The Most Important Decision
“Your sales depend more on this decision than on any other.”
“How should you position your product?”
~ David Ogilvy
The Father of Modern Advertising, 1971
In the 1960s, a creative revolution was sweeping through art, music, film, and politics. David Ogilvy, “the father of modern advertising,” extended this radical shift into the advertising world.
Rather than discussing his theories in stuffy trade publications and industry speeches, Ogilvy published his thoughts in provocative full-page New York Times ads:
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In 1971, Ogilvy challenged the industry: “How to create advertising that sells.” In a dense, full-page ad, he shared thirty-eight proprietary secrets with the world. Fifty years later, they still pass the test of time.
- The most important decision. We have learned that the effect of your advertising on your sales depends more on this decision than on any other: How should you position your product?
- Should you position Schweppes as a soft drink — or as a mixer?
- Should you position Dove as a product for dry skin or as a product that gets hands really clean?
- The results of your advertising depend less on how we write your advertising than on how your product is positioned.
My thoughts: When you need some tonic, you instinctively grab the leading mixer, Schweppes. This is the magic of positioning.
The brand goes back to 1783 — originally as a soft drink. Ogilvy understood that if Schweppes competed as a soft drink, it would hang in the back of the pack, behind Coke, Pepsi, Seven-Up, Dr. Pepper, and the rest. By positioning Schweppes as a mixer, it could lead in this new category. As a result, the iconic brand holds a top-of-mind position.
In 1972, another legendary ad man, Jack Trout, challenged the folly of RCA and GE trying to enter the computer business:
“They have no hope of making progress head-on against the position that IBM has established… While it’s possible to compete successfully with a market leader, the rules of positioning say it can’t be done ‘head on.’”
In other words, to compete, RCA and GE would have to establish their own unique positions.
Five days after Ogilvy’s ad appeared, a second Madison Avenue agency published its own four guiding principles. Number one, you guessed it, “Accurate positioning is the most important step in effective selling.”*
Brand positioning carves out a top-of-mind category in which you can lead. Years ago, as Senior Writer at CheckFree Corporation, we claimed the position “The Leader in Electronic Commerce. We got away with it because we were first. The company was sold to Fiserv for $4.4 billion.
I help businesses of every size apply the groundbreaking work of Ogilvy, Trout, and Ries. I wrote a book so you could do it yourself, but I have come to realize that positioning is an art as well as a science.
*Jack Trout and Al Ries, “The positioning Era Cometh,” Advertising Age, April 1972
Brand positioning created the most
iconic brands of the 20th century.
Brand positioning revolutionized
the ad industry.
Brand positioning is now available to every size business – even shoestring startups.
The Brand Story® method results from Bruce Miller’s 30 years of agency and corporate experience. His Brand Story approach lets smaller businesses leverage this expertise.
Brand positioning aligns your brand to your customers’ needs, differentiates your business, and creates customers for life.
Choose your brand-building path:
1. Do it Yourself
“BRAND STORY®: How to Launch Your Shoestring Startup Like a National Brand.”
This step-by-step guide helps start-ups, small and established businesses, and non-profits position their brands effectively.
Everything you need to know for naming, trademarking, marketing, and positioning a new or existing brand. Includes interviews and stories from first-time entrepreneurs.
Buy the book
$9.99
2. Consultation
We discuss your business and establish a brand position to serve as the foundation for your marketing strategy.
In a screen-sharing consultation, we align your offering to customer needs. Includes a brand positioning statement, tag line, and marketing guidance.
Designed for solo entrepreneurs seeking an initial marketing strategy in a competitive market.
$640
3. Brand Workshop
We bring your team together in a brand story workshop to develop a ready-to-run brand platform — the brand foundation for your business.
As your on-demand marketing team, we can implement the elements of your brand platform: Including content marketing, messaging, collateral, Web design, social media, thought leadership, press releases, white papers, explainer videos, and more.
Let’s Talk
Let’s discuss your business goals.
“Amazed how quickly our brand evolved. Our organization was unfamiliar with the process, yet Bruce made it painless. The Brand Story workshop delivered an effective brand strategy that captured the essence of our firm and elevated our brand to align with our values.
“We have continued to partner with Miller Media to ensure our brand, website, marketing, and messaging stay in sync as our organization grows and evolves.”
“The Brand Story workshop… captured the essence of our firm.”
“Bruce quickly grasps the complex issues we face…”
“We can always count on Miller eMedia for exceptional content marketing support. Bruce quickly grasps the complex issues we face in the healthcare arena.”
As a startup, we had limited funds when we started to source marketing/branding companies. Bruce Miller came highly recommended.
He truly listened to what we wanted to portray and we appreciated his open approach as he walked us through each step. We were blown away with the end result. It was exactly what we were hoping for.
“As a startup, we had limited funds… We were blown away with the end result.”
“Their creativity sets them apart from other agencies.”
“Miller eMedia supports my consulting clients across the brand and integrated marketing spectrum. Bruce’s creativity coupled with his ability to understand marketing’s role in driving growth sets him apart from other agencies.”
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Our Brand Story® approach aligns your message to your target customer.
Whether you’re starting up or have an established brand,
our Brand Story® Approach makes your marketing efforts more effective:
1. Capture critical market knowledge
Discover new insights into your target customer, competitive strengths, and current brand strategy.
2. Position your brand effectively
Our Brand Story Approach establishes a brand position that aligns the needs of your target customers to your competitive advantage.
3. Build a brand platform
From your elevator speech to value propositions, a brand platform keeps your initiatives on target and your messaging more clear, consistent and effective.
4. Connect to your customers
Selling becomes more effective and efficient when all creative, product, and messaging decisions are “on brand” and align to your customers’ needs.
Focus Your Brand Message on your Customers' Needs
Brand Strategy, Identity, Web, Content Marketing, Messaging, and Media
Ready to launch a Brand Story-driven marketing campaign?
It all starts with a brand position – your unique competitive position in the mind of your customers. Miller eMedia will help you discover your competitive strength and turn it into the cornerstone of your brand platform.
With our Brand Story® Approach, everyone who touches your brand can participate in a collaborative approach to develop your competitive brand position – your unique differentiation that aligns your brand to customer needs, elevates your product or service from becoming a commodity, and builds long term customer loyalty.
We will also develop your brand platform and content messaging platform (a comprehensive set of “elevator speeches”) so that all creative executions, product decisions and messaging are always “on brand” — whether delivered by a marketing associate, sales person, a new hire, vendor, SEO expert, PR agency, or the CEO.
We develop content marketing campaigns centered around a big idea that you can leverage in press releases, white papers, social media, web content, direct marketing, and more.
We conduct Brand Story Workshops in the Atlanta area, the Southeast region, and through online meetings anywhere in the world. Bruce Miller has been developing brands for businesses, start-ups, growing firms, medium sized businesses, and Fortune 500 companies for 15 years.
For non-profit organizations seeking to win more grants, enhance non-profit development, or boost fundraising in general, Miller eMedia can help you develop non-profit case statements that align your message to the needs of the donor community. We will help you develop a consistent message by writing and designing case statements and development campaigns that connect to the mission of key donors and their needs.
Startups love our turnkey approach – Brand Strategy, Identity, Web, Content Marketing, Messaging, and Media rolled into one cost-effective package.
