Have we forgotten the power of positioning? Not here at TOTEM
Colin Byrne, creative managing director at TOTEM, explains his agency’s approach to positioning brands, and how this leads to better outcomes for clients.
With origins in the golden era of advertising and marketing, is positioning still the strategy to help you stand out and sell more?
The long-established goal of positioning has been to capture a space in the customer’s mind, associating your brand with a particular need or mood – to create a strong mental association with your brand.
Surely this is fundamental to strong branding. So much recent chatter, about new technologies and fast-evolving markets disrupting the fundamentals of marketing, tends to ignore a basic truth. Human beings haven’t changed very much at all.
People have needs, people are busy, you have a service or product to offer. You need to stand out and stand for something in their minds.
This is positioning
At TOTEM we often start with, and then go beyond, a Unique Value Proposition (UVP) approach. Traditionally, this focuses on why customers should choose a business over competitors. But here are other strategies for success. We can seek to set our own terms, to fight the battle we can win.
Customer-centric positioning is powerful
At TOTEM, our approach is focused on what customers need and value most, to develop a customer-centric positioning.
We can all see this in textbook examples like Airbnb and Starbucks. Airbnb’s strategy redefined the hospitality sector by focusing on personal local experiences — and a sense of belonging. Starbucks positioned itself as the ‘third place’ between home and office, a welcoming environment for work and relaxation.
The positioning doesn’t necessarily change the product or service. But it transforms how customers perceive it.
Simplicity and clarity (I’m lovin’ it)
Communicating positioning effectively requires simplicity and clarity. After all we can make immediate associations when encouraged to ‘Have a break’.
We believe trying to say too much is (still) the downfall of many, especially in B2B branding. We encourage our clients to learn from the biggest and best to focus on a core theme and messages.
“In our over-communicated society, the only way to be heard is to simplify, to say something that's short and simple.”
Al Ries
Honestly, was this ever as true as today?
Consistency counts (in large amounts)
Consistency is key to making positioning stick. Again, the world’s most successful brands create variations around a core positioning idea. An example? BMW's claim, ‘The ultimate driving machine’ connecting performance, engineering and luxury. Consistency (is it 50 years!) means BMW occupies a distinct place in the minds of their ideal customers.
Distinctively differentiated (yes, both)
Research tells us that being distinctive is crucial. At TOTEM we believe that businesses need to stand out from competitors by offering strong, memorable (distinctive) differentiation that aligns with their positioning. (And of course, a strong brand identity will help).
So, while a war rages in marketing about whether distinctiveness is more powerful than differentiation, and some argue that differentiation is ‘dated’. We believe it would be foolish not to cultivate both. In fact, the two are intrinsically linked. Each serves to enhance the other. Win-win.
The ‘sweet spot’
We believe in this strategy, not because of any ideological or philosophical notions. Simply, it’s one that yields results for our clients. Success requires doing the work to identify what customers truly care about and where that intersects the client’s business strengths.
And after much research and consultation, of course, it requires inspiration. And so it should. That’s what we’re here for.
