Any Position Will Do

Creating and ensuring consistent & strong positioning is one of the most important tasks for a marketing person to do. If the marketing team does not consciously create and communicate the positioning, the market and sometimes the competition will do it for you. I am a big fan of Pragmatic Marketing, and they have a great article on positioning. The key points include:

• You cannot create the positioning in a vacuum, it has to be supported by the positioning, brand reputation that already exists
• The supporting messaging has to be credible
•  Positioning should be problem/solution focused, rather than feature/function

In my experience even marketing professionals get confused between value proposition, positioning, branding, tagline, mission statement, elevator pitch, and messaging. However, if marketing people get confused, imagine the rest of the organization. In today’s world of blogs, twitter, podcasts, it is critical that everyone in your company understand your positioning and leverage when communicating with customers, and prospects about your company.

How does it fit together? I propose that pretty much anything and all major external communications must be positioned. Examples includes: a major product release, job postings, a new product launch, an acquisition.

First and foremost, to ensure consistency, when I say positioning, I do not mean a tagline or elevator pitch, although those can be derived from positioning. I am referring to a one page positioning document. I use the template from Pragmatic Marketing. It covers

• Problem statement
• Solution statement
• Primary message
• Product description
• Three supporting benefits-oriented features

It’s design is to support positioning a product or a product release, but it can be adjusted for other announcements.

In putting this together, it should be done with a group that includes product manager, marketing communications, input from a thought leader on your sales team. The hardest part is trying to get it all on one page, with as few words as possible, while at the same time, creating meaningful content.

Finally, to build and leverage consistency product releases should build upon product positioning, which in turn should build on corporate positioning. So whether your company is a start-up or an established market leader, create and write down your corporate positioning, then ensure all appropriate stakeholders know it.