What is Brand Positioning + When Does Your Brand Need It?

It's a new year and companies have been approaching us to inquire about building their brand or how to handle a brand after a merger/acquisition. In other words they are are seeking strategic brand positioning. Read on to learn more brand positioning and decide whether or not it's time for you reposition your company, business line or product.

“The art of marketing is the art of brand building. If you are not a brand, you are a commodity.” -Philip Kotler

What is Brand Positioning?

As you know, you need to position your brand or your competitors will do so for you. And, no, launching a new website or creating a new logo isn’t positioning. Brand positioning is thoughtfully identifying and carving out your brand’s or product's niche within the market and within the minds and hearts of your customers.

When is Brand Position Most Critical?

Company leaders often ask us about when and how to position brands.

There are three times when positioning is most critical:

1) To introduce a new company, brand or product launch

2) After a merger or acquisition

3) To reenergize a brand that’s grown or needs to evolve to stay relevant

Repositioning Leads to $100 Million Acquisition

The C.E.K. & Partners team has handled all of the above brand positioning scenarios. One of the brands we strategically repositioned provided the company a platform for accelerating growth to become one of the fastest growing private companies in the U.S. Recently, they were purchased for just shy of $100 million dollars.

Strategic Imperatives for Brand Positioning

Regardless of whether you are launching a new brand or repositioning one, we remind the leadership teams of two strategic imperatives for brand positioning:

1. Positioning must be based on a differentiating insight

2. The point of differentiation must be connected to plausible evidence – e.g. it must be defendable, own-able and true

If you find yourself facing a scenario similar to either of these, we’d love to discuss it with you, along with the details of our approach to brand positioning. Contact us at carolyn@cekpartners.com.