally comes from the Swedish word "branr" which literally means brandmark. The suspicion is that the Vikings have brought the word to England and that from there it has become the modern word branding.

Branding professionals at CallTheONE can support or advise you in creating a recognizable and strong brand. Would you like to know more about branding? Call now and hire the best branding professionals via real-time video calling.

The best tips and advice about your positioning and your brand strategy

How to build a strong brand and position your company? It all has to do with the strategy you choose.

In essence, branding is about the recognisability of your company. It is your brand's 'task' to achieve this. The goal is to 'brand' everything you express so that everyone who sees or hears something about your company knows that it comes from you. Fortunately, we now have more resources for this than a simple branding iron. We call the manifestation of the combination of these resources the branding.

What do you pay attention to when you build your brand?

In order to interest your target group in your brand, you need more than a nice newspaper ad these days. Not only are there more channels to present your brand, there is also more competition. That demands you to distinguish yourself and choose the right channels for your target group.

The importance of brand likability

Because of the number of choices the customer has, likability has become one of the most important aspects of a brand. People want to find a brand sympathetic for more than just a good or low price. Elements that can be used to win the customer's favor are:

A clear mission with real content that matters

Because of the overload of advertising we are all tired of words like "the best", "the cheapest" and "the tastiest". We don't believe it anymore. Customers want to know the value of the company within society. They want to be able to connect to the brand through a real and sincere story.

The story of Ben & Jerry's

A good story with a clear mission is Ben & Jerry's. At first, you would think there can be no story behind this ice cream producer. Ice cream is ice cream and what else do you have to tell about it?

If you search for Ben & Jerry's you will see that everywhere they communicate the statement: "Peace, Love & Ice Cream". Not only do they say that they carry it out. Their ingredients are fair trade certified and their whole corporate culture is about peace, love, and ice cream.

An appealing tone of voice for your brand

Every target group wants to recognize themselves in a message in order to be able to identify with it. What you say is important, but how you convey it is even more important. This has to do with language, layout, and the medium in which you communicate something.

An ad for a Rolex with fancy language on a heavy metal band site will make little impact.

Ambassadors for your brand

It's always more effective to have others tell you something about your brand than you do yourself. Influencers are great for that, but even better is the press or authority in a certain area. Ambassadors can give you the confidence in your brand you need to get followers and customers.

A brand becomes recognizable by the consistency in the use of the following components

• Company name and logo design (possibly in several similar variations)
• Use of color (possibly in several colors or shades)
• Plane distribution (possibly in several variations)
• Word and text use (possibly in combination with a pay-off)
• Font(s)
• Film and photography (possibly a series of films or photos)
• Sound (in the form of one or more jingles, soundtracks or complete songs)
• Medium/Message carrier (including the location where the target group can get in touch with your message)
• Product range and pricing policy

When building a brand, brand specialists want maximum cohesion between all components and that the components also have cohesion over time. This does not mean that there should be no evolution. The important thing is that cohesion is monitored.

Branding | Positioning your company and product range with the right strategy

By using the coherence of all components consistently over time, a (strong) brand is created. The more often the target group comes into contact with one or more components, the more recognizable and stronger your brand becomes for the target group. But coherence alone is not enough. As a brand manager, you don't want to miss an opportunity to give the target group an indirect message, namely: What is your position in the market?

Your position in the market is about the perception that the target group has of your company and offer. There isn't one of them, you create components based on your corporate identity.

Your positioning involves the following choices:

• Cheap but exclusive
• Cheap and mass production
• Duration and exclusive
• Expensive but mass production

Note: The positioning of your offer may in some cases differ slightly from the positioning of your company, but in most cases, it is not wise to have many deviations in this. Imagine that the relatively expensive and exclusive Ferrari comes to market as a cheap mass production family car. This would detract from the positioning of the company and from the positioning of the entire range.

Branding | Image of your company and product range

For many people, your image is the most elusive aspect of branding. That's because building an image is taste, target group, and time-dependent. If you advertised in the fifties with a woman who holds your product, but in a skirt that comes down to something above your knees, you would create the image of a pornographic rebel.

Your image is determined by the way in which you use all the branding components.

The goal of an image is primarily to strengthen your positioning but within a specific target group. The art of building an image is to create connection and sympathy with the target group in which you think you can create the most sales. Before a corporate identity can be created, it is, therefore, necessary to first have a very clear idea of who your target group is and how you want to position your company and offer.

The danger of creating a house style without a specific target group and positioning is that the only reference whether a brand style is 'good' or 'not good', is determined by the taste (and sometimes limited insights) of the entrepreneur.

Examples of brand definitions are:

• The sustainable automotive rebel
• The cozy baker
• The skilled IT specialist
• The quirky clothing store
• The messy supermarket

Why ask a branding consultant at TheONE?

Branding is a profession. There are different methodologies and insights on how to build a strong brand in the right way. Most of them start with thorough market research. Branding consultants at CallTheONE have learned from the mistakes and successes of thousands of brands that preceded you. At the touch of a button, you can have direct contact with a branding expert of your choice via live video calling.