Ten Ways to Successfully Position Your Brand in Overcrowded Markets

Today, brand managers are increasingly at a loss about how to differentiate their brands. In most product and service categories, every unique and purchase motivating position has been claimed by one or more brands. Product and service categories have matured, brand research has gotten sophisticated and competitors have successfully filled all of the brand positioning niches. So what is a brand manager to do to discover a new unique and compelling brand position?

Here are some ideas:

1. Identify, create and own a new "category of one." The Strong National Museum of Play did this by repositioning its brand from a children's museum to the only museum of play. 
2. Through qualitative research, discover one or more compromises all of the brands in the category are making with their consumers and then design a business model and brand to overcome these compromises. CarMax did this vis-a-vis traditional used car dealerships and Uber did this vis-a-vis traditional taxicab companies. 
3. Choose a valued benefit that has never been a part of the category. Apple did this with the introduction of smartphone apps. Southwest Airlines did this by owning "fun."
4. Add an element to the brand that no other competitor in the category has added. Opaque did this. It introduced the concept of dining in the dark. 
5. Make an outrageous version of a traditional product. Check out Loudmouth Golf for wild clothes. 
6. Combine two or more products into one or two or more functions into one product. Victorinox Swiss Army was one of the first to do this with its knives. 
7. Focus on a niche market or on one market segment. Orvis and lululemon do this, as does Lane Bryant. 
8. Create a character that gives the brand a distinctive personality. Kellogg's Tony the Tiger was one of the first, but GEICO's gecko,  Progressive Insurance's Flo and Jamie and Pistachio's elephant, Ernie are also examples of this. 
9. Go left when everyone else is going right. Naomi Klein did this with her No Logo book when everyone else was writing about the power of brands.
10. Use a new material or technology that no one else is using. SmartSolve has created environmentally friendly dissolving paper, pouches, labels, thread, tape and adhesive. 

What do all of these approaches have in common? Out-of-the-box thinking.  None of these brands would have become what they became if their managers had applied linear or incremental thinking. 

If you are interested in this topic, here are some other blog posts that might be of interest to you:

• Branding in Highly Competitive Categories
• Differentiating on the Unexpected
• 50 Ways to Differentiate Your Brand
• 6 Powerful Ways to Differentiate Your Brand
• Sources of Brand Differentiation
• Creating "Category of One" Brands
• Creating "Category of One" Brands
• Breaking Customer Compromises
• Branding Water
• Just for Fun - The Loudmouth Brand

By the way, the Interceptor vehicle pictured above is a car, boat, plane and helicopter all in one, applying idea #6 above.

Dissecting the Apple Brand

While Apple has never been a client of mine, I have been an Apple customer for years. I am writing this blog post from a MacBook Air attached to my iPhone while listening to iTunes. I am writing this because the brand has been a very successful iconic brand and I thought it would be fun to explore the brand positioning, personality and associations. These thoughts and observations are purely my own and may not reflect the actual brand position or promise.

First, the brand is simple and easy to use. In fact, it is intuitive. When I switched from a Microsoft computer and operating system to an Apple computer and operating system, I did not refer to any instruction manual. I just turned the device on and started using it.

Second, it is sleek and aesthetically pleasing. Its design is minimalist. It and my Tesla Model 3 have that in common. In fact, my iPhone pairs nicely with my Tesla and my Bang & Olufsen headphones have an external volume control that works seamlessly with Apple devices. I feel that these brands fit well together because they share a focus on excellence, innovation and clean design aesthetic.

Apple has not been an open platform. It controls what software is used with its devices, almost eliminating compatibility problems, speeding up processing time and making it more difficult for viruses and malware.

Apple has become the un-Microsoft brand. Put another way, it has become the superior alternative to Microsoft-powered devices. People have tired of the problems associated with Microsoft-based platforms, especially related to computer security, viruses and malware.

In-store customer service is top-shelf, furthering the hassle-free intuitively easy nature of the brand. And the stores reinforce the design aesthetic of the brand.

Apple is an innovative company and is not afraid of creating something new that makes a previous product obsolete. Witness iPods. They are not afraid of anticipating customer needs and desires and are happy to deliver benefits that customers had not even imagined. The creation of iPhone apps is an example of this.

The cross-compatibility and communication between all of Apple's devices is another positive aspect of the brand.

Brand marketing emphasizes the "cool" factor of the brand.

Steve Jobs was a visible entrepreneur associated with the brand.

There is a certain social cache associated with using the brand. All of the above, plus its higher price points, reinforce this.

Empowered and engaged employees would indicate careful hiring practices. In fact, it has been said that Apple managers ask three questions of potential job candidates: (1) Do they display grit? (2) Can they deliver a Ritz-Carlton level of customer service? and (3) Could they have gone toe-to-toe with Steve Jobs?

Related to this, Apple's culture seems to be one dedicated to discovery and excellence.

Considering all of these positive traits together, it is no wonder that Apple is a top global brand.

For my take on why Amazon.com is also a top brand, click here.

Using Lexicon to Build Brand Mystique

Some activities have their own lexicon, as do some brands. When I was growing up, I fished for muskies, walleye, perch and bass with my family. We took an annual two week vacation at Black Lake and spent much of our time fishing. Later in life, I took up fly fishing. In regular fishing, people sometimes use bobbers to indicate when a fish strikes. In fly fishing, these floating devices are called indicators. And in fly fishing, the study of etymology is critical. An attractor is an impressionistic fly pattern tied with certain fish-enticing characteristics. And one must know the meaning of caddis, callibaetis, chironomid, comparadun and Czech nymphing - and that is just a very small example of fly fishing terms beginning with the letter C.  Clearly fly fishing is more high-brow than bass fishing. 

Sailing has its own terms too. A sailor must know the difference between port and starboard. And one must know the difference between a close reach, a beam reach and a broad reach. It is really important to know the difference between tacking and jibing. And there are lots of terms for boat parts - i.e. halyards, a boom vang, a topping lift, stanchions and a windlass. 

And consider some surfing terms - focusing on just the terms beginning with C again - carving, charging, cheater five, choka, chowder, clidro, closeout, clucked, cranking, cripples and cutback. 

These terms seem to create a shared secret language or lexicon. It is a way to talk with precision about the essence and art of your activity. And it lets you know that the other person is part of your club. 

Brands also create their own lexicon. Consider Starbucks with its short, tall, grande, venti and trenta drink sizes. And how about skinny drinks and leaving room? Starbucks also introduced frappuccinos and macchiatos, terms people had not heard of related to the Maxwell House, Folgers or Sanka coffee brands. 

And consider Harley-Davidson related terms - ape hangers, bobber or bobtail, blockhead and chopper. And how about the Duo-Glide, Dyna Glide, Electra Glide, Hydra Glide, Super Glide, Tour Glide and Wide Glide, which are all Harley-Davidson registered terms?

And of course Apple has iMacs, iOS, iPhone, iPad, iPod, iTunes, iBooks, iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD.

Brand-specific lexicon helps people feel the bond of a shared language. It can lead to the sense of being an insider and even to a cult-like emotional connection to the brand. Consider what creating a brand-specific lexicon might do for your brand. 

When The Buzz is Gone

How can you tell when a brand is vital and on the rise? Conversely, how can you tell when a brand and its equity are fading? Buzz. That's right, buzz.

Remember when Amazon.com was first launched? Remember all of the buzz around Jeff Bezos and Amazon.com? And Jeff Bezos still receives a huge amount of buzz. Fortune magazine featured him as Lord Vishnu on its January 2016 cover. Or how about Elon Musk and Tesla Motors? And then there is Donald Trump. Commentators frequently talk about how he sucks all of the oxygen out of any room in which he speaks. And news networks have been blamed for focusing the vast majority of their political news on him. Wegmans gets endless free publicity as towns and municipalities beg to have one of its stores located in their burgs and especially when one does arrive in their communities. Dove received endless free publicity with its "real beauty" campaign. Google continues to receive a lot of buzz, as does YouTube. Apple is still up there as is Samsung and Android.

On the flip side, have you heard anything about these brands lately? OfficeMax. Dress Barn. BlackBerry. Nokia. Volvo. SAAB. LivingSocial. MySpace. Sony. Sears. Radio Shack. A&P. Quiznos. Old Milwaukee. Michelob Light. Quicksilver.

I didn't think so.

Do you want a quick read on the strength of a specific brand? Think about its buzz. Does it have any? Is everyone talking about the brand or have you not heard anyone talk about the brand in years? Perform a Google search on the brand's name. How many entries does it have? Are they recent? Have major publications written substantial stories about the brand? Has it been featured on their covers? Are news networks talking about the brand? Have you talked about the brand today or in the past week?

Buzz is a simple indicator of brand strength.

Trade Dress

Trade dress is a form of legal protection for a brand. Trade dress is a brand’s distinctive aesthetic design features (package or product design). To be protectable, trade dress must be nonfunctional and distinctive (or have acquired a “secondary meaning,” that is, source-identifying characteristics). The more nonfunctional differentiating features one can build into a product and its packaging, the more likely it will be that infringement can be proved.

It is easy for a competitor to say “I developed this very similar product independently” when it is fairly generic (such as a birthday card with a floral design that says simply “happy birthday”). It is more difficult to convince a courtroom of that claim when your product has many of the same random, nonfunctional elements that a competitor’s product has (e.g., a line of greeting cards of an unusual size that open from the top with rounded edges printed on green-tinted recycled paper, all at 99 cents, and all addressing the theme of friendship). For a competitor to develop a similar line of cards with similar features independently is highly unlikely. It points to copying.

To protect its trademarks and trade dress, a company must constantly be watchful for and strenuously defend against infringement. For instance, Apple has filed several lawsuits to defend its iPhone against knockoffs, winning a major legal battle against Samsung in summer 2013. Trademark rights can be enforced through lawsuits at a state or federal level. Proving infringement requires proof that the infringer had second use of the mark and that the second user’s mark is confusingly similar to the senior party’s mark.

When launching brand extensions, companies should be careful to maintain the same brand identity and trade dress in those new items. If the brand’s name and logo are the only common elements across all of a brand’s products, it weakens the power of the other trade dress elements to differentiate and legally protect the mark.

Excerpted from Legal Issues in Brand Management chapter, Brand Aid, second edition, available here.

Vacuous Brand Claims

Every so often, I run into marketers who are more interested in coming up with catchy slogans than creating real brand promises. They want something that sounds good. Sometimes they even want something that seems versatile, that is, that could help make any point or say anything. But they are not focusing on the one thing that can make the brand stand apart, its relevant differentiated benefits or shared values and they cannot support their slogan with proof points or "reasons to believe."

Brands need to pick promises and slogans that cannot also work for many other brands in their categories. The promises and slogans need to apply uniquely to them.

The brand positioning exercise is all about claiming something that is unique, compelling, purchase motivating and believable for the brand in question. It is not just about coming up with something that sounds good. 

Here are some examples of pretty lame brand slogans or tag lines that were created without doing the tough brand positioning work first:

• [brand]: It's got it!
• [brand]: The place to be
• [brand]: Tomorrow starts here
• [brand]: Get into it
• [brand]: Together for a better tomorrow
• [brand]: Leading the way
• [brand]: Making good things happen
• [brand]: Innovating the future

Admittedly, short catchy tag lines can work if they support unique and compelling brand positions. For instance:

• Nike: Just do it
• Subway: Eat fresh
• Verizon: Better matters
• Coke: It's the real thing
• Apple: Think Different

Each of these was created to support a very specific brand position. 

When positioning or repositioning your brand, come up with something that is a powerful differentiator that can't be used by competitive brands. Also pick something that has a very clear meaning and can't be used to make almost any point. Brands need to stand for one thing (or two things at the most). If you are trying to make too many different points about your brand, people will not be able to recall any of the points. If you think the tag lines in the first list are good, I would recommend that you read my book, Brand Aid, second edition. You might change your mind after reading it.

Trademark Law

As a brand steward, you must be aware of the laws under which legal protection is available. First, trademark law protects a brand’s identity. That is, it protects names, titles, taglines, slogans, logos, other designs, product shapes, sounds, smells, colors, or any other features that distinguish one source of products or services from another. Trademarks that protect services are often called service marks (“SM”). There are also “collective membership marks” (e.g., Boy Scouts of America) and “certification marks” (e.g., UL approved). Harley-Davidson filed to federally register the sound of its motorcycle engines. Dirt Devil vacuum cleaners are strongly associated with the color red. Geico owns the gecko icon. 

Trademarks, like brands, build in strength over time. The test for trademark infringement is “confusing similarity.” Put another way, if the average consumer believes both products to have come from the same source, there is infringement. Obviously, the more a consumer is familiar with a particular brand, the more defendable its mark. That’s why it behooves a company to do the following:

• Choose a distinctive mark, including a “coined” name. As I mentioned in the chapter on brand identity, brand names range from generic and descriptive to suggestive and arbitrary or fanciful (“coined”). Obviously it takes longer to build meaning for coined names, but they are also more distinctive and easiest to protect legally. Kodak, Xerox, and Exxon fall in that category. Suggestive marks are the next most protectable. Examples include Coppertone, Duracell, and Lestoil. Even common words can be used as trademarks as long as they are not used descriptively. These common words/phrases are also suggestive marks: Amazon (big), Twitter (brief and chatty), and Apple (different, offbeat). Descriptive marks are not protectable unless the brand creates a secondary meaning for the word, such as Weight Watchers, Rollerblade, or Wite-out. Generic marks, such as Shredded Wheat and Super Glue, are not protectable at all.
• Avoid geographic names as a part of your mark—they can be the basis of trademark refusal.
• Register the mark.
• Be consistent in the use of the mark.
• Create strong trade dress (as discussed later in this chapter).
• Widely advertise and distribute its trademarked products.
• Do all of this over a long period of time.

Because the strength of a mark is dependant upon consumers’ familiarity with it, it is much easier for a competitor to neutralize your mark soon after it has been introduced than after it has been in use for a long period of time. Courts use the following tests to determine infringement:

• Strength of the trademark claiming infringement.
• Similarity of the two marks.
• Evidence of consumer confusion.
• Care a consumer takes in comparing products.
• Intent of the organization in using the potentially infringing mark. (Some drugstores and grocery stores use generic brands that emulate a leading brand’s package shape, colors, typestyle, formulation, etc., and display the product side-by-side with the leading brand to imply that there are no differences between the two, encouraging consumers to purchase the lower-priced generic item. In this situation, there is clearly intent to emulate the leading brand and reduce the perceived differentiation and value advantage of that brand, but it is not clear that there is intent to deliberately cause confusion as to source.)
• Relatedness of the two businesses.
• Overlap between communication and distribution channels.

By using the mark in association with your products and services over time, you gain trademark protection. Registering your mark (marks can be registered at the state and federal levels) provides additional protection. Although common law and federal trademark statute protect an unregistered mark, registering your mark transfers the burden of proof to the second comer in challenging a mark’s registration. With federal registration, you can sue infringers in federal court. Also, after five years of registration, the mark becomes incontestable. Federal trademark registrations last ten years and can

be renewed every ten years ad infinitum.

You can acquire trademark rights in one of two ways. To acquire trademark rights based on use in commerce, you must be the first person or organization that uses the mark in conjunction with the products or services for which trademark protection is sought. To acquire the mark base on intent to use, you must apply to  register the mark through the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Before choosing a trademark, first conduct a simple search to weed out marks that are not available. This search can be done online for free (for a list of online resources go to www.brandforward.com). After that, for the remaining candidates, conduct a full search through a law firm specializing in trademark law or through an experienced trademark search firm.

Strong brands run the danger of becoming category descriptors. Always use trademarks as adjectives, not verbs or nouns. If your brand is in danger of becoming a category descriptor, consider talking about your brand in the following way that differentiates the brand from the category. For example: “Jell-O® gelatin,” “Kleenex® facial tissue,” and “Xerox® photocopier.”

Note: I am not a lawyer and this blog post is not legal advice, but rather is meant merely to help you consider the legal issues in brand management. When actually dealing with any specific issues in this area, please consult with lawyers who have an expertise in intellectual property law.

(c) 2016 Brad VanAuken. Reprinted from Brand Aid, second edition.

Brands and Happiness

One lens through which you can view your brand is, "How does my brand bring happiness to people's lives?" Does your brand make people happy? Does it make their lives easier? Is is surprising or unexpected in some way? Is aesthetically pleasing or beautiful? Is it charming? Is it amusing? Is it funny? Does it help people save time or money? Is it an indulgence? Is it quirky? Is it intuitively easy to use? Does it convey status?

Consider GEICO's gecko. Or Apple's product design. Or Dos Equis' Most Interesting Man in the World. How about iPhone's Siri? Or the scent of a Cinnabon product? Or the anthropomorphic M&M characters? Or the latest Hermès scarf design? Or the feeling of driving a brand new MINI? Or Harley-Davidson bike? Or even the simplicity of Swiffer house cleaning products? Consider the friendliness of your local Starbucks barista. 

How does your brand bring happiness to people's lives?

States of Mind

When I think of evocative brand names - Pandora, Hotwire, Apple, Gateway, Tesla, Amazon, Uber, AXE - or when I think of evocative advertising imagery, from the cigarette ads of yesteryear (Marlboro) to today's pharmaceutical ads (Lunesta), it makes me think of how important signaling a state of mind is. This led me to inventory different states of mind that people seek or to which they aspire. Here is the list I compiled (in no particular order):

• Tranquility/serenity
• Freedom
• Expansiveness
• Effortlessness
• Anger
• Rebellion 
• Discovery
• Delight
• Naughtiness
• Playfulness
• Complete letting go
• Uninhibited
• Letting off steam
• Complete control
• Adulation
• Debauchery 
• Animal magnetism
• Unbridled bliss
• Sexual release
• Lightness
• Belonging
• Complete acceptance
• A sense of being home
• Longing
• Nostalgia
• Venturing into the unknown
• Testing the outer limits of achievement
• Taking risks, living on the edge
• Flirting with danger or mortality
• Instigating drama
• Feeling completely safe and secure
• Melancholy 
• Tantalizing the senses
• Surrounded by beauty
• Complete comfort
• Complete luxury
• Complete indulgence
• To be completely satiated
• In the chase
• Striving
• Living completely in the moment
• Flow state

My point with this is that brands, through names, identity systems, advertising and other imagery can tap into and evoke these deeply sought after states of mind ... and that will sell products.

Different Types of Brand Benefits

I have often said that their are four types of brand benefits: (1) functional, (2) emotional, (3) experiential and (4) self-expressive. In addition to this there are values that the brand might share with its customers. Let's explore examples of each of these using one brand and one product - the Apple MacBook Air. (This just happens to be the computer from which I am writing this post.)

What are some of its functional benefits?

• It is small and light, almost as small and light as a iPad, making it easy to transport to meetings and when traveling through airports.
• As with all Apple machines, it powers up quickly and powers down quickly. This is due to integrated software, and in the case of my laptop computer, a solid state hard drive. This becomes very beneficial when one has only five or ten minutes to use the computer (while waiting in a hotel lobby, during meeting breaks or during airport layovers).
• It syncs well with my iPad, iPod and iPhone. I can play my iTunes music off of any one of them and it transfers easily from one device to the other. 
• It is less susceptible to computer viruses so I don't need anti-virus software and it is less likely to freeze or malfunction due to malware.

What are its emotional benefits?

• I feel good about having one of the best computers around. I feel secure that it will turn on and work every time I try to use it.
• The name Apple just makes me feel good. It is a more approachable name than that of many other computers.

What are its experiential benefits?

• I like the look of the backlit keys on the keypad.
• I like the touch of the keypad. 
• I like the smooth rounded corners on the laptop.
• I like the way the hinge works when I open or close the laptop - very smooth.
• I like the way the plug attaches magnetically to the laptop and I like the green light showing me it is attached properly.
• I like the look of the backlit apple on the laptop cover.
• I like the sleekness of the device.
• I like the texture of the brushed aluminum body.
• I like the intuitive way that the operating system works.
• It pairs perfectly with my Bang + Olufsen headphones, whose volume control is designed to work with Apple devices.

What are its self-expressive benefits?

• The computer signals that I like quality products.
• It signals that I appreciate finer things.
• It signals that I am willing to spend more for better quality.

What values does Apple share with me?

• An appreciation of aesthetics.
• An appreciation of finer things.
• The love of innovation.

I have not listed all of its benefits and as you can see, some benefits interact with and support one another. If I were to summarize the benefits from my perspective it would be - high quality, easy to use, aesthetically pleasing and tactilely attractive. It is sophisticated yet very approachable. 

Seven Absolutely Brilliant Brand Names

Brand names need to be short, easy to pronounce, easy to remember, allude to the brand's benefit and evoke positive emotions. They also need to be legally protectable. Here are the brand names I like best and my reasons why.

• Amazon.com - Amazon means big. When you think of the biggest online store (with apologies to Alibaba.com), Amazon.com is it.
• Tesla - Tesla was a revolutionary genius who evokes awe. He is most associated with the invention of AC electricity. What better name could there be for an automobile company focused on an all-electric car?
• Apple - Apples are appealing. Apple pie is about as all-American as it gets. Apples with a bite taken out of them are tempting. An apple is a simple, recognizable icon.
• Kodak - Kodak is a completely coined name. It had no prior meaning. It is easy to pronounce with nice vowel sounds and a clean beginning and ending.
• Die Hard - This name, perhaps more than any, directly communicates the brand's benefit in its product category, batteries. And it is short and easy to pronounce and remember.
• Wrangler - This just sounds tough and western. It evokes the imagery of a wrangler. And what do wranglers wear? Jeans.
• Dove - One simple one-syllable word says it all - pure, soft, gentle, serene. Everything one would want in a bar of soap. 

The Importance of Product

In large consumer packaged goods companies (houses of brands), the brand manager often manages product and brand decisions together. In branded houses, the product and brand decisions are often made separately. 

While products and brands are different - brands are the personifications of organizations and their products and services - products, never the less, are very important to the success of the brands whose names they bare. 

Witness the strength of the Apple or Tesla brands. They are based on high quality products with innovation, functionality and aesthetic appeal. Both also command premium prices and are in the luxury category. While a well thought through brand can increase the appeal of a mediocre product, it cannot completely overcome its deficiencies. As the saying goes, "You can put lipstick on a pig. It is still a pig."

Don't overlook the importance of the product or service itself when managing your brand. Deficient or sub-par products and services will tarnish the brand's image, while superior products and services will enhance its image.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Every marketer would do well to understand Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. First, people's physiological needs must be met, then their safety and security needs. Next, they need to feel as though they belong somewhere. After they have found their tribe, they seek the respect of others. When they become fully confident about their social status, they refocus their energies on achieving their highest potential, emphasizing ethics, creativity, spontaneity and other higher ideals. 

Most, but not all, brands focus on the top three rungs - love/belonging, esteem and self-actualization. Think of the brands that focus on belonging. Certain beer brands do this. Part of Harley-Davidson's brand position is the "comradeship of kindred spirits." Friends was a television show completely based on the concept of camaraderie. A significant portion of people are focused on achievement and self-esteem. Because of this, many brands primarily confer social status. Consider Mercedes-Benz, Gucci and Salvatore Ferragamo. Others are focused on self-actualization. Patagonia and Newman's Own are examples of this. Some brands straddle different needs. Tesla operates in both the esteem/social status and self-actualization rungs as does Apple. With its fun designs and high price points, Vilebrequin also straddles the esteem and self-actualization rungs. Dove's Real Beauty campaign both promotes self-esteem and an enlightened view of "real beauty," causing it to span the top two rungs of Maslow's Hierarchy. Robert Graham's tagline is "knowledge wisdom truth." This, together with its highly creative designs, places it on the self-actualization rung.

Historically, Volvo focused on a safe ride especially for family members, putting it on the safety and love/belonging rungs. Because of its price point, it was also partially on the esteem rung. With its frequent repositioning over the past decade, its owners have pushed it up more to the esteem rung.

Where does your brand operate on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs?