What comes first, positioning or creative?

This week's tip is a riddle: Which came first, the positioning or the creative?

It's not hard to solve. This is not a case of the chicken or the egg. In fact, it couldn't be further from it. You have to have a solid positioning first. It's that simple. Everything else stems from it, including message development, Brand communications, online and offline efforts, and especially creative execution.

You cannot test positioning through creative execution. Great creative comes from great positioning and it doesn't work in reverse. With a single, thought-provoking message to communicate, agencies can do better work. Today, most are trying to execute to a positioning that has multiple elements—a task that inevitably results in a campaign that lacks clarity.

When it comes down to it, isn't it likely that there are so many bad ads running in books today because there are so many bad positionings? But that's a riddle for another time.

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