A simple litmus test for unique brand positioning is to ask, "Could our competitor say this and have it be believable?" If the answer is yes, the message is too generic and not tied to a core, defensible differentiator. The message must be uniquely ownable.
Instead of starting with a sales deck or homepage design, write the core company story in a simple Google Doc or script. This forces leadership to align on the narrative itself, separate from the distractions of format, ensuring consistency across all future assets.
When Island sold its "Enterprise Browser" to CISOs, they loved the security benefits but had to bring in CIOs for the purchase. This forced cross-departmental validation and created a positive tension where teams argued over who should own the budget because the value was so clear to both.
Most companies complete the first 80% of brand work (logo, colors, tagline). Truly great brands are defined by the last 20%: obsessively aligning every detail, from employee headphones to event swag, with the core identity. This final polish is what customers actually notice and remember.
Marketers often mistake strategic positioning (finding a niche) for true category creation. A new category introduces a solution to a problem customers haven't yet articulated, requiring education on why they need a thing they've never bought before.
Using the CBT model (Beliefs -> Feelings -> Actions), brand marketing should focus on changing a customer's core beliefs. This shift in belief alters their feelings (creating urgency or desire), which then naturally drives the desired action, creating more sustainable behavior change than simply pushing for a click.
When creating a new category like Drift's "conversational marketing," no search volume exists for the new term. Marketers must capture demand from high-volume, existing terms (e.g., "live chat") and use that traffic to educate the audience on the new category's unique value.