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Does your brand positioning have real meaning?
Outside Pietermaritzburg, a hoarding proudly proclaims: “Pietermaritzburg – your city of choice". Which begs the question, “Who are the city marketers talking to?” Presumably not to passersby who don’t live there – they have chosen to live elsewhere. And if their aim is to encourage investment, it isn’t clear why should it be the city of choice. What are they offering as an incentive to potential investors and business developers?
But the tagline nevertheless rang a bell. A quick Google search advised that “Your … of choice” has been claimed by a host of South African companies ranging from a recruitment agency to a caterer to an agricultural supplies company to an IT company. Or to be more specific, several IT companies.
To nitpick, if they were right and they were, in fact, everyone’s holiday flat/ shuttle service/IT partner of choice, they wouldn’t really need to advertise, would they? So their claim lacks credibility as well as originality and clarity.
The simple act of stating something as though it is fact does not make it so. And repeating that statement doesn’t serve to make it more credible or relevant. Nor does it form the basis of a strategic brand positioning.
The whole point of brand positioning is to develop a clear identity for your brand, to differentiate it from the competition, and to stake a claim to a unique position that will resonate with your target market. And when your claim is both open to rejection as inaccurate and a carbon copy of a claim made by several other companies, it can hardly be categorised as clear, unique or relevant.
By the same token, a brand positioning statement doesn’t necessarily translate into an advertising copy line. For instance, the brand positioning of Panado is that it is recommended by doctors. And for years the pay-off line has been “The GP’s Choice”. The pay-off for Nissan is “Shift expectations”, and I’d suggest that this was based on a strategy to re-position Nissan and innovative, dynamic and exciting. Both unique and memorable expressions of a relevant brand positioning.
Is your brand positioning relevant and convincing? Or it is hollow and eminently forgettable?
If you need help to clarify your brand positioning statement, visit www.octarine.co.za for more information, or contact Ann on 031 564 6921
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