Learn about the 7 main brand positioning mistakes you should avoid

Many times we start a branding campaign with all our energies wanting to take on the world, it is normal, after all, the internet gives us a practically unlimited amount of audience, with all those people it is very easy to sell. It is there that we commit one of the great mistakes of brand positioning.

We see the market as something general and forget that its essence is make a transaction between a company that provides a solution concrete and a customer who has a problem individual.

That is why in this article we will tell you what brand positioning is and what the most common mistakes are. The big difference is that this content will not be the same as anything you have read out there. In it there is knowledge and learning that you will not find in other publications. You are ready?

If the answer is yes, continue reading?

What is brand positioning?

Brand positioning consists of placing the logo, that is, the visual identity of our brand, in the memory of our customers, and appearing right at the moment of the purchase decision.

Said in a much more poetic way by Kotler “positioning consists of designing the commercial offer in such a way that it occupies a precious place in the minds of consumers”.

If you want to know more, in this Brand Positioning Guide you will find all the necessary information to reference yourself on the subject.

Why is brand positioning so important?

Because being remembered increases sales. When we talk about branding, we are not just talking about being seen, but rather about lasting in the memory, about creating a memorable fact, event or experience surrounding our brand so that its mere memory becomes a trigger of positive emotions and sensations.

Most of the articles on the subject talk about very elementary mistakes such as: not being clear about the brand’s reason for being, not having a strong identity, a poorly made logo, not having a strategy, etc., etc.

While it is true that they are common mistakes, it is also true that most people who make them are beginners. We know that you are not a beginner and you are looking for something different, deeper and with more relevant information. That’s why we go to the practical tips.

Continue reading that now comes the best!

Mistake n° 1: The non-positioning

When someone says “my product is for everyone!” It’s like when we put diesel in a gasoline engine. It will not work!

Carrying out an abstract campaign, simply distributing content or advertisements without any logic does not give any results. There is a trident in every strategy that protects us from that mistake:

• set ourselves an objective;
• define our person;
• draw up an action plan.

It should always be the first three steps: knowing what you want, who you want to impact and how you will do it. And there are also other very common conceptual tools such as:

• the client’s journey (to detect points for improvement);
• sales funnel; (to drive the leads);
• purchase process (to implement the improvements).

If you look at them carefully, they are all tools that, in addition to performing a specific function, transform the general into a who, a where and a when. Don’t make this mistake with something as important as your brand, there is no marketing in general.

Mistake #2: Not trusting marketing

Marketing is a university discipline, which for more than a century has studied in detail the behavior of the buying/selling links of a society. We know very well that the profitability of your company is not a game or an experiment.

Would you leave something as complex and delicate as introducing your institutional image in the memory of your audience in the hands of an amateur?

That is why we alert you to this very common mistake that is not taking the power of marketing seriously. Work with professionals to make branding an investment instead of an expense.

Mistake #3: Not having a healthy connection to money

Continuing with the line of thought of the previous point, another big mistake is to think that marketing has no costs or to have that mentality that confuses expenses with investment. Marketing well done can mean investing 5 to earn 500if we do branding it is because it works and gives us a very high profit margin on the investment.

Marketing is a fundamental asset of the company and branding works with perceptions, subjectivities, images, colors, texts, that is: we will need a high quality team.

Quality, in turn, has two aspects that, although they seem opposite, are actually complementary:

• it demands resources, because it is expensive;
• it gives us resources, because it is what our clients pay for.

Therefore, it is not an issue under discussion. Always work with a clear, fair and reasonable budget to finance the quality of your brand positioning.

Mistake #4: Not trusting serotonin

Serotonin is the hormone of happiness and, as much as we turn the matter around, that state is the most relevant and significant for a person. Have you ever imagined that your brand produces that effect? But to have that power you need:

• a strong identity;
• a simple name to remember;
• a defined logo;
• a high level marketing team.

Think of it this way, if the basis of a strategy is to recognize the pain points of our person, the simple evocation of your brand will give them pleasure, because they will know how to solve their problem.

Coca Cola understood this better than anyone in its iconic 2009 branding campaign – Uncover Happiness.

Mistake #5: Forgetting about people

Buyer Persona, Branding Persona, personalize and interpersonal intelligence. All these are concepts oriented to humanize. For what purposes? Be more assertive when making strategic decisions to position our brand, generate empathy, add value to our offer, interpret and anticipate customer wishes.

The usefulness of these concepts is to automatically segment and they are very useful for a brand positioning strategy:

• buyer personas: who buys from us;
• brand persona: how our clients see us;
• personalization: add individual value;
• interpersonal intelligence: understand and anticipate your audience.

It is not just about being remembered, but about remain in the memory of someone in particular, in an active and differentiated way, influencing when making the purchase decision.

Mistake n°6: Separate the brand from the product/service

When the idea is to position our brand we can make definition errors and our positioning can be:

• insufficient and the brand is not perceived;
• excessive and generate a lot of wear and tear and even rejection;
• confusing and lead us to wrong conclusions;
• dubious and give us a bad image of the brand.

Do you know what this is due to? Because many times we confuse the brand with the product. That is why it is essential to become aware that brand and product are not the same and that each of them has its own marketing logic.

The direct objective of branding is to be memorable and trigger emotions.

Mistake #7: Thinking that selling increases sales

Let’s put it this way, a positive brand perception demands to generate positive value and many times selling out of place or to the wrong person can cause a feeling of invasion. That is why it is essential to understand that positioning is not selling.

Branding is a two-stage move, very different from other more direct and invasive types of marketing, if we seek to remain in the memory it is because we are committed to a lasting relationship, therefore the ideal is to appear only when the client needs us.

But how to get that? Understanding that the main objective is to create a memorable experience, the rest is done by your client with their imagination and their serotonin. That is our main advice, so that you can carry out your branding campaign successfully and increase your sales.

conclusion

We have reached the end of another article in which we wanted to show you the most common mistakes made by people who have a certain knowledge of marketing. Just because you don’t make beginner mistakes doesn’t mean you’re safe from making mistakes.

The more we advance as marketers, the more we must study, because our brand positioning mistakes can cost more; after all a beginner has nothing to lose and for us it is a matter of survival. We hope you have learned something new in this post and we wish you the best of luck with your campaign.

Interested in learning more about the subject? Then read our post Brand Consistency and learn how to keep your communication aligned with the values ​​and identity of your company!