What is the role of brand identity in your positioning?

The starting point of the positioning can be found in the tension between internal and external factors; identity and perception. We contrast these factors in the positioning matrix. This piece focuses on identity; what distinguishes it from culture and why it is important to include identity in the positioning.

Many people do not recognize themselves in the identity of an organization (brand). If there is even a described or tangible brand identity. If that is the case, the question follows to what extent this identity is embraced organization-wide. For many organizations, their identity unfortunately consists of repeatedly mentioning buzzwords such as customer-oriented, reliable, result-driven, or progressive. Often without giving these terms any further substance. Open any corporate website and read the “about us” section. Mostly general and meaningless pieces of text. It does not surprise us that employees have no idea what this adds or what behavior belongs to it. A misunderstood concept in the form of a vague and too general statement often does more harm than good!

When presenting a good positioning, you encounter the “hey, that’s right, that’s us!” effect. Energy is released because finally there is something that makes employees feel like an essential part of the bigger picture. A beautiful story with each employee having their own leading role. The interesting thing is that the atmosphere in which the story takes place was always there. The time or knowledge was just never invested to translate that atmosphere, bundle all the stories, and organize the chapters.

A good positioning consists of different components. Whereas in most cases culture is used to answer the positioning question “who are we?”, we prefer to look at the identity of brands. Culture is often only the current situation; a statement you often hear is: we are who we are. We see identity as a movement because it carries not only culture but also the ambition of an organization (of its people).

A good positioning therefore not only tells who we are but also where we are heading. An identity is not only who you are but especially indicates what behavior you exhibit to get somewhere.

The external factors of the positioning matrix are discussed here, for an exploration of the tension between both you can read here the explanation of our Merkelijkheid matrix.