Ries and Trout started a marketing revolution by focusing on positioning. They wrote about making your brand stand out in your prospects mind by making different from others. To me positioning is the way the brand fits inside the prospects personal story. Its been said that positioning is not what you say it is. It is defined by what your target audience says it is. I’m interested in how people create a position for a brand. I think it’s partly due to the way they experience the brand and the environment they experience it in.
How you get your prospects to understand your brand meaning can influenced by the story you help your audience create and tell about your brand. As part of the story, your brand can take the role of protagonist or antagonist. Archetypes and story arc make the story you are telling more familiar and relevant to the audience. Building these stories around your brand enables your audience to tell others about your, brand fuelling its equity. The way that the brand is spoken about defines your position. Storytelling therefore is essential if you to build a strong brand. More importantly if you do not invest in building a brand story any advertising and PR spend is going to be wasted.
Absolutely agree that the story counts for locking in the brand to the audience’s wants (the way they assess value). It is the piece that links two of the ‘differentiations’ in my piece here: http://www.pharmaphorum.com/2010/10/22/what-are-ideas-made-of-differentiation/
So many in the industry regard their differentiation as self-evident and forget to tell anyone why they should care…