Written by Sahil Gandhi
Years ago, I read the website homepage of a participant at my workshop who had founded a firm in the financial technology space, and saw that his firm offered secure, seamless and smart services. Those are good and confident words to use. I then opened the websites of two of his competitors, and they had that exact same description but just arranged in a different order.
What I was looking at was a competitor and what he was looking at was nothing wrong with the web page.
What I noticed was the most common silent problem. Founders think they have a problem with their positioning, their design, or their visibility. Usually, they have a clarity problem which is disguised as a different problem. The message is not wrong; however, the message is totally interchangeable.
Interchangeable is the most expensive thing a brand can be, because the sector sees it as forgettable.
I do have a test which does show this clarity problem, and which prevents the founders from spending money on a rebranding.
First, write your positioning in one sentence. There should be no need for elaboration or flowery descriptive sentences. Be direct and clear to state what your firm does for whom.
An example could be “We help creators grow without burnout.”
Next, swap it and say the direct opposite. For example, that could be “We help creators scale through intense hustle.”
Lastly, analyse if that opposite in any way could help a real customer. In this example, it would be a yes since hustle culture does have a large and very loyal customer base.
As such, since that could serve a customer, the opposite in this case is a position that could be captured. Your original choice is a real one since it does take a side.
Try a hollow one. “We assist creators with engagement.”
Flip it: “We assist creators with obscurity.”
No one builds a brand with obscurity. This means your strategy was never visibility. It was a self-given mission statement without the hope that anyone would challenge it.
I call this the Flip Test. It takes a little longer than five minutes, a pen, and a little willingness to be uncomfortable. If your positioning survives the flip, congrats, you have an edge. If it collapses, you have a compliment.
This strategy works for the following reason. Real strategies have natural enemies. Your brand, in someone else’s universe, is the complete opposite of your brand and is thriving (or, it should be). For underwear in India, Bummer made the very active decision that underwear should be fun, loose and colourful. Flip that, and you get Jockey. Two real brands. Two different tribes. Neither one is confused about who is who.
SleepyCat applied that logic to mattresses. It could have claimed it helps Indians sleep soundly. Safe and same as everyone. Instead of that, it chose an option that had no defenders: the box. A premium mattress that gets to you, ends delivery anxiety, and negates the showroom bargain. Opposite to that, it still exists in traditional… that is why SleepyCat looks deliberate and not default.
This is definitely not new. Three words sum it up for one of my favorites: when everyone zigs, zag. (example: Neumeier, Zag) Most brands zig with confidence. They zig alongside the four other brands beside them. (example: Wild Turkey) The brands people really zag for are the ones with willingness to say something clear, but not loud.
The lesson is not to sell the same clear but loud proposition; it is that you need the position someone can have a reasonable argument against. The goal is to say more than all the other companies in the category, and it’s common practice to have coworkers happily sign all the companies in your category at the bottom of something you have written.
So Flip Test everything and don’t let the first sentence go when you are about to approve the next logo or redesign! That surviving sentence is the start of your brand. Everything else is just… decoration.
Author Bio:
Sahil Gandhi is a brand strategist known as The Brand Professor. He is the founder of The Brand Professor, Blushush, a Webflow design studio in London, and Ohh My Brand, a personal branding studio in India, and the co-author of a book on branding. He writes about brand clarity for founders at brand-professor.com.