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BRAND POSITIONING & BRAND STORY

One account of your organisation, agreed by the people who run it.

Most organisations are described differently depending on who is asked. It rarely registers as a problem, because none of the descriptions is wrong, but it reaches every brief given to an agency, every proposal sent out, and every room where somebody has to explain the organisation without you present.

Brand Positioning and Brand Story settles it. You end with a positioning statement your leadership has agreed, recording what the organisation is known for and what it intends to be known for, and a brand story that becomes the source everything published afterwards is written from.

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brand positioning and brand story
CHALLENGE
THE PROBLEM WE SOLVE

What it costs when the position has never been agreed.

Most organisations that commission this work are good at what they do and have rarely had to explain it. They will usually have a logo, a website and a mission statement, and together those suggest the question has been settled. What those materials record is how the organisation presents itself, which is not the same as an agreed account of what it is for, who it serves and what it intends to be known for. The difference shows up in four places.

Every brief starts again

Each agency, designer, writer or recruiter receives a different account of the organisation. The work varies accordingly, and each project re-argues ground the last one covered.

Senior people give different versions

Clients, journalists, prospective employees and investors hear a different organisation depending on whom they happen to speak to, and which version reaches them is decided by who was available that week.

Communications cannot be delegated

Without an agreed reference, judgement about what is right for the organisation remains concentrated in one or two people, and everything queues behind them.

Clearer competitors are remembered

An organisation whose position can be repeated accurately by someone who heard it once is carried into rooms it is not in. This matters most where the decision is taken by a committee rather than an individual.

Brand Positioning and Brand Story addresses this at the source, and produces two documents the organisation continues to use afterwards.

BRAND POSITIONING
DEFINING YOUR NORTH STAR

The reference for what you are known for, and what you want to be known for.

The positioning statement records what the organisation is for, who it serves, how it differs from the competitors named at the outset, and what it intends to be known for. It is agreed by your leadership rather than proposed by us, which is what allows it to function as a reference once we have finished.

It is issued together with a strategy document setting out what follows from the agreed position, and both are presented and walked through rather than sent.

How it is used
01
Briefing

Designers, agencies, writers and recruiters work from one document, so the organisation is described consistently by everyone producing on its behalf.

02
Decisions

Whether an opportunity, partnership, sponsorship or piece of content suits the organisation becomes a question with an answer.

03
Delegation

Communications can be handed to someone else because the judgement is written down rather than accumulated by whoever has been there the longest.

04
What comes next

Any content strategy, and any content produced afterwards, is measured against it.

STORY
THE BRAND STORY

The document everything else is written from.

The brand story is written once the position is agreed, and delivered as a live reading to your team before you receive it in writing.

It is not copy for one channel and it is not an About page. It is the organisation’s full account of itself, and it becomes the source that later material draws on rather than something each writer reconstructs from whatever they can find.

How it is used

What the brand story covers:

  • Website and company materials
  • Pitches, proposals and tender documents
  • Recruitment, induction and internal communication
  • Investor, board and partner briefing
  • Press enquiries and media interviews
  • Award entries and speaking submissions
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Brand story
YOUR PART
WHAT THE ENGAGEMENT REQUIRES

What we ask of your organisation.

An individual interview

With each member of the group agreed in the first session.

Attendance at the workshop

For its full duration, by those able to commit the organisation. We ask that they attend rather than send a representative.

A senior sponsor

Ordinarily the chief executive or the owner, who carries the agreed position afterwards and is willing to be seen doing so.

FOR ORGANISATIONS
THE SERVICES WE OFFER

A step-by-step approach to clarity.

Brand Positioning & Brand Story

A foundational approach that defines what your organisation stands for, agreed and written.

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Customer Journey Mapping & Content Strategy

How that position reaches your customers and how their experience is being shaped by it.

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Brand
Studio
Retainer

We implement the strategy and produce the content that gets you the right kind of attention.

*The Brand Studio Retainer service is reserved for existing clients of OTM. Contact us to learn more about how to get to this part of our services.

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NEXT
NEXT STEPS

An initial conversation,
followed by a proposal.

The first conversation takes approximately thirty minutes, is provided without charge, and carries no obligation. We ask that whoever will ultimately approve the engagement takes part in it.

A proposal follows, setting out scope, the interview group, the competitor set and the timeline.

Where the engagement requires board or leadership approval, we can provide a short written summary for internal circulation.

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