Author's note: The following is an excerpt from my e-book, Marketing Tune Up: A turnkey guide for creating and implementing your marketing plan, planned for release in early Summer, 2006.

Branding is more than simply slapping your logo on a letterhead, sign or the side of a truck. Although there are loads of definitions, for our purposes, a brand is a promise. And guess what? You don’t even own it. It resides in the minds of your clients and customers. It’s their expectations about doing business with you. It’s your reputation in their minds. It’s their complete experience with your business.

Will it be a good experience or a bad one?

In as much as you don’t really “own” your brand, you do own your brand assets. Those are the elements you use to express your brand promise and make a connection with your clients. Brand assets can include your company name, logo, tagline, colors, typography, uniforms (or how you dress) and marketing materials such as brochures and websites. They’re all the sensory touch points that your audience has with your business. In addition to the visuals, companies are now moving toward using scent and sounds as part of their branding arsenal.

Beyond these, branding elements include your customer service, the interior design of your location, architecture, how you answer the phone and such.

Your branding efforts should be authentic, differentiating, sustainable and consistent.

It’s important to look at your business’ touch points from the point-of-view of your audience. Are you consistently fulfilling your brand’s promise? Do you make it easy to do business with you? Are your branding elements consistent across the board?

Positioning, on the other hand, is finding that place in your customers’ psyche where your brand will set up housekeeping. Think of it as the frame of the branding house.

The concept of positioning was introduced by Al Reis and Jack Trout in 1981. Going to the source seems to make sense. Here’s their definition of positioning from their book, Positioning: The battle for your mind,
“Positioning is an organized system for finding a window in the mind. It is based on the concept that communication can only take place at the right time and under the right circumstances.”

The thing with positioning is being first to the customer’s mind. In most cases, unless you’ve really got something new, you’re not going to be in first place. Trying to unseat Numero Uno is a tough act, if not impossible, for several reasons. Not the least of those is that by trying to unseat them, you’re essentially telling your prospects that they’re wrong. Folks generally don’t like to be told that.

Consider conducting a Competitive Analysis to find your competitors’ weaknesses. Then, do a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) Analysis to find your strengths. How can you use this information to spin your positioning message and find your niche in the customer’s mind?

Think about Hertz and Avis. Hertz historically held the number one spot. Avis, as we all know, is number two, but hey, they try harder. That’s their position - “We try harder.” Or what about 7-Up®’s losing battle to unseat Coke® and Pepsi®? Enter the “Uncola.” The rest was history.

Finding your position takes some creativity. What spot isn’t owned by your competitors? Which of your strengths can you play up without directly attacking the competition or telling your prospects they’ve been wrong all along?

If you’re a designer that might mean developing a specialty in an area nobody else is covering. Or, it might mean focusing on an under-served industry segment and learning all you can about it. In conjunction with your marketing and public relations, over time, you can become the number one choice for those prospects.

Sometimes, it can be accomplished by changing your job title or the names of your products or services. Instead of a “graphic designer” maybe you’re a “visual communications consultant,” or a “brand essence developer.” This is akin to what ValuJet did after one of its aircraft went down in the Florida Everglades. When that jet went down, their positioning quickly changed to “The risky airline.” In an almost immediate re-branding and positioning juggling act, they changed their name to AirTran. The company is now thriving as one of the top low-fare airlines, second only to Jet Blue.

The big idea here is to find a way to zig when your competitors are zagging. If you don’t, you run the very real risk of “me-too” marketing. When that happens, you can only compete on price and that’s a lousy place to be.

Once you’ve settled on your positioning, it’s time to look at your branding. Do they align? What needs to revised, updated or redone? Do all your marketing materials have a consistent look and tone? Do they support your position? A review of all your brand assets is needed to insure consistency across the board.

By carefully selecting your positioning and reinforcing it with savvy branding you'll find your marketing, over time, becomes a much easier task. It's easier because you've laid a solid foundation. Each new activity builds on the ones done before. You'll avoid the scattered, "try this and try that" approach. Let your competitors take that road to Feast Or Famineville.