What Is Brand Positioning?

Importance Of Brand Positioning

Brand positioning is the foundation on which to build your brand. With many retailers and marketers pushing to appeal to the target customers, brands need to articulate their message clearly to get noticed. A company’s brand position in the market will determine its market share within a given product category.

A company like Coca-Cola has maintained a huge market share for decades despite stiff competition. An effective brand positioning statement is a huge part of Coca-Cola’s success. The company has developed a powerful brand image that fosters consumer loyalty.

Examples Of Brand Positioning Strategies

There are different brand positioning strategies you can use to stand out from the competition. A few of these include:

1. Price-based strategy: High pricing can communicate value, whereas pricing your products or service lower than those of competitors can make them more accessible and affordable therefore attracting consumers, both have their advantages and disadvantages.

2. Quality-based strategy: This is an effective brand positioning strategy that involves selling high-quality and reliable products or services compared to others.

3. Differentiation strategy: This is a strategy that focuses on the uniqueness of the product or service as compared to those of competitors.

4. Convenience-based strategy: This strategy emphasises comfort, ease of access, satisfaction, indulgence, and other aspects that promote consumer satisfaction. For example think of Amazon and it’s prime offer, delivering products within 24 hours to their customers.

You’ll need to analyse your target market to spot existing niches so that you can pick a strong brand positioning strategy to use. It’s also possible to leverage multiple strategies at the same time to create a great brand, this however can require more time and resources.

Getting Started With Brand Positioning

There are three critical elements that make up your brand positioning strategy

• Your customers
• Your competitors
• Your unique value or selling point

Identifying each of these elements carefully is the key to developing an effective brand positioning strategy. To understand what brand positioning is and get started with it, you need to answer three questions:

1. Who Is Your Target Market?

Remember, your brand exists to serve the needs of its target customers. Customer needs are unique, dynamic, and personal. Before you embark on brand positioning, you need to study your target market. Understand what they need and use that as a perceptual map to craft an impactful brand proposition and visual identity.

To position yourself properly, you must gain an understanding of your consumers’ perceptions, which means thinking in their shoes, assessing their needs and taking into account what they want from their customer experience.

Your brand may attempt to influence the perception of your brand within your audience, but ultimately, your audience decides.

They will decide whether or not your brand fits within their preferences and whether they are interested in it based on their brand awareness, experiences, circumstances, and, of course, the exposure to the messages you will provide.

2. What Competitive Advantage Do You Want to Leverage?

Millions of businesses out there are competing to dominate the market. To gain an upper hand in the competition, you need to have some competitive advantage. Your competitive advantage is reflected in the strategy you adopt.

Competitive advantage doesn’t have to be a game-changer. The key is to identify and address any weaknesses in your brand that burden the target customers. For example, if the local cafes in your area don’t offer delivery services, you may base your competitive advantage on food delivery services. This way, you won’t necessarily need to have the best pricing since the convenience you offer is attractive to the target customers.

Having a good brand identity can also guarantee you a competitive advantage. A powerful and relatable brand identity makes the target customers choose your product over those of competitors. Successful brands like Tesla achieve this by creating unique products that challenge the status quo in terms of efficiency, innovation, and pricing.

3. Why Should The Market Believe You?

After building the product, it doesn’t matter what amount of competitive advantage you have. You need to convince your target customers that they need to switch to your brand. The final step of any brand positioning strategy is to create brand awareness and persuade your target audience to give the product or service a try. You’ll need to have a good marketing strategy and a strong brand proposition encompassed in your value proposition.

A value proposition is a promise of value your business vows to deliver. It shows your customers why they should believe in you and choose your product. Through the value proposition, you’ll be able to convince the target customers to choose your brand.

Apart from having a value one, your key messaging that you communicate to your target market is also important. There are many strategies you can use to do so, such as social media. It gives your business something more than consumer brand awareness. It enables you to display social proof through things such as customer feedback and stats. This can strengthen your brand image by convincing your customers that your brand has achieved a lot within its product category, is in high demand, and therefore, they should choose your brand. It is also a great tool to convey your brand personality, as it pulls on an emotional trigger in the target customers’ minds enabling them to take action and stay loyal to your brand.

To sum it all up

Whether you want to venture into a new market or increase your market share in your current niche, brand positioning is a powerful strategy that will guarantee you amazing results.

Brand positioning ensures that your brand remains on top of consumers’ minds such that when they are faced with a choice, they will choose your products. Big companies like Apple and Nike are masters in effective brand positioning. Start by studying your niche and choosing a good brand positioning strategy. Then, leverage your competitive advantage to attract new customers.

If you need help with repositioning your brand and building your brand equity, drop us a line today.