SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY AND BRANDING; WHY DO BRANDS NEED AN IDENTITY TO CREATE POSITIONING

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY AND BRANDING: WHY DO BRANDS NEED AN IDENTITY TO CREATE POSTIONING?



A brand’s positioning is created from its identity. The best way to understand brands is to compare them to a human persona. When a human personality is properly developed, this person has an identity. This identity answers the question, "who am I"? Brand identity creates brand positioning. Once "who are we" is answered", a product can then compare itself to other products.

Brands have "stories" and they have "functions". To create a world class brand, both have to be strong. All human beings have a "story". This story separates them from everyone else. When applying for a job, an important strategy is to position yourself against the other candidates. To have effective brands, to be "hired", a product must position itself against another product. Brands have a "story" that separates them from all other brands. This "story" creates the brand’s identity. Identity answers the question, "Who are we"? Are we honest, are we hardworking, what do we think, what do we feel. Our identity gives us our values. Our identity teaches us how to process. This is how brand identity functions. Identity explains to the marketplace who a brand is and what does it do.

One of the America’s most iconic brands is Coca Cola. This brand is an example of how a brand’s identity is created and then how positioning is created from identity. Identity creates a rationale for purchasing the product. This rationale creates a real or perceived advantage, which is the positioning of the product. Identity is more involved with the brands roots.

Identity creates a history with customers. Coke was "the original". Its identity is a symbol of America. Coke is the essence of the American way of life. Coke "shows the world how to sing". This creates the soda’s positioning. This strategy has created one of the most iconic brands in marketing history. Coke’s brand is worth $65 billion. The brand is most capitalized asset that Coke has.

Positioning is a comparison between two products. Positioning is critical to social media because there are just so many products in the market place. The wonderful thing about social media is that everyone is a star. Social media has allowed everyone to create videos, music, content, and then to post this content. This is social media’s greatest asset and its biggest drawback. Social media has created so much content that it is difficult to differentiate the content. This is why positioning and branding are critical.

Positioning is critical in defining a brand. Positioning contrasts your brand in relation to another. Rihanna and Kelly Rowland sing dance R&B. Their vocals are about the same. How do the two separate themselves to create a brand? Rihanna positions herself by wearing extreme red hair while Kelly creates her positioning by producing immersive videos for her songs. The two singers answered the question "who am I"? Rihanna said, "I like loud fashion"? She positioned her music around that. Kelly Rowland said, "I like stylishness" and positioned herself around her stylish videos.



Dean Hambleton

dnhambleton@gmail.com