Brand strategy: why positioning comes before promotion
Before logos, posts or campaigns, a business needs to know what it stands for and who it is for. What brand strategy is and what it produces.
By Tide & Co.
Many businesses begin with promotion. We need a logo. We need a feed. We need a video. Those things are expression, and positioning is what they express. Without it, you end up promoting a business whose reason to be chosen is unclear, even to the people running it.
What positioning is
Positioning is a short, honest answer to a plain question: why should this customer choose us over the alternatives? A useful format is a single sentence: for this kind of customer, we are this kind of business, and we are different because of this. It sounds simple. Writing one you can defend is hard, which is why many businesses skip it.
What brand strategy covers
- Audience: who you serve, what they need and what worries them.
- Differentiation: what you do that others in your market do not, or do not do in the same way.
- Positioning: the sentence above, and the category you want to be seen in.
- Messaging pillars: the small number of ideas every channel returns to.
- Personality and voice: how the business sounds and what it avoids saying.
- Visual identity direction: colour, type and imagery that carry the idea.
- Application: how all of it shows up on the website, in social content and on film.
Why it saves money
Every later decision gets quicker. Briefs for designers, photographers and writers become shorter, because the answers already exist. There are fewer rounds of revisions, because everyone is judging the work against the same idea. And the marketing looks like one business, which is what builds recognition over time.
Signs you need it
- Your “about us” page could belong to any of your competitors.
- Staff, customers and partners describe the business differently.
- Each channel feels like a different business.
- You win work mainly by lowering the price.
What you should have at the end
- A short positioning statement you can say out loud.
- Three to five messaging pillars, each with the proof that supports it.
- Voice guidance that someone new could follow.
- A visual direction, and a clear view of how it applies across the website, social media and film.
It should be a working document that anyone who touches your marketing can use, not a presentation that gets filed away. The brand strategy example on our homepage shows the shape: a position, a differentiator, and the brand in use.
Read about our brand strategy service, or talk to us if positioning is the part of your marketing that feels unfinished.
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