As Hemingway masterfully showed, six words can tell a story. A very different story. Choosing the right words and creating your brand image will make you stand out from the rest. Positioning your brand is crucial when deciding your framing in marketing.

There is no right or wrong framing in marketing. There is your framing. 

The right framing for you enables you to access the target audience and, eventually, close the deal. There are several factors that come to play. Here’s how to approach this.

The key here is understanding your target group by researching audience interest. Instead of frantically trying to figure out what your value proposition should be and what topics to talk about, do some research. That’s a great way to find out what the audience is struggling with and what their needs are.

It’s not about you imposing your product or service, but solving an actual problem and helping your audience out. Think of it this way: would you take seriously a brand who’s always beating the drum for their product or someone who educates you in a specific field of interest? Which one would raise your eyebrow?

Having mapped audience interest, you can build your framing around that. Here’s a cheat sheet on how to use some great free tools to research audience interest. 

2. Create your audience persona

Carving out your audience persona will get you many steps ahead in realising who you're speaking with.

You can even do a trick and reverse engineer this process by putting yourself in the audience's shoes. Where would you seek information if you had a specific problem to solve - online or offline? When would you do it? Where would you seek validation - would you ask a friend or turn to forums, etc.?

Writing down your audience’s background, personality, lifestyle, tastes, challenges, etc. will make it much easier to create the right framing for your brand.

Pro tip: using brand partnerships, celebrity and influencer endorsements strategically can also help you nail your target audience. It’s easier to decide on this when you’ve created your audience persona and know who or what relates to them the most.

It turns out that the way to customers’ hearts is not always talking about how good you are. On the contrary, there are cases where less is more. It’s a bold move to build your framing around why you’re bad, but it can work wonders. Bear with me.

Ryanair is a great example. They based their service design on being the low-cost alternative. Though, it didn’t come without struggles. At first, people associated the cheap price with low flight safety. Ryanair addressed the issue and explained what services are not included in the ticket: no luggage, no flexible booking and seating, no meals, etc. Even more, they told customers that you have to self check-in now.

More effort for a cheaper price?! How does that make sense? Well, it did. Making customers understand where the cheap price comes from mitigated safety concerts. People are fine with doing more work for poorer, but more affordable service.

Screenshot from ryanair.com.

So, it can be a good idea to frame your brand around what you do not offer, instead of what you do. The shortcomings must come at a cost and you can take advantage of that with smart positioning. That’s one way to go about your framing in marketing.

Along these lines is McDonald’s who opts for simplicity. If you look at their social media content, you won’t really find polished and overproduced content. It’s mostly shot on an iPhone, just as it happens.

Why does it land? Because it matches the rest of their brand image. It matches the audience's expectations. No one goes to a McDonald’s expecting fancy service. We’re used to the service and experience being a bit rough around the edges.

They have brilliantly tapped into that and used it for their advantage. Keeping it simple, relatable, and real.

Screenshot from McDonald’s ad featuring Kai Cenat.

When it comes to celebrity and influencer endorsements, McDonald’s is again ahead of the game. They took their partnership with a Twitch superstar, the streamer Kai Cenat, to the next level. They launched a new menu item and used his stream to provide taste tests and reactions for it, reaching millions of Cenat’s viewers = new potential customers.

Good Work is a YouTube channel that grew out of the media company Morning Brew. The essence is adding a funny twist to complex and serious topics, without losing journalistic integrity. They’re mocking finance, investment banking, and all things Wall Street. But what sets them apart?

They deliver high-quality content and comedy at intentionally low production value. Using legacy 1990s PowerPoint effects, shooting on an iPhone, using a massive handheld mic, making fun of typical management consultants, throwing in memes, handmade sketches, and industry jokes all thrive their brand.

Screenshot from Good Work's video.

They’ve also mastered the art of making the audience feel smart. And that is not easy. As the famous saying goes, “Never overestimate your audience’s prior knowledge and never underestimate their intelligence.” 

Your job is to find that balance, just like Good Work did here. They’re making fun of Credit Suisse being a serious financial institution, a running industry joke.

These creators skillfully drop in easter eggs to their videos. These are either funny remarks, titles, or meme-type logos that make you rewind and take a second look. It’s a win-win: the audience gets in on the joke and it improves their retention.

And you know what? People love it! They have taken a totally unique approach to the topic and found the right audience for their type of niche and framing in marketing.

If you found this content useful, you should check out this post about a content creation hack that can predict your success.

If you want to grow your brand with some simple hacks anyone can do, let me know. Get a head start, because many tech companies are missing out on this!

Are you ready to shift gears? I’d be happy to help you out with creative input for your content and social media marketing.