June 2009

The Whack! (continued)

Within my industry, I took the Blue Ocean Strategy to heart, by offering more than just a resource for individual branding components. While that is certainly a possibility within my firm, by creating the new category of: Comprehensive Branding Agency, we serve as a complete extension of our client’s marketing departments. As such, BrandVision serves as a resource for all branding touch-points, an on-call brand manager available to bring focus and continuity to a company’s branding program. Being able to handle all aspects of marketing, from websites and Web 2.0 to traditional advertising and point-of-sale signage, BrandVision has emerged as a one-stop resource that truly makes life easier for our clients. That positioned the agency ahead of traditional ad agencies that focused on mainstream media or other marketing service providers that were working more as sales reps in the face of the client rather than partners with a stake in the success of their business. That was our Blue Ocean Strategy.

Quite often, however, a company’s business situation, or the overall economic climate, does not lend itself to the creation of a Blue Ocean. A variety of factors may dictate that a business is forced to swim in red waters, indeed competing in a blood-soaked ocean. There are simply too few alternatives toward the path of value innovation for a bank, car dealer, or personal injury attorney, etc., that fit the local business models being followed. With this group, Distinction is still key.  

Distinction can be established through various means. For example, a unique creative direction, distribution channels that are inimitable to your industry, even the development of exclusive marketing partnerships can help define a distinctive direction. Distinction is best found, however, through the art of Positioning.

Simply stated, Positioning is fifty percent product and fifty percent mind—the consumer’s mind to be exact. Positioning is a routinely seen on the national scope with product marketing. Look at the Coca-Cola Company and their water line for example. You’ve got Aquarius, Aquarius Active Diet and Aquarius Freestyle.*⁹ The parent brand and each brand extension holds a distinctive position in the market:

 Ø  Aquarius is the parent brand. The product is flavored mineral sports water that appeals to those who value a healthy lifestyle.

 Ø  Aquarius Active Diet is a brand extension and positioned as the sports water for those mindful of their nutritional in-take and overall diet.

 Ø  Aquarius Freestyle, also an extension, is positioned as an isotonic drink that helps an active consumer cool down after a solid work-out.

Three similar drinks positioned to reach different audiences with distinctive consumer appeal. Each line has carved out its own position within the mind of the consumer. Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Proctor and Gamble are examples of large companies that sift through the marketplace building extension upon extension. They are masters in the art of Positioning.

How, then, can positioning strategies apply on the local level?  Check back next month...

(CONTINUED NEXT MONTH).

© BrandVision Marketing. 2009. Matthew Scott Trueblood. All rights reserved.

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