In A Position To Achieve A Greater ROI

The Foundation for Successful Marketing

Sometimes it’s hard for travel marketers to think of the value of a position in concrete ways. Similarly, it’s VERY hard for the C-Suite to justify staff resources and out of pocket expenses for positioning work if they can’t find immediate ways to demonstrate some semblance of an ROI. But if you look at a position as the foundation, just about every marketing initiative gets a bump in ROI.

You are measuring ROI, aren’t you?

When you dig down deep and get to the truth about your position, you’re really getting in touch with the soul of your business. If you’ve spent the time to learn about the soul of your company, and use it to position your brand, then lots of other things fall into place. Just think of front line staff. With an ethos to follow, they can really live the position, and create great consumer experiences.

That may sound like an ethereal idea, but it’s very real, and it’s measurable.

Brands that understand this consistently score better than the competitive set for customer satisfaction, advocacy (or willingness to recommend), and loyalty. Net promoter scores invariably rise. The correlation between these marketing metrics and good old dollars is strong. But, with no soul, it’s very hard to create a battle cry that the internal team can live by, and consumers will respond to.

There are other good examples of how a strong position can make other marketing initiatives easier, and return more value.

Consider internet marketing

This is a real-world, stone-cold example that EVERYONE has probably dealt with by now. If you haven’t, we expect that you will very shortly. In a down market, with media budgets on the chopping block, this is the one sector in the advertising industry that will see 15% growth in 2009. Without a solid brand position, the absolute basic web marketing 101 tasks like SEO and SEM are painful, and likely, aimless. Sure, it’s trackable, but without a position, creating effective paid and organic keyword campaigns that translate into conversions is difficult. With a unique position, creating long term strategies that improve organic rankings, deliver more relevant visitors, and convert at higher rates, is within reach.

And remember the message

Perhaps the most compelling example of how much simpler marketing can become if a valid, meaningful position is established is in good old advertising and marketing communications. Consistently good creative is the love child of great positioning and creative talent. Agencies whose clients have established their competitive line in the sand, grounded in truthful insight, can deliver great work over and over. It also makes it easy to stay on track over time. How many times have we seen marketing campaigns lose the mojo after a few great executions, and then completely unravel after a few quarters?

Positioning can help avoid this, and help ensure that good decisions are made over time.