Velly Bosega

Founder/CEO at Oak Ventures

Hi - my name's Velly, and I'm the founder of this platform.

I think the best way to grow is to get involved in conversations about how others make decisions about their businesses, lives, and choices. It's about hearing from other people who have made smart growth decisions based on results instead of dreams or desires. This is where I come in.

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Marketing

All You Need to Know About Brand Positioning Guidelines


By
Velly Bosega

Founder/CEO at Oak Ventures

2023-01-26

Developing brand positioning guidelines, or a brand positioning statement is an essential strategy for any business. Spending the time to develop these guidelines is necessary for forming the foundation of your marketing strategy and attracting the right customers. 


Brand positioning guidelines are all about establishing how your brand stands apart and what makes it unique. There are a few key areas you need to consider when putting these guidelines together. We’ll cover this in our guide below. 

What are Brand Positioning Guidelines?

Brand positioning guidelines are statements that describe what your business does, what makes it unique in its market, and how your business differentiates from competitors. The general goal of these guidelines is to establish how a customer will view your brand in a busy market. 


Without brand positioning guidelines in place, you won’t have a clear direction on how your brand will communicate, what problems it will address, or what target audience pain points it will aim to fix.

Why are Brand Positioning Guidelines Important?

Brand positioning guidelines are an essential part of any branding or marketing strategy. They are used to differentiate brands from their competitors and grab the attention of the business’s target customers. 


Without proper brand positioning, your brand will not stand out in its market. You’ll also struggle to create a marketing strategy that is unique or represents the specific benefits that a customer could gain from your brand. 


Effective brand positioning will also ensure all of your marketing messages are consistent, that they speak to the same pain points, and that the brand has a clear direction of focus in its communications. 

How to Develop Brand Positioning Guidelines

Before implementing any marketing tactics or trying to attract your target audience, it's important to strategically position your brand within its market. Let’s break down some of the key elements to help you achieve this. 

Establish Your Target Audience

You’ll need to have a clear idea of who your target customer is and what pain points they have. This is necessary for understanding how you can strategically position your brand in the market to match their desires.


There could be multiple audience segments within your target market - each with its own unique interests. Try to establish clear target audience personas and be as specific as possible about who they are and what interests and motivates them. 

Know What Problem You’re Solving

An essential part of developing brand positioning guidelines is understanding what problem your brand is addressing. Your guidelines should address this problem and reveal what solution you offer.


This goes back to understanding your target audience and their pain points. This should align with the problem and solution your brand positioning guidelines address. Laying this out will help your target customers see the benefits of your organisation. 

Set a Brand Promise

The brand promise closely aligns with the brand’s purpose or the benefits the brand offers its audience. What does your brand intend to do and how will it achieve this? This is a fundamental part of developing brand positioning guidelines. 


The key thing about developing your brand promise is establishing something distinctive about your brand. This involves coming up with a unique promise that appeals to your target audience and makes sense for the kind of solutions your brand is addressing. Try to define and articulate this promise as clearly as possible. 

Develop a Brand Purpose

Brand positioning guidelines point out more than just what your brand offers and how it operates. These guidelines should also consider why your brand exists beyond just making a profit. This is known as your brand purpose. 


Establishing this adds more authenticity to your brand and helps to add a more unique spin to how your brand is positioned in its market.


Developing strong brand positioning guidelines will help your brand stand apart in a noisy market, grab the attention of your customers, and display more value to your audience. If a brand doesn’t establish how it's unique and why it stands out from the competition, then it will struggle to attract customers. 

So, before you start marketing your business, make sure you understand what makes it unique and what areas you want to focus your brand messaging around. This will help all of your brand communications to make a far greater impact.