How to write a brand positioning statement and create a lexicon for your brand copy bible

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In the world of marketing, a strong positioning statement is crucial for establishing a brand’s identity and differentiation from its competitors. A positioning statement is a concise statement that communicates the unique value proposition of a brand to its target audience, in a way that is succinct and distinctive.

In this blog post, we will discuss how to write a positioning statement for a brand, along with proof points to validate the positioning, and how to select a lexicon of words that the brand uses. This information can be used both internally – in the form of a brand bible, which can be used to brief people who work on your brand as well as to facilitate understanding around your brand to employees – as well as externally, on public-facing platforms, such as your website and social media pages.

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Lifestyling.co.za – a new online publication

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We always love a side project – and lockdown in South Africa has been the best time for embracing digital tools and investing in online platforms. For many businesses it’s been an accelerator – for better or for worse – and one notable outcome in our industry has been the very sad closure of a number of print publications. But it’s also made room for a new brand of online magazine. One that favours quality content over quantity, in-depth reads over clickbait and fake news, and which retains the keen art direction and aesthetic of the glossy magazines we’ve recently said goodbye to.

Enter Lifestyling.co.za, a “new online source that heroes informed aesthetics, opinions and insights,” and which showcases both South African and international design and culture, including art, music, food and wine.

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What’s in a brand story?

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Why Story?

Storytelling has been a buzzword in the creative industries, in particular advertising and marketing, for some time now. What started as ancient conversations around a campfire turned into bedtime stories in bunk beds, the novel, the film. Soon advertising caught on. All the best TV ads of our generation told a good story. (Think of that VW ad set to the lyrics, “I remember the days of my life…”)

Now we talk about brand story, and for those not in the industry, this leap may be a bit mind-boggling. This is not just your company history or your CV, although that may come into it. It’s bigger than a list of facts or linear timeline. It’s more about the “who” and the “why” behind your business, the “what gets you out of bed in the morning”. Think about how those bedtime stories elicited emotion, inspired imagination, evoked understanding, trust, and sympathy. Now we are a bit closer to telling your brand story.

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On newsletter signups: To pop up or not to pop up?

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Or: The artful seduction of getting someone to sign up to your newsletter.

Newsletter popups. You know those irritating things that pop up on a website the minute you land, or obstruct your screen while you’re trying to read? The variation is endless and yet the message is essentially the same (“Sign up to our newsletter”) with the intent generally also being the same (“We want your email address to market at you”). Maybe it’s to sell things to you, maybe it’s to get you to read articles to get advertisers to sell to you… you get the drift.

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Tongue-in-content’s-cheek

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When you’re obsessed with content, like we are here at One Day Company, and when you spend a great deal of the day looking at the content of various brands on different channels, as we do, you find all kinds of gems. Whenever I see something clever, amusing or stupid that is related to content, branding, storytelling, content marketing and the like, I take a screenshot and save it to a folder.

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3 Fabulous fashion blogs

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The measure of excellent content is, arguably, its appeal to the reader who isn’t necessarily interested in the topic but becomes engrossed because it is well conceptualised, well  researched, flawlessly written and beautifully presented.

Lately I’ve been particularly inspired by fashion brands that are doing a great job of content. Here’s a look at current favourites.

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SEO: content and beyond – part two (the critical bit)

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In Part One of this post, we went over the basic SEO boxes your website needs to tick. Think of these as the bare minimum your website must do methodically and consistently in order for Google to rank your site. Ironically, many so-called “SEO specialists” stop here, and a basic website build often (alarmingly) may not even include all of them.

But to leapfrog from SEO circa the 2000s to SEO today, the “bare minimum” is not enough.

So once you’ve ticked your boxes there are a few more magic ingredients, and it starts with this:

Content marketing is the future of SEO

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