Related Posts
Enthusiast
Rising Star
More Posts
Hello fishes plz unlock my dm
Jummah Mubarak Fam 💚
Additional Posts in Strategy & Planning
Thoughts on VCCP London for strategy?
New to Fishbowl?
Download the Fishbowl app to
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
I agree with senior strat 1. The two extra words that my old boss added that made things a lot more clear to me were…
VALUE Proposition - almost a summary statement of that end value you provide consumers
COMPETITIVE positioning - “relative to other competitors” is the key piece here
Lastly, the “Onlyness” statement which has been mapped to Harley Davidson (among others) is quite iconic as a positioning statement in my mind (attached.) Not sure what the equivalent on the value prop side would be but thought the Harley example might help
I try to keep it as simple as possible (because lord knows the jargon is hard to keep track of)
Positioning: what you are relative to others, often shown as a pyramid, ladder, etc. and made up of different inputs
Proposition: what value you offer consumers, often a single-minded phrase that acts as the KEY thing the brand offers consumers
Both are important puzzle pieces to building a brand. I’ve always done positionings (with whatever framework you like) and ended them with a clear proposition that informs what we communicate to consumers. Hope this helps!
Positioning: how you want to be perceived in the mind of the consumer (brand + emotional benefits)
Proposition: what you offer/provide to their consumer (offer/product/service + tangible/rational benefits)
I’ll give a real-world answer as someone who’s been on both the strat side and the creative side, as well as both the branding side and the advertising side.
The “positioning” of a brand is done very, VERY rarely. Like mostly just at the time of conception of the brand. It’s the hole in the market that your brand fills. Example: “The Un-Cola.” This is rarely touched, if ever. It’s only touched on a rebrand, like say 30 years later. Unless you are creating a brand from the ground-up at a branding firm, you’ll rarely, if ever, work on a brand position in your entire career. You may give it a whirl in a new biz pitch, but in reality, it’ll probably never happen.
It’s called a “position” because it’s short for a brand position. It’s the position where the brand belongs in the target’s mind. For an excellent primer on what positioning means, get the book Positioning by Al Ries and Jack Trout.
Don’t get “position” confused with “proposition” because they both start with the same letter. A clearer way to say “proposition” is the word “takeaway.” And the takeaway is mostly referred to at the creative briefing level (the current marketing task at hand), not usually at the brand-identity level (which is a one-and-done thing created in the beginning). A takeaway is a distillation of what your current strategy is trying to achieve, in the mind of the consumer. It’s a distillation of a consumer truth, mixed in with the business solution, mixed in with the brand promise, which fits neatly inside of the brand’s position.
Hinge is moreso a tag than a position, especially when the actual product has no category-exclusive features to support their promise. The tag is excellent though.
I’d say (the old) Bumble was the only dating app with an bonafide position (the feminist’s dating app, proven by women making the first move), however their rebrand and product overhaul absolutely killed their position.