Have you ever wondered if your brand is actually relevant to your audience? Better yet, do you know how to make your brand become relevant? The answer is: position it well.

Positioning a brand is to strategically create a space for it in people’s minds. You may be the fastest, the most delicious, the best (or even second best), etc. Regardless, you must always keep in mind that it’s not just a promise that will differentiate your brand among its competitors, but also, its concrete deliverance. It is mandatory that the differential is absolutely clear, that it qualifies the brand as unique and makes people understand why they should choose your product or service instead of the competitor’s.

Branding will function by balancing the emotion and the rational aspects of it’s perfect brands to better position them. The emotional aspect is about what the audience desires and its expectations towards that company, on the other hand, the rational aspect relates to corporate goals and audiences, besides the functional attributes. This is an extremely important discipline of branding: it must be applied both to new brands, that aim to enter the market as a novelty to their audience, and also for the repositioning of brands that are already in the market and desire to redefine their competitivity.

The concept of positioning was introduced and popularized by Al Ries and Jack Trout, authors of the book “Positioning: the battle for your mind”. According to them, the process of positioning a brand might start with a product, a service, a company or even a person, but we must bare in mind that the brand will actually be positioned in the mind of the public. And, if one takes into consideration the enormous amount of information that people are receiving on a daily basis nowadays, it is wise to try to position your brand with a simple and assertive message, one that is clear and effective. It should answer the following questions:

Credibility: Will people believe in the promise of the brand?

Relevance: Do people care about the promise?

Duration: Will this last?

Inspiration: Does the promise touch people emotionally?

Differentiation: Can only a few actually fulfill such a promise?

Relevant and clear positionings of well-known brands belong with that parcel of information that people do not discard; that remain on their mind and are easily remembered, like for instance: Volvo sells the most secure cars; Hertz is the most important player in the rent-a-car business; and Avis, in a humble yet clever way, recognized Hertz’s leadership with the following positioning: “We are number 2. We try harder.”.

As opposed to the essence that is unchangeable and intangible, positioning is characterized by its practical nature. It may change accordingly to moment or context. This, however, doesn’t make it any less important, on the contrary, it is the positioning that defines the brand promise. As well put by Lissa Reidel, from FolioOne Ltd: “Positioning overcomes barriers of saturated markets to create new opportunities.”