Save your marketing budget: position first, brand second

Imagine spending $20,000 on a beautiful paint job for your house, only to watch it crack and peel within months because the rotting siding underneath wasn't repaired first. That's the same costly mistake businesses make when they invest in expensive branding before establishing their positioning. While your logo, colors, and website might look stunning initially, without solid positioning as the foundation, your marketing dollars are essentially being poured down the drain.

Getting your positioning right isn't just about strategy; it's about making every marketing dollar work harder for your business. It's the difference between your marketing budget disappearing into the void and creating real, measurable impact. But what exactly is positioning? It's the clear, strategic decision about who you serve, why you matter to them, and how you're different from others in your market.

Most agencies want to get right to the sexy part of your logo, colors and look. The consequences of skipping the essential positioning work can be devastating. Look at Quibi, the streaming service that launched in 2020 with $1.75 billion in funding and a star-studded lineup. Despite beautiful branding and marketing, they failed within six months because their positioning was fundamentally flawed – they assumed people wanted premium short-form content exclusively on mobile devices, without validating this position in the market.

Or consider RadioShack's failed attempt to reposition itself as a hip electronics retailer without first understanding its core customer base and true market differentiation. Their expensive rebranding efforts couldn't save them from bankruptcy because they hadn't solved their fundamental positioning problem.

Marketing today is harder than ever

We're all fighting for attention in an increasingly noisy digital world. Without clear positioning, even substantial advertising budgets get swallowed up in that noise. But when you nail your positioning first, your marketing cuts through the clutter because you're speaking directly to the right people about what matters to them.

This requires making tough choices. You'll need to be willing to say who you're not for – and that makes many business owners uncomfortable. But here's the truth: trying to appeal to everyone means connecting with no one.

Poor positioning manifests in painful ways:

• Sales cycles that drag on because prospects don't immediately understand your value

• Price resistance because customers see you as interchangeable with competitors

• Marketing campaigns that generate lots of leads but few qualified prospects

• Team confusion about which opportunities to pursue

But strong positioning doesn't mean limiting your long-term growth potential. Consider Amazon's journey. When they launched, they didn't try to be everything to everyone. They started as a book seller and owned that space completely. I remember their ad painted on the side of a large grain silo in downtown Portland, Oregon that said something to the effect of "Even all of the books we carry wouldn't fit in here". You immediately think "that's a helluva lot of books."

Then they started adding more and more products until they became the source for everything. In the beginning, you went to Amazon for books because they made it easy, fast and had pretty much any book you'd want. You didn't have to think. They created a great experience that you'd come back to. Which made it easier to add products because you already trusted them that they'd deliver.

Positioning is logical and rational.

It's grounded in reality and fact (gone are the days when you could just use advertising to create a position in someone's mind). Branding is emotional and visceral. This is where you tell the stories that bring your positioning to life. You need both. We humans buy with emotion and rationalize with data. Start with good positioning and your emotions have substance. They're not fleeting.

While you may want to expand your market in the future, when you're launching a new brand or product, you need to narrow your focus. Figure out where you want to go and who you're for in the long run so you have that roadmap. But zero in on who your most important customers and prospects are for the next year or two.

Positioning isn't just a marketing exercise – it's the foundation of a successful business strategy. The time you invest in getting it right will pay dividends in more effective marketing, shorter sales cycles, and stronger customer relationships.

Is your business built on solid positioning, or are you seeing cracks in your marketing foundation?

Let's talk about it. Book a fit call with us to explore how we can help you build a high-performance brand that starts with positioning done right.