Why Our Positioning is Crap
One of my roles as Co-CEO for TIV Branding is our company's positioning. And I'm completely failing.Positioning is a key component of marketing any company. We work hard to find the perfect position for our clients' brands. The primary reason positioning is so important is that it makes the task of marketing to your ideal audience much easier. It's like fishing in a pond instead of trying to snag something out in the ocean. The fish you're looking for is right there within the confines of the pond and there are fewer people fishing. But then, how we go about positioning a brand is another blog...back to our crap positioning.
Positioning an Agency
As a creative agency, positioning is typically focused on a particular vertical. For instance, food and beverage. Or more specifically, dairy. Or even more specifically, ice cream. And then if you refine your service (or horizontal positioning) and watch where it intersects with the vertical you've picked, you should be able to have a very clearly defined positioning such as packaging for ice cream brands. Assuming there are enough companies that need this service and that there are not an excessive number of agencies that are positioned in this way, you should be able to build your expertise in the area and thrive as an agency. This is not my concept, nor is it a new approach.
Why Ours is Really Bad
I've been struggling with this concept for a long time. And I realized recently, mostly through conversations with clients, that when it comes down to it, I don't agree with positioning our agency in this way. I don't think it benefits our people. We are a very people-centric company. We put our people first and our clients become our people as soon as we kick off a project together. Positioning our agency in a way that benefits our bottom line and not our people is just not us.The things is, we've always said we learn different things from different industries. And it's true. When you have the opportunity to really dig into a new industry, you realize how many opportunities there are to pull from the tactics of completely separate industries. I can't count the number of times we've encouraged a client to approach things differently than their direct competitors. Perhaps if the wine industry took some notes on what the healthcare industry is doing, they could make a meaningful difference in their marketing campaigns.The other unavoidable truth is that creative people are curious. I'll admit, the prospect of working within a single industry, even on multiple brands, sounds horrible to me. And I can't imagine how I would keep my creative team inspired if we were working with just another (insert industry here) brand. Creative people need new and exciting prospects. Again, not ideal for marketing an agency, but ideal for coming to the table with unique and outstanding creative. And I think that's more important.
It's All About the People
So, I admit it. I've failed at TIV Branding's positioning from a financial and marketing standpoint. But when it comes down to it I believe I've nailed our positioning for our people, both team, and client.