How to create the perfect positioning statement

What is the secret to stand out in a crowd?

As my quest for the perfect positioning statement continues I decided to share my thought process and the way to develop the best position statement for any business.

A position is what people think of you. The cold truth of what people think. A positioning statement on the other hand is what we want people to think of us. How we want our company to be perceived. 

So why do we need positions and positioning statements?

Well it’s quite simple really. Positioning statements will make your word of mouth so much more powerful. For example if you operate a cleaning services company in Perth, people will not give a rats bum that you operate a services company in Perth.

If you have a powerful positioning statement such as that you are Australia’s original cleaning services company or Perth's Original Services Company then you have a much more power behind you and people will be more inclined to use you. It shows that you are serious about cleaning. You have been around. So when people are looking for cleaning services – who are they more inept to hire? The cleaning services company or the original cleaning service company? 

Here are my tips for creating the best positioning statement strategy.
1. Who
2. What
3. For whom
4. What need
5. Against whom
6. What’s the difference
7. So…

Ask yourself this and have seven good answers.

Samples: This is what most companies use as their positioning statements as viewed by their customers. (Dont' use this as your template to follow as I write this sample to illustrate the point how most service companies are perceived by their clients.)

1. Who? “ABC Oil and Gas Engineering”
2. What? “is a small oil and gas engineering services firm”
3. For whom? “that serves smaller clients who want pretty good quality but cannot pay, or do not want to pay for services of larger firms”

4. Against whom? “Unlike its bigger and better known companies”
5. What’s different? “ABC Oil and Gas Engineering is smaller, less experienced, and not as outstanding (remember this is what other people think. The hard cold blooded truth.”
6. So… “but because of that, they charge less, so you save money.” 

Hopefully this will help you with your own branding and how to create the perfect positioning statements. I am off to keep working on my own branding strategy in Perth for this new company that I can't really reveal yet. :)