A brand story, positioning statement and key message(s) are commonly confused with one another due to the similarity of the foundation and supporting points used to build them. Brands would benefit from building these assets in a sequential manner, and not jump between assets during conceptualisation.
Some brands struggle with developing their brand story, as well as their positioning statement and key messages. They struggle typically due to one of several reasons such as management does not believe in the use of the asset, or the founder thinks that their business is not unique or is a me-too; or the investor-stakeholder tries to put too many bells and whistles into the messaging.
We have found through our work with clients whether a start-up just beginning to start their marketing activities, or a SME/corporate looking to launch a new product in-market, that the struggle with these 3 brand assets stem from confusion around what they are and how will they be used.
By understanding what these assets are, and the reason for using them in a business roadmap, or a marketing plan, it will be easier to determine how much resource should be used to create them and where they can be best used.
What is a brand story?
Simply put, a brand story is a narrative. It is a story created by your brand to describe what your brand does, who your brand sells to, and a key emotion you want this audience to feel when they interact with your brand.
The brand story is important to people beyond the founder and pioneer team. The narrative can resonate with both employees and customers, supporting the building of community.
It is used to encourage engagement with your brand, and start to build a community and loyalty. Importantly, the brand story should drive emotion. Customers process emotions better than information and this leads to a better understanding of the brand and links to empathy. Empathy leads to trust and trust can drive revenue.
Your brand story can be the difference between a customer giving your product/service a try, even if they are unfamiliar with your brand.
How about a positioning statement?
A positioning statement is a description of the uniqueness or key differentiator of your product or service as well as which customer it serves best. It should explain why and how your product/service will add value to the customer and why it is better than the competitor.
Positioning comes before any type of messaging you want to share with the customer – regardless of whether the message is about your overall brand, a key product or a new service.
It is important because it influences and informs the business roadmap. The business roadmap goes on to serve as a guide for supporting functional teams, such as marketing, product and sales. For example, the roadmap determines what features are important to a specific customer profile, and influences pricing and the public agenda.
Why do we have key messages?
A key message(s) supports your positioning. This is a statement that you want a pre-defined target audience (for example, young families 40YO and below with children) to take away post-interaction or engagement with your brand.
It has to be precise and serve as a summation of what you do, how you are different and the value to the pre-defined target audience.
Don’t worry, you can have more than 1 key message for each pre-defined target audience. The general practice is 3 key messages per group, and as many target groups as your brand requires.
Management might ask, who cares if the positioning and the messages are the same? The customer does not know any better.
Unfortunately, the customer does. No one likes being sold to through a template. Everyone assumes their needs are different, despite being 95 percent similar.
Confusion begins when the context, environment, description, usage and delivery in start to overlap into similar-sounding statements and copy.
What often happens with a blended positioning-messaging statement is it starts to get used across different channels, for example, sales documents, social media pages and even press materials.
The statement starts to define the product or service even though it does not build up to the desired outcome. This is because it was crafted without considering where it is used and whom it is directed toward.
This creates confusion amongst the audience; and they leave for a competitor that offers simpler and clearer information.
What outcomes can we expect from properly developed brand assets?
A good brand story encourages customers that are new-to-your-brand to try your product and services. Getting a prospect to try your product is a critical step towards converting them into a purchase, and hopefully become a long-term customer.
Positioning will help a brand set the right foundation for the brand, product or service.
A position should be medium to long-term and consistent throughout the brand.
Messages can adapt to the external environment and the audience as they shift due to various reasons.
Having good key messages confers many advantages for sales and marketing. It can be used for information distribution, awareness and education-building purposes.
We are Brand Utility is a business consultancy. We work with brands in the corporate, professional services, retail, travel and technology spaces.
Our principal consultant is a registered management consultant, certified and recognised by the Institute of Management Consultants Singapore.
We offer strategy and tactics to support growth outcomes - revenue, scale, regional expansion and market entry – for our clients.
Areas of support include:
· Strategic communications: Approach to market, brand concept and map, positioning, messaging, story and narrative, thought leadership
· Marketing: Campaign/programme planning, story-based marketing execution, digital marketing, community amplification, content planning and production, go-to-market execution
· Lead generation: Digital advertising, social media advertising, social commerce, e-commerce
· Integration of marketing with business operations: We plan and execute as a seconded marketing and/or PR lead for your brand
Discover more about our services at our website or book an exploratory consultation through this link.
Photo by Andre Mouton on Unsplash