POSITIONING!

Positioning, what is it and why should we want to know about it?

Great brands all have many things in common, like they all understand that first of all they are brands and they manage and grow their businesses in a brand centric manner. They also know that their brand equity is probably the single biggest financial asset that they have, but it cannot be shown on the balance sheet. 

For instance the Coca Colatm brand is currently trading in the $48 - $50 range on the Stock Market, and the fact is that about 70% of the price is Brand Equity. And that is exactly what we will be discussing in the next issue of BRAND NEWs, your brand equity.

But one of the other items that they all have is a definitive POSITION, an internal POSITIONING STATEMENT and that is what we are going to talk about today!

Positioning quite frankly is probably the most important area that you have to develop and share with your people if you are serious about growing your business or job into a BIG BRAND!

The concept has been around for a long time and it was originally created by Jack Trout and Al Reis in their book, aptly named POSITIONING. You can still get it on Amazon so I do encourage you to buy a copy, you will not regret it.

What is a POSITIONING STATEMENT?

Your positioning statement is a document that you can develop yourself and is the heart of all of the communications and brand positioning for you or your business. And here is my version of what positioning is:

The Brand message that should be permanently and indelibly stamped in the minds of its targeted and prospect customers minds in the marketplace in which it competes. It should clearly show how it is unique, and how it is different and offers something better than the competition. Jack Sims

The sentence or sentences that you create are not necessarilly the words that you will use in your brochures, web site or advertising, but they are the essence of what your company or brand stands for and what you want it to achieve in the minds of your target audience for the long haul. It is a statement that frankly you will probably not share with your customers unless you choose to as it is primarily an internal document!

The outcome will be a sentence that you will use to measure all communications, brand plan, marketing plan against and hopefully the tag line that sits under your brand name.

There are many questions that you have to ask yourself and it does take a great deal of time and effort to get it right, and you probably will not get it right the first time. So in understanding how difficult it is, I have created a "How to create a Positioning Statement" document, that you and your staff can use to develop your corporate or brand version.

All you have to do is go to  my web site www.jacksims.com

click the "One Sheet" button and drag down until you see "Positioning". Then down load it as a gift from me, gratis!!!

The questions you will answer are the following:

• Who is your business?
• What business are you in?
• What do you do?
• Why do you do what you do?
• Who are your customers?
• Is it needed in the marketplace?
• How important is it?
• Who comprises the competitive set?
• What makes you unique?
• Why change to do business with you?

I do sincerely hope that you will go through the process of creating your own Positioning Statement, because once you have it, it will keep you focused on what you know is important in moving your brand forward and become the brand leader in your category.

If you would like to e-mail me your final Positioning Statement, please do via info@jacksims.com

Finally: If you have any specific areas about Branding and Business that you would like me to address in future editions of BRAND NEWs, again, e-mail me at info@jacksims.com

Click here to see previous issues of BRAND NEWs

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How many people does it take to screw in a light bulb? The definitive answer is 2.

One to try and unscrew the old bulb, fall off the ladder and break his wrist! That of course would be me!

The second would be his wife Kathi who got on the ladder and successfully installed the light bulb!  OUCH!

No golf for 6 weeks!!!!

NSA Chapter Philadelphia,

I had the pleasure of speaking for the NSA Philadelphia Chapter last weekend, and had a great time and met some terrific speakers especially Avish Parishar who was the organizer for the event.

MPI New Orleans

Despite the fact that US Air lost my luggage and I had to speak in sweat pants and sneakers, we had a great session. Met some wonderful Meeting Planners and am looking forward to doing it again next year if they invite me!

Golf product

I went to the tryouts for a new show on the Golf Channel especially for Golf Inventions. It went very well but I am only one of about 500 people who are also trying out. I'll let you know if I make the cut, keep your fingers crossed!

Also I do finally have a sample and we will be filming it this week and should be on the www.highanddrygolf.com web site soon. But please have a look at what I am doing and let me know what you think of the product.

Business and Branding CD's recorded.                

I flew to San Antonio this week to spend time with my buddy T Scott Gross and we went into the recording studio to create a series of 6 CD's. These are all about Branding, Business and Customer Service. I'll let you know when they are finished.