In a world obsessed with speed and scale, brands have forgotten orientation. You’ve heard it before – “The journey is more important than the destination.” It is a great-sounding sentiment. Perfect for a coffee mug, a workshop slide, or your CEO’s LinkedIn post. But when it comes to brand positioning, the journey isn’t the problem – the starting point is. Because here’s the uncomfortable truth: most brands don’t actually know where they stand before they start running. And yet they call it brand strategy.
Before you chase the next big horizon or a new consumer subset or purpose, pause long enough to check your coordinates. Because here’s the uncomfortable truth: most brands are confidently lost.
They think they know where they stand, but it’s usually based on:
- An old research report gathering digital dust.
- CEO’s “gut feel” (marinated with the boardroom bias).
- Anecdotes spilling after a few Patiala pegs from an offsite.
- Or that half-cooked “brand study” that was commissioned when the long copy ads ruled.
It’s like trying to navigate Delhi with a 2005 road map. Sure, the roads are there – but the flyovers, diversions, and one-ways will chew you up.
Markets Have Changed. Brands lag.
From a distance, everything looks familiar.
Similar competitors, same buzzwords floating across every boardroom, similar digital pontifications masquerading as a strategy deck.
Up close, everything has shifted.
Consumers’ definitions of premium, value, trust, and loyalty now mutate faster than a brand’s marketing strategy cycle. The things consumers used to care about are now outdated, and what triggers them now wouldn’t be a part of the 2024 mood board.
But hey, you’ve done a competition scan, right?
Great. So now you know what your competitors think their consumers want. Congratulations – you’re officially benchmarking someone else’s guesswork.
Listening: The Lost Art
Remember when marketing meant listening? Not “monitoring sentiment,” not “data mining,” but actually listening to people – without a survey link or an agenda?
That art is now endangered.
Brands don’t listen; they measure.
They don’t ask; they infer.
They don’t understand; they track.
Data is the echo. Listening is the origin.
If you don’t first understand why people behave the way they do, no dashboard can tell you what to do next.
Talk to your users. Listen to your ex-users (they usually tell the truth). Observe your non-users (they’re your future). Decode the why before you worship the what.
Then – and only then – bring in your analytics.
Hello, Alice. Still Lost?
“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.” That’s not just Lewis Carroll. That’s half the marketing departments today.
Even if you do know where you want to go, you can’t choose the right path unless you know where you are.
But that requires honesty – the kind that can make a CMO squirm ( if they are alive and kicking) because it means admitting that last year’s strategy deck belongs in the nostalgia folder.
Speed Without Direction = Chaos With a Budget
Everyone wants to be first. And everyone wants to scale up.
First to trend. First to launch. First to fail and then proudly call it “learning agility.”
But speed without orientation? That’s panic on performance metrics.
Brands rush into new campaigns without pausing to ask: “Are we still relevant?”
They confuse motion with momentum, and noise with resonance.
A strategic pause isn’t paralysis. It’s calibration.
Take that awkward pit stop to re-evaluate your position. Yes, it’s uncomfortable. But so is watching your ad budget vanish on “awareness” that no one remembers.
Re-Establish the Art of Listening
We don’t need more dashboards. We need better ears.
We don’t need more KPIs. We need more conversations.
Because knowing where your brand stands – truly stands- is the only way to move with purpose, not panic.
And no, you must not outsource this to your agency. It needs long-term attention – the kind of slow thinking that’s almost scandalous in a world addicted to instant insights. Work with your research partners, move the teams, and observe and listen to the consumers.
When You Know, You Create Better
Once you’ve recalibrated, everything sharpens.
Your messaging tightens. Your tone fits. Your creativity finally feels less like shouting and more like understanding.
You don’t have to chase relevance; you start radiating it.
Net-net, Dear Brand…
Before the euphoria of festival sales fuelled by uncanny, irresistible 40-80% discount subsidies, and you are ready to fire the content calendar, the influencer onboarding checklist. Take a deep breath.
Look around.
Check your coordinates.
Listen before you leap.
Because when you know where you are, the horizon isn’t a chase – it’s a direction.
Otherwise, you’ll keep sprinting, full of energy, enthusiasm, and denial, and proudly stating that the journey is more important than the destination.
This article first appeared in MXMINDIA.com on 8th October 2025.
BLOG/75/627/1134 To connect, send an email . Twitter S_kotnala
MRP IS DEAD. The article that first appeared in free Press journal.
