Matching Position with Practice: Step Four

Step Four: Matching Position with Practice

It's through your practices that you bring your brand to life. Your positioning strategy points the way to your destination, but your practices are how you get there. Branding starts from the inside out, it's reflected in 5 important areas of your business:

• Your Product
• Your People
• Your Promotion
• Your Process
• Your Place of Business
  

To be successful we must align our practices with our position. Truly distinct companies have a strong alignment between what they say and what they do, between their brands and their practices.

Validating Your Position: Step Three

Step Three: Validating Your Position

There are three critical criteria for a strong positioning strategy:

• It's authentic. The position is an honest reflection of what your company is capable of. This element acknowledges your company's strengths. This can aspirational, but only if you have the knowledge, experience and firepower to truly deliver the promise.
• It's exclusive. The position excludes as many prospective clients as it includes. Focus on what your company does best. This reflects an understanding that you can't be known for everything, but you can be know for something - something that you do best!
• It's polarizing. The position is designed to appeal to a limited group of prospects - your best potential clients.

Connecting Value & Audience: Step Two

Step Two: Connecting Value & Audience

In branding your firm, the goal is to be exclusive, not inclusive. Appeal to somebody not everybody.

• What value to we provide?
• Who do we deliver the value to?
• How do we deliver it?
  

At the intersection of these three questions lies a differentiating position: "We offer (your service) for (your market) by (your method)."

Discovering Your Brand: Step One

Step One: Discover Your Brand

Your brand already exists, deep inside the soul of the company in the form of natural strengths and core competencies. Consider what has made your company successful thus far and answer these key questions:

• What kind of clients have you been most successful in attracting?
• What types of assignments have you completed over the years?
• In what areas do you have superior knowledge or expertise?
• What do you do particularly well, perhaps better than most agencies?
• What do you most enjoy doing? What do you hate?
• What target audiences have you come to know and understand?
• As a result of your experience with the clients you've served, what distribution channels do you know best?
• What methods, approaches or philosophies is the firm known for?