Positioning Is Not Your Tagline

Ask an organisation about its positioning and there is a good chance you will be shown a slogan.

That is not positioning.

A tagline can express positioning, but changing five words underneath a logo does not automatically change what people think about a brand. Positioning exists in the mind of the customer. It is the space you occupy compared with the alternatives available to them.

That distinction has become increasingly important to me.

Organisations spend huge amounts of time discussing what they would like to be known for. Customers, meanwhile, build their perception from what they actually experience. Your product, price, staff, website, advertising, reputation, physical environment, word of mouth and previous interactions all contribute.

You cannot simply announce a positioning and consider the job complete.

The Gym in Aberystwyth was a useful example. The opportunity was not simply to build a website that told people exercise equipment existed inside a building. There are plenty of places someone could exercise. The more interesting proposition involved community, functional fitness, HYROX-style training, classes and an environment people could feel part of.

Once that position starts becoming clear, it influences much more than the website copy. It affects the imagery, class timetable, membership proposition, social media, physical environment, partnerships and the type of stories the business should tell.

Mama Fay's is similar. “Restaurant in Aberystwyth” is not a position. There are lots of restaurants in Aberystwyth. Its Caribbean food, personality, colours, story and experience give people much stronger associations to hold onto.

Positioning therefore has two sides.

First, we need to decide what we want to stand for and whether that position is valuable, credible and distinctive within the market.

Then we have to earn it.

That second part is often forgotten. A brand positioning is not something marketing can create independently of the rest of the organisation. If the customer experience repeatedly contradicts the promise, the customer experience wins.

This is why I like positioning that can guide decisions rather than simply decorate presentations. If we want to stand for something, what would we do differently because of it? What would we prioritise? What would we stop doing? How would somebody recognise that position without reading the strategy document?

A tagline is something a company writes about itself.

Positioning is what somebody else remembers about it.

There is a very big difference.