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The Brand Message is the second of three types of brand positioning guidelines (or "platforms") developed at The Brand Development Company, the other two being the Brand Positioning Statement and Brand Personality. Together, these three act as a tripod foundation to sales and marketing activities. Businesses that have them have an advantage over those that don't. Let me know if you disagree.
Although "Brand Message" might be the term more frequently known, we've
found the "Communications Platform" easier for clients to relate to.
Visualize a platform as a stage-like structure "on which you stand." The stage is composed of individual boards (or "planks"). Each plank describes position on an important issue. In an election year, this scenario might be called a political platform and the issues might include taxes, education, healthcare, defense and so on. In a manufacturing setting, a Brand Message might incude planks such as product features, pricing, delivery and so on.
As with a political platform, a Brand Message isn't expected to address ALL the issues that might be taken
into consideration in the decision-making process of constituents. It
will include a limited, easily manageable number of issues, ones most likely to influence constituents while
differentiating from competitors.
At The Brand Development Company, we help clients identify 5-9 issues
most likely to influence the preferred target group. These are chosen
relative to a number of factors that, in addition to targeting, include
competitive analysis, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats
(SWOT) and othersd.
We try to narrow it down to seven planks, even being a magic number in marketing. (Not too few. Not too many. Just right. Substantive
yet manageable.)
Within these 5-9, we look for 1-3 issues of extra significance: new, meaningful, hard to match and yet sustainable for the client.
We carefully define and describe brand positioning for each
issue and hone each plank to its briefest (yet most complete)
definition.
Then we list them in order of significance to our target.
(This is similar to a so-called "elevator speech" but much more influential.)
BRANDLAND CHALLENGE
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or call him at 864-541-8295 if you don't know what an elevator speech is.
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