Choosing positioning: is there an ideal positioning for your brand?

“What is the best positioning for …?” That is probably the question we get asked the most. Choosing a positioning is very difficult for most brands. Whether it’s a beer brand or a law firm, they are often looking for the best positioning. A positioning that immediately makes their brand successful and orders flood in.

Unfortunately, that positioning does not exist. (Or fortunately in our case, because then we would have no reason to exist as positioning experts.)

Whether a positioning is successful is determined by a multitude of factors; organizational culture, ambition, objectives, product, market, competition. And those are just the first that come to mind, there are many more. The positioning should actually be able to seamlessly cover all factors. Why? Because people need that coherence to develop a preference for your brand.

Positioning is not a mask

Brands that change positioning as if it were putting on and taking off a mask are never successful. If a brand one moment talks about market leadership and quality but the next about the lowest price, it confuses the target audience. What exactly am I buying from this brand?

A synonym for mask is not without reason ‘fake face’. How much do you trust a conversation partner who is wearing a mask?

The opposite of a mask is ‘sincerity’ or ‘exposure’ and we are convinced these are good guidelines for brands. A positioning must be (genu)ine, align with the identity of and behind the brand, before it creates distinctiveness. A brand like Apple embodied ‘Think different’ during Steve Jobs’ time. Not because the company used that as a slogan in commercials but because the entire organization felt called and challenged to think differently. That led to unique products and marketing and ultimately one of the most successful companies in the world.

Feasibility of a positioning

A positioning is therefore only ‘feasible’ to a very limited extent. Many factors that determine the optimal positioning for a brand cannot be changed just like that. For example, ambition or dream has an important place in the right positioning for a brand, but things like company culture or market may be just as important.

Such factors determine the framework for the positioning: the lines within which you must draw. Your vision or goal then helps you choose a positioning that fits within that framework.

Brands therefore have less influence on their positioning than they often would like.

Influence of company culture on positioning

People are the most important factor for positioning for almost all brands. Especially in a B2B environment, people literally give your brand a face, with them the relationship is built. Your people are the most important brand representatives. The behavior of these people is mainly determined by the company culture; the norms, values, and mores of the company. Does a new positioning require a behavioral change? Then you must bring about a cultural change.

There are few change processes as complex as a cultural change and the chance of failure is therefore high. Although exact figures are lacking, no one in the market is surprised by a 70-80% chance of failure.

In practice, we always advise clients to choose a positioning that fits or is close to the current company culture.

Role of market and competition in choosing positioning

Positioning is of course about occupying a unique position in the mind of the customer. Who is fighting with you for that position? Exactly, the competition. Competition therefore largely determines which positioning is still distinctive in your market.

Let me give an example. The Netherlands has both Triodos (green) and ASN Bank (socially responsible), how much room is there for a third social bank? Perhaps it is better to build a positioning around a different theme.

We use the competition matrix to map the market in terms of positioning.

How to choose the right positioning

Elon Musk built his Tesla around a vision. A world where people choose electric driving. With that, he attracted investors, employees, and his first customers. He made it easy to choose Tesla if you believed in his world of tomorrow.

What would have happened if Mercedes-Benz and Ford were both already working hard on a good electric car?

Exactly, Tesla’s positioning would then be less distinctive and it would have been questionable whether the company would be successful.

Determining the right positioning for your brand is more than choosing the right mask. For example, go through the 10 steps from our positioning step-by-step plan to first arrive at the right framework before determining the positioning of your brand.

Want to know more about positioning and how you can get started yourself? Read our page positioning and find there, besides in-depth articles, also dozens of examples and models for every possible positioning challenge.