A Targeting Tune-Up helps make sure you’re:

- Reaching the people you really need to reach
- Conveying the right message - benefits that resonate for your brand
- Using the right language and tone
- Setting yourself apart from your competition

Positioning Statement - - the key to effective strategy

A Positioning Statement is a standard marketing tool that is harder to write than it looks. And getting it right is absolutely essential in zeroing in on what key benefit your brand delivers better than the competition, and why people should believe you. The template is simple but will force hard work in filling in the blanks.

A positioning statement will look something like this:

For [definition of your target audience], [your brand] is the [description of the segment where you compete] that best delivers on [your unique brand promise] because [your brand], and only [your brand], has [reason to believe/proof].

Here’s an example positioning statement for Nike:

“For athletes in need of high-quality, fashionable athletic wear, Nike provides customers with top-performing sports apparel and shoes made of the highest quality materials. Its products are the most advanced in the athletic apparel industry because of Nike's commitment to innovation and investment in the latest technologies.”

HOW IT WORKS

(The goal is to give you sound recommendations that you can immediately put to use):

1. Call or meeting where you describe where you’ve been and where you’d like to go - and we describe how we can add value. If we decide to proceed, we sign a mutual NDA, and you provide company info and any relevant context.

2. We take a look at your information - customer data, consumer research, website traffic, past studies, whatever is appropriate. Often this involves digging deep into data that clients typically have no time to truly analyze. There are usually hidden gems in the data.

3. We summarize what we saw in your information - - what we see as key messages from your marketing, whether your separate elements are telling a consistent story, what claims you can make based on tumbling the numbers, and how you seem to compare with competition on key criteria (ideally including value, quality and innovation). If there is a need to augment the information we will make a separate, formal proposal and proceed accordingly.

4. When all data has been analyzed, we present a customer persona, brand positioning statement, and competitive analysis, all of which serve as key templates for your go-to-market efforts — who you’re trying to reach, what you should be saying, how you can have the strongest competitive position, and how best to talk about your advantages. A comprehensive report accompanies these findings.

5. We recommend strategic and tactical steps you might consider to improve your consumer, competitor or industry position going forward — with the goal of maximizing your competitive differentiation and driving volume.