The 7 central approaches for brand positioning

Product Benefits vs. Brand Ideas?

If you're working in the advertising industry or at least going to, "Positioning" will be one of the jobs you will spend a lot of time with. No matter if you're positioning a brand or a product - the question will always be "what should itstand for?".

In the classic marketing world the answer was not that hard to find: You just underlined the USP with a red marker - done! Today USPs are rare. I'm not sure if they still exist or if they're truly recognized by the customer. Hence you need a bigger toolbox to create relevance. You can even position whole brands around a 'brand idea' or a certain tonality or brand world (often achieved by a distinctive look & feel like the California College world of Tommy Hilfiger).

For those type of strategic planners who like typologies (me included), I conducted a small collection of approaches.

Seven angles for brand positioning (2015), often these approaches are mixed, too.

• In Germany - the country of engineer-perspective - positioning by using product benefits seems to be still the most favored approach
• 1&1's new campaign aiming at market leader Deutsche Telekom (klick) could be the door-opener for more competative positioning, even if it's more a promotion-campaign than a real brand positioning
• Emotionalizing brand’s by demonstrating certain attitudes is demanded by many clients right now, especially regarding the rise of branded content including brand statements (toom Respect-Campaign, postings about the US same-sex marriage judgement)

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