The birds are chirping. The temperatures are warming. And the little chats about spring are in full force in our house …
“Mama, it won’t be long until it’s time to start mowing the grass again. But why are lawnmowers so loud? If I made a lawnmower, I’d make it so quiet that it didn’t disturb the neighbors.”
And there it was, in that sweet little voice, the power of the brand positioning process.
A lawnmower so quiet that it doesn’t disturb the neighbors.
Sure, it was from a four-year-old’s perspective, but it proves the power of a single focused idea. An idea so precise, so laser-sharp, it cuts through what everyone else in the category is saying. Horsepower. Cutting width. Engine size. Durability ratings.
It doesn’t try to be everything. It owns one thing.
That’s what great positioning does. It serves as a powerful, mental shortcut for your brain.
Digging into the brand positioning process.
The right idea gives people a reason to buy your brand and creates a space you can own in the mind of your target that nobody else can.
As experts in the brand positioning process, we find these ownable spaces every day. Sometimes they’re for companies like Scenic View Transportation, a medical transportation service provider that was in desperate need of a rebrand. The service they provided their customers was stellar, but their branding simply didn’t pay it off. We drilled down to the heart of their business and identified “reliability” as their ownable space in the category. From there, ReliaRide Medical Transportation was born, a name that immediately clarified what they did and the value they brought to their riders. A logo and revamped identity package quickly followed, visually reinforcing the deep care and trust they provide every step of the way.
We’ve also found unique spaces for places like the Massillon Museum, a vibrant little museum in the heart of a blue-collar town famously known for high school football. The problem was that these football-loving fans didn’t think a “museum” was for them. It was too formal. And too stuffy. So we worked through our brand positioning process and worked up a new little moniker, MassMu. A friendly, less formal way to invite the community in to learn about, and celebrate, the history of their town.
First things first.
Before the campaigns. Before the media plans. Before the clever headlines. You have to decide what your brand can own. No matter the product, industry or service sector, defining what a brand stands for is the very first step in the brand positioning process. Because once you’ve got that, the real fun begins … dramatizing it all along the customer’s journey.
Lights, camera, positioning!
Now that we’ve highlighted the importance of the brand positioning process, let’s get back to our little lawnmower example.
Nobody wants a neighbor’s loud mower interrupting their backyard dinner party. Or waking up the baby they finally got to sleep. By magnifying annoying problems like these in the creative, we can reveal our mower as the hero at the end. A mower so quiet a baby can nap right through it? Yep, that’s the one I’ve gotta buy.
Another way to dramatize the position? Personify the way the grass feels. Imagine grass that’s terrified and trembling every time it hears that roaring engine starting up in the garage. Contrast that with cool, calm, and Zen-like blades, ready for a cut from the quietest mower on the market. Does calm grass lead to healthier, greener grass? Maybe, maybe not. But it sure would be fun to find out.
Or we could take the opposite approach and show the downside of a quiet mower. A guy who no longer has an excuse to not talk to the chatty neighbor when he’s mowing. With our mower, she can talk his ear off, and he’s stuck hearing the whole, unabridged story.
The beauty of a strong position is that it gives you creative range without losing clarity.
When you’ve worked through the brand positioning process and know what your brand stands for, execution gets easier. Campaigns get sharper. Messaging gets stronger.
And at the end of the day, everything around it becomes noise.
Or in the case of our mighty little mower, lack thereof.
Need help making your brand cut through the clutter? Let us help define your brand’s positioning, then make sure the whole world hears it. Or better yet, the very people you’re targeting.