As discussed in our recent article “Nurturing Business Leadership in Greece Through Effective Public Speaking,” Greece continues to be one of the fastest-growing economies in Europe. Foreign direct investment and corporate lending by both domestic and foreign banks continue to increase at a robust pace, accelerating growth and competition across all industry sectors. In this dynamic environment, it is imperative that Greece’s top enterprises—from established companies to scaling startups and leading nonprofits—re-evaluate their brand messaging to position themselves for future success.
Having a differentiated brand positioning platform and credible, compelling messaging that signals an organization’s aspirations is vital for companies and nonprofits to stay relevant with current and prospective stakeholders, including investors, employees, customers, suppliers, and strategic partners.
Three pillars are foundational to effectively position your brand for the future: proven methodologies, audience knowledge, and the right timing.
Methodology
Employ key methodologies/processes and toolsets to keep your strategic positioning and messaging grounded in your organization’s strategy and provide a consistent framework for context and discussion. For instance, conducting qualitative research through interviews with internal and external stakeholders as well as assessing top competitors’ messaging is an essential part of the repositioning process. Such research allows key internal and external stakeholders to share their perspectives and insights on the future of the organization and provides insights on the current competitive landscape and future trends that will affect your company and industry going forward.
Audience knowledge
Knowing your key audiences, including employees, customers, investors, strategic partners, and their specific needs is essential in developing a master positioning platform that serves as the communications umbrella for your company or organization. And refining the messages and delivery methods for each audience is equally important. For example, employees of an organization need to know how to effectively communicate the company’s positioning in a clear way to customers and partners, as well as what it means for them in their day-to-day job responsibilities, tasks, and professional development.
Credible, compelling messaging Is vital
Right timing
Refreshing your brand positioning and messaging is all about strategic timing. Whether it’s to celebrate a company milestone, raise new awareness and funding, stay relevant with new or existing audiences, or remain competitive in a dynamic economic climate such as Greece is currently experiencing, there must be imperative strategic reasons for companies to undertake a repositioning initiative. We’ve collaborated with many organizations that were celebrating a company anniversary, which involved messaging around tradition and historical track record, while also trying to reach out to new customers to grow the business for the future, which requires a shift to more forward-focused messaging. Both perspectives must be balanced in the refreshed positioning.
Greece’s economic resurgence presents many opportunities for companies to stay ahead of the pack here and abroad. To fully leverage this potential, Greece’s top companies and non-profits should evaluate their current perception and positioning and identify how to differentiate themselves in a strategically grounded, credible, and aspirational way.
