Brand positioning in B2B: model, example and approach

A prospect looks at your website and should then be able to say in one sentence what you do and for whom. If that doesn’t work, the cause is rarely design or copy. What is usually missing is the decision that comes first: the brand positioning.

What brand positioning is

Brand positioning defines which place your company should occupy in your customers’ minds, compared with the alternatives they choose between. It is not a slogan and not a mission statement. It is an internal decision from which your website, sales and channels follow.

In B2B, this is harder than in consumer goods. Several people are involved in the decision, the offering needs explaining, and you often compete not only with competitors but also with “we’ll do it ourselves” or “let’s leave it as it is”.

The model: four questions, one sentence

I work with a simple model. It answers four questions and sums them up in one sentence, the positioning statement:

• Target group: For whom exactly? Not “mid-sized companies”, but the role that decides and the occasion on which it starts looking.

• Category: What should customers file you under? The category determines whom you are compared with.

• Difference: What do you offer that the alternatives don’t, from the customer’s point of view?

• Proof: Why should anyone believe you? A key figure, a project, a customer quote.

The sentence then follows this pattern: For [target group] who [need], [company] is the [category], because [difference and proof].

The sentence is a tool, not advertising copy. It doesn’t appear on the website in this form. But every page, every presentation and every briefing to your agency can be measured against it.

An example: the sample project Halvor

A fictional example: this is how a project with SÖTHER works. Companies, people and figures are invented.

Halvor Energietechnik plans and builds grid connections for industrial companies and municipal utilities. After a merger, the company appeared under two names, Halvor and Brenna. The website sold two brands side by side instead of one solution. In a test, only one in five customers could say what the company does and for whom.

The four questions resulted in:

• Target group: Technical management in industrial companies with high power demand, grid planning at municipal utilities

• Category: Grid connection and energy storage for industry and grids

• Difference: Planning, construction and operation of grid connection and storage from a single source

• Proof: 140 projects since 2015, own installation teams at six locations

This became the sentence: “For industrial companies and municipal utilities that need additional connection capacity on schedule and at predictable cost, Halvor is the partner for grid connection and storage from a single source, because we plan, build and operate both.”

Each of the alternatives had a gap. Large corporations offer everything from a single source but feel distant. Storage specialists are fast, but the customer has to handle the grid connection themselves. Engineering firms are independent but don’t take overall responsibility. Halvor’s place lies exactly in between.

Positioning cross from the sample project Halvor. A fictional example: companies, people and figures are invented.

The sentence gave rise to a core message with three pillars: single source, predictable, close. Each pillar was given proof and a fixed place on the website. What had to change was then clear: one umbrella brand instead of two, an entry point based on the customer’s occasion, and the proof moved to the top.

The approach in five steps

1. Assessment: How does the company come across today? The website, sales materials and conversations with customers show the current state.

2. Clarify the alternatives: Whom do your customers actually choose between, and why do they sometimes not choose you? Win and loss reasons from sales are more revealing here than any competitor analysis.

3. Decide: In a workshop with the leadership team, the four questions are answered and the sentence is formulated. Whatever is still an assumption is marked as such.

4. Test: Five customers are shown the core message. If four of them can play it back correctly, it holds.

5. Translate: The sentence becomes the core message, the page structure and rules for copy and design that your agency can work with.

How long this takes and what it costs is covered in the article What does a brand strategy cost for a B2B company?.

How to recognise good positioning

• A new salesperson can explain it in their own words after one week.

• It excludes customers. If you fit everyone, you differ from no one.

• Every statement has proof. What can’t be proven is an intention, not yet a positioning.

• Your agency can measure drafts against it without having to ask you.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between brand positioning and brand strategy?

Brand strategy describes how a brand achieves its goals: target groups, offering, channels, presence. Positioning is its core. It defines what the brand stands for compared with the alternatives. Without positioning, a brand strategy remains a list of measures.

Which brand positioning models are there?

Common ones are the positioning statement, the positioning cross with two axes and brand steering wheels. For B2B companies with an offering that needs explaining, the positioning statement with the four questions is often enough, supplemented by a positioning cross that shows the current and target position compared with the alternatives.

How long does brand positioning take?

From the first analysis to a tested core message, I expect four to six weeks. The workshop itself takes one day. Most of the time goes into preparation and testing with customers.

Who should be involved in brand positioning?

The leadership team that will later stand behind it, and someone from sales who knows the customers’ objections. Whether an agency or a consultant is the right fit for this is explained in the article Agency or consultant: who should develop your brand strategy?

Would you like to see how a whole project runs? The Sample Project shows the process from start to finish.