Personal Brands: Check Your Positioning Statement

How you position yourself as a brand is easily one of the most important decisions you make as you venture into the personal branding space. Remember, the positioning statement is not your differentiation or competitive position, but rather a statement of precisely how you would like to be perceived in the eyes of the customer. If you don’t communicate your positioning , you leave your position up to chance and up to the market to determine how you’re perceived.

No one person can be everything to all people, we know this. Yet time and time again, you see would-be personal brands that have yet to solidify who they are and make a decision on who they are NOT going to be. Consistency is important. You need to live up to your perception, no matter who you’re with and what you’re working on. 

In his book, Selling the Invisible, Harry Beckwith states:

A position (or statement of position) is a coldhearted, no-nonsense statement of how you are perceived in the minds of your prospects.

The funny thing about a positioning statement is that it’s some of the hardest work that will never be seen by anyone, but that will be experienced by everyone.  This isn’t something that you post on your blog or as part of your bio, but rather, it’s something that stays with you as an internal guide to who you want to be and how you want to be perceived.  There’s no hype, no BS and no room for being anything other than 100% honest with yourself here.

The Positioning Statement Formula

There are many different formulas online for doing positioning statements, but this is one of my favorites from an HBR case that we use to teach the concept of positioning.

Among [TARGET MARKET], ____[x]____ is the brand of [PRODUCT/SERVICE/FRAME OF REFERENCE], that [POINT OF DIFFERENCE] because  [REASON TO BELIEVE].

For example, “Among snackers, Snickers is the brand of candy bar that satisfies your hunger because it is packed with peanuts.”

While filling in the blanks may seem easy, it actually requires a fair bit of thought.  Let’s dive into each of these:

Target Market – Who do you want to serve? No, the world is not your target…

Product/Service/Frame of Reference – This is your frame of reference for how you compete. This also helps to define what business you’re in. If you’re in a very competitive space and you’re an alternative to something that’s well established, you’ll want to choose your frame of reference carefully in order to give your target the food for thought they need to make a decision.

Point of Difference – What differentiates you?  What’s the most compelling reason to choose you over someone else?

Reason to Believe – Why should people believe you? What do you do that guarantees the promise you’re making in your positioning statement? Why are you able to do what you say you can do?

Looking for a good “why us” example? Check out the Why Cisco? page on Cisco’s website.