Define Your Strong Brand Position In 2020
Speak Agency • February 19, 2020
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A few months ago, I was having a conversation with a VP of Marketing for a tech company we were pitching. This company was growing fast and will soon be releasing an important new platform update that they believe has the potential to change their entire industry.
As these conversations tend to go, we got to talking about what she felt like her company’s biggest weakness was. “If you ask our five c-level executives who we are and what we do, I guarantee you’d get at least four different answers,” she predicted.
With that confession, I nodded and candidly said, “As I was preparing for this meeting, I looked at your website. I can see your technology is transformative but I had to connect a lot of dots to understand exactly what you do.”
The marketing VP agreed with me, indicated that like most technology companies, things change quickly. “It’s tough for the branding to keep up.”
We went on to discuss some of the impacts of not having a consistent brand story. She pointed out that the lack of a strong corporate position means people across the business are saying different things to customers. And her hunch was those messages were often muddled and messy.
This is a story we hear frequently. Businesses that are innovation-driven change rapidly. That’s why it’s important to consistently evaluate whether your brand story reflects who you are today.
Why is brand positioning and messaging an investment worth making in 2020? Here are three reasons:
1. It Tells the World What You Stand For
As companies grow, things change. Acquisitions. Product launches. New markets. New competitors. Suddenly you realize that you’re only telling customers half the story, or you’re telling the same story as a key competitor. Undergoing a brand refresh will map out the right territory for your brand to stake it’s claim. It will define:
• The most important pain point you solve for customers
• The unique way you solve it
• Why this is important for your customers right now
• Why it’s a better approach than everyone else
2. It Helps Turn Employees into Thought Leaders
Marketing may “own” the brand but everyone in your company “lives” it. A strategic positioning and messaging architecture establishes topical themes that people across your organization can immerse themselves in and lend their point of view to. Why is this important?
Studies conducted by LinkedIn cite that content published by individuals generate ten times the followers and two times the click-throughs than those posted by faceless companies. Readers also indicated that they trust the validity of an article published by an individual more than one published by a brand.
When you have a clear messaging hierarchy, it’s easy to assign thought leaders or domain experts to specific messaging topics. Those thought leaders can in turn become the engine for telling your story through branded content.
3. It Reduces Your Cost to Communicate
Without consistent positioning and messaging, your marketing team is adrift. Every time they need to create a new campaign, website copy or a trade show booth, they are reinventing the proverbial wheel. This inefficiency is costing you more money than you think.
Plus, consider the opportunity cost of this slipshod approach. Instead of going to market with a consistent, repeatable message, you’re likely saying one thing today and another tomorrow. This confuses your audience and diminishes your return on marketing spend.
Re-Energize Your Brand in 2020
People are time poor, with ever shorter attention spans. This is especially true with hard-to-reach audiences like business owners and executives. It’s vitally important to cut through the noise with a succinct, compelling brand story. Done right, there’s nothing that will make a bigger difference in helping customers find you and choose you.
Make 2020 the year you elevate your brand story.
Marketing and sales are supposed to work in sync. Marketing creates the messaging, sales takes it to market, and customers get a consistent, compelling brand experience. But in reality? That almost never happens.
For tech startups, creating a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) — the stripped-down version of your product that allows you to test core assumptions with real users — is a common approach to product development. But what about your brand? Enter the Minimum Viable Brand (MVB): the essential elements needed to present your company professionally and connect with early customers, without over-investing in elaborate brand development.
Let's cut to the chase: In a world drowning in digital noise and AI-generated content, brand authenticity isn't just a nice-to-have — it's your survival kit. Today's tech-savvy customers can smell manufactured messaging from ten browser tabs away, and they're not afraid to hit "unfollow" faster than you can say "corporate values." The Power of Brand Truth Here's the deal: brand authenticity means getting real about who you are as an organization. We're not talking about your product specs or your tech stack — we're talking about the raw, honest truth of why you exist and what drives your team to show up every day. Your brand truth might be buried in your startup story, your unique approach to solving gnarly problems, or the way you're fundamentally changing how your customers work and live. Take Microsoft's transformation under Satya Nadella. When he took the reins in 2014, he didn't just pivot the company's technology — he unleashed its authentic truth as an enabler of human achievement. This wasn't some slick marketing play; it was a fundamental shift from "Windows first" to "empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more." The result? Microsoft's stock price soared over 600% since 2014, and they've become one of the most valuable companies in the world. Why Truth Matters More Than Ever The numbers don't lie: According to Stackla, 88% of consumers say authenticity is crucial when deciding which brands to support. Even more telling? A recent Edelman study found that 81% of consumers need to trust a brand before they'll even consider buying from them. In an age where every startup claims to be "disrupting" something, customers are developing highly sophisticated BS detectors. They're not just looking at your product dashboard — they're scrutinizing your GitHub contributions, reading your engineering blog posts, and watching how you handle service outages on Twitter. Uncovering Your Brand's Truth Finding your brand's authentic truth requires serious introspection. Ask yourself: What technical problem made you angry enough to start this company? What conventional wisdom in your industry are you willing to challenge? What keeps showing up in your customer success stories? What principles would you defend even if they slowed down your growth? Sometimes your truth is hiding in plain sight. Look at Twilio. Their brand truth isn't about APIs — it's about democratizing complex communications technology. This core truth drives everything from their developer-first approach to their acquisition strategy. Expressing Truth Through Story Once you've nailed your brand truth, you need to tell its story in a way that clicks with your audience. And no, we're not talking about another "Our Journey" blog post. Consider how Stripe tells its story. Their truth isn't about payment processing — it's about increasing the GDP of the internet. This bigger narrative has turned what could have been dry technical documentation into a compelling story about empowering entrepreneurs worldwide. Their transparency about their engineering challenges and public infrastructure investments has built unprecedented trust in the developer community. Building Trust Through Consistency Real talk: authenticity means walking the walk. When Zoom faced security criticisms in 2020, CEO Eric Yuan didn't hide behind PR speak. He admitted the problems, implemented a 90-day feature freeze to focus on security, and hosted weekly webinars to address concerns. This transparent approach turned a potential crisis into a trust-building opportunity. The data backs this up: According to PwC, 71% of consumers say they'll lose trust in a brand if they perceive it's putting profit over people. And once that trust is gone, 46% say they'll stop buying from the company altogether. The Bottom Line In the tech world, where every other company claims to be "revolutionary" or "game-changing," authentic brand truth is your secret weapon. It's not about crafting the perfect message—it's about having the courage to be genuinely, consistently, unapologetically you. The next generation of successful tech brands won't win because they had the most sophisticated tech stack or the biggest AWS budget. They'll win because they dared to be real in an increasingly artificial world. In an industry obsessed with automation and scalability, never forget that authenticity is the one thing you can't fake. Remember: Your brand truth is like your source code — you don't write it from scratch, you refactor and optimize what's already there. When you commit to pushing authentic commits to your brand repository, you're not just building a better story — you're compiling a more resilient business that resonates with users on a fundamental level.
