What you can learn about brand positioning from stars of the Young Apprentice

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I settled down on Monday evening to watch another episode of my guilty pleasure that is the Young Apprentice. I love the standard apprentice, and consequently religiously watch all programming under the apprentice umbrella.

Whilst watching the show I noticed a few things, the first, that Harry M should have left, due to his dictator-style leadership skills, and the second, how little we know about branding.

Harry’s idea of coming up with a name, and that being the be all and end all of the branding strategy is a mistake that a lot of seasoned professionals even make when creating a new product. A brand is so much more than a name and a logo, which team Kinetic failed to represent through their pitches and in the boardroom.
This episode gave me the inspiration to immediately set about writing the latest blog post for Xposure focussing on brand positioning, team Kinetic take note!

Positioning is about the position that your brand occupies in a market, and in the minds of consumers. Given that Lord Sugar already told the teams who their audience were, a hard part was already finished. Strong brands with clear positioning will often have a unique and clear message within the minds of the target market.

Positioning can be achieved through several means, including brand name (personally, I wasn’t keen on the Raw idea), image, service standards, product guarantees, packaging and the way in which it is delivered. In fact, successful positioning usually requires a combination of these things.

There are lots of different aspects to consider when beginning your brand positioning, these are the top factors to constantly take into account when beginning your brand and when you come to positioning your brand in your target market.

1. Brand Attributes- This is what your brand delivers through services, features and benefits to customers.
2. Consumer Expectations- This is what your clients will know, and what potential clients should expect to receive from you.
3. Competitor Attributes- This involves what other brands available in your market offer and deliver through features and benefits to customers.
4. Price- How does your price compare with others that are available? This can help you discover where you stand in your market, and can dramatically affect your customer perceptions.
5. Customer Perceptions- This is the perceived quality and value of your brand in your consumers minds, for example, you could offer anything from cheap solutions, good value for money solutions or high end price tag options (or the promise that if you use it, you will be cool).
6. Is your brand significant and encouraging to its niche market? Do you actually address your audience in an appropriate manner and use language and imagery that they would understand and appreciate?
7. Is it appropriate to all major geographic markets and businesses? Do you need to tailor it for different locations or industries? Should you have sub-brands to attract different audiences?
8. Is it sustainable? Can it be delivered constantly across all points of contact with the consumers, from print, social media, radio, to (who can forget) TV adverts.
9. It is at this point, that you can begin experimenting with names for the brand, that will meet the expectations that you have previously decided. Harry M misjudged this and built his brand from the name, which can often, and did, lead to inconsistencies and a brand that is difficult to understand and appreciate.

10. Taglines also play an important part in brand position, a good idea when creating your tagline is to take into account, these three questions, what business is the brand in? What is its difference? And why should your consumers value this difference? Live it Raw!

11. As the market is ever-evolving, your brand needs to adapt in order to survive. Continual investment in the existing brand meaning, paired with creating sub-brands or even entirely new campaigns, can be really effective ways to remain current and important.

12. If you already have a brand position, however, it is not what you want, you can change your perception by either directly creating a product with a new and physical difference. You can also do it by communication, by finding a memorable and meaningful way to describe your product. Ries and Trout maintain that “positioning is not what you do to a product; positioning is what you do to the mind of your prospect”.

Brand positioning is effective and successful when the visual of a logo can stand alone and represent your brand, when your target market know what you represent as a brand and what you deliver for customers. If your audience knows what you as a brand represent and are buying from you with this in mind, then you have a successful brand.