Marketing used to be about telling. You found a differentiated positioning, and told people about it.

But today, that kind of positioning won’t work if it remains superficial. You need to be able to back it up, everywhere, all the time. If your business practices, customer service channels, supply chain, or ingredients don’t align with your marketing, you’ll be found out, quickly and publicly. There are no secrets anymore: it only takes one person to have a bad experience or find something out for everyone to know. So now effective marketing has to be based in being and doing. We’re transitioning from an era of “Image marketing” to an era of “Substance marketing”.

It’s the definition of authenticity – do your actions match (or better yet, exceed) your words? If not, the best advertising in the world won’t matter. But if they do, marketing gets a lot easier because your enthusiastic customers will help spread your story. Positioning doesn’t matter if you haven’t taken a position first.