WHY YOUR POSITIONING IS WEAK AND HOW YOU CAN FIX IT.

And,  yes. . . . you can do something about it.

I’ll just say it. Your brand positioning is weak. Most likely, if you are a business-to-business advisory firm, consultant, coach, professional services firm, or even nonprofit trade organization —  really any organization that sells “the invisible,” your positioning is probably weak. When I look on websites, or LinkedIn pages and Instagram bios for that matter, some of you don’t say what it is you do. Many don’t clearly identify who they serve or how they help.

When you make visitors and potential clients search on your website to find out what it is you do or how you can help them, you’re running the risk of losing them altogether. Unless you are a marketing-savvy emerging tech company touting a unique new service, you are probably coming off as one of many in a sea of sameness. How does your brand set you apart? How does your organization position itself? How do you express it? And why does this matter?

Let’s clarify a few things first. Many companies, including some ad agencies and marketing firms, confuse the terms branding and positioning, often substituting one for the other. They are not interchangeable. While rebranding is often a crucial part of an effective repositioning, by itself, rebranding is generally thought of as a new look, refreshed logo and aesthetic, and maybe some new language.

Consumer and packaged goods get rebranded all the time, which usually means a cosmetic change and a different spin on product benefits, but corporate or organizational rebranding is a different animal. B2B marketing, particularly for service firms, is based on relationships, expertise, trust, differentiation, and service more than commercial sound bytes and packaging.

Your brand is about more than just aesthetic changes. It’s your reputation, how you do business, how you set yourself apart from competitors, and how you specialize or define your own unique processes. It has to do with how your phones are answered, how you participate in social media, how your staff works together and presents themselves, how you collaborate with clients and community, how your website and marketing materials look, and how you are perceived. Your brand is a reflection of everything you do and say, and the reason why you do what you do.

Creating a visual representation of all of that can seem daunting. And it is, particularly if your organization hasn’t done the crucial first steps of clearly defining and narrowing its brand positioning, identifying real and relevant differentiators, and crafting careful brand messaging.

What clear positioning can do for you.

Your positioning statement should be easy to find — front and center on your website home page, and maybe on the repeating footer. It needs to say what you do, who you serve and how you help, and what is unique about you. If a competitor can read your positioning statement and replace their name for yours and have it work, then you have not differentiated yourself enough. Most companies don’t take the time to truly differentiate, and if you don’t care, why should your clients? When you have  positioned yourself well, it can:

• Provide clarity, internally and externally.
• Define what sets you apart and makes you special.
• Improve company culture and morale.
• Add value to the brand (build brand equity) that is driven by focus, differentiation, and relevance.
• Maybe change your business model (for the better).
• Help you eliminate the “wrong” clients early in the process.
• Make it easier for the right clients to connect with you as the solution to their need.

Rebranding works when your positioning is strategic and differentiated, and your messaging is polished.

A note about differentiation.

It’s not enough to say “our quality is the best,” or “years of experience set us apart,” or “our service is top notch,” or “we meet or exceed customer expectations.” They are not only empty clichés that mean little, they are givens in business today. You need to dig deeper than that and fine-tune your offerings or process — maybe offer a unique service or guarantee — but often really good positioning requires narrowing to a specific audience, a finer focus on what you do for them, and fine-tuning of how you deliver your service. Forget being all things to all people. Be bold and real. It’s good to be different. You may not be for everybody, and that’s really a good thing. Show that you understand your particular customer’s needs better than anyone else does by offering something new or different. That “understanding” that resonates with certain audiences means that you’re on your way to finding the right clients for you.

Be bold.

Do you have what it takes to be bold in your positioning? Not everyone does. Bold positioning needs to be backed up by real expertise and a position so narrow that it’s kind of scary. Bold positioning means that you are so specialized and differentiated and unique in what you do, that you are sought out nationally (or internationally), not just regionally, because of your expertise and uniqueness. When you can claim and stand by a positioning that none of your competitors can claim, you have surpassed the “generalist” category and become nearly immune to the competition.

While rolling out a corporate rebranding can make a significant impact in gaining more attention and attracting more business, the benefits are fleeting if you don’t fully explore your positioning and make bold, strategic choices. Be brave. Clients will change loyalties to achieve a better, more targeted service.

— Wendy Baird, president and brand strategist