The basic questions underlying the branding and marketing of any product or service include the following:

• In what market(s) does your product or service fit (e.g., banking, healthcare, automotive)?
• What does the product or service do?
• What needs does it serve?
• Who are the appropriate audiences?
• How can the product or service help each of these audiences?
• What are they currently doing to serve these needs?
• What products or services currently exist that do the same thing(s) as your brand?
• What are their brand names?
• What are their primary claims?
• How is your product better than competitive products? Worse?
• How does the market perceive this class of product? (Vital? Necessary? Important? Helpful? Optional? Unimportant? Trivial?)
• What is the best way to differentiate this product from competitors?
• What evidence do you have that you can make this claim?

The answers to these questions combined with a modicum of market research leads to the following outcomes:

• Marketplace overview
• Target audience profile
• Competitive environment overview
• Identification of differentiating factors
• Development of positioning strategy
• Development of tagline
• Development of primary messaging
• Development of brand design and graphic guidelines

A Note of Caution

Be careful how you position your company/product/service. Companies that positioned themselves as buggy whip manufacturers went out of business. Companies that positioned themselves as manufacturers of transportation accessories thrived.