Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer. —

"Let's do Branding. I want to create a brand people love. I am a brand creator. I am working on positioning"- every rookie marketer.

Often, I see company executives, Managers, Product leaders, and even Marketers use Branding, Marketing and Positioning interchangeably. This generally happens because of two primary reasons - (i) we don't know that these are distinct from each other and (ii) fundamentally they are related (yet independent).

So let's break each of these down such that we know what we are doing and what we need to work on. If we use the correct terminologies, we help communicate better and set clear expectations with different teams and executives. Let's attempt to understand these in simpler terms and language.

Positioning:

Positioning is how we say to the world, "This is who we are". Positioning is completely under the company's control. The company decides its positioning. In day-to-day language, when your marketing head uses the language, "we are uber of X (finance, food, travel, etc.), " she is trying to position your company as Uber/ Apple/ Tesla of your industry. How do we decide the right way to position your product? This is a separate post in itself; however, in short:

• you look at the customer you are trying to attract
• you look at the market
• competition

and based on these factors, you decide your positioning. You can also look at your company's vision to help and guide your positioning. e.g., if you are selling a cool-new cold and fluffy dessert, it may be beneficial for your business to position yourself as ice cream instead of dessert in a crowded desert market but a growing ice cream market.

Identity Design:

Often identity design is confused with Branding. If you can imagine a brand ( e.g. Apple ) as a person, identity design is the personality she carries. This includes the way she talks, the clothes she wears, the style she has - everything that the world sees and hears. It's all visual and sensory.

Identity design for a company consists of its logo, colours, fonts, textures, images, tone and voice. Again, your logo is not your brand, nor are your colours.

Your identity is what your potential customers see the first time; these make the first impression for your business. And hence, your identity should be influenced and guided by your positioning. If you have positioned your company for the premium segment, your identity should be inline - you can not have a down to earth, funky, or mid-segment identity. The posters, banners, Social media Ads, your company hoodies, notebooks, website, articles are all part of your identity.

e.g of Identity:

Identity design I did for a client - logo, Fonts, Colors & packaging.

Marketing: