Our client needed help telling their story to expand their retirement advisory services. This was a sizable untapped market opportunity, and they needed support in creating a fresh positioning strategy to reach their target audience. The messaging and creative direction needed to find the right mix of client desirability, competitive differentiation, and authenticity for the organization’s strategic direction.
First, we needed to understand the market conversations already happening to create the perfect positioning strategy for our client. So, we rolled up our sleeves and dug into what the competition was saying, carefully analyzing the positioning strategies of five major players. This deep dive didn’t just reveal where our client could stand out—it also showed us untapped areas in the market ripe for their unique voice. This groundwork was crucial, setting the stage for us to dive into the heart of our work: fine-tuning the brand’s message, guiding its creative journey, and sparking its activation in the market.
We focused on leading customer research, a competitive review, and internal strategy calibration to guide positioning statements, messaging frameworks, and creative guidelines.
Following the positioning strategy work, we audited dozens of content pieces and tested three initial positioning drafts against competitors’ messaging. This process helped us finalize the strategy and begin internal activation planning.
We created an internal activation booklet that explained the new positioning, creative concepts, and high-level implementation direction. We also created project charters outlining where positioning needs to be implemented first, what teams are impacted, and the initial direction.
A positioning statement guides the full client experience. We wanted to create a consistent experience from advisor interactions to website messaging. The finalized positioning statement leveraged SME perspectives, opportunity areas, competitive research, and quantitative and qualitative testing.
Our activation booklet was a comprehensive positioning framework that explored five key messaging themes. We included the rationale behind each theme, guiding principles, six to eight reasons to believe, and three messaging examples. To create a cohesive brand experience, we also outlined creative guidelines that included tone, desired emotion, photography style, and graphic usage.
Ultimately, our partnership guided our client to a differentiated value proposition with strong guiding principles and an action plan to start implementation. We also refined their creative review process to implement this work on time. We took an unwieldy 16-step process down to four. This reengineering work spanned marketing, digital, and creative teams and inspired a new generation of marketing materials. As of May 2024, the positioning strategy has been implemented across seven different teams and 55+ marketing touchpoints. Upon launching the new positioning, our client has seen improved user traffic.
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