Brand positioning is shaped by what people trust, notice, remember, and choose when alternatives are close. The statistics below connect positioning with trust, culture, customer experience, personalization, discovery, and the operational work required to deliver a consistent promise. Unless otherwise noted, the figures are reported by Salesforce Marketing Statistics; the trust figures come from the 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Brand Trust, From We to Me.
Contents
- Trust is the foundation of positioning
- Cultural relevance changes brand perception
- Customer experience can strengthen or weaken a position
- Personalization makes positioning more specific
- Discovery differs across generations
- Data and technology support the promise
Trust is the foundation of positioning
Positioning is not only a statement a company makes about itself. It is also an expectation people attach to the brand. The 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Brand Trust, From We to Me reports that 80% of people trust brands they use. That gives familiar, useful brands an important starting point: existing use can be associated with credibility.
Trust is also local. Globally, trust in domestically headquartered brands exceeds trust in foreign brands by an average of 15 points. The gap reaches 30 points in Germany and 29 points in Canada, according to the same 2025 Edelman report. For a brand deciding how to position itself across markets, origin and local identification can therefore be part of the perceived meaning of the brand.
The data also shows that trust depends on more than product performance. In the 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Brand Trust, From We to Me, 73% of people say their trust in a brand would increase if it authentically reflected today’s culture. By comparison, only 27% say their trust would increase if a brand ignored culture and focused solely on its products. These figures describe a large difference in how people respond to a product-only identity versus one that connects authentically with its cultural setting.
Salesforce Marketing Statistics reports a related caution around artificial intelligence: customer trust in businesses using AI ethically is 42%, down from 58% in 2023. Ethical language alone does not guarantee a stronger position. A brand that promises helpful innovation still has to make its use of technology understandable and credible.
Cultural relevance changes brand perception
Cultural relevance can affect purchase intention as well as trust. The 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Brand Trust, From We to Me reports that 60% of economically powerful boomers would be less likely to buy if a brand ignored its obligation to address a societal issue. This is a specific finding about economically powerful boomers, not a general estimate for every age group or shopper.
Taken together, the Edelman figures suggest three practical dimensions of a position: whether people trust the brand they use, whether the brand reflects the culture authentically, and whether its actions match perceived obligations. The numbers do not establish that every brand must take the same public stance. They do show that a position centered only on product features can leave out factors that influence trust and buying intent.
Competition makes clarity more important. Salesforce Marketing Statistics reports that 57% of respondents said marketplace competition had become more difficult year over year. In a more difficult market, a broad promise can be hard to recognize. A focused position gives customers a clearer reason to distinguish one brand from another, especially when competitors offer similar functional benefits.
The same source reports that 89% of marketers believe they must continually innovate. Innovation, however, does not have to mean changing the brand’s identity every quarter. A stronger approach is to keep the central promise recognizable while updating the evidence, formats, and experiences that support it. Consistency makes a position memorable; relevant improvement keeps it useful.
Customer experience can strengthen or weaken a position
A brand promise is tested through individual interactions. Salesforce Marketing Statistics reports that 74% of shoppers will abandon a brand after three or fewer bad experiences. It also reports that 74% of shoppers switched brands in the past year. These figures indicate how quickly a customer’s experience can turn a stated position into a reason to leave.
Price is another positioning signal. In the same Salesforce reporting, 65% of customers say high prices are the top reason they stopped buying from a brand. A premium position therefore needs more than a high price. The experience, quality, service, or meaning surrounding that price must make the difference intelligible to the customer.
Loyalty programs show that belonging does not automatically equal engagement. Salesforce Marketing Statistics reports that 77% of shoppers belong to at least one loyalty program, while 35% belong to a loyalty program they have never used. A brand can be present in a customer’s account without being present in the customer’s active behavior. Positioning should make the value of continued participation concrete.
Store and online behavior also overlap. Shoppers estimated that 49% of their purchase volume came from physical stores in 2023, according to Salesforce Marketing Statistics. In current retail operations, 59% of retailers offer online returns to store and 54% offer buy online, pick up in store. Yet 17% of shoppers have ordered from another retailer while in-store. Convenience can support a position, but fragmented experiences can redirect demand to a competitor at the point of choice.
| Positioning-related customer signal | Reported figure | Source or period |
|---|---|---|
| Shoppers abandoning a brand after three or fewer bad experiences | 74% | Salesforce Marketing Statistics |
| Customers citing high prices as the top reason they stopped buying | 65% | Salesforce Marketing Statistics |
| Shoppers belonging to at least one loyalty program | 77% | Salesforce Marketing Statistics |
| Shoppers who belong to a loyalty program they have never used | 35% | Salesforce Marketing Statistics |
| Estimated purchase volume from physical stores | 49% | 2023, Salesforce Marketing Statistics |
Unified commerce is becoming part of the customer-facing promise. Salesforce Marketing Statistics reports that 88% of retailers say unified commerce will be very important or critical to their business objectives over the next two years. At the same time, only 15% of retailers have fully realized unified commerce value. The contrast matters: strategic importance is widespread, while completed delivery remains limited.
Personalization makes positioning more specific
Personalization turns a general position into a message that can feel relevant to a particular person. Salesforce Marketing Statistics reports that marketers use an average of 10 customer engagement channels, while high-performing marketers fully personalize experiences across an average of 6 channels. The figures describe channel use and personalization scope; they do not show that more channels automatically produce better results.
Customer recognition is improving in one measure but weakening in another. According to Salesforce Marketing Statistics, 73% of customers feel brands treat them as unique individuals, up from 39% in 2023. Yet only 49% of customers think companies use their data beneficially, down from 60% in 2022. A brand can appear personalized while still failing to convince people that its data practices serve them.
That tension is central to personal brand and career positioning as well. A clear professional identity should make relevant experience easier to recognize without reducing a person to a set of automated labels. The supplied figures do not quantify personal-brand outcomes, but they do show why specificity and trust need to work together: recognition is valuable only when the underlying use of information feels beneficial.
Sales teams face the same pressure to communicate differentiated value. Salesforce Marketing Statistics reports that 66% of sales professionals say it is harder to sell than a year ago, while 82% feel confident about their company’s 12-month growth strategy. Confidence in strategy and difficulty in execution can coexist. A positioning statement may be clear internally while still being difficult to express in a crowded conversation.
Discovery differs across generations
People do not encounter brands through one universal discovery path. Salesforce Marketing Statistics reports that 76% of Gen Z use social platforms for product discovery, compared with 70% of Millennials and 36% of Baby Boomers. These figures are distinct rates for the named generations; they should not be treated as a single all-consumer average.
Within Gen Z behavior, 40% of Gen Z shoppers use TikTok for shopping discovery, 24% order from competitors while in-store, and 63% want product recommendations from AI agents, according to Salesforce Marketing Statistics. Each figure points to a different positioning challenge: visibility in a discovery environment, the risk of losing the sale during a physical visit, and the need for recommendation systems to represent the brand accurately.
For a career-oriented personal brand, the practical implication is that visibility should be matched to the audience’s discovery habits. The supplied statistics do not identify which platform is best for every profession, nor do they measure personal-brand conversion. They do support a narrower point: audience behavior varies by generation, so a single channel or message should not be assumed to reach everyone equally.
Data and technology support the promise
Positioning becomes credible when an organization can repeatedly deliver what it claims. Salesforce Marketing Statistics reports that 98% of sales leaders say trustworthy data is more important in times of change. It also reports that 88% of marketers use analytics or measurement tools and 86% use CRM systems. These tools do not define the position, but they can help teams understand whether the experience is reaching the intended audience and remaining consistent.
Artificial intelligence is becoming part of that operating environment. Salesforce Marketing Statistics reports that 63% of marketers are currently using generative AI, and 75% of PPC professionals use generative AI at least sometimes for writing ads. Among US generative AI decision-makers, 49% expect a return on AI investments within one to three years. The return expectation is an estimate from those decision-makers, not a guaranteed result or a realized industry-wide return.
Retailers are also signaling the scale of the shift: 85% agree that AI advancements are transforming retail, according to Salesforce Marketing Statistics. Among Gen Z shoppers, 63% want product recommendations from AI agents. These facts make AI a positioning issue as well as an operational one. Brands need to decide whether their identity emphasizes human expertise, intelligent assistance, convenience, or another benefit—and then make the customer experience support that emphasis.
Execution capacity remains a constraint. Salesforce Marketing Statistics reports that 71% of sales leaders report overall budget increases, but sales representatives spend only 30% of their time actually selling during an average week and 70% on non-selling tasks. It also reports that 67% of sales representatives do not expect to meet quota this year, while 84% missed quota last year. A position can be compelling in marketing and still underperform if the people responsible for explaining and delivering it lack enough selling time.
Partner and recurring relationships can reinforce a position over time. Salesforce Marketing Statistics reports that 84% of sales professionals say partner selling has a bigger impact on revenue, and 42% of sales leaders cite recurring sales as their top revenue source. These are sales-reported measures, not universal proof that partnerships or recurring models are best for every brand. They do show why a durable position often needs an ecosystem and a repeatable reason for customers to return.
Store employees are part of that delivery system too. New store associates must master an average of 16 different systems daily, up from 12 in 2023, and 89% of retailers say the role of store associates is broadening, according to Salesforce Marketing Statistics. When the frontline role expands while systems multiply, the gap between intended positioning and lived experience can widen. Clear promises need usable processes behind them.
Sales performance provides a final measure of the difficulty. Salesforce Marketing Statistics reports that 79% of sales teams increased revenue over the past 12 months, yet 84% of sales representatives missed quota last year and 67% do not expect to meet quota this year. These are not contradictory measures: team revenue growth and individual quota attainment can move differently. For positioning work, the distinction is useful because a growing category or team result does not prove that every representative can communicate the brand’s value effectively.