AI has increased the isolation people feel in their day-to-day lives. This grim reality has made them seek connection externally- they now demand connection from brands.

People want something to align themselves with. A purpose that is socially conscious and unapologetic in its authenticity. In a world full of performance, they want anchors that can help them survive an increasingly hostile world.

That is why brand positioning has become so vital. And it may not just be because of the marketing benefits it reaps, but rather how it makes people feel. The stakeholders and buyers alike.

They want to stand for something. And this is where business is headed – in a way that is both inclusive and tribal.

A natural evolution of our social dynamics and market behavior.

Businesses that lean into this are the ones that will lead sales. And the rest will see short-term growth followed by a plateau that will end up with their money running into the ground- because, believe it or not, rarely does a solution come forward that is truly original.

But it can have a unique voice. One that cannot be replicated.

Brand Positioning is Perception

Perception shapes decisions, irrespective of the data available. Data reinforces this perception. If someone wants to buy SEMrush instead of Moz, they will find reasons to do so. Even if the contrary evidence is in their lap.

It’s because the philosophy and the way one organization does things trumps its competitors. It’s strategy 101.

Understand market needs and deliver on these needs in unique ways.

What is Brand Perception?

It is a strategy that brands use to align themselves with an ideal and follow this ideal in every departmental function.

These ideals can be practical, philosophical, monetary, ideological, or a combination of all of them. However, each shares a tribe-like mentality, i.e., aligning with a higher purpose. Since Gen Y has started replacing key decision-makers, these digitally-native leaders expect more from themselves, communities, and business partners.

But this is not black and white- every individual will have their preferences. There is a spectrum, and knowing where you stand on it is the first step.

The Brand Positioning Statement

Before you craft strategies about your position, you must identify it and propagate it internally within your teams. This is the brand positioning statement.

It is a manifesto that helps all teams align with a singular goal. The basic premise behind the statement is that your business is founded on solving a key human problem.

1. What is it?
2. What are you doing about it?
3. How are you doing it?

Once you know the answer to these simple questions, the founders should sit down and craft the vision they want to execute and how they want to do it.

Maybe some want to empower their supply chain or uplift communities, or be cheaper for their partners, saving valuable costs.

Or they want to improve the time taken to market or be ethical in how they do things. See? It is a vast spectrum. But this spectrum needs to be made a reality through this statement, and only the founder can do it.

And this statement is not disconnected from the way you do things. If you say you do things ethically, you need to give that a shot. Because people don’t like being deceived. A brand that gains business through lying and then gets caught can find itself in hot water.

But a statement can help you align with your deeper ideals. Only if you want it to and are ready to put in the effort to make your vision a reality.

Strategy means taking a unique approach to brand development.

Once you have established your brand statement, you can use these strategies to execute it.

1. Purpose
2. Mission + Identity
3. Meaning-Making
4. Storytelling

While the pillars outlined above can seem like abstract concepts, they are vital for marketers to establish trust and gain mindshare of their intended buyers.

Purpose, aligning brand-to-process

Every action your brand takes has a net effect on its operations. This is the way you deploy software, deliver leads, communicate with clients, design work culture, etc.

This has an effect on your teams and decides your purpose. The way you do things is the way you inhabit your purpose. And that must reflect in your brand messaging.

You do X because Y must be solved. But your purpose is process-dependent. If your brand purpose does not reflect the way you do things, then that’s going to reflect.

Either your messaging will be ignored, or you will simply forget to convey anything meaningful. One of the great tenets of marketing is to show what you do and attract the buyer, but if you lie to them and cannot deliver, it will result in loss of market trust.

Mission & Identity, having a consistent voice

Once you have established your purpose and created a brand message, it is time to adopt the voice of the mission.

Usually, B2B brands use authoritative tone to seem in the know-how (even when they don’t), or like some B2C brands that can range from cautionary to optimistic, based on their mission and identity.

This identity will shape how your buyers see you and establish an emotional core- this emotional core drives decisions because, whether the analysts like it or not, many consumer decisions are subconscious.

Good salespeople have known this for decades, if not more. And they develop this consistent voice and have a mission in mind- to make their product the only solution.

This can be done through the price point or deviations in your purpose.

This is the role of the voice: to give personality to your brand so that when they think of a solution, they think of you. Example: OpenAI with AI pioneering.

Their mission and brand are easy to understand; their voice echoes it.

Meaning-Making, delivering the message

This step naturally follows everything else, giving your potential buyers a chance to understand you. This is where your creatives start bringing the message together around your solution, and includes a lot of creative + technical know-how.

1. Which channels in your given context will deliver impact?
2. What content strategy will you adopt to propagate the message?
3. What is the sequence of the campaigns?
4. Are there metrics you can identify to help you track your buyers’ understanding?
5. Have your buyers reciprocated the message as intended?
6. Is something working that wasn’t expected?

These questions will drive the meaning of your brand and help buyers link your ideas logically. Think of them as drip email campaigns but performed across multiple channels with the single goal of creating meaning for your brand and solution.

This meaning-making will give your brand tangibility and start positioning you. It is in this step that many of your KPIs need to be established and tracked, and many marketing pivots will take place.

Many messages may not receive the traction you hoped for, but this is where you must commit to your story.

Storytelling, gaining mindshare.

While storytelling may seem like a derivative of meaning-making, it is a lever of all brand positioning.

Your story tells people what you do for them. Maybe you save them time. Yes, many tools and services are designed for that. But what does your service or tool do differently that the rest of the 100s don’t?

Storytelling is the answer to that. It is a complete reflection of your organization, or at least the way you want it to be presented.

It’s the way you align with someone’s values- Let’s look at this from a different perspective.

CEO Han and CEO Leia both spend an increasing amount of time in their offices. The last quarter’s earnings have made it clear that the coming quarter needs to be tighter and time-consuming. Neither wants that.

The Buying Story

Han wants to spend more time with their children, and Leia wants to penetrate new markets. But they can’t do that if most of their time is spent on managing their company every second. Both of them look for solutions and stumble across The Falcon- An AI-Agent that designs new systems for executive leaders, and Star- An AI-Agent that designs new systems for executive leaders.

The difference is almost negligible with almost similar pricing. But Falcon fundamentally positions itself as a solution that saves time for executives so that they can be more with the family, running some of the executive’s functions while they are absent. And Star positions itself as the only solution for executives to save time and penetrate new markets.

Han buys the Falcon; Leia buys the Star.

While real-life buying never looks this clean, the fundamental problem is the same. People care about different things and have different motivations to buy a solution.

Your story must speak to these segments, or your solution will not move the needle. It is the same logic that has thrust B2B leaders into thought-leadership. People need stories to anchor themselves to. To justify their logic of buying from you.

Codifying Stories

Stories must be attention-grabbing, and not every organization is OpenAI, Google, or Microsoft to be easily recognized.

To write a story that grabs attention, you should: –

1. Care about your buyer enough to know them (that means investing to understand them- typeform, surveys, etc.)
2. Be a solution to their very real pain points.
3. Outline your journey and what you do for the buyer.
4. Get your writers, designers, and strategists together to weave your vision.
5. Treat each campaign as a standalone story that addresses each sub-part of the buyers’ problems.
6. Test these campaigns
7. Repeat

As buyers become familiar with your brand and what you are known for, your positioning will be established.

Brand Positioning is its personality.

Your brand will be felt as a tangible entity with its unique idiosyncrasies and personality. People will associate it with an idea. However, many brands and organizations don’t buy into this, and it works for them! So why waste time with such an arduous process? Because AI is going to democratize products and services.

And without that nugget of personality and strategic positioning, even the brands that hold on will fail because it would be cheaper to replace them with AI tools.

Having a personality and soul and being authentic, even based on pure practical terms like cost-saving, will benefit you.

First, to stand out. And second, to matter in the long run.