Brand Positioning Doesn’t Have to be Confusing — Here’s How We Approach It
By Andrew Tejerina, Director of Product and Strategy
In this blog:
When it comes to positioning a brand, there’s a wide array of approaches strategists and creative agencies use to capture the essence of a company. We’ve tried a few ourselves. But as brand positioning evolved into a distinct service at Big Human, we found these approaches grew in complexity and nuance. While this made branding feel more substantial as a discipline, it also made it more confusing to understand and explain to non-experts.
If you’ve ever tried to cleanly separate the “How” from the “What” in Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle or describe why something is a brand characteristic but not a brand pillar in a brand house, you know it can be perplexing.
Related: Big Human’s Guide to Rebranding Your Company
Our Solution to Brand Positioning
The most useful brand positioning strategy is easy to understand and, most importantly, easy to explain. You don’t want the essence of your company to be a secret known only by domain experts. You want to be able to quickly and clearly explain your positioning so everyone, from an intern to the CEO, knows how the brand should act and feel.
To achieve this, we’ve developed a brand positioning model that consists of two basic components: Values and Attributes.
Values are the core principles that a brand embodies.
Attributes are the concrete ways the brand demonstrates those values.
That’s it. Figure out what you stand for and how you want to communicate that tangibly (in messaging and visuals).
Here’s a helpful diagram:
Brand Values
Ideally, you do not have more than three core values. Once that list gets too long, you’re no longer a distinct brand; you’re just a long list of positive attributes.
Additionally, at least one of those three values should be a differentiator. If everyone in your competitive set embodies “Innovation,” it doesn’t mean you can’t — but it does mean you need to find another distinctive value. Think about how you talk to potential customers or partners. What’s your unique selling point? Odds are, that’s a key component of your differentiating value.
Brand Attributes
An attribute doesn’t have to be a single word or neat little title. All it should do is describe how you’re embodying a value. This can be a messaging strategy, a visual treatment, or even an operational approach. For example: If you’re a rideshare company and one of your values is “Transparency,” an attribute could be “sharing monthly profitability with the drivers,” or it could be “using photography of real employees.”
Coming up with attributes is also a great way to stress test your values. If you’re having trouble listing attributes, it probably means you don’t embody that value, and it’s worth revisiting.
Real-Life Brand Positioning Examples
The easiest way to grasp our brand positioning approach is to jump out of the theoretical and show some real Value / Attribute models. Here’s our approach applied to two well-known brands:
Apple
Brand Values: Innovation, Simplicity, Quality
Attributes:
Vertically integrated production drives incredible performance (Innovation)
Dynamic animated product videos (Innovation)
Clean Swiss design system (Simplicity)
Simple san-serif fonts (Simplicity)
Sleek product design (Simplicity)
Generous warranties (Quality)
Specialized package design (Quality)
Patagonia
Values: Quality, Integrity, Environmentalism
Attributes:
Hero photography with pristine nature (Environmentalism)
Make significant donations to key causes (Integrity)
Use recycled materials (Environmentalism)
Lifetime product guarantees (Quality)
Named for a region of natural wonder (Environmentalism)
Exhaustive product performance descriptions (Quality)
Transparent production practices (Integrity)
High-end garment photography (Quality)
Does this brand positioning approach resonate with you? Get in touch.
