From the super-smart Tom Asacker come these words to brand by:
…So if you want to refer to yourself as a “brand” – if you want to play that “game” – then you must understand and accept the realities of the marketplace. Most importantly, the cold, harsh reality that the marketplace doesn’t care about you. We care about how our association with you is going to benefit us. Will it make me feel smart? Will it make me feel right? Will it make me feel more connected? Will it help me do my “job?” Will it give me something to talk about? Will it bring me more blog traffic? Will it make me feel less alone?
The two greatest motivators in the world are religion and sex. I either want to have everlasting life, or everlasting love. A combination of both would be best. That’s how to create a brand.
The best approach to take in our overcommunicated world is an oversimplified message. The essance of positioning thinking is to accept the percentions you have as reality and then restructure those perceptions to create the position you desire.
“positioning” = lipstick on a pig.
Positioning is trying to tell people what to think about your offer. We don’t have that right or ability anymore.
“positioning” is the marc driscoll HD spot linked to on another post. Great marketing for a mediocre product. A hold-over of what Seth Godin calls the “TV industrial complex” – just make the promise – get the position – doesn’t matter if it’s “true”. TRUTHINESS.
So – using Tom’s own defintion of branding – how is the user going to FEEL about themselves after giving our slick well produced HD message their attention and then their time – only to find out it was complete BULL?
That’s why “positioning” is dead.
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