Brand & Positioning Strategy

Positioning is the sentence a customer uses when they explain choosing you

Brand and positioning strategy is the work of deciding what your business should be known for, in terms specific enough that a customer could repeat them.

Most businesses can describe what they do. Far fewer can state why somebody should choose them over the obvious alternative, in language that would survive being said out loud.

Wink helps businesses define who they are, what they stand for and why customers should choose them.

What Wink develops

Wink produces the strategic documents a brand runs on.

• Brand positioning strategy
• Value propositions
• Brand messaging frameworks
• Competitive positioning
• Unique selling propositions
• Brand personality
• Communication strategy
• Customer perception analysis

A position is defined by what it excludes

Competitive positioning requires choosing what your brand is not, which is the part most businesses avoid.

A position that appeals to everyone distinguishes you from nobody. Quality, service and value are claimed by every competitor in every category, which is why they position nothing.

The useful position is the one a competitor could not comfortably claim, and finding it usually means accepting a customer segment you will not be first choice for.

The value proposition is a promise, not a description

A value proposition states what a customer gets and why it matters to them, rather than describing what the business provides.

The difference is perspective. A description is written from inside the company and lists capabilities, while a proposition is written from the customer's situation and names an outcome.

Unique selling propositions are the sharpest version of this, and they are only unique if a competitor would have to change something real to make the same claim.

Messaging frameworks make consistency possible

A brand messaging framework gives everyone who speaks for the business the same language to use.

Without one, the sales team, the website and the social accounts each describe the business slightly differently, and customers experience that as three companies.

The framework is not a script. It fixes what is claimed and what is emphasized, leaving how it is said to the person and the channel.

Personality decides how the brand sounds

Brand personality determines tone, and tone is what makes messaging recognizable before the logo appears.

Two businesses can hold identical positions and feel completely different, because one is formal and precise while the other is direct and informal.

Communication strategy applies that consistently across channels, so the brand does not change character between a proposal and a social post.

Perception is the gap worth measuring

Customer perception analysis establishes how the brand is currently seen, which is frequently not how it intends to be seen.

Positioning is not what a business says about itself. It is what customers believe, and the distance between those two is the actual problem to solve.

Repositioning a brand that already exists

Wink repositions established brands as well as defining new ones, and the constraint is what customers already believe.

An established brand cannot simply declare a new position, because existing perception has to be moved rather than replaced.

The work is therefore evidence and sequence: what to demonstrate first, and in what order, so the new position is arrived at rather than announced.

What brand strategy connects to

Positioning sits inside marketing strategy, and it is built on evidence from market research.

Once decided, it is expressed visually through brand identity and applied across channels by digital marketing strategy.

Where to start

Ask three customers why they chose you and listen for what they have in common. That answer is usually closer to your real position than anything on your website.