What’s the difference between brand and positioning?
I’ve been wriggling around this one for years. Part of the problem is that everyone uses them to mean something that they are talking about, and not even the same kind of thing as the last time they used the word.
Both words can be verbs or nouns. To brand, positioning (yes, I know), the brand, the positioning. I have a sneaky feeling that sometimes they’re used interchangeably, and I know that sometimes they’re both used as one thing – the brand positioning. Which all leaves me a bit confused.
So here’s my attempt at definitions, which take pieces of everything I’ve read and tries to put them together in an order I can understand.
Brand is another word for reputation. That reputation may be captured by a name, logo or symbol. A longer description of reputation may be the expected delivery experience as measured against the promise.
To brand, the verb this time, is to do things in order to create an expectation of a particular delivery experience.
Positioning is the place you occupy in the mind of the customer. Places are definite, so can only be occupied by one thing at a time. Positioning is relative, so only makes sense in relation to the positioning of others. Displacing somebody else’s positioning is difficult.
Positioning, the verb, is to do things in order to place your company in a particular positioning (the noun).
Treating brand and positioning as messaging issues means they’ll only ever be cladding, bolted on to the outside.