Brand positioning with Suman Sharma
Brand Positioning Consultant for Service Businesses
Give buyers a reason to choose you.
Positioning defines the buyer, the alternatives they compare, and the reason your business deserves a place in that decision. At Branding Tatva, Suman Sharma leads this work directly, working remotely with service businesses in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Singapore, the UAE and India.
When to begin
Recognise the question?
Your team can describe what you do, but every explanation sounds different. Prospects compare you on price. A new service no longer fits the way the business introduces itself. These are useful reasons to examine the position before commissioning another identity or campaign.
Start with a buying decision
A position has to answer a real choice. The review examines who needs the service, what prompts the search, what they currently use, and what makes them hesitate. Customer language, sales conversations and the work you already deliver matter more than an attractive adjective. Gaps in evidence become explicit research questions.
Separate a difference from a reason to buy
Many businesses can claim expertise, care or quality. The useful question is which part of your approach changes the buyer’s decision, and what supports that claim. Comparing the available alternatives reveals what the business could consistently be known for. Every proposed promise must hold up against the service you actually deliver.
Carry the position into language
The agreed direction should help someone write a homepage, introduce an offer and explain a proposal. A message hierarchy connects the main promise with supporting reasons and evidence. Voice, identity and website work can follow within the agreed scope. Each is a distinct piece of work, with its own decisions and deliverables.
A worked example
MyShopInEurope: choosing a reason beyond marketplace access
Recorded strategy for a B2B marketplace connecting Indian vendors with European buyers. The published case traces the choice of buyer, positioning and content deliverables.
- Buyer
- European retailers, boutique owners, décor businesses, Ayurveda stores, resellers and importers seeking products with a story they can pass to their customers.
- Positioning choice
- Present Indian products through craft, origin and product stories, giving buyers a reason to consider the marketplace beyond access or price.
- Delivered scope
- A brand foundation, content pillars, channel playbooks and a quarterly rollout plan.
- Evidence boundary
- The case records strategy and content deliverables. Sales, enquiry and brand recognition changes require separate measurement.
Recorded project evidence
Read the MyShopInEurope project record
The published record connects the positioning choice with content mix, channel roles and rollout. Use it to examine the work delivered and the reasoning behind it. The brief concerns Indian vendors and European buyers. Outcomes in another market require their own evidence.
Read the MyShopInEurope project recordBring what already exists.
Bring your current website, a recent proposal, examples of customer questions and the alternatives prospects mention. For a new business, bring the offer as it stands and the decisions still open. Existing material is enough for the first conversation.
Agree the scope before work begins.
The first conversation establishes whether positioning is the right starting point. Deliverables, research depth, timing and fees are agreed in the proposal. Enquiries and sales also depend on price, demand, distribution and delivery.
Working together remotely
Position around the buyers you want to reach in your market.
A consultancy, an agency and an independent specialist can compete for the same budget while solving different problems. Bring the alternatives your prospects actually mention in the market you want to serve, along with enquiries and proposals that show how they decide. That material establishes the relevant comparison and the evidence your promise needs. For a business entering the market, the distinction between existing knowledge and unanswered customer questions shapes the research scope. The engagement is remote; meeting times, review stages and responsibilities are agreed before work begins.
Before we speak
Read the thinking behind the work.
- Brand positioning brief worksheet (plain text)
- How brand positioning works for service businesses
- Brand positioning statement examples, and why most sound generic
- How to position a consulting business
- Turn customer interviews into a positioning brief
- Use client evidence to support a positioning claim
- Brand strategist or branding agency: which fits the work?
Before you commission the work
Questions about brand positioning
What does a brand positioning brief contain?
A useful brief records the priority buyer, the situation that prompts their search, the alternatives they compare, the proposed difference and the evidence supporting it. It connects those decisions to a positioning statement and messaging priorities, so the team can use the direction when writing a homepage, introducing a service or preparing a proposal. The agreed scope determines the research depth and handover materials. Use the worksheet to organise buyer evidence, assumptions and the decisions you want to discuss.
- Brand positioning brief worksheet (plain text)
- See positioning statement examples
- Read the positioning framework
How should we evaluate a proposed brand position?
Check whether a buyer can understand the offer, recognise when it is relevant and explain why it differs from the alternatives. Then check whether each promise has supporting evidence and whether the direction can guide a website, proposal and sales conversation consistently. Customer conversations can reveal what people understand and repeat; any interviews or formal testing need an agreed scope. A clear statement gives the team a direction; sales effects require separate measurement.
Link to this answerShould I start with positioning, a brand audit or messaging?
Start with positioning when the buyer, alternatives or reason to choose your offer is unresolved. An audit helps when you need to examine existing materials and locate the problem. Messaging focuses on the explanation once the underlying position is clear. The first conversation can establish which decision needs attention; the proposal can combine related work where useful.
Link to this answerCan you work with a business in Dubai or elsewhere in the UAE?
Yes. Branding Tatva works remotely with service businesses in Dubai and across the UAE. Commercial terms are confirmed privately in the written proposal. Meeting windows, deliverables, review stages and payment terms are agreed in the proposal. Work is delivered in English. Arabic writing, translation and specialist regulatory review require their own agreed scope and qualified delivery arrangements.
Link to this answerWhich countries can I work with you from?
Remote engagements are available for service businesses in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Singapore, the UAE and India. Suman leads the work directly from India. Share your time zone, target buyers and required outputs; meeting times, research access and review responsibilities are agreed in the proposal. Translation needs a separate scope and confirmed delivery arrangements. Work requiring local attendance falls outside this remote service. The country pages show the market context, broader deliverables, remote working arrangement and the questions that shape a proposal.
- UK scope and commissioning
- USA scope and commissioning
- Canada scope and commissioning
- Australia scope and commissioning
- Singapore scope and commissioning
- Dubai and UAE scope and commissioning
- India scope and commissioning
How is positioning different from a new logo?
Positioning settles who should choose the business, what they compare it with and why the offer matters. A logo expresses part of that decision visually. If buyers struggle to understand the offer, changing the logo alone leaves the buying question open.
Link to this answerCan an established business keep its name and identity?
Yes. The review can retain recognisable elements that still support the business. A changed audience or offer may require clearer language without requiring a new name or visual identity. The evidence determines the extent of the change.
Link to this answerHow is a positioning engagement scoped?
The proposal defines the agreed research, decisions, deliverables, review stages and responsibilities. Bring the number of offers, buyer groups and markets involved so Suman can define the scope. Customer research and identity or website execution need explicit inclusion; a short positioning brief and a broader rebrand involve different work. Commercial terms are shared privately once the brief is understood.
Link to this answerHow are remote positioning reviews arranged?
Meeting times, decision makers, feedback rounds and handover materials are agreed before the project. Share your team’s time zones, who approves the direction and any launch deadline during the first conversation so the proposal can address them.
Link to this answerOne strategist, from question to direction
Bring the decision you keep returning to.
Work directly with Suman Sharma. Begin with a conversation about the business, the question and the evidence you already have.