Clearing Up Confusion About Competition
Confused About Competition? In The Positioning Matrix™, I talk a lot about the critical tactic of ‘de-positioning’ which is meant to influence the way your target consumers (or for agencies and consultants, your target client prospects) make their ‘purchasing decision’ about whether to buy or use your brand, product or service. The essence of all […]
Brand Identity Is Not Brand Image Is Not Brand Positioning
There’s a difference between brand identify and brand image. And it makes all the difference in the world. We live in an era of mass information and with that comes mass confusion. The world of marketing is no stranger to the concepts of confusion, conflation of ideas, and even outright misdirection. But as the world […]
The Empowered Consumer Requires Better Positioning
The Empowered Consumer Challenge POSITIONING MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE The explosion of digital marketing over the past decade has created the most complex challenge of all for brand owners, marketers, consultants and agencies: the ‘Empowered Consumer’. The Empowered Consumer demands more, needs more, expects more than ever before. And when the Empowered Consumer makes a […]
Your Branding Is Killing Your Brand
Marketing evolves quickly, and takes a lot of turns as people, companies, consultants and agencies try this tactic and that, testing to see what works. Innovations are frequent and while some might survive the test of time, most won’t. That’s probably because not everything that impacts consumer decisions and purchasing behavior is under the brand’s […]
Competitors Are Not The Competition
Competitors Are Not The Competition MAKE SURE YOU’RE TARGETING THE RIGHT ONE WTF? No, it’s not just another example of semantics or conflation of language, it’s another example of misuse of terminology that got swept up into the lexicon of marketing language and is now – unfortunately – used interchangeably. And while you might think […]
Competitive De-Positioning
Competitive De-Positioning THE WIN FOR COMPETITIVE COMPARISON If brand positioning is the science and art of creating and deploying messages that create perceptions in the minds of your target markets, and if we accept that it’s the sum of all the perceptions your market has about your company or brand that creates and cements your […]
Branding vs Positioning – What’s the Difference?
Branding vs. Positioning – What’s The Difference? WHY MARKETERS NEED TO KNOW THIS! As a practitioner and teacher of brand positioning for more than 35 years, it was just a matter of time before the question “What’s the difference between branding and positioning?” was posed. I was asked this today by a longtime associate who […]
Re-Positioning: When It’s Time For A Change In Direction
Re-Positioning: When It’s Time To Change Direction RE-POSITIONING: DETOUR AHEAD! Re-positioning is the deployment of a major change in positioning for a brand, service, company or product. This can be quite a challenge, especially for well-established or strong brands, and for those who have made their current positioning too narrow. Remember, positioning is the […]
Controlling Consumer Buying Decisions – Part 1
Controlling Consumer Buying Decisions – Part 1 THE ESSENCE OF POSITIONING You want consumers to buy your brand, product or service, and not those of your competitors. Your competitors feel the same way about you. So who gets to catch the fish? While the decision-making process is complex, and comprises a lot of variables, […]