Al Ries and Jack Trout made positioning famous when they authored "Positioning: A Battle for Your Mind". They argued that companies must occupy a unique position in the customer's mind. This position has to be mindful of what the customer wanted, their own company's strengths and weaknesses and also what position their competition occupied.
To develop a positioning statement that's useful you need to identify:
- your target customers and why they should consider your brand
- why your brand is the best choice over competing brands, and
- how your brand is relevant to the lives of your customer and how it helps them achieve their goals.
When written out, the positioning statement is a sentence that communicates the one thing that your brand intends to own in the target customer’s mind. The important point here is the 'ONE THING'. Being clear on what this is often the challenge.
You'll know you have a great positioning statement when you can tick all these boxes:
- understandable
- believable
- unique/differentiating
- compelling
- admirable
- endearing.
In it's final form it might look like this:
Your [INSERT YOUR BRAND NAME] is the [INSERT ANSWER]
that provides the [INSERT ANSWER]
with [INSERT ANSWER]
because [INSERT ANSWER].
