In today's ever-growing and competitive marketplace, how you effectively position and market your brand can set you apart from your competitors in the eyes of the consumers. Brand positioning can be your core differentiator in the demanding markets. From giving you credibility, recognition to customer loyalty, it isn't only a basic marketing strategy but an ultimate business strategy.
In this article, we'll discuss what brand positioning is, why it is important, and some of the best strategies for your business. Let's dive in.
Brand positioning is a situation wherein a business sets itself in the minds of its target audience. Simply put, you get to position your brand and its services in the minds of your target consumers. Not to mention that how you position your brand will define and control your reputation or image in your industry.
This enables you to influence the consumer's perception of your products and services concerning your market competitors. And the best part is that it allows you to differentiate yourself from your competition by presenting your products' uniqueness or distinctive benefits to your target audience.
To successfully win over the customers and control your market, you need to narrow down your position and find out where and how it best works for your business.
Remember that today's consumers aren't only brand-conscious; they also value their experience with a company. So it would help if you were careful not to position your brand on claims that your products/service can't back up. That said, below are some of the best strategies you can consider.
While determining your best positioning strategy, there are certain factors you need to consider, including your specific products/services, market segment, the industry as well as your competitors' offering. Here are the five popular types of brand positioning strategies:
Differentiation strategy is where a brand positions itself based on the unique features of its products or services. In other words, you associate your brand with certain characteristics of your products or services. However, that feature/characteristic of your product needs to be of a particular beneficial value to the consumers as compared to what is usually offered on the market.
For instance, you could opt to position yourself based on the safety of your product, perhaps if there have been safety concerns in the market. The thing here is that you need to be highly innovative to capture the consumers' attention and provide a unique value proposition that your competitors do not regularly offer.
In a convenience-based strategy, you must show why your products are more convenient and favorable to use than others. This could be based on their suitability, ease of use, availability, customer support/service, among other competitive approaches. It could even mean associating your brand or product with a certain untapped use.
For example, you could consider giving a freemium or free version of your product, so that those who can't afford it or are reluctant to pay may have a taste of its basic features. And while this strategy may be a little expensive, one thing's certain, it'll drive huge traffic and entice the free users to subscribe to the premium or paid version for greater satisfaction.
Even so, there are other less expensive convenience-based brand positioning methods. Like in the past, simply providing a cashless payment option or tipping solution instead of the traditional use of cash could have easily placed you one step ahead of the competition. So, depending on your market and business, you should brainstorm some of the available gaps to tap into.
Sometimes referred to as competitive pricing, brand positioning based on price is where a company aims to be the most affordable option in the market. Or rather, it's when a brand offers the lowest product prices as compared to its competitors.
This is a surefire strategy to attract a huge customer base, as price-sensitive consumers wouldn't hesitate to choose and stay loyal to your brand. However, on the flip side, it may depict a substandard quality of your products even if that isn't the case, but so long as they are the cheapest available.
Another popular brand positioning strategy is based on the quality of your products. Ordinarily, they need to be of higher quality than what exists in the market. The high-level quality could be according to their reliability, durability, compostability, user-friendliness, among other factors. This means that the high-end quality needs to offer a reasonable comfort or luxury to the users.
And even though quality products are oftentimes associated with high prices, your brand's focus should be on the quality and not the prices. If indeed the product can back up its associated quality, then the high prices will justify themselves. Yet still, some budget-mindful consumers may decide to overlook your products for other cheaper alternatives.
A competition-based strategy simply aims to make consumers perceive your products as better compared to other products in the marketplace. With this positioning, brands tend to use their competitors as a basis for their differentiation.
A brand may highlight their products' benefits over those of their competitor's. All while pointing out the disadvantages of the competitor's product. What's more, a brand can also tailor this strategy to emulate a competitor who's performing well in the market by providing similar services to them.
When positioning your brand, you need to consider your specific target audience and have an in-depth understanding of your market. To come up with an ideal strategy, here are some practical tips:
Well, if your brand isn't currently positioned to attract repeat customers consistently, it's no sin, and you're not alone! What you should do is take the first step. Even established brands such as Coca-Cola or Pepsi started somewhere.
If you need any help with brand positioning or other branding services, you can schedule a free consultation with our brand growth strategist. We'll be glad to assist!
