Positioning

I came across this piece on how advertising agencies position themselves – most of it seemed rather obvious or desperate to me (but that is the cynical advertising-industry-watcher in me speaking) – for instance a brand’s best friend? hey, isn’t that supposed to be the customer? And hey, that is anyway why you are the chosen agency for that brand…

I was trying to find positioning statements of Indian ad agencies and haven’t made much progress so far. But driving back to Bombay from Pune, I spotted this on the expressway.

A bold, provocative statement. Written by someone with great confidence and plans for the SMG brand. And as risky as the proposed business decision…

Personally, I found it the kind of attention-seeking statement that immediately raises my heckles – for I was reminded of this signboard on a shop window – Why go elsewhere to be cheated? Come to us. What do you think of such a statement?

More : As Apu points out in her comment, none of these is really a ‘positioning’ statement – at best, they are tag lines, much the way keeps my skin smooth is for a soap brand – that is the very least I expect from a soap. And going by the tag lines, there is little to differentiate one agency from the other.

Given that, I think the Starcom statement is atleast, well, different. Provocative, as I said, cheeky and makes you want to stop and think about it. So what makes them so brashly confident? What is it that they can offer that makes the risk worthwhile… I wonder if an additional line about the risk-benefit pay-off would make this whole ad more balanced, acceptable…?