Branding is lot more than just a process of establishing an identity or a face of a product or service which assures of certain perceived values like utility, satisfaction or trustworthiness. It is a way to make your customers 'Live' your product or service. On the other hand positioning is more to do with real-time, person-to-person communication. It helps in getting customers buy your product or service. There lies a slight difference in the dynamics of branding and positioning for consumer products vis-a-vis technology vendor. An effective branding can make all the difference in consumer product or retail since the market there is solely volume driven. However, the technology sales is driven principally by a select group of decision makers with high buying power. A right positioning in the minds of this select group can help in providing greater benefits in terms of measurability and ROIs.
For me brand is more of an idea to gather around for a purpose than an entity of substance. Thus to establish a Brand, the activities around it would be to get a deeper understanding of the purpose and ensure 'relevant' top recall for the brand. Building a brand is a relatively easier task than keeping a brand from getting eroded . In most of the cases ambiguous positioning proves to be the major reason for brand erosion. A classic example of brand failure due to unclear positioning was The Edsel car by Ford.
