If the notion of brand seems a bit abstract to you, this book by https://www.andcards.com/ will fill all the knowledge gaps. You will learn the definition of brand, study examples of bad and good brand positioning and get the right directions to build a powerful brand for your business, be it a coworking space or any other industry.

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Table of Contents
Why Is It Important to Build a Coworking Brand 3
What is Brand — Definition 4
How Consumers Make Membership Purchase Decision 5
Good vs. Bad Brand Positioning 7
Characteristics of a Good Coworking Brand Positioning 9
Estimate the Positioning of Your Coworking Brand 12
Coworking Space Market Analysis 14
Steps to Create Brand Positioning 18
How to Implement a Brand 25
Takeaways 35
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3.
Why Is It Important to Build a Coworking Brand
Before moving further you need to clearly understand why brand building is crucial
both for global and local coworking spaces and flexible offices.
• The brand is an uber essential coworking business tool.
• The brand must be one of the top-priority focuses for coworking business
owners no matter the enterprise size.
• The brand allows your workspace to stay up-to-date and attractive to
consumers.
• The brand defines the development vector for tomorrow.
Examples of Coworking Space Brands
• WeWork | Office Space and Workspace Solutions
Since opening their first location in 2010 in New York City, WeWork has grown into
a global workplace provider delivering flexible, inspiring, safe spaces, and exciting
community experiences.
• Selina: Experience the World - Stay, Work, Surf and Explore
Selina exclusively caters to the requirements of digital nomads, travel-addicts,
adventurous backpackers, and surfers looking for paradise. It offers wonderful
stays all over the world, from global cities to urban hubs, remote locations, and
off-the-grid destinations.
• Global Boutique Coworking Space | Mindspace
Mindspace is famous for its boutique-style designs and dream offices perfectly
suitable for members looking for personal service, vibrant community, and
in-house lifestyle and professional development programs.
• Outsite: Coliving Spaces in Beautiful Places
Outsite services are designed for remote workers and creatives. With co-living
spaces, community, and perks provided by the brand, members can enjoy their
nomadic lifestyle along with career growth.
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4. What is Brand — Definition
Now you know why you want to build a brand. Let's figure out what a coworking
brand is.
A brand is a compilation of customers' perceptions about your product. In
other words, a brand is what clients think about your coworking space,
which means brands live in the heads of the tenants.
Brand Positioning
The most important component of the coworking brand is ​positioning​.
The positioning of the brand is a ​differentiation point​, a fundamental idea,
a strategic idea that makes the business unique.
It’s a simple answer to a seemingly simple question: “​What makes you
different?​” The search for an answer to this question takes months or even
years. It defines how attractive/competitive/successful you are going to be.
Moreover, this answer defines the future of your business.
Why Brand Is Important
Why is it important for you? Because prospects ground their decision to buy a
membership not on the objective facts but their own subjective judgments.
Good coworking brands are stirring emotions. People choose spaces where they
feel a better version of themselves, where they feel smart and inspired.
If you ask a coworking space member why they choose this or that brand nobody
says they like the brand because it’s cheap. So, as a coworking space owner you
should learn the lesson:
Don’t make yourself cheap!
Being the cheapest coworking space in the city is a bad positioning. It's impossible
to sell a top-quality product at an extremely low price. If you are not a giant
workspace network that can afford a low margin due to economy of scale, playing
with price will mean that your business either sacrifices quality or loses revenue.
The brand is a value. It’s an emotion that it gives to the consumer. It’s a ​margin​ that
consumers are ready to pay for this emotion.
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5. Customers are ready to pay extra money to a strong coworking brand
because they ​feel​ it’s worth it.
For instance:
Some large coworking networks like​ ​Industrious​ or ​Regus​ offer premium solutions
for entrepreneurs and companies that care about the high status of their
businesses.
They offer exclusive & expensive places to work that inspire and impress. Those
workplaces strike the imagination with the most desirable locations, premium
quality service, and royal interiors. All these give members a feeling of superiority
and belonging to the higher class. They are ready to pay more for the possibility to
work at the "5-star hotel."
When we are talking about a strong brand, it's always about the symbiosis
of emotions/feelings and finance/transactions. A brand is a business tool,
which can't be separated from your company, your budget, and the
emotional portrait of the consumer. If you can seamlessly merge all the
above aspects, your brand will work for your business success.
How Consumers Make Membership Purchase Decision
At the end of the day, the entire decision-making process boils down to a few
questions:
• What makes your coworking space different?
• Why should I choose your coworking space?
• What emotion should I feel when I come to your space every day?
• What value do you give me?
• How much extra money should I pay for this value?
• Why should I pay that money to you?
All big brands are recognizable, they stand out from competitors thanks to the
proper positioning. That's it, if you are ready to give clear answers to the questions
below, you are likely to close the deal:
• Who am I?
• What am I offering?
• What makes me different?
The simpler and clearer the answer to the question “Why me?” is, the more money
you can earn.
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6. For instance:
Some modern coworking spaces solve this issue through specialization. Today we
can observe the rise of the following types of workplaces:
• Women-only coworking spaces
• Coworking spaces for families with kids
• Coworking spaces for digital nomads
• Coworking spaces for chefs
• Pet-friendly coworking spaces​, and so on.
Please remember that if you don't have an immediate answer to the question
"Why should an individual choose your coworking space?"​ don't expect that a
prospective member will search for it themselves.
• Because you can take your kid with you!
• Because we have a kitchen for you to try out your new recipe!
• Because you can come with your puppy!
If your answer to the above question is messy, it will create even more mess in the
heads of your staff and clients. If a freelancer doesn't see an evident reason to
choose your coworking space, they will just pay somebody else who gives them
this reason.
However, if you manage to enter the market with distinct brand positioning, you
will win the hearts and minds of your customers.
As a rule, coworking space operators have very little time and money, they don't
have too many chances for mistakes, so the key question is ​where to focus​.
What to Bet on to Scale a Coworking Business?
Most of the entrepreneurs share the same concerns, they are afraid to lose
everything, to make a mistake, to fail. Due to these concerns, businessmen tend to
do something common, tried and tested. They tend to copy some model that will
work for sure.
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7. Beware of the trap here. If you are following a classical business pattern you are
going to meet many other people that act similarly.
One more risk is that some big coworking corporation may come to your city and
sell their franchise to your neighbor.
Operating in a classical format is safer as you are using a working technology but
sooner or later you find yourself in the middle of the ​red ocean of fierce
competition​. All of the competing businesses will lose money and stay with
minimal revenue in the end. The weakest of the competitors may even bankrupt.
How to Avoid the Red Ocean
There are a couple of reliable ways to avoid collisions with competitors.
1. Be the first to build your business and knowledge of the brand to clearly
broadcast the message to the consumer that you are the best. Coworking is a
local industry, so you can bring some new concepts to your local area (for
example, open first coworking with a kitchen like ​Cook Beyond​.) Don’t be
afraid to replicate ideas from overseas.
2. Understanding the future level of competition, strive to create something
unique. Clearly decide what will make your business unique. For instance, you
can be the first and the only coworking space using a ​meeting room display​, a
unique set of ​membership benefits​, or hosting ​unique events​ like Friday
pajama parties.
Good vs. Bad Brand Positioning
A marketing professional can list many features to recognize good and bad brand
positioning, however, the main criterion is always the same:
A good brand positioning is like a nail in the head.
Excellent positioning is a driving force that makes you move forward. It doesn't
leave you a single chance for excuses. You can't just say "​I don't know what to do,
who I am, and where I am going.​"
If you have proper brand positioning, you know who you are perfectly well, you
know why you are different, what you are doing and why you want to do it as soon
as possible. The only thing you need is a fulcrum, which you are going to use to
move the world.
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8. That's why you need positioning, which is actually a fulcrum. You need a key idea to
unite people around your coworking space. It doesn't matter if they are team
members or customers, you need a point of passion, a boiling point. This is what
great positioning is all about.
Who Is Responsible for Brand Positioning
If a positioning doesn't make your heart beat faster, it's a bad positioning or you
don't like your business, or you are just not involved enough in it. Business for an
entrepreneur is an art that they can't delegate.
“Business is like sex. You can't delegate it as you are not delegating sex with
your significant one, aren't you? This is incredible!” — Andriy Fedoriv
You also don't delegate bringing up kids. You can delegate your nanny to take care
of your kid while you are at work. But nobody can raise your kid in your stead.
Positioning is your job​, nobody will do it instead of you or better than you. Only
you, as an owner, can energize this business.
Seeking Best Positioning for Your Coworking Brand
Before, when an entrepreneur was looking for unique positioning, marketing
managers advised them to talk to the customers and ask them what they want.
But it's a poor practice.
Consumers can ask you to let them into coworking space with guns, will you
allow this? Never!
So, positioning should be a kind of interest match where a unique query meets the
relevant proposition, and aligns with your personal values, resonating with your
dream. Positioning is something you are ready to devote your life to.
Don't Waste Time on Baloney: You Can't Sell Membership to Everyone
When working on a coworking brand positioning, you need to keep in mind that
you have only two budgets — time and money. Your time is limited, so why waste it
on nonsense? Spend it on essential things.
If you know for sure what clients you are ready to lose, it is the first step to
great positioning.
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9. For example, if you are building a coworking space with kindergarten, like​ ​CanGo in
Santiago, Chile​, people who have no families and kids may not come. You don't
need to worry about them. Focus only on the target audience. It’s okay to refuse a
non-target customer.
Characteristics of a Good Coworking Brand Positioning
Remember that there are two pillars of awesome positioning:
• Technology​ that solves a particular problem better than others (like having a
nursery, professional babysitters, safe playgrounds, etc. if you are running a
coworking for parents​.)
• Emotion​ that will make people feel happier when their problem is solved.
Good positioning is not necessarily constant, yet, the essence must stay the same.
Always keep an eye on current technologies as sometimes even powerful brands
are kicked out of the market if they don't pay enough attention to innovation.
This happened to ​Kodak​ and ​Nokia​, which underestimated digital photography
and growing smartphones popularity.
Coworking Brand Positioning as a Rock You Can Build on
Let's imagine the situation where you are creating a coworking startup. You don't
know what it will be like. You need a universal key that would solve all the issues,
you need a kernel that would make your business holistic.
Sometimes one word is enough to define your business (i.e.: "child-friendly" for a
family coworking.) You understand if it fits you or not and start to create a new
hero, a new world. Your newly-created world requires DNA, it needs a basic
foundation principle, which is actually a good positioning.
Main Criteria of Great Coworking Brand positioning:
• unambiguity
• solidity
• clarity
• specifics
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10. Examples of Bad Coworking Brand Positioning
Here are a few examples of coworking brand positioning that doesn't work:
• “We are more than a coworking space” (opinionated and pointless.)
• “We are experts in coworking” (too obvious, if you have chosen this business
niche, of course you are already an expert in coworking.)
• “Best workplace” (too subjective, what's good for one freelancer is
unacceptable for another.)
• “High quality,” “good quality,” “quality” (people already expect high quality,
seems like you doubt it yourself, this is not a positioning, not your unique
feature, it's just a must-have.)
• “The fastest internet in town” (you can’t be proud of customers' essential
expectations.)
• “Become happy with X” (makes no sense as members' may not connect their
happiness with your workspace, coworking space is just a small part of their
lives.)
• “This is made with love” (why pay more for something that was made with
love?)
Brand Positioning: How to Do It Right
Your coworking brand positioning must immediately specify your offer. The best
ideas in the world were the simplest. Recall Donald Trump’s campaign motto:
Make America great again.
The best positioning is super simple and fool-proof. Actually, an elevator pitch is the
best way to check if your positioning is excellent.
Supposing you have prepared a 400 slides presentation of your coworking
business. It took you nearly half a year. You can't wait to test it on a very important
corporate client. But they say: "Sorry, I need to go but you can accompany me to
the car and tell me the key points on the go."
• Is it enough time for you to impressively pitch your business?
• Will you manage to reply to the main question why will it work for your
customer?
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11. • Will you be able to describe your positioning with a pen on the flip side of your
business card?
• Will you be able to describe your positioning in the SMS to your 7-year old son?
If your answer is "It's impossible," you have no positioning. Your positioning should
have roots deep in your business, otherwise, it's just words.
“If you’re not proud of your business, get rid of it.” — Richard Branson
If you want to make business slightly better than competitors, don’t even start it.
Your business must be radically better, it must be 100 times better. How can you
define this? You need to brainstorm an idea, you need positioning. It is impossible
to develop a brilliant strategy, you need to come up with it.
If there is something on your mind that doesn't let you sleep at night so
much you want to bring it to life, this is probably a good positioning.
A Brand Building Story: Airbnb
Airbnb, a shortened version of its original name, AirBedandBreakfast.com, is a
bright example of a startup that won over the hotel industry. The company is an
online marketplace for arranging or offering lodging, primarily homestays, or
tourism experiences based in San Francisco, California, United States.
The enterprise was conceived after its founders, former schoolmates Brian Chesky
and Joe Gebbia put an air mattress in their living room, effectively turning their
apartment into a bed and breakfast, in order to offset the high cost of rent in San
Francisco.
With no investors and thousands of dollars of debt, the founders had to resort to
selling cereals to keep the company afloat. It took almost two years before Airbnb
saw some traction.
2019 statistics show that Airbnb now has over 2 million listings in over 190 countries
and 34,000 cities. Airbnb hosts have hosted over 40 million guests. The company is
worth an estimated 25.5 billion, based on the latest round of funding of 1.5 billion.
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12.
Estimate the Positioning of Your Coworking Brand
If you want to check whether your positioning is good, answer these three
questions:
1. Have you found a non-trivial way to solve somebody’s problem?
2. Have you found a business model to earn on it?
3. Have you found your passion?
Brand positioning must be your emotional boiling point because you need to
deliver this emotion to consumers.
I understand that you already have a coworking business or maybe you are
launching a startup. Can you tell who did you build this business for? Why should
consumers choose you?
You want to be appealing to your audience, so the temptation to answer with some
conventional stuff that seems right is strong.
Love, expertise, new technologies, etc. are dead words.
They were killed by advertising, the consumer has heard them thousands of times.
They won't believe you, so it's better to find fresh words to explain what makes you
different. You need to make a prospect want your services. They should exclaim:
"Wow! Cool, I want to become a member! I think your space is exactly what I need.
It will solve my problem and make my life simpler, better, and more interesting."
What Differs You From the Competitors
Evaluate your coworking business on a ten-point scale. Be honest answering
whether you are different from five key competitors. If you believe you are different
and customers prefer your workspace for some reason, figure out why clients fell in
love with it. Now analyze if customers' words coincide with the message you
planned to convey. If so, you need to enhance it.
• Please also think how long will your concept live?
• How long will nobody copy it?
The next step is to answer the question "What differentiates you?" in a few words
(ten words maximum.) Write down your answer and then ask ten employees "What
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13. is unique about our coworking space?" Then ask ten existing customers the same.
Analyze all answers to find out similarities.
Point out the uniqueness of your business three times:
• for yourself,
• for employees,
• and for customers.
In fact, positioning is like a mantra. You create it once and then repeat all
the time. You can edit it a bit to keep updated.
Imagine yourself a woodpecker and start to peck the "wood." The process must be
endless.
You're Fired!
Sounds obscure as the only person having enough authority to fire a coworking
space operator is you. So, imagine that you don't work for your coworking brand
and today is the first time you are getting acquainted with the team and facilities.
Your credentials are unlimited, you need to do a huge scope of work by yourself,
there is no possibility to delegate it.
This is the time to question everything. The argument "we are doing like this all the
time" is not valid anymore.
Get updated on your business:
• Go sit at the reception
• Handle bookings
• Try to sell coworking membership
• Do some marketing posts
• Organize event
Be ready to change everything. Though, maybe you will leave everything as is. The
main thing is to enter the coworking hub with this feeling and resolution.
Free Your Time for Strategic Decisions
Free your mind from previous experience and current business activities. Global
business strategies need time when you are free from down-to-earth routines. Fix
your schedule so that you could work on your business strategies say one week in a
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14. month. This is requisite because you can create something new only when your
mind is clear.
When you have the required attitude, your first step is a market estimation. You will
need nearly 10 000 hours for that. You are not planning to enter the market for a
season, you are going to spend there the next five-six years of your life.
Coworking Space Market Analysis
One of the problems of coworking space operators is that they have an incomplete
understanding of their market and consumers' needs. Your market is not limited to
the local coworking spaces.
What to Analyze:
1. Figure out who are your top ten competitors.
2. What coworking brands made an impact on market development.
3. Know niche influencers behind those brands or outside of them.
4. If there is a leading player in the industry, collect information about them,
follow them on socials, read their publications and books if any.
Main Sources of Information:
You must know all the biggest players in the market.
1. There are plenty of possibilities to do it online:
• Subscribe to niche blogs that cover the topic: ​Coworking Resources​, ​Deskmag​,
andcards blog
• Read eBooks and listen to podcasts
• Join Facebook groups
You can go the extra mile and visit one of the biggest players’ locations, contact the
owners, interview them.
2. Global coworking space industry events are one more source of information
and an efficient way to stay updated.
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15. If you can't visit all of them, choose three ​not-to-miss coworking conferences​ and
go there. Nowadays many of them changed format to online events, so you can
attend without leaving your office.
It may take a year to study all the available information but you have this time as
you can combine learning and work.
Monitor Competitors
If you are lucky to know your competitors, workspaces that can really steal your
customers, keep an eye on them all the time. Even if those managers make you
mad, this is not the reason not to read their Facebook feed on the weekend.
The market is never stable, it moves somewhere all the time. By monitoring your
competitors you feel its pulse and can predict possible changes. You need to be
open-minded. Don't limit yourself by a small segment.
Investigate big global operators, know what they do and how they live. Pay
attention to how they advertise their businesses, how they earn money. Spot
the most successful retailers. You never know what can inspire the next
brilliant idea.
Don't think short. I mean don't neglect the activities that are not likely to bring you
immediate profit. Sometimes events (like going to a museum instead of going to a
coworking) that are not closely related to your business growth may change the
flow of your thoughts and cause the avalanche of creative ideas.
How to Monitor the Market
Try not to miss global coworking events. If you can't visit all significant coworking
events yourself, send your representative there. You need a pair of eyeballs to
watch and a pair of ears to listen to what's going on there.
Some strategies even don't cost you a cent. Follow your members (prospects) on
Facebook and Instagram to know more about their lives, their likes, and dislikes.
This helps to know your target audience better. In other words, if your prospective
likes sauna, you must accompany them in the sauna (via Instagram of course) to
study their hobbies. This way you start to ​feel your consumer​.
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16. Study Consumer, Not a Target Audience
In this section, we are going to talk about the most productive, dynamic and
important component of the market—the consumer. It's a big mistake to use the
term "target audience" when you mean consumers. Marketing professionals
describe some abstract categories with the help of sophisticated terms.
For instance, here is a persona of average coworking space resident:
● 25-45 years old
● Income: medium
● Lives in a city
● Drives a car
● Does shopping in a supermarket
● Takes purchase decisions themself
● Has a partner, etc.
Most of the coworking spaces and flexible offices try their best to attract the above
persona. But the portrait is too abstract. You need Dixie Normous renting a small
apartment on the third floor, located in a dormitory. His girlfriend's name is Wendy
Wacko. They don't have kids yet. Dixie is a freelance backend developer.
You need to know how he lives, what his apartment looks like, what does it smell
like. You need to know the color of his walls, furniture design (is it something retro,
maybe a heritage from his grandma or something modern and affordable from
IKEA.)
All these details may seem no great shakes but the best marketing advice is to
accompany your consumer all the way associated with the industry. You need to
search for coworking spaces online, choose the one that you like the most, come to
see the amenities, buy a membership, download coworking app on your phone,
book a room, have coffee with cookies in the kitchen, apply for members' benefits,
network at lunch and learn, and so on.
P&G Example
The Procter & Gamble team was struggling to create a perfect washing detergent.
They watched how their consumer washed the dishes: poured some liquid on a
sponge and then some drops were lost on the way to a plate. The cleanser was too
watery. It looks like a pain point.
P&G created Fairy, a concentrated cleanser that is much thicker. It does not drip,
you can wash more plates with it and it's more expensive.
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17. If they didn't go to the consumer's home, they would never create a revolutionary
product.
The Story of Founding Kisi (Physical Security System for Modern Facilities)
Back in the days, Bernhard and Max (Maximilian Schuetz & Bernhard Mehl, future
Kisi founders) were working at a fast-growing company that quickly scaled from a
few people to 50 employees.
At one point, groups of people were waiting outside of the office and everyone was
super frustrated about the access issue. It was such a time and a mood killer. They
quickly found out there wasn’t really a solution for this — so they decided they were
going to make one together with Carl Pfeiffer who also had a negative experience
with physical keys. When he returned back to Europe from a stay abroad, he had to
be in two locations at the same time to have his apartment keys returned.
Check out an interview with ​Bernhard Mehl, CEO at Kisi​ (as well as integration with
andcards) on andcards blog to know more about ​automating access to a
coworking space​.
Establish Direct Contacts
As a rule, entrepreneurs want to stay in their cabinets, they prefer marketers to do
the job. I can advise you the opposite, spend as much time as you can with the
consumer. Nothing compares to direct communication with the consumer when
you are aiming to generate new ideas.
Your research will be even more informative if you communicate with members
across all your branches in different cities. The trips may not be really fun but there
you may find the key from millions of dollars.
If you want to find out what differentiates you from the competitors, talk to
employees responsible for the coworking space lifecycle. They are dealing with
suppliers, partners, and members. So maybe they have an idea of what is going to
happen next in your industry, what technology is likely to come into play. Talking
directly to your managers will ensure that fresh ideas will not get lost among a
heap of files you are dealing with daily.
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18. Create the Culture of Ideas Sharing
Every manager, every employee who sees and communicates with members and
prospects may be a holder of valuable information. Encourage them to share it,
create a culture of brainstorming and sharing innovative ideas on how to make
consumer’s life easier. Motivate community managers to find ways to make
residents' lives easier, for example, you can adopt modern technology to ​book
space conveniently via app​.
Steps to Create Brand Positioning
The moment when you need to make a decision has come. It's challenging to
identify brand positioning and brand building strategy not because it's something
complicated but because you need to pick out one final option from a multitude of
options.
This choice may be compared to the one when you are choosing your future
wife/husband. There are billions of men/women in the world but you pick out a
special one to spend a lifetime with.
Supposing you are happy with the result of your coworking brand-building efforts.
You collected many insights and info. Read on to know what to do with all those
files.
1. Identify the Consumer
Ideally, you need to see a person you are going to sell your positioning in front of
you. If you have at least one person who loves your coworking space and is ready to
pay membership fees, there likely to be more people interested in the offer soon. If
you don't have a single fan, it looks like nobody needs the services you provide.
When you are thinking about positioning, place their portrait/avatar in front of you.
You need to look into their eyes. You need to understand who is your consumer,
what's their name, what do they look like, what brands do they use, and what role
in their life would you like to play.
When you "have a consumer in front of you", make the next step.
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19. 2. What Are You Offering and What Makes You Different
You probably have many answers. Try to reduce their number to two or three
options.
“If you have more than three priorities, you don't have any.” — Jim Collins
If you have 50 variants of positioning, this means you haven't found anything
unique. Coming up with less, which is actually more, you need to think like a
mathematician and find a common divider for three different types of info.
1. Place ​consumer profile​ (with name, last name, age, etc.) in front of you. You
need to see a person you would like to attract.
2. Understand that a consumer ​doesn’t want to buy a membership​. Site 5 - 7
killing facts, numbers, arguments to convince them you are worth their love.
3. Appeal to consumer's emotions.​ What will they feel if they buy a membership
at your coworking space brand? What will they feel if they start to use your
coworking brand and tell about the experience on socials? What will their
colleagues and friends think about them?
Sometimes emotions are more essential than any other benefits. That's why you
need to clearly utter your social mission as well. What social mission does customer
support when they buy your product? How do they contribute to making the world
a better place to live?
When you have three blocks of information — consumer, rational, and emotional —
you need to find an idea to unite them. This idea will become a kernel for the entire
solution. Look for a single word.
Main Requirements for the Unifying Word
1. It must be ​true​, which means the word must reflect the reality of your
coworking space, team, history, and technology. This is YOUR word.
2. It must ​thrill the consumer​. It must be exciting. The consumer must want to
be a part of it, want to get it, want the service work for them, want the unique
value produced by your coworking space work for them.
3. It must ​reject competitors​. They must envy you because they also want this
word but don’t have it.
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20. This is an ideal solution. If your coworking space doesn't differ from competitors too
much, be the first to conquer the territory. A unique word must be yours, be the
first to utter and start to use it.
In this case, the consumer starts to think about you when they hear the "code
word".
When a Word Is Not Enough
When you finally have your one and only word, it may seem that this is not enough
because it's just a single word... Ok, you can extend the word to a phrase of seven
(better five) words maximum at this stage.
The phrase should answer the question "what is your difference." You need to have
a couple of variants. You may have more unique points but some of them are more
important than the other. The rest of your unique features will support the main
one.
You see, I don't mean you need to pick one unique feature of your coworking space
and forget about the rest. What I am asking you to do is identify which feature is
the key one.
Your Word Must Be Productive and Lasting
Your main word must be productive. It should reveal a series of obvious solutions at
any angle of the brand model.
For example, if your word is Norway, what kind of design should your coworking
space have? The answer is obvious. It should be characteristic to a nordic design.
No bright colors as they are more suitable for Italy or Brazil. You are creating a cold
world.
What will communication be like? Will it be bright and drum up? No, because it
doesn't fit the Norwegian temperament.
If you picked out this word, it can't be short-term. If the word is going to live for
three-six months and then you will need to change it, it doesn't match. You need
something lasting, your positioning must have a warranty period of three-five
years. However, the ideal term of positioning service is forever and a day when you
don't need to change it at all. You can change the details of positioning but the
essence should stay constant. Your positioning word must be productive across
multiple platforms and genres.
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21.
How to Check the Performance of Your Positioning Word?
You can test it with the help of ​storytelling​. Write a story of 10 sentences that starts
like this: "Once upon a time..." or "Once there lived a man... who bought a
membership at your coworking brand."
Get inspired by the story of Apex Wireless and WeWork
“Before COVID-19, Apex Wireless typically sold and managed 300 to 500 new
devices—largely phones, tablets, routers, and hotspots—each month. In March 2020
that number went to 3,000. Then in April, the same thing. A few months later, that
6,000 turned into 30,000.
It would not have happened without the support of WeWork and the staff and the
facilities that they were able to put together overnight. They didn’t have time to
plan, and the managers and staff made sure that everything went well.”
Read the full story here: ​A telecom firm grows from supplying 300 to 30,000
devices
Examples of Coworking Brands Positioning
Look at the same brands mentioned above but from another perspective.
• WeWork | Office Space and Workspace Solutions
"Revolutionize your workspace" — this is what WeWork says right from their
homepage. The slogan is very loud and bold. It is absolutely unsuitable for a small
coworking space, though, WeWork is a well-known coworking network with over
500 locations worldwide. Workspace is their craft. From private offices to whole
headquarters, they create spaces that work for established enterprises and
growing startup, so this positioning works well for them.
• Selina: Experience the World - Stay, Work, Surf and Explore
Selina coworking network offers "a new way to stay, explore, and cowork" to digital
nomads, families on vacation, adventurous backpackers, or surfers looking for
paradise. Their positioning perfectly reflects the idea behind the ecosystem, where
you can stay, eat, work, surf, explore, and find a deeper connection with the world.
• Outsite: Coliving Spaces in Beautiful Places
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22. "Work anywhere. Live differently." — Similar to Selina, Outsite provides coliving
spaces, community, and services designed for remote workers and entrepreneurs.
They help people live their best lives, with the freedom to live and work anywhere.
• Global Boutique Coworking Space | Mindspace
Mindspace positions itself as a "global boutique coworking" which attracts
members loving fancy interiors and unique style. At Mindspace, they enjoy the
benefits of boutique design and services with the expertise and reliability of a
global provider. Having an office at Mindspace equals to having an office that
matches your dreams. All people believe they deserve the best, and Mindspace
cares about giving them just that.
A Great Brand Positioning Is About Storytelling
Brands are telling stories not only about their services, consumers but about
people. A story in the modern world is a universal testing tool. Modern people are
tired of big data. They are tortured by information.
So, the main question to your positioning word is whether it stirs millions of
stories in the consumers' heads. Because when we are talking about
positioning, the biggest mistake is to become a slave to logic.
The problem with positioning born by logic is that it doesn't encourage consumers
to tell their own stories associated with this positioning. You don't need to be
absolutely serious when you come up with your positioning because if a brand stirs
emotions, people will joke about it, they will tell funny stories related to the brand,
etc.
Remember how many stories people tell about their phones. How they lost a
phone, found it, how somebody found their phone and read the message, etc. All
those stories happen in real life. You can't use academic, technical or statistical
vocabulary to describe real-life events.
"Connecting people" — Nokia
When people hear or read the words about connection, they think about the
beloved people they want to be connected to. They buy the phone to stay
connected to those they love. I guess this is a great explanation of good brand
positioning.
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23. 3. Create a Landing Page
Things are way easier in the modern world. You can just create a landing page
prototype instead of doing all the positioning in theory. A landing page is actually a
primitive one-page website. It's a long page you can only scroll which describes
your concept. You can make two or three variants of a landing page. Working on
each option you will feel which is the most productive. It will be easier for you to
write texts, arguments, find images, and videos for one of the concepts.
Check the Demand
When your landing page is ready, you can start a Facebook campaign even if a
brand or product doesn't exist. Make an offer you are going to use for years to the
consumer and see if it works if there is a conversion, or which message is going to
have more conversions.
If old-school marketing was all about premonition and research, modern marketing
is about the experiment. You are not a fortune teller, you don't know which concept
is the most productive, why not use the available resources to check all of them?
For instance, you can do like Taxify did — spend $10 in ads per potential location to
check the demand if you are going to scale up but not sure where to focus.
You can go even further and pre-sale memberships for a new branch. Do it a few
months in advance.
Build a community before you start. Arrange some meet up with startups,
talk to them, ask if they need an office if they need a desk.
Gather 40 - 50 people in the area. You'll get a kind of guarantee that your
space will monetize quickly.
You may experience the most unexpected turns when a "weak" concept starts to
perform better than "strong."
Even if you make a technically perfect offer but it doesn't touch the consumer's
heart, it's a failure. If you decide to make focus groups, in-depth interviews,
whatever to know what consumers want, never delegate decision making to
people. You are the only person who can make the decision.
You need to estimate how much a customer will be emotionally involved and if
your positioning gets in a love or hate situation. This is what you are looking for.
Don't try to be loved by everyone. Your aim is to get true fans and haters.
Otherwise, you are creating mediocrity. It may be nice but nobody needs it.
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24. Only the brightest niche brands become popular today while mainstream
solutions don't touch anybody's feelings.
For instance:
Think about ​Priority Pass airport lounges​. The service allows passengers to leave
the noise, crowds, and chaos behind once they've passed a security check. Lounges
transform the airport experience from an endurance test into a moment of
indulgence offering complimentary drinks, refreshments, pre-flight bites, charging
points, free Wi-Fi, conference rooms for business meetings, preflight spa
treatments, you can even invite your family, friends or colleagues to join you in the
Lounge Class experience.
Membership cards are definitely not cheap but passengers are ready to pay for
feeling special. This is a good example of how bright ideas become popular.
Greendesk​ is one more example of a bright idea that touches people's feelings. You
can hardly find too many people who don't care about global environmental
problems. Eco-friendly workplaces like Greendesk show people ways to contribute
to solving those problems.
Each Greendesk location is renovated with recycled Wood Floors, Aluminum &
Glass, helping them stay green from the ground up. They supply members with
reusable cups anytime throughout the day. They strive to use eco-friendly products
wherever possible, and that starts with paper stock. Their buildings use LED & CFL
lights which use 1/4 the energy as a regular bulb. They are also on timers. With both
regular and electronic bins in every building, they make sure the unneeded items
make their way to their next lives.
Coworking Brand Positioning is Closely Related to Real Life
To choose a positioning you need to imagine real-life situations.
For example, you are having a Christmas party. All your managers and partners are
looking at you. You have only two minutes for a speech to motivate them for the
next year. You need one key idea, you are holding a glass of champagne in your
hand. What will you talk about? Your positioning must be this key idea.
When you are coming up with positioning, I encourage you to learn from other
segments. I don't mean you have to rewrite your neighboring coworking
positioning. Learn from the best world coworking brands. See how they shape their
slogan and their legend.
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25. When you'll have two or three positionings in front of you, you will need a checklist
to make a decision.
10 Criteria for Choosing a Positioning
This instrument will help you compare your concepts easily and make your best
pick. Just answer the questions for yourself.
1. Do your management structure, culture, and team match your new brand
positioning?
2. Does your coworking hub (which is your product) support new positioning?
3. Do you have consistent design elements? What powerful symbols do you
have? How will they differ from competitors?
4. What unique experience will your workspace give to members? What is a
"must" and what will be "wow"?
5. What will you talk about as a brand? What content are you going to produce?
6. Is your idea powerful enough to unite people around? How are you going to
build a community?
7. How will you talk about yourself? How will you communicate your ideas?
8. What level of technologies should support new positioning? How will you
develop the technology?
How to Implement a Brand
Your coworking brand vision is even documented. Now, how to implement it? I
recommend you to divide all the material to blocks according to the coworking
brand system:
• Company
• Team
• Technology
• Design
• Experience
• Content
• Community
• Communication
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26. Now let's discuss each of the above blocks.
Company
The organizational structure of your company must go inline with your philosophy.
If you are saying that you are a coworking space of the future, you can't have a
traditional hierarchy.
If you are running a coworking space for innovative startups, why is your
organizational structure so similar to the one of the coworking space for
executives? If you are so innovative why don't you invent some new principles of
interaction?
You know the organizational structure (that is, the kind of people you hire, their
past and future, collaboration style) is decisive for your company.
For example, your crew identifies the culture of the company. You can't create
innovations in the military barracks where everything is about discipline.
Team
Your culture, company, and team depend on brand positioning.
For instance, if you want your residents to feel like they are working from the
comfort of a five-star hotel, like Regus Signature, you need to hire people keen on
luxury hotel service.
• If you operate a ​rural coworking​, your employees should be digital nomads.
• If your workspace is for startups, hire the founders of startups.
• Can you imagine a ​female-focused coworking space​ with a male community
manager? This is ridiculous. If you want to attract women entrepreneurs in
your coworking, only women employees can create the right atmosphere.
• If you want to cater to vegetarians' tastes in your coworking café, your chef
must be a vegetarian.
• If your coworking is sport and wellness-centered, you must run the marathons
yourself. You and your team must start and finish your day with exercises. ​Live
through your brand ideas and philosophy because this is the only way to win
consumers' trust.​ The words are not enough to convince people.
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27. Are you ready to make a tattoo communicating your coworking brand
positioning? That's how much you need to believe it.
Coworking Space Technology
Technology is the next block we are going to discuss. You should attack the
technology all the time with the help of your idea.
Back in the days, we had to make a new label to implement innovation.
Currently, we have to build a factory to reach the same result.
I believe that. Look at the IKEA example. They focus on making the life and home of
an average person comfortable and beautiful. They make luxury things affordable.
They question the way the furniture is being produced, they move ahead through
the protests and legal limitations.
Keeping the promise to make the life of an average person better took decades of
work with the technology and this work is not finished yet. If we are moving in the
right direction, the improvements and technology updates will take place every
now and again.
As to the coworking business niche, today many brands switch from custom space
management apps to professional solutions from SaaS companies. New coworking
space management technology, like ​andcards​ with its mobile apps and
streamlined meeting room and desk booking, is focused on members' experience.
Best of all, andcards mobile and web apps can be fully branded with your logo and
style. You can reinforce your brand by letting tenants download your own apps
from the App Store and Play Store. This helps embed your brand into your
customers’ lives. Stamping your logo on all their devices makes your brand stickier.
Design
Coworking brand design is a search for brand constants:
• brand color,
• symbol,
• packaging.
The more unique items you will find, the more powerful your brand is going to be.
Milka Cow, Nesquik Bunny & Toblerone Mountain
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28. Look at Milka chocolate. Its positioning idea is very simple. They make chocolate
using the Alpine cows' milk. At first, the cow on the packaging was not purple, but
they had lilac packaging and it enjoyed greater popularity because it was different.
So, they decided that they will have a lilac cow on every chocolate bar as a brand
symbol. This lilac cow differentiates Milka products for decades. It’s “popping out”
in a row of otherwise similar products.
The same is true for Nesquik bunny. It became a powerful symbol for it being so
different from the competition.
Toblerone chocolate has a triangle shape that is unlike any other chocolate in the
market. The idea was to make it look like a mountain, but the final shape is so
radically different that it’s instantly recognizable.
Is there anything special in all these symbols? Sure, this is the way the products
stick out of the ordinary, while the company sticks to its DNA in everything it does.
Remember, if you don't have anything “popping out,” you are not interesting
to consumers.
Create a “Bearded Boy”
Imagine that your brand is a small boy. It's a good boy but what's next? If the boy
has big muscles like an adult bodybuilder, every newspaper will be ready to write
about him. If a boy has a mustache and beard at six years old, this will spark public
interest. Something must go against the plan. You make the decision of what it is
when you come up with brand positioning. You need a powerful symbol.
Coworking Without Chairs
Let’s imagine you are starting a coworking space. It includes all the usual amenities
and perks but all your desks have… no chairs. The idea of a standing coworking
space goes through all your branding elements and your logo at the first turn. This
is your DNA. Consumers should know that no matter which one of your locations
they visit, they will find standing desks there. How many chair-less coworking
spaces do you know? Not many, just like your average consumer. Your brand is
instantly recognizable and memorable.
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29. Experience
Experience is what people feel when they come and work in your coworking space.
As you know, it is important to accompany the consumer all the way from the
moment of purchase to service usage. This is the only way to know what your
members feel. You need the knowledge to cater to their requirements better and
to build trust.
Today, in the epoch of big data, information overload, and social media rule, it's very
challenging to build credibility for your brand. Consumers are mostly negative
about purchase decisions as they are scared of scammers.
Make Members Talk about Your Coworking Brand
What you need to do is make your members talk about your coworking brand.
They can talk about it to each other and other consumers. They should become the
evangelists of your brand positioning. How can you convert them? Give them a
unique experience at your coworking space. Make them experience something
unexpected, some sort of surprise.
Wow effect​ should become a part of your coworking operation process.
Predictability is good, yet, leave some space for the unpredictable as well.
Let's say there are three levels in the coworking business operation:
• Not OK ⁠— when customers are disappointed with their experience at your
workplace.
• OK ⁠— when you met all their expectations.
• Wow ⁠— when you did more than expected and your customers are happy and
eager to share their experience.
Here is an example for you. Back in the days, drivers came to gas stations just to fill
in their cars, maybe buy cigarettes and visit WC. Today, we observe redesigned gas
stations because they are aware of the electric cars invasion. They know that soon
most of their consumers will fill in their cars in the parking lots. They understand
that they need to evolve to make the consumer take them differently.
Gas stations started to develop retail. One day a consumer comes to the gas station
and sees a coffee machine that brews coffee better than the one at the office. The
secret was in the quality of the coffee. It was higher than at home and even better
than at some coffee shops. This was a short-term Wow effect, something that a
consumer will write on their Facebook timeline or Instagram Feed.
"Wow, I didn't expect this. How did they manage to do it?"
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30. Do you know where a marketing trap is? In a couple of years, high-quality coffee at
gas stations becomes a standard. You don't have it? Get out of the niche!
Selina's Wow
Selina hospitality and coworking space network is a perfect example of a brand
that knows how to wow its visitors. It gives you more than you expect. You get an
excellent coworking space wherever you go, comfortable staying facilities in the
most picturesque places on Earth, exploration packages, and even surfing and
wellness activities.
However, keep your Musts and Wows under control. Your brand idea should be
simple and its implementation may be as complicated as it gets and no way on the
contrary ⁠— a complex idea and simple implementation.
Content
Content is the blood of modern brands. If you have a brand, you have a digital
ecosystem. You probably have your website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter,
LinkedIn, and even YouTube profiles. Share engaging content everywhere.
• What are you going to tell your followers about?
• What five-seven key topics are you going to highlight?
• Who will be your heroes?
• Who will you tell thrilling stories about?
All answers to these questions can be found in your positioning.
The next level is whether your members are ready to discuss your brand with each
other.
• Are they ready to put a sticker with your logo on their laptops?
• Will they wear your branded scarf like they put on the scarf of their favorite
football team?
• Are they ready to attend your networking events?
• Are they ready to get into hot discussions about what coworking app is better
(old or new)?
• Are they ready to spend all their days in your space because they feel great
there?
• Are they ready to wear and buy your branded souvenirs?
This is the next set of questions you to ask yourself.
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31. Don't think small, don't think of your brand as about a desk renting business. I
suggest you do a kind of homework before advertising your coworking space
brand and inviting members.
Test questions:
• What do you have now?
• What must be changed immediately?
• What would you like to change in the future?
You need to understand how many resources will those changes take. Positioning
is not the thing you can save on. However, it mustn't break the bank either. That's
why you need a focus point you are going to invest into.
Keep Your Promises, Update Your Community
If you say that you love your members, these are only words. But if you spend some
part of your profit on the improvement of the quality of your services, they become
grounded. Your words become your benefit.
Put your money where your mouth is.
Your positioning must pre-define your investments. The brand is always about
changes. The brand is something that has changed inside your company and then
in consumers' behavior.
Your homework never ends and you need to update the consumer on it all the
time. If you think that you will start to talk to the consumer after you do everything
perfectly, this moment will never come. These are parallel processes. And we are
going to talk about the external communication of your coworking brand with the
consumer in the next section of this guide.
How to Implement Coworking Brand Positioning in the External Communication
External communication is extremely important for your coworking brand. But
there is a trap here. People often think that when they know something, everybody
else also knows this. Remember this:
People hear what they are told and don't hear what they are not told.
I am not kidding. The phrase is deeper than it seems. When you are busy with
creating your positioning, you are in love with what you are doing. It seems to you
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32. that the whole world is tracking your progress. This is not true and most people
don't care about your business.
That's why after choosing a positioning point for your coworking brand you need to
shout it out every day, as frequently as you can, involving as many channels as
possible.
An example of a clear positioning point:
“Top of mind flexible workspaces with a full range of operational services
and hottest community events.” — ​Creative States
You may use different wrapping for your idea but you should speak about one and
the same thing all the time.
How to make coworking space brand communication efficient? It's a simple
formula that consists of the following three components.
1. Media Pressure
Media pressure is the intensity of your brand appearance in mass media. Simply
put, it’s how often consumers hear about you. Media pressure depends on your
budget. If you have a lot of money, you can create high media pressure to promote
your brand.
2. Rational Offer
What deal are you offering to the consumer right now? Does it comply with market
standards? Is it some “Wow” offer no one can reject? Do you remember your
homework, your unique technology, unique value proposition? This is a perfect
time to talk about it. Tell why the technology at your coworking space is the best or
let your space speak for itself.
If you are using some innovative technology, it will work for you. If not... maybe you
are offering some unique emotion?
3. Unique Emotion
Is your promo unique? Is it touching? Does it make consumers cry? Is it humorous?
Does it make consumers laugh? Will a person leave their sandwich in the kitchen
just to come and see your ad on YouTube? Will a person take a picture of your
billboard because they had never seen anything similar before?
Would you like to know if your communication is going to be efficient? Fill in the
table below for your coworking space.
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33.
These are the criteria for your advertising — content, form, and media pressure.
If your media pressure is low, content is mediocre and form is standard, you
are wasting money.
If you have a classical offer, medium form, and high media pressure, you are P&G :-).
In other words, you are a large coworking network dominating the market. You
make the consumer remember your conservative ad through repetition.
There is a path of the greatest coworking spaces and I encourage you to use it ⁠—
high media pressure multiplied by cool high-tech, cost-efficient offer, and superior
form display.
This is the formula that makes your coworking brand superior. Even if you are just
starting up and don't have much money, this is not an excuse for being tedious. If
you don't have enough money for a big marketing campaign, do something super
targeted.
Limit your budget to $100. May only 1000 people see your ad. The question is
whether your ad will touch the hearts of 1000 people. Maybe consumers will
recognize themselves in your ad, maybe they will recognize their enemy. The main
thing is not to leave them cold.
I understand that the temptation to do something tested is strong because it's
always risky to experiment. But if you follow the common pattern and create
something boring, you will lose.
If your small ad campaign will work, you can always scale it but don't keep
it silent.
Coworking Brand Communication Rules
1. You are always on air, 24/7. ​Talk to the consumer every day. Search for new
forms to reveal your positioning. Start your day with a Facebook post. It's a cool
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WeWork Regus ImpactHub
The
Assembly
Your
Coworking
Media
Pressure
High Medium Low Low ?
Unique
Rational
Offer
Low (many
similar
spaces)
Low Medium High
(female-cent
ered)
?
Unique
Emotion
Being a part
of a greater
'we'
Refined &
professional
Guidance &
support for
social impact
De-stress ?

34. challenge to communicate the same idea using thousands of different stories.
If you have this idea, you will easily create these posts. You can tell the stories
about your members, teammates, events, brainstorms, travels, etc.
2. Surprise the consumer. ​For instance, if you are posting serious ads, do
something touching. Show the story of a member who took their small child to
your space, who fell in love with your space, etc.
3. Don't mind genre frequency.​ You never know beforehand which
communication and which channel (search or social) will be the most efficient.
So try everything, experiment. Try new approaches, new platforms, maximize
successful campaigns, and throw out the ones that don't bring results.
Communication marketing is a never-ending experiment. Besides, nothing can
work well forever.
There are never enough repetitions for your mantra. Your mantra is gorgeous
because it is the essence of your coworking brand positioning.
Communication Checklist
Answer the following questions:
• Who do you address it to?
• What are you saying exactly?
• How do you tell it?
The questions are simple but they need to check every touchpoint with the
audience. Can a visitor understand your positioning from the very first seconds of
landing at your homepage? Who are you and what is your difference?
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35.
Takeaways
Why is it worth knowing how to build a coworking space brand? Because price
seized to be a good strategy in the global market today. You need to create value.
To create value, you solve consumers' problems better than others.
Build unique businesses and brands. Answer some simple questions:
• What is your business model?
• Who are you working for?
• What is your major unique differentiation point?
• What will attract the customers to your coworking space?
• What emotions will they feel?
• How much will the consumer be ready to overpay to become a member of
your coworking space, to associate with your brand?
Spend some time to create your brand value. You will have to analyze and maintain
it all the time. Study all nuances of the coworking market, get to know main
business field players, and stalk them everywhere. Come out of your cabinet to the
workspace to figure out members' pains, search for new ways of solving
consumers' problems, and making their lives simpler and brighter.
After collecting all the above info, you need to concentrate on it and make a "bullet"
that will punch through the walls. This will be the pivot necessary to turn the
coworking space world around, create a unique company and team, develop new
technology that will enable you to create innovative products.
If you don’t believe one human can change the world, you haven’t tasted a
poorly baked bat.
This “bullet” point will help you understand what symbol fits your space best. You
will identify coworking brand constants for years ahead as well as shorter periods.
With the help of brand positioning, you will be able to create a unique member
experience. This experience will make a person take out their smartphone, create
some content, and share it with friends that will probably become your customers
as well. Happy members are likely to stay longer with your coworking community.
Modern consumers don't need unique brands, they need unique branded
products with a community of people sharing similar interests around them.
After that, you can start your never-ending brand communication. Day-by-day you
will tell your mantra to the world. You will tell about your beliefs, about the sense of
your life and your business, about your positioning.
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36. There are different types of coworking businesses and different types of operators.
Some of them start their workplaces just to earn money. However, this money can
hardly make an entrepreneur happy.
If you are using brand and positioning properly, this will not only boost your
revenue but make your business meaningful. This may help you turn a
coworking brand into a powerful social instrument. It will not only bring a
good income but do people's lives better. This makes the world of coworking
different.
If other coworking operators managed to do it, you too can succeed. You surely
need to make some money but this is not the utmost goal. The process of creation
can't be compared to any other experience.
There is nothing more interesting in this world than creation. God has a concept
but she has no hands. Become her hands and create.
© 2020 andcards
www.andcards.com
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