Three elements of effective positioning are: 1) who you are, 2) what you do and 3) why you should care. The first two are easy, but it's the last one that can challenge a marketer. How do you cause someone to care about your brand?

The first impulse is to evaluate the rational benefits of your product or service. Is it faster, cheaper, or better in a meaningful way? If it is, then you can message against this advantage. But be careful. You need to know if your competitors can easily duplicate your "advantage". If they can then you could find your campaign outdated and meaningless rather quickly. Consider TD Banknorth "Bank Freely" campaign that ran last summer. They promised customers no fees to use their or any bank's ATMs. It was a bold move, but one that was easily duplicated. Within a few months, most of the major banks offered checking accounts that waived fees for using another bank's ATM. After about six months the campaign had no relevance and was soon dropped.

Especially in mature categories like banking where meaningful differentiation is rare, it's the emotional connection a brand has with its audience that can make a difference. To message emotionally requires an in-depth understanding of your target audiences. Start with your current customers. Who are they? What do they believe is important? Why do they buy your product or service? How does it make them feel? Once you have an understanding for their emotional connection to your brand you can develop messaging that has a better chance of engaging others like them. Once engaged, you have a chance they'll switch.

I've heard many colleagues suggest that positioning is about the rational while messaging focuses on the emotional. I suggest that today's marketing strategist needs to understand the emotional motivations as well as the rational. Caring is emotional, not rational.