Positioning switches you from climbing to surfing
It's hard work to be a leader when everyone is pushing in different directions. That's why your positioning and narrative are so important internally as much as externally. They create an operationally organising direction that means everyone understands and is aligned with what they are contributing to when they get to work on a Monday morning.
As one CEO recently said to me, " A clear positioning is the difference between climbing and surfing!”
When sales are slowing, tighten your positioning
Economic downturns create a strategic challenge for every business because when your customers change, your marketplace does too. The response for every sales and marketing team should be to review and tighten up on the central question behind a connected sales and marketing strategy: What makes our product/service a better choice than the alternatives for our best-fit customers?
Examples include software platforms, destination marketing and fashion retail.
It’s time for smaller banks to fight for customers again
Heavy Metal Football - A positioning masterclass for new leaders
Heavy Metal Football - A positioning masterclass for new CEOs
The most important audience for your narrative is your own team
As you start 2024 it is worth asking whether you have a compelling, and operationally organising, brand strategy. A differentiated north star and blueprint that ensures everyone knows and believes in what they are contributing to when they get to work each morning.
The purpose of a brand is to create a customer
Your brand has a specific job to do. It must present a clear, compelling and differentiated positioning that delivers the business goal and, as Peter Drucker asserted all those years ago, that goal is to create and keep a customer