CXS | CXL Recommended : Brand Positioning

Brand Positioning is a psychological phenomenon that exposes the singular idea or concept that a company owns inside the mind of a prospect. A company's brand position dictates every functional characteristic of a company including its culture, target market, messaging and all business decisions. This presentation discusses the critical elements of a brand position, its impact on business decision making and how to create a powerful brand position.

Grant Gooding is the founder and CEO of Proof Positioning, a positioning firm that helps entrepreneurs take the guesswork out of how to differentiate themselves and build a powerful brand. Grant holds an MBA in Marketing, a Master's equivalency in econ and holds an expert accreditation in business valuation.

Grant cut his teeth in the mergers and acquisitions world working with two different firms first on the legal side then transitioning to buy-side analysis, valuations and eventually transition management. This combination of having exposure in the free-market application of both marketing and finance gives him an uncommon, macro understanding of the hard and soft components of businesses and market transition.

Upon leaving the mergers and acquisitions world, Grant took his knowledge of analyzing hundreds of business to consult with entrepreneurs, mostly inventors, and help them shape their brands relative to the market landscape. He took this concept to the next level creating Proof Positioning in 2012 where he integrated consumer insights research into his market based brand process allowing him to use statistics to create marketing and advertising messaging.

Grant serves as a board member to both for-profit and non-profit organizations, is an adviser to several budding startups and is a frequent lecturer, mentor and judge for the entrepreneur community including the Kauffman FastTrac program, ScaleUp KC, ECJC, UMKC, 1 Million Cups, BetaBlox, TheBunker, the Meca Challenge, #1DayKC, BV CAPS program and others.