By Samuel Thimothy is VP at OneIMS.com, an inbound marketing agency, and co-founder of Clickx.io, the digital marketing intelligence platform.
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When it comes to building a strong brand, a tagline or logo alone won't do the job. You have to think about how you're going to be seen by customers and what will make you different from other businesses offering similar services or products.
That’s why it is important to be strategic about positioning and make sure your brand appeals to the right audience. But how exactly do you position a brand? Where do you start? Let me try to break it down for you.
What is brand positioning?
Brand positioning is a process of getting your brand out there and establishing it as something worth thinking about. It’s not a matter of what you do, but rather how you do it. This may sound a little bit abstract, so let me put it into an example.
Take two hypothetical sunglasses brands: Company A and Company B. Both companies provide protective eyewear and offer lenses with different prescription strengths. However, the frames of brand A are made of steel, whereas the frames of brand B are made of titanium, which is extremely lightweight and flexible.
Titanium frames will return to their original shape even after being bent — and it’s more than just an interesting characteristic. This is the rationale explaining why brand B is the manufacturer of the safest, most durable glasses on the market. And this is precisely what separates them from the rest.
Why is brand positioning important?
Every business has a brand, but is it by default or by design? You can either work proactively on your positioning or let others do it for you. Then, however, you have zero control over the results. Brand positioning matters for a couple of reasons.
• It allows you to differentiate your brand. A company's brand is its identity. That is why knowing what makes your business unique is crucial to capturing the attention of those interested enough to take action. Brand positioning creates clarity around who you serve. It also explains to your target audience why you are the best company for them and what sets your products or services apart.
• It helps you justify your pricing strategy. The positioning of the brand can be used to justify a pricing strategy. In other words, when the price of the products is high because of the quality and exclusivity, and the brand positioning emphasizes these factors, the cost automatically becomes reasonable in the eyes of the customers. This also applies to products on the more affordable side.
• It makes your brand more creative. Although quite a few brands offer products and services that are very similar to the same target market and audience, they differ and are uniquely based on their brand positioning. That is why a good positioning can make or break your brand. A creative, innovative strategy combined with strong execution will leave customers coming back for more!
A few tips on how to position your brand in the market:
• Be unique. The importance of being unique cannot be overstated. You can't just try following someone else’s road map because they're already established with their audience; if people want something similar to Apple, they just go and buy Apple. So if a brand looks exactly like its competitors, it will not stand out against its offerings.
• Be relevant. First and foremost, the brand must be appealing to customers. It doesn't matter how credible or how unique the brand is; if it’s not relevant, it doesn't even get to the consideration stage. Be sure those features that distinguish you from the competitors are important to the customers. Identify what matters most to your clients and position your brand around it.
• Be consistent. You can change your positioning but you must find a general direction for your brand. People won't know what your brand stands for if you keep changing it. So make sure that whatever you are doing is going to help build your brand over time. Think about what you want it to represent five or even 10 years from now.
• Be credible. Some brands tend to overdo the truth, which doesn’t really help establish trust between them and their audience. Make sure that everything you say about your company is believable and will connect with customers on an emotional level, or else they won't trust what it says. Everything has to fit with what is important to your client.
All in all, it’s not enough to just have a great product or service. You need an engaging customer experience across all of your channels for that advantage you're trying so hard to achieve to really shine through and be noticed by your customers. Positioning is more of a daily commitment than a one-time event. But despite all the difficulty and commitment behind it, the results are well worth the work.
Product positioning is an important element of a marketing plan. Product positioning is the process marketers use to determine how to best communicate their products' attributes to their target customers based on customer needs, competitive pressures, available communication channels and carefully crafted key messages. Effective product positioning ensures that marketing messages resonate with target consumers and compel them to take action.
Effective product positioning requires a clear understanding of customer needs so that the right communication channels are selected and key messages will resonate with customers. Product positioning starts with identifying specific, niche market segments to target – not just women over 25 but women from 25 to 30 who work in senior-level management positions, make $X per year, are single and enjoy sporting activities. The more specific, the better.
In addition to identifying the customer based on demographic and psychographic (personality/lifestyle) attributes, marketers need to understand customer needs, especially relative to the products and services they have to offer, to clearly convey value as part of their marketing plan.
Marketers must weigh competitive pressures when they are considering the positioning elements of their marketing plans. Effective positioning conveys to consumers why this company's product or service should be preferred over other competitive options based on what the company knows about the target audience's needs. Effective marketing plans clearly identify how the company's products or services are different from competitors' offerings and in what ways.
There is no value in being a "me too" product offering and simply copying what competitors are doing. Marketers must stand out from the crowd in ways that hold value for their target markets.
Product positioning helps marketers consider how their offerings are different from others that consumers have to choose from. But it is not enough to know this from an internal perspective – marketers must communicate this to the target audiences. To do this effectively, they must choose communication channels that are designed to connect with their identified target audiences at times when they will be most receptive to these messages.
Consider how automobile manufacturers position their products through communication via television commercials during sporting events, for instance, or how cosmetics manufacturers run full-page, full-color ads in women's magazines.
The final challenge in effective product positioning is conveying the differentiating, value-added aspects of your product or service to your target audience through the communication channels you have selected. These messages are designed to convey how your product is different (and better) than competitive offerings, as well as to address the value-added attributes that are important to your audience. Product positioning is at the foundation of any effective marketing plan because it impacts the ultimate purchase decision.
This proposition was once displayed on a billboard of US fast-food franchise, Burger King, with the “clown” counterpart referring to its rival, McDonald’s. If this message worked its magic, it would have the reader perceive Burger King as a higher class dining experience over the less-sophisticated McDonald’s.
This billboard message describes how positioning in a marketing context essentially works. Tertiary Marketing courses define market positioning as how customers distinguish the organisation, its products and brands, from that of competitors when they are selecting from among the vast alternatives.
Why is market positioning important?
Because positioning works on customer perceptions, it is important to note that these may not always line up with the product’s characteristics or the brand’s intended portrayal. No two people view things identically.
Nonetheless positioning is important because it is fundamental to how customers make sense of the complex and crowded array of offerings that compete for their dollar, preference and loyalty.
Identify your target market
The first question you might ask yourself is, “Should my brand hip and cool? Rough and tough? Or sleek and stylish?”
Rather than choosing the one you think would be most appealing to you as a consumer, you need to think about the customers you are selling to and see through their eyes.
Even the most desirable and company-favourable image can turn out ineffective and – in worst case scenarios – catastrophic, should it not be targeted at the appropriate demographic. In this sense, consumer segmentation may be necessary in some cases.
Let’s say a health food company saw a viable opportunity to help a segment of 5-12 year old children; a significantly high number of whom are overweight or obese.
Segmentation would identify two distinct audience groups: children and their parents. While they may be related, these groups have starkly different priorities.
While your organic, “loaded with vegetables” market positioning will gain the trust of mums and dads, this may not bode as well with their picky, stubborn cherubs who have sworn off peas and broccoli.
Current market positioning, competitive positioning, and repositioning
Qualitative market research
Once your audiences have been identified, your next step is to find out their opinions, attitudes and perceptions. Is your new line of prescription glasses perceived as smart, or geeky? Which colour has more of a “royal” vibe, purple or navy blue? Is Erin Brochovich a powerful lawyer, or just a bully?
Qualitative research methods – such as focus groups – are commonly used to gain a descriptive insight into more complex, abstract concepts unique to every individual.
What needs to be researched?
A useful area to investigate first are product features and attributes that consumers use to distinguish between competing products or brands.
Let’s say a university were being scrutinised here – course availability and difficulty level can be identified as factors by which prospective students differentiate between universities.
Bring on the competition
Using these attributes, you then needs to find out how these are perceived compared to that of your competitors. But before you think about beating them at their own game, you should be more concerned about the ideal image you want your product or brand to convey.
You then need to ask yourself: does your organisation have what it takes to present itself in the best light and deliver its propositions?
Internal analysis
A market positioning strategy not only has to be ideal, but also attainable and in line with your organisation’s strengths, mission, capabilities and available resources.
Repositioning in the market
Despite the golden rule of market positioning – which is maintaining consistency – repositioning is sometimes a necessary step. It needs to be done with meticulous planning, reason and clear, realistic objectives.
Think back to the university example. Imagine if their overly strict and elite position were perceived as intimidating by many prospective students: the 18-25 year old segment. Repositioning is clearly warranted in this scenario, so the next thing to determine is how might they tone down this demeanor to be more approachable to their younger target segment.
A plausible outcome of this would be flaunting toga parties, sporting events, clubs, societies and cultural activities without compromising the university’s calibre.
Splash this message across the popular hangouts for young people – for the bricks and mortar world, try the library or café. Clicks and mortar – your choice. Just don’t forget the hashtag.
Implications for content generation
Regardless of the mediums and verbal tactics used, tertiary literature provides some general guidelines when developing a marketing mix:
- Be consistent with the desired positioning
- Be internally consistent – each marketing mix element should be coordinated and supportive of the other elements
- Be sustainable in the long term
Marketing positioning in a nutshell
- The way an organisation is perceived can mean either a competitive advantage or disadvantage.
- Despite consumer perceptions being unique, there is still much a company can do to influence these.
- They will inevitably have more than one target segment which might differ in demographic factors, priorities and ways of interpreting marketing messages.
- The company’s current market positioning must be analysed and compared to that of their competitors. Repositioning may be necessary if it is both justifiable and attainable.
- Finally, a marketing mix – in this case, specifically, a content strategy – can be developed as the market positioning tool.
This entire process needs to be guided by market research, fall within organisational capabilities and resources, and kept consistent with objectives and missions.
The information gathered and positioning strategies developed will determine what to communicate with each segment using the most appropriate language and channels.