I’m willing to bet that your company has a mission and a vision statement. You probably even have a list of core values or organizational goals. In fact, chances are pretty good that all of these statements are framed and hanging on a wall somewhere for all of the world to see.

That’s great.

But as important as all of these statements are for determining the direction of your organization, there is one statement that I feel is even more important for your company’s long-term success and unfortunately it is one that is often overlooked—the positioning statement.

Created properly, a positioning statement can serve as a foundation for all future forms of communication created by your company and as a standard by which all business decisions can be measured. Unlike mission and vision statements, positioning statements aren’t necessarily something you are going to put behind glass and make public, they’re intended more for an internal audience. Positioning statements keep everyone in the organization on the same page and answer the following critical questions:

1. Who are we?
2. Who is our competition?
3. What do we do?
4. Who do we do it for?
5. Why does it matter?
6. What makes us unique?

Best of all, a positioning statement can answer all of these questions in one (maybe two) sentences. All you have to do is complete the following marketing version of Mad Libs.

(Brand/Company Name) is the (Business Category) that provides (Target Audience) with (Benefit) because only we (Differentiating factor/USP).

Pretty easy, right? But just to make sure there isn’t any confusion, here’s a little breakdown of each category.

Brand/Company Name
Let’s be honest, if you’re having trouble with this part, a positioning statement isn’t going to solve your problems.

Business Category
What area does your company do business in? For example, if you’re Ford, you’re an automotive manufacturer, if you’re Bank of America, you’re a financial institution. As with most components in a positioning statement, the more specific you can be, the better. If you’re a guitar manufacturer, that’s great, but if you’re a left-handed acoustic guitar manufacturer, that’s even better.

Target Audience
This is where a lot of organizations get into a little bit of trouble, simply because they want to make their target audience too broad. It can be scary to say you’re not going to go after everybody in the world, but true success comes from focusing on solving the problems of a specific group of people. (But don’t worry, there are enough people in the world that no matter how narrow you define your target audience, you’re almost guaranteed to have enough potential customers to satisfy your bottom line).

Benefits
This category could—and maybe should—be renamed “problems you solve for your audience.” For example, if you’re a lawn treatment company, the benefit you provide could be a lush, beautiful, weed-free yard. The important thing to remember is that it is not about the actual product or service you provide, but the outcome of that product or service.

Differentiating Factor/Unique Selling Proposition
Most likely, this one is going to take some time, a little soul searching and a group discussion. If you’ve completed a SWOT analysis this would be a good point in the process to pull it out and see exactly how you stack up against the competition. The tricky part is that whatever you come up with has to be viewed as an actual value to your potential customer. It’s great to be different, but if nobody cares, nobody cares.

That’s it, just one last bit of advice.

As I alluded to above, I strongly believe that the creation of a good positioning statement is best done in a group setting with individuals from across your company’s org chart. Not only will this add varying perspectives, and increase buy in, it will help ingrain the statement’s components into your company’s overall culture.

Good luck.