Positioning—Anything But Confidential

We recently asked a non-client brand manager what the positioning statement was for her brand. She replied that she couldn’t possibly give us that information without our having signed a confidentiality agreement. We were shocked! With the exception of pre-launch confidentiality, positioning isn’t a secret; in fact it must be just the opposite. The more people who know your positioning or can ascertain it from the Brand’s creative and tactical applications, the more clearly you’ve been able to communicate your direction. Ask people on your marketing, agency and tactics supplier teams to recount your Brand’s positioning statement verbatim. If they can’t recite it word-for-word, we’d suggest a short meeting—perhaps with some memorization exercises!