How do you frame your company or help your clients frame theirs?  For example, Xerox doesn’t sell copiers, it sells workplace productivity (thanks Harvard Business blog.)

A smart friend from a killer web company in San Francisco said yesterday:  [sic] in this economy we’re looking with clients at areas where there’s a problem that needs to be fixed.  This is not the frame itself, but the method to get at the frame for the customer.

Which gets to the heart of issue:  frame your company in a way that solves a problem for your customer not your solves your sales quota.

Guy Kawasaki in Reality Check says you either “frame or be framed.”  And isn’t this a position you want to influence for your brand?  If you don’t someone else will.  A proper frame gives, well, a frame around which customers can have conversations about your brand.  Your customers are having these conversations all day every day with or without your input.

Guy goes on to asert the following truths of how to control the frame:

• Be true to yourself:  a frame should represent what you stand for as opposed to what market research might tell you to stand for.   This is just another way of talking about transparency.  Zappos is huge on this.  They put on no airs.  What you see is what you get.  See the interview question: Why is culture so important?
• Avoid the frontal assault:  When framing the competition do it with faint damning praise.  (Not going into tons of detail here, buy the book!)
• Align with core values:  these should be the values of your customer and or generally accepted social mores
• Draw first blood:  better to fire the first shot and force the other party to react to what you’ve done.

Framing your (or your client’s) company is easier said than done.  It asks you to step outside the traditional features, advantages, benefits scenario and take a look at your company in a way that adds to the customer’s dialogue already in progress about your brand.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some carpentry to do.

Philippe Petit is a master of the positioning statement.  He does USP (unique selling proposition) like no one I’ve ever seen.  In the film Man on Wire, Philippe shuns the traditional definition of what he does (tightrope walker) and creates a space in your mind that is utterly unique.   (I’m not going to be a spoiler by stating it here, rent the DVD and see for yourself.) 

Yes, Philippe is an artist but he’s more than that.  And his view of himself and what he does is sharply focused and narrow yet incredibly expansive.  It fires the imagination.  And the people who witness him in action are moved to the same conclusions about him that he has of himself.  That’s positioning.  

In The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing Al Ries and jack Trout state “If you can’t be first in a category, set up a new category you can be first in”.  Philippe Petit does that brilliantly and so can you if you look beyond the products you represent.

Philippe defies categorization.  He occupies a completely distinct place in his audiences’ perception.  He challenges anyone who labels him as a circus performer or mere high wire act.  And in so doing, occupies this ethereal space that is completely his.  It’s brilliant.  And a lesson we can all apply to our businesses in 2009.

To begin with, Philippe is careful to use a common understanding (or misunderstanding) of what he does to help you get your head around who he is.  “Tightrope walkers had their start in the circus and side shows around the world.  They are acrobats and contortionists, daredevils and entertainers”.  He helps you get to his space by using your initial cultural understanding of what he does.  Then he quickly expands that notion and demonstrates how he’s the only one who does what he does.  And his position is not only believable; it’s proven in the movie.

Philippe’s view of himself is a philosophy we can adopt when defining ourselves and our businesses.  How unique to be able to say, I’m the only one who does what I do.  Work on creating a space in the minds of your customers—one that only you can occupy.  Talk about a positioning statement.  Sure it’s harder to give that 10 second elevator answer.  But a yawp when balanced on a tightrope 1000 feet up just may be more intriguing.  Think about it.

Dig deeper to define yourself beyond conventional terms .  When positioning your company ask yourself: What can my brand represent to my clients, partners and peers that goes beyond just what we do or sell?  What emotion or intangible does our brand represent?  Defining your company beyond just your products and services is positioning.   Rolex, for example is not just a luxury watch, it’s a symbol of achievement.* 

As part of your strategic planning for your company in 2009, think about how your company defies categorization.  What space can you claim that is uniquely yours?  And own that space. 

*wikkipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positioning_(marketing)

©  David Wiggs