The document discusses how to assess if a company's brand positioning needs attention and how to ensure positioning leads to business growth. Some signs that positioning needs work include if it can't be summarized concisely, isn't understood within the business, or doesn't challenge assumptions. Common reasons for positioning to fail include treating it as abstract rather than practical, focusing on models over implementation, and aiming for vague consensus. The document outlines five hallmarks of effective positioning: prosperity, integrity, elegance, craft, and curiosity. It provides examples and offers steps to evaluate a company's current positioning strengths.

1. Positioning for success.
How to ensure your brand delivers growth for your business
01 November 2012
Joe Hale & Rosa Wilkinson

2. How do you know if your brand positioning needs attention?
1. Colleagues struggle to summarise your positioning on a Post-it note
2. Your current positioning isn’t understood by the majority of the business
3. Your current positioning is ignored by the majority of the business
4. The last positioning project you worked on was a nightmare you don’t want to revisit
5. Your positioning explains what your business currently does, rather than what it aims to achieve
6. Your current positioning is seen as a straightjacket rather than a springboard
7. Your business lacks a clear personality
8. You rely on a brand onion / wheel / key / pyramid to share your positioning with the rest of the business
9. Your positioning doesn’t challenge people (internally and externally) to think differently about your business
10. Nobody would care (or notice) if you changed your positioning tomorrow

3. Why do positionings fail to reach their potential?

4. Why?
1. Positioning is approached as a purely
intellectual exercise without
demonstrating the value it will deliver
to the business.
Brand positioning is a practical exercise, not
an intellectual pursuit. To be taken seriously,
it needs to align with business strategy.
A new positioning should be an investment in
the business – so you should know what
returns you expect to see.
Positioning should create value for the
whole business, not just the marketing
department.
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5. Why?
2. Brand models are treated as the end,
not the start of the process.
Positioning needs to inspire action. Onions,
wheels, bridges and PowerPoint can’t
achieve this. You have to show people how
the world is going to be different as a result
of your hard work.
If you have to constantly explain your
positioning to colleagues and police its use, it
means there’s still work to be done.
Filling in the brand template is just the
start of the positioning process…
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6. Why?
3. Positioning aims for the lowest
common denominator. So it can be
safely ignored by the rest of the
business.
Too often positioning seeks to capture what a
business is like now, finding something
vague enough that it’s not going to offend
anyone.
Really great brand positioning should scare
people. They should see that it’s going to
mean doing things differently from now on.
Brand positioning should fuel change. It’s
a challenge to your business to be great.
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7. From good to great positioning

8. Hallmarks of great positioning at work in businesses
#1
#3 #5
Prosperity
Curiosity
#2 Elegance
#4
Integrity
Craft
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9. Five hallmarks of great positioning
#1
Prosperity
Setting out the value you want to deliver,
the contribution your business makes to
the world.
You can’t be clear on positioning until you know what kind of value you want to create.
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10. #1 Prosperity: Telling the story of your contribution to the wider world
To be the global sector leader in the mining and
metals industry…
To attract another 10,000 new colleagues
globally in the next 5 years…
> …takes a different approach to storytelling.
Communicating the role Rio Tinto plays in
making modern life work is essential to pride,
positioning and productivity.
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11. Five hallmarks of great positioning
#2
Integrity
Committing to a clear belief or
conviction, that sets out what you can do
– and what you can never do.
Great brands inspire belief in others because they are built on belief themselves.
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12. #2 Integrity: Committing to what really matters for your customers
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13. Five hallmarks of great positioning
#3
Elegance
Articulating your positioning in a simple
and well-designed way that enables
others to see how they would use it.
Great brand positioning creates the maximum impact with the minimum input.
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14. #3 Elegance: Finding the big idea that your business can get behind
98% of employees
understood and were
inspired by the new
brand story and visual
expression.
92% were aware of
actions and changes at
corporate level, which
helped them deliver the
brand story better and
more consistently.
96% had identified
actions on a personal
level, which will help
strengthen the brand.
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15. Five hallmarks of great positioning
#4
Craft
Working positioning through the
business to create practical change
in the way things are done.
Great positioning should humanise your business.
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16. #4 Craft: Living up to global leadership in your sales and marketing
Allen & Overy seeks to be the
preferred counsel to the world’s most
advanced companies.
Advanced becomes a way to measure
and stimulate progress in every
aspect of the firm’s business.
> Business Development initiatives
bring insight and expertise to life.
> Campaign management developed
from a central organising idea.
> Partners articulate confidently the
value the firm can offer.
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17. Five hallmarks of great positioning
#5
Curiosity
The restlessness and inventiveness that
drives your business forward, being
prepared to try new things (and to fail).
Great positioning challenges a business, allowing it to learn and adapt to a changing world.
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18. #5 Curiosity: Setting your own agenda for category innovation
Marshalls strives to improve landscapes
for everyone
> Harnessing insight and trend analysis to set
out future trends in garden design
> Fairstone – A Fairtrade model for sandstone
supply chain and ethical trading
> Opening the right conversations with
customers to plan their product innovation
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19. Hallmarks of great positioning at work in businesses
#1
#3 #5
Prosperity
Curiosity
#2 Elegance
#4
Integrity
Craft
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20. 5 practical steps to assess the strength of your current positioning
1. Ask 5 colleagues how they would describe the company’s purpose
and see if they can manage it in a sentence or two
2. Review 3 proposals from your sales team to see if there’s any
mention of something bigger than product and service
3. Check through the criteria you use for interviews and recruitment to
see if you’re recruiting people who share your brand values
4. Read the latest entries on your Twitter feed or your blog – can you
see a point of view on your industry or the wider world?
5. Print off the ‘About Us’ page for your company and competitors – if
you cover the name, can you spot the difference?
Is your positioning visible
and consistently portrayed
wherever and however
people find you?
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21. Taking it further…
Business is Beautiful:
The hard art of standing apart
The immeasurable aspects of
business that create real value
Featuring interviews with innovative
companies such as 3M, Arup & BMW
Released February 2013
> Leave your card to win a copy
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22. So…
How does this sound?
Any questions?
Is there anything that particularly resonates?
Anything to add?
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23. Thank you.
We hope you enjoyed our perspective on great B2B brand positioning.
If you’d like to find out more, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Joe.Hale@dragonrouge.co.uk
Rosa.Wilkinson@dragonrouge.co.uk
Or call us on +44 (0)20 7262 4488
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