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Sixteen months ago, flinching from market losses, my husband and I decided to diversify our portfolio with some lake view property north of Knoxville.  We found a gorgeous lot and hired a builder to construct a home there.  It has been an interesting (though painfully long) process to watch.  We’re building on the side of a ridge, so the construction process has been tedious.  But the views of Norris Lake are a worthy payoff.

What strikes me about this house, which we have named The Clearing (more on that in a future post), is the number of steps that it has taken to build it: the number of phases we have gone through, the number of changes we have made, the adjustments in expectations – and budget – along the way.  Last week there was snow on the ground, which prevented the electric company from digging the trenches for power lines, which prevented the HVAC company from installing the HVAC system, which prevented our builder from being able to acclimate the hardwood flooring, which backed up the whole process another ten days.

Despite the hurdles, our vision for the house has remained the same.  We know what we want the house to represent, the purpose we want it to serve.  In addition to that, we have committed to making it “green.”  Since it is also an investment, we need to be sure that there is a reasonable expectation that we will get more out of it than we put into it from a financial perspective.  Every decision we have made for this house has been filtered through purpose, earth-friendly principles and financial return.  It made the process much harder (and much more frustrating for our builder), but the result is a house that is all we hoped it would be.

It struck me yesterday, as I walked through the house (which will be completed in the next month), that this home began with an idea and was made complete with a disciplined approach to that idea.  In that regard, building a home is like building a brand.  It begins with a vision, and there are a lot of steps along the way (that sometimes require more time and money than planned); but the best brands – like the best homes – remain true to their vision, to their purpose and to their principles.

That’s why I believe positioning statements are vital to the success of a brand.  They define from Day 1 what the brand represents, who it serves, what it believes in and what its personality will be.  Positioning statements calibrate a brand and reign in the rogue tendencies to be something it is not.

If you don’t have a positioning statement for your brand (or don’t know what a positioning statement is), you need one NOW.  Like a home, your brand’s foundation must be solid before you can build on it.

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