Branding and Positioning:
What’s the Difference? And Can You Afford It?
Lawson Abinanti - November 26, 2004

Situation

A few years ago, I had just finished an all day meeting with our company's new ad agency when I got an uneasy feeling that, despite the agreeable head nodding and diligent note-taking, we were not really synched up. My product marketing team had presented positioning statements for our product offerings in several broad categories (financials, e-business, supply chain management, etc.), plus the product suite. The agency's mission was to use the positioning to create our "brand."..