What’s your position?
Why brand strategy needs momentum, not maps.
Is positioning quietly crimping our imagination? Strategic models like the 4Cs, perception maps, brand blueprints and the like, give us the sense that we’ve arrived at some point of certainty. Backed by data and ‘findings’ we consider ourselves done. There we are. The brand logo resting unencumbered in a pristine quadrant of a 2x2 matrix. It functions as an ironclad insurance policy against client rebuttal. After all, who can argue with a conveniently carved out piece of white space that demonstrates your brand has a clear competitive edge over its rivals? There’s just one point of contention with positioning. It’s not strategy.
A position tells you where you are right now. It describes how you compete within today’s existing constraints, against today’s known competitors. But it gives you zero indication of where you’re going and what type of brand and business you want to become.
When we start with the premise that strategy is positioning, we are forced into a kind of box fitting exercise. In doing so, we accept the category’s existing rules. We negotiate within its borders. It leaves no room for imagination and invention and gives us no pathway out. The most enduring brands were never born from the cozy intersection of a Venn diagram. They did not study the category landscape and decide to occupy a neat compromise between ‘approachable’ and ‘premium.’ When a marketing department debates which adjective best defines their brand, they aren’t doing strategy.
Strategy demands more. It’s placing a bet on the future. It’s seeing what could be and then reorganising effort and resources around that idea. It takes optimism and bravery to pull an audience toward it, rather than attempt to position toward an audience, with whatever the trend du jour might be of that moment.
If we want strategy to regain its edge, we need to abandon our reliance on defensive plot marking and be willing to chart new paths. Which markets do we enter? What capabilities do we build? What new value can we create? Positioning deals with how we want to frame those choices in the customer’s mind. When you confuse the two you end up with organisations that believe they can message their way to growth without changing the way they create value.
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So how can we escape from map making and return to the job of strategy?
Shift from ‘where do we sit?’ to ‘what future are we building?’
If your brand territory doesn’t indicate a change in company behaviour, product development, or customer experience over the next three years, it probably isn’t strategy.
Treat data as fuel, not an alibi.
Use research to identify cultural friction points and category blind spots, but avoid using consumer surveys as an excuse to dodge creative risk taking.
Look for momentum, not real estate.
Ask, where does this positioning take us? What does it force us to say no to? What compromises are inherent within it?
To be clear, positioning is useful when used correctly and for its purpose; as a tactical communications tool designed to manage mental availability and as a diagnostic snapshot of the current competitor landscape. But we should be careful not to conflate positioning with strategy and always pause if you see the unfortunate term ‘positioning strategy’.
In his book Strategy is a Verb Martin Weigel says: “strategy that excites is strategy that calls forth energy; it names a tension, draws a line, sets a direction, and demands a response.”
That’s strategy worth doing.
