Brand Strategy For Female Founders | Think Brand. Talk Brand.

EP 14 | How to Go From Generic to Magnetic : Positioning That Sticks (Forever Framework Part 2/6)

Shivani Pandey Season 2 Episode 14

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0:00 | 13:06

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If your brand sounds good… but not different — this episode will shift everything.

In Part 2 of the Forever Framework I use for BRAND CLARITY Container, we're diving into Brand Positioning — the strategic foundation that determines whether your audience scrolls past you or feels instantly drawn in.

This episode is for founders, coaches, creatives, and service providers who are ready to move:

✨ From generic to magnetic
✨ From confused messaging to clear positioning
✨ From "I do a bit of everything" to "This is exactly for you"

Inside this episode, you'll learn:

  • What brand positioning actually means (and what it's not)

  • The biggest mistake keeping businesses invisible

  • How to identify your brand's unfair advantage

  • Why clarity reduces content burnout

  • The shift that makes marketing easier and conversions smoother

When your positioning is clear, everything else becomes simpler — your messaging, your offers, your content, and your growth.

If this episode resonated, Join the Forever Framework container, where I build your BRAND live and turn clarity into a strategic foundation you can scale.www.thinkbrandforward.com

🎁 Free Resources

If this episode resonated, download the free YOUR DIFFERENTIATOR KIT to start refining your positioning today.
https://bit.ly/49WWpf8

🧠 Want to Go Deeper?Join the Free Workshop on Brand Voice, where we build your BRAND FILTER live and turn clarity into a Brand Meaning!
https://www.thinkbrandforward.com/so/4cPnAV-kt?languageTag=en

Follow the podcast for the next episode in this 6-part series as we continue building a brand designed to last.

Because strong brands aren't accidental. They're intentional.

SPEAKER_00

Could a comparator steal your home page headline and still make sense? If yes, you need a better differentiation. I'm including a free tool in my show notes which has my only Soyu formula to justify your premium pricing instantly. Head the show notes and grab it now. This is the section that I'm doing, which is brand bytes, and we are doing six part of brand bytes about my framework that I use with my clients because I want to share more of how this brand clarity happens and how do we work with uh pounders who are looking for brand clarity so that they can go in the market with a kind of clear brand positioning that is unmissable, unforgettable, and it just sticks. So that's what I will be covering today, the part two of my framework, which is brand positioning. So I really think this is the most exciting section of the framework that we do together, and this is really about creating a positioning that sticks. But what we've learned about positioning so far is honestly, it's quite a lie, okay? So positioning isn't what you say, it's what they feel first, right? Um, if you've struggled to explain what your brand actually does, uh, or found yourself tweaking your messages again and again, then you have to listen. This episode is for you. So um let's talk about positioning. So the truth here is positioning does not start with what makes you different. So boom, I know that is a that is something that is very counterintuitive to what we have been told or conditioned to think that oh, you want to have a positioning in the market, what's your differentiation? Let's let's take a step back and think about how does human brain actually works, right? We all our brain has a very simple agenda is to which is protecting us from anything and everything, and that includes information that they don't need or information that's too much. So that is how the human brain simplifies to make a decision faster, right? Our audiences are overwhelmed with noise and options and ads, everything. They there's just so much noise around right now that the human brain literally switches off and scroll past almost everything that they're seeing on the internet today. Because they don't want to analyze your brand, they want to recognize it, correct? So the way it works is that our brain really categorizes things when someone encounters your brand, they ask one simple question what is in it for me, where does this fit in my life, and should I trust them? That really is the way us the you know the brain is kind of putting things in its cabinets and kind of categorizing it. So it really is that filing of cabinet, uh, you know, that the brain is doing for you. So if you don't tell them where to file you, they will file you under ignore too expensive, too confusing, just like what I've seen around all of that stuff, because that's a folder that okay, I either take action and I about this because there's something about this that lands with me, or then otherwise it goes in the folder which like to do nothing. So, really, positioning is that mental shortcut where we are asking our consumers to take a decision because it matters to them, uh, before they even like have to go through the whole category of what we are trying to talk to them. It really is a shortcut that's the right way to because what is positioning? You are essentially creating a space in the mind of your consumer. That is positioning. Um, it's it's and that comes with how simplified and how well articulated you are as to how you foot it fit into your customer's life, right? So um I really want to want founders to start thinking about you know what what mental category does your brand live in, not markets. We don't choose brands by comparing spreadsheets, we choose them by placing them into familiar boxes. Isn't that right? Like this feels premium, this feels rebellious, this feels like it's for people like me. So I always talk about the what emotion are you arising in your customers' mind when they see you in any placement that they've seen, whether it's your Instagram post, whether it's your LinkedIn article, whether it's your any YouTube uh content that you are creating for your customers, like in an instant, what are they feeling about it? Uh do you want them to feel like hey, we belong together, and you know there is harmony, there is community that we feel for each other, or do you want to you want to arise a feeling that you have a problem and I'm here to solve it? But I want to be your guide, I want you to walk through with me because I have seen this, I have experienced all of this, and I am here to guide you. So it's really important how you make your customer feel first, more than what they look at. So, but there's an uncomfortable truth here. If you don't deliberately shape that box, your audience will do it for you. Like, here's that again. If you are not shaping a box where you can be fit into, your audience will do it for you. And I know we always say, you know, think out of the box and break the box, but like this is about your customers' mind, which is already overtaxed with everything in life that they have to achieve and they have to do on a regular basis. So asking them to now look at you and put you in a box which makes sense to them, that's your job, that's the job of positioning that we work together when we are thinking about okay, this is where the meats and potatoes of your brand comes to. Because uh, if you aren't clear about what you are, then be sure that your your uh audience is going to be undecided, so they are because they are trying to appeal too many emotional contexts at once. So, what exactly does strong positioning do? Uh, that what is that intersection where you can clearly define that positioning for your audiences and that can help you deliver something emotionally, because that is what I do in in my uh framework, is how I help people understand that how are we making our consumers feel something because not functionally, uh, because those benefits remain, and almost at this point of time they're table sticks, right? Like, if you are a company that sells t-shirts, then like high-quality fabric is like table sticks, we don't have to uh use that as something constantly preaching the audience because isn't that expected at today's day and age that your premium uh if you're selling at a premium price, you are using a premium fabric, so there is an intersection of where all of this can live, which is beyond functionality, and um two brands can sell the same product, use the same ingredients, and charge the same price, yet one feels obvious while the other feels invisible. So, why is that? Because one occupies a clear emotional chair. I really like to think of your start thinking of your brand like there is a mental chair in your um in your uh audience's head that they are using to sit on rather than just floating away. So uh you don't win by being better, you win by being the only one with that meaning to the customer that is specific in time, in moment, in the need, and it has specific emotional tension if that is that is a better way. So, uh the purpose of this quick podcast is for you to think about uh how are you creating that perception, which I really really talk about quite often. Uh, perception is the key outcome of clear positioning, you are double-downing on your perception in the market by having such a clear positioning that people that these founders are able to understand where is the perception gap. Uh, because obviously, uh, when you are looking at positioning, and what I do for you is that based on the competitive study landscape that we are looking at in your market, I really pitch you into where is the opportunity gap right now in the market because that is something very important. If you are going to play in the same field as hundreds of other people, then really you have to want to work 10x harder. So, the way I help you is put in a uh like a map of how this can work for you, and where do you see the gap, and how do we pitch a positioning in that gap so that it's not feature, it's not the offer, but it's the feeling. So, I really think that the way to the answer is of a real positioning is in a world flooded with AI-generated good content. Uh, positioning is no longer about standing out louder, it is about standing steadier, uh, it's about being anchored so deeply uh in your relevance that you become the only logical choice. So, I want you to stop rewriting your copy, but first, before you do that, clarify your positioning. Once your positioning is right, you wouldn't want to use words or have to use such hardworking words that, like, oh my gosh, this doesn't I need to rewrite this, because you want to have that feeling that the other customer that the customer at the on the other end thinks, oh, this is for me. So, to give you an example, and I use her example quite often, so crystal, if you're listening, um she is a founder of an app called Shimmer, it's an app based for ADHD people, and the context that she's using based on her founder story and the positioning is that how can you, despite having the challenge of ADG ADHD, uh, use this to your advantage by obviously the idea is to uh use the coaching platform that she has, but the positioning is so clear in her communication in every place that like you wouldn't miss that this is about helping people with ADHD survive in the work environment. Um, it is not about AD ADHD in parenting, it is not about ADHD in uh relationships, it's about surviving with ADHD in the work environment, and that positioning is so clear, and it sticks so well that that is how you you create your uh positioning map, you create you understand how we how does this stick in that market. So, yes, that's what I have for you today, and I really hope that this helps because I really feel positioning is the meat and potato of brand strategy, and if you are missing this point and going straight into uh creating content or creating design, you're missing a big element, and I'm here to help you with that element to create it in the way that will work for you. Few things coming up. There's a uh there's a stra there's a ah sorry, there is a workshop on brand voice that's coming up. Obviously, brand voice happens after positioning. So I hope this episode helps you if you're coming for the workshop because then we can further refine it in the workshop with your brand voice. And I have a differentiation kit that's in the show notes, and I will obviously put the link for the workshop as well. So please go do check it out, and yes, I hope to see you in the workshop. And if not, I hope to see you in the next episode. So, thank you so much, bye bye.