I’m a huge – and proud – fan of reality TV (go on, cast your judgements). I’m also a fan of thought-provoking documentaries, impeccable dramas and ultra-niche true crime investigations. But for this next element in building our authentic brand, it’s important for you to know that I know reality TV.

Why? Because in every single reality TV show there will be a cast that has been divided into characters. You know, the villain/mean girl, the innocent/sweet one, the boss/fierce one, the aloof/ditzy one, the funny/easy-going one, the rebellious/fight-against-the-system one, the sexy/seductive one and the save the world/wise one (among others). Each of them has a position to play in the minds of the audience and in the narrative of the show.

In the same way, when people are deciding which brands to buy into and which brands define their own style, taste, values, interests and beliefs, they will be looking for markers that tell them how that brand is positioned in the market.

Now, the idea of positioning – how you want your business to be perceived by your chosen audience – has been around for decades (some believe as early as the 1920s), but it was really only brought to life and coined in relation to brands around the ’60s and ’70s through the work of former advertising executives, Al Ries and Jack Trout. The duo wrote about the concept in numerous industry publications in the late ’60s and early ’70s before publishing their first book on the topic, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind.

According to Ries, positioning is a vehicle our mind uses to determine where something belongs and organise it into place. It is about how your audience distinguishes your brand from others in the market and the attributes they look for in order to be able to do this.

(If you really want to dive into this in more detail, check out their book as well as the work of David Ogilvy, who some people say first came up with the concept a decade before Trout and Ries #OohControversy.)

It is important to consider how you want your brand to be perceived in the minds of your audience/s before getting stuck into your visual identity, brand voice or any sort of marketing strategy.

As Ries and Trout attest to, most of us think about the category of the product or service we want first (e.g. wedding photography, car, business coaching) before we think about the brand. What you want is for your brand to be the first thought of, or one of the first, in a particular category. For example: “I need a wedding photographer (category) and I heard about this amazing woman on the Modern Weddings podcast who does this in our city. I really connected with her and feel she will do a great job because of X, Y and Z.”

It’s the X, Y and Z in that thought process which is where positioning comes in.

One way to start working on this for your brand is to consider the important factors that come into play for your particular audience. For example, is cost one of the deciding factors? Experience? Exclusivity? Do they mind if your brand has locations all over the world or do they want to attach themselves to local brands specific to one particular part of the globe? Do they want to know you’re aligned with a certain status or cool crowd to buy into your services or products? Or do they prefer you not to have those alignments? Do they want your brand because of its associations to a particular cause? Or do they want a brand that veers away from certain issues?

BRAND POSITIONING MAP A method to begin working out these factors is to use what’s called a brand positioning map. This is a visual representation, or map, of how your brand is positioned in relation to the key attributes your audience desires.

So, how does it work?

Start with a two-dimensional graph. On the Y-axis (vertical) have one set of opposing attributes (or features) such as exclusive/mainstream, high cost/low cost or multi-location/single location. On the X-axis (horizontal) do the same with another set of opposing attributes such as high quality/low quality, utilitarian/luxurious or classic/modern. Once you have decided on your attributes for the X-axis and Y-axis, consider where your brand fits and map this in.

Depending on where your brand sits in its establishment, you may choose to plot where you are now and where you wish to be in the future. Or you may decide to map in where you believe your brand sits and, in another colour, where your audience perceives your brand to sit. Sometimes, as hard as it can be to confront (#GoodbyeEgo), there may be quite a chunky gap between the two markings.

Let’s say, for example, your business sells stationery – not just any old stationery but ethically created stationery for people who love the old-school appeal of pen and paper but hate the idea of adding to landfill. You sell your stationery at a lower cost than others on the market as you want more people to choose to buy from ethically manufactured brands like yours. You may decide to have the following variables:

• Y-axis: high cost/low cost.
• X-axis: mass produced/ethically produced.

Consider where you are now, or your current positioning (red dot). If you feel it differs, also mark out how your brand is perceived by your audience currently based on audience feedback, or your audience positioning (yellow dot). Then map out where you want to be positioned in the minds of your audience/s in the near future, or your ideal positioning (blue dot).

Consider your own brand and the key attributes and features that are important to your audience and their perception of what it is you’re offering. Then map out your X-axis and Y-axis, and mark out where you feel your brand sits. Repeat the entire process with other sets of attributes until you begin to really see where your brand fits in the market and in the minds of your audience.

At this stage, you may well be thinking, “I don’t know what my audience thinks.” If this is the case, you may want to validate your assumptions. This can be done in a variety of ways, including but not limited to:

• Sending a survey using a tool like Google Forms or Typeform.
• Observing your audience in your physical locations or in another setting where they are interacting with your products/services.
• Creating a focus group of past clients/customers and engaging them prior to mapping out new collections, offers, experiences or product lines.
• Running polls using your social channels
• Conducting feedback sessions.

In all cases, you not only want to be analysing the data and what it’s telling you but also the detail in the data – the words and phrases people use when discussing your brand, the frustrations they may have with your industry and anything else that comes up. Map this information against what you have created in your brand positioning maps and see where and why it matches or differs.

This is an edited extract from Business to Brand by Fiona Killackey, published by Hardie Grant Books. Available in stores nationally from September 3rd, 2024.