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A logo, tagline, and some fancy designs don’t make a brand. There are lots of things you put into place to differentiate your business from other businesses that offer similar products (or services). That’s why you need to be intentional and strategic towards your branding in the age of social media — and you have to focus on making your brand appeal to your target audience. All these boil down to brand positioning.
But what is brand positioning in marketing?
In a nutshell, brand positioning is the one thing that differentiates your brand from the competition. It’s your way of making the buying audience choose your products (or services) when it’s time to make a buying decision.
In the next section, you’ll discover more about brand positioning, and why it is important.
But first…
Definition: Brand positioning in marketing involves changing the way customers perceive your brand in the marketplace. It’s a sure way to stand out from the crowd. If done the right way, brand positioning in marketing helps you:
Here are three primary objectives of brand positioning:
Brand positioning helps you stand out from the competition. It’s a sure way to help you show why your customers should choose your products instead of other similar products in the market.
Brand positioning helps you appeal to your target audience, and they’ll most likely find your products useful and more relevant to them.
Brand positioning positions your business as a credible entity in the marketplace. This way, your target audience will most likely believe in your brand promise.
Using a sports team analogy, brand identity can be likened to your style and outfit, while brand positioning is the role you play on the sports team. For a basketball team, it could be the point guard or the power forward. Brand image is likened to the way your opposition and teammates see you — and that’s dependent on your skills and how you relate with them.
In marketing, brand identity is how you project your brand to the public. It includes brand elements like colors, messaging, brand voice, logo, and the overall brand design. Brand positioning shows how you want to stand out from the crowd. You’ll have to highlight your unique value proposition and other things that make you stand out.
Brand image shows how your customers and competitors see your brand. And such perception is shaped by the customer experiences. Reviews, testimonials, and other forms of social proof also help in shaping your brand image.
Here are the key elements of brand positioning.
What niche are you looking to sell your products (or services) to? A good grasp of your niche will help you know the marketing gap to fill.
Who is your ideal customer avatar? You need to know the needs, demographics, and buying behavior of your target audience, and come up with a good way to sell to them.
What are the needs and pain points of your target audience? Brand positioning in marketing helps you identify these needs and come up with reliable ways of solving them.
What differentiates your brand from other similar brands in the market? Well, that’s your unique selling proposition.
Are your customers guaranteed of any value? It could be what they stand to benefit by using your product (or service) offering. Your brand promise should be clear, believable, and concise.
Here are simple ways of developing a brand positioning strategy in marketing.
Figure out who your customer avatar is. What is their income bracket, location, age, and buying behavior?
Before creating a brand positioning strategy, you need to know how your brand is perceived in the market. Are you perceived as a premium brand or an affordable one? Answers to these will help tailor a more accurate brand positioning strategy for your business.
As a business person, you need to perform a thorough analysis to figure out who your direct (and indirect) competitors are. Take a close look at their messaging, strengths, weaknesses, and brand positioning. All of these give you a picture of who they are, and how you better position your brand in the market.
What makes your brand stand out from the crowd? What unique benefit does your business offer that others do not? Your unique selling proposition should be dependent on your brand values, target audience, customer experience, or a mix of any of these factors.
Your brand positioning in marketing should change with the changing marketing trends. Always seek out feedback from your previous customers, and tweak your brand message to fit the current market realities. Furthermore, you need to perform A/B testing. A/B testing helps you figure out the right message that fits your target audience.
One sure way to implement your brand positioning strategy is to incorporate your brand statement into everything you do. That means having your brand message on your social media accounts, websites, ad campaigns, and everything in between.
Segment your customers, and craft a marketing message that resonates with each of your customer segments. A single marketing message may not resonate with all customer segments — and that’s why you need to figure out the specific needs and desires of each customer segment. After that, come up with the right visuals and language that resonates with each segment of your customers.
You also need to have a strong content marketing strategy — and that includes creating valuable content in the form of videos, social media content, blog posts, and infographics. Your primary objective should be addressing your audience’s pain points, and establishing your brand as an authority in the industry.
Analyzing your brand positioning strategy involves tracking the brand metrics, monitoring the customer feedback, and performing some competitive analysis.
Keeping a close eye on your brand metrics is a sure way to know how effective your brand positioning strategy is. Brand metrics could be brand mentions, sales figures, social media engagement, and website traffic. After that, you need to gather feedback from previous customers. To gather feedback, you could ask them directly or conduct surveys.
Competitive analysis is also a sure way to analyze your brand positioning strategy. Competitive analysis helps you monitor your competition, and figure out what they’re doing. This way, you’ll easily identify any potential gaps, and come up with ways to fill them.
Finally, you need to keep testing and refining your strategy until you find out what works for you. Perform some A/B testing to figure out what works for your business.
The four components of brand positioning are:
The three C’s of brand positioning are:
The three levels of brand positioning are:
The three elements of brand positioning are:
A brand positioning in marketing could be the difference between existing or competing in the market. With the right brand positioning, you will easily make a statement, attract (and retain) potential customers, and steadily grow your brand.
To properly position your brand in the market, you will have to:
If done right, brand positioning in the market will help you attract the right customers for your business.
It also breeds loyalty among your customers and encourages repeat purchases. If you sell premium products, brand positioning will help justify your pricing, and make your customers see your products as a superior option in the market.
Now you know what brand positioning in the market is, what pieces will you put in place to properly position your brand in your industry?
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