Brand Strategy & Positioning

Whether you are launching a new business or product, doing so effectively with a structure that enables future options is critical. Are you likely to want to sell your company in the future, how will a brand structure effect the value or indeed the ability to sell at all.

We are able to help organisations through the maze of structures, architecture and recommend the most beneficial approach. This applies for new businesses and when organisations go through significant changes.

As organisations expand and grow they often find their communications and offering becomes fragmented, tired and miss-representative. From competition, market changes, mergers, re-structures and product extensions, brands can find themselves so morphed that a clear voice is lost amidst the over complex communication literature.

Getting your brand structure right will allow for growth and development of multiple business areas without the dilution of your core brand values. What’s more, a definitive brand structure will allow for an appropriate style, language and tone of voice to be applied to different audiences.

Take the brand approach Toyota took when launching a premium offering. It was not called Toyota premier or Toyota gold… but launched under a completely new name Lexus, allowing for appropriate positioning, communications and activities for that audience without confusing or eroding the position and values of Toyota.

RT Media’s brand structure consultancy is vital to ensure that companies achieve a clear sense of direction and agreement making sure your brand can reap all the benefits.

The Four Key Brand Structures

Masterbrand

A single brand spans a set of offerings that operate only with descriptive offerings; continual product innovation, new releases, and so on.

Overbrand

Individual business unit or product brands operate under a strong family brand. Dual level of communications: individual offering establishes a unique position while leveraging credibility of the source.

Endorsed Brand

“Source” brand provides the business or product with an aura of credibility. Like Nestlé’s KitKat, Nescafé or Smarties. Special ‘K’, Coco Pops and Frosties from Kellogg’s or Polo by Ralph Lauren. The parent brand lends credibility to the endorsed brand in the customers view. Enables different tone, activities and behaviour in different markets for each specific brand .

Freestanding Brand

An organisation consists of independent stand-alone brands, each maximising its impact on the market with little or no connection to its parent. There is a competitive need to develop distinct equities for a line of business brands. Source brand does not fit or carry negative baggage.

Positioning

Brand Positioning Process Diagram

Market and brand positioning became popularised by Al Ries and Jack Trout in their bestseller book "Positioning - The Battle for Your Mind."

We believe Brand Positioning is something (perception) that happens in the minds of the target market. It is the aggregate perception the market has of a particular company, product or service in relation to their perceptions of the competitors.

This happens whether or not a company's approach is proactive, reactive or passive about the on-going process of evolving a position. But a company can positively influence the perceptions through well planned strategic actions.

Product positioning process can involve:

1. Defining the market in which the product or brand will compete (who the relevant buyers are)

2. Identifying the attributes that define the product 'space'

3. Collecting information from a sample of customers about their perceptions of each product on the relevant attributes

4. Determine each product's share of mind

5. Determine each product's current location in the product space

6. Determine the target market's preferred combination of attributes 'ideal spot'

7. Examine the fit between your product and the 'ideal spot'

8. Price strategically

9. Position

On occasion with guts, instinct and tremendous momentum you can create a market for which there was no point of reference of competition to position against. In this innovation zone it is important to understand how you will engage with an unexacting audience and special techniques can ensure the highest chances of success. For example the Apple iPad.

The process is similar for positioning your company's services. Services, however, don't have the physical attributes of products - that is, we can't feel them or touch them or show nice product pictures. So you need to ask first your customers and then yourself, what value do clients get from my services? How are they better off from doing business with me?
Also ask: is there a characteristic that makes my services different?