http://www.smallbusinessbranding.com/382/a-funny-story-and-the-difference-between-positioning-and-branding-part-1/ Small Business Branding and Marketing Advice and Commentary Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:17:08 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.smallbusinessbranding.com/382/a-funny-story-and-the-difference-between-positioning-and-branding-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-505 cyma Sun, 15 Jan 2006 23:21:34 +0000 http://www.smallbusinessbranding.com/?p=382#comment-505 by Rob Gelphman 02/03 Often what goes wrong with marketing campaigns bent on creating a brand is the underlying strategy. When it fails, those responsible for execution-such as PR and advertising people- are blamed. Perhaps, the execution itself isn't the problem, but rather it's the strategy being executed that's flawed. The disconnect is that too many VPs of marketing and their product managers pursue a branding campaign when it is positioning that is required. Compounding the problem is that many folks don't know the difference between the two. Brand creation is expensive, time consuming, and is primarily intended to generate an emotional response from the intended audience. Commodity-type products with minimal differentiation among competing offerings are generally best served via branding. Positioning, it could be argued, is brand’s counterpart, requiring the demonstration of real value. Positioning can be done in a much shorter time frame (months, not years), and is significantly less expensive. For many industries and companies, positioning is the best strategy for improving sales and market share, not branding. Besides the cost and time factors, branding is difficult to measure and does not always show up in the form of sales. by Rob Gelphman 02/03
Often what goes wrong with marketing campaigns bent on creating a brand is the underlying strategy. When it fails, those responsible for execution-such as PR and advertising people- are blamed. Perhaps, the execution itself isn’t the problem, but rather it’s the strategy being executed that’s flawed. The disconnect is that too many VPs of marketing and their product managers pursue a branding campaign when it is positioning that is required. Compounding the problem is that many folks don’t know the difference between the two.
Brand creation is expensive, time consuming, and is primarily intended to generate an emotional response from the intended audience. Commodity-type products with minimal differentiation among competing offerings are generally best served via branding.
Positioning, it could be argued, is brand’s counterpart, requiring the demonstration of real value. Positioning can be done in a much shorter time frame (months, not years), and is significantly less expensive. For many industries and companies, positioning is the best strategy for improving sales and market share, not branding. Besides the cost and time factors, branding is difficult to measure and does not always show up in the form of sales.

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