What’s the difference between your brand position and your mission statement?
Sometimes when I ask a client about their brand position, they rattle off a mission statement, or the company’s vision. It’s great when employees know what these are, but these are both very different from the company’s brand position.
In short, a mission is the reason for the company’s existence. It’s vision is what it wants to be.
The mission of my company is to connect and apply my team’s experience to the communications needs of businesses with similar values.
The vision is to be a world-famous, highly respected communications firm that makes millions billions in revenue. (What? Let’s not pretend we’re not in business to make money. That’s just ridiculous.)
To define your company’s brand, try using the following formulas:
For target audience that have a specific need we offer your main offering unlike main competitor, your name provides your main benefit that allows users to . . .
For Jaggers Communications, this brand position approach looks like this:
For businesses that want to grow by attracting new customers or inspiring loyalty through clear and consistent communications, we offer strategic communications planning, counsel and execution. Unlike firms focused solely on social media, public relations or marketing, Jaggers Communications provides applied experience in business communications counsel across disciplines and industries. We help clients reach their business goals through smart communications strategy and tactics.
This series of questions is also helpful in developing a brand position:
Who: Who are you?
What: What business are you in?
For Whom: What people do you serve?
What need: What are the special needs of the people you serve?
Against whom: With whom are you competing?
What’s different: What makes you different from those competitors?
So: What’s the benefit? What unique benefit does a client derive from your service?
Jaggers Communications offers strategic communications planning, counsel and execution to businesses that want to grow by attracting new customers or inspiring loyalty through clear and consistent communications. Unlike firms focused solely on social media, public relations or marketing, Jaggers Communications provides applied experience in business communications counsel across disciplines and industries. We help clients reach their business goals through smart communications strategy and tactics.
Give it a whirl in the comments (if you’re brave enough).
I like that list of questions. It’s a great way of focusing on the things you need to focus on and keep you centered. Also great for people like you and me as we work with businesses to help them define their communications strategy.
This post is very much on point, and does a great job describing the differences between mission, vision and brand position. Most people know that their company has some sort of mission, but couldn’t tell you what it is if you asked them. Then they draw blank faces when you ask them to tell you their company’s vision or position. Similar to what people do when it comes to defining the difference between Marketing, Advertising and PR, most think it’s one and the same.
Starting here, would help so many people figure out their marketing strategies much more effectively. Nicely done.
@MrBallentine Thank you so very much! That is one of the most thoughtful comments I’ve ever gotten. Thank you for reading Change the Conversation.