Brand Positioning is a strategic process of deciding how a company wants to be perceived in the marketplace. Brands need to understand where they fit into their customers’ lives and what sets them apart from their competitors. The Ultimate Guide to Brand Positioning for Your Brand Strategy will help you in positioning your brand.
Many factors go into this decision-making process, such as what type of customer you want to attract and who your competition is. Once you know those things, it will be easier for you to decide on exactly how you want your brand positioned.
This article will give you the basics on how to position your brand so that it appeals to customers and has a chance at success in today’s marketplace.
Table of Contents
What is Brand Positioning?
Brand positioning is the process of determining where you fit into a marketplace. It’s about deciding what type of customer you want to attract and who your competition is. It also needs to be focused on which attributes represent your brand and how those can differentiate it from other brands.
Example:
Let’s say that you’re opening a new coffee shop. First you need to decide who you want to attract.
Are you going for the college crowd? People who are busy and on the go?
The first step is figuring out what kind of brand name you want to give your coffee shop. Do you want it to be named something trendy, like “Joe’s java joint?” Or do you want it to appeal to a more sophisticated crowd by going with something like “Joe’s coffee shop?”
Once you’ve decided that, it’s time to come up with your tagline. Your tagline will inform people what exactly your coffee shop is all about. Would you prefer to be known for having the best cup of joe in town? Or would you rather be known for the most excellent location?
Once you’ve decided on your name and tagline, it’s time to get down to the details. You need to let people know exactly what makes your coffee shop different from all of the other coffee shops out there.
You do this by communicating precisely what you offer that is either unique or better than what your competitors are offering.
You may find that you need to change the brand positioning of your coffee shop several times before finding what works best for you.
But if you spend time figuring out who your ideal customer is and what sets you apart from everyone else, then chances are pretty good that you’ll be successful.
The Importance of Brand Positioning
Brand positioning may not be a term that you’ve heard of before. But it’s one that will become increasingly important to the success of your business from here on out.
The world is changing, and with that change comes an increased knowledge of the marketplace. Your customers know more about what’s available than they ever have before.
And because of that, they have more choices to make when it comes to how they spend their money.
In fact, some companies are seeing a shift from a buy mentality to a choose mentality. Customers used to be willing to just buy whatever was available at the store (or in most cases, what their friends were buying). But now they’re making more conscious decisions about what brands they want to support.
So, with the changing times comes a greater need for businesses to figure out how they’re going to fit into their customers’ lives. It’s not enough anymore simply to market yourself in an attempt to attract as many customers as possible.
Instead, you need to be able to position your brand in such a way that it appeals to the people who are most likely to support you.
The first thing you want to do is determine what kind of customer you’re trying to attract. You may want to focus on attracting customers with similar values.
Maybe you want people who choose local businesses over big chains. Or perhaps you’d like to attract customers who appreciate that you are using organic ingredients.
Once you’ve determined the kind of customer you’d like to attract, it’s time to figure out why your brand is different from all of the competition.
What makes your business stand out from everyone else? How can you communicate that within your branding efforts?
If there is something that makes you different, then focus on communicating that within your branding efforts.
But if there isn’t anything that makes you stand out from the competition, then it may be time to find a new niche to fill.
It’s one thing to do well in business despite having an outdated brand. If you have a traditional business model, it can still work fine.
But it’s another thing entirely to lose potential business because you’re unable to communicate why your brand is better than all of the competitors out there.
How to Create a Brand Positioning Strategy?
You should start with understanding your target audience and what they would like to get out of it. You can do this by doing some market research or creating a simple survey.
You have to make sure that you are not targeting multiple markets at the same time, as this kind of approach usually leads to failure in most cases.
What Does Your Brand Have to Offer?
You should always talk about your brand’s strengths. What makes it different and better than others on the market?
You need to come up with a list of benefits that will draw potential customers towards you, but also point out all of the downsides involved in choosing another brand. It is important not to sound too biased as everyone has the right to a personal opinion.
You can achieve this by writing your brand positioning strategy in a professional manner and providing all of your customers with clear facts about why they should choose your brand over others.
How Will You Get the Message Out?
This is an extremely important part as it usually determines how successful you are going to be in terms of attracting new customers.
You need to come up with a way of how you will deliver your message, as well as when and how often it is going to be delivered.
What are the Potential Pitfalls?
In most cases there are many brands on the market that can offer more or less the same services as yours, so you should always think about the reason these brands have not managed to attract many customers.
By understanding why other brands have failed in their endeavours, you can better understand what is wrong with your approach and how you need to improve it.
With all of this information in mind, you should be able to come up with a brand positioning strategy that will help you gain more customers and therefore increase your business’s earnings.
Tips for Increasing Brand Awareness
You need to come up with a clear, concise and short message that will serve as the basis for your whole branding campaign.
You should always keep in mind that less is more, which means you don’t want to confuse potential customers with too much information about your brand. The more concise your message is, the better.
Also you should always try to win customers over with benefits and not features. Think about how your business can help others instead of just focusing on why it’s different from the competition.
You want to show people that your brand will be able to meet their needs better than any other brand out there.
You need to come up with a payoff that will help you get people to remember your brand and associate it with success.
You can do this by coming up with catchy statements, slogans or even logos that are appealing enough for customers to remember them.
How Does Brand Awareness Affect the Way Consumers See My Brand?
One of the key elements in building an effective brand is to ensure that your strategy or campaign resonates with your target audience on a deeper level.
You should always try to create an emotional bond between consumers and brands by touching upon their very core beliefs.
This kind of connection will last long after the customer has forgotten about your marketing tricks, as they allow them to see past all of the benefits you are offering and connect with your brand on a personal level.
This kind of connection can only be achieved by delivering true value to potential customers through all of the elements mentioned above, so try and avoid focusing too much on your own needs as they will come second to those of your audience.
Remember that you are trying to build a business that is going to run and thrive solely on word of mouth, which will only help you grow further as more people are going to be interested in your services.
How do I Measure Brand Awareness?
Measuring the success of your campaigns is crucial for helping you understand why your marketing efforts are not working.
This way you can always improve upon them and make sure you have the right message on a consistent basis.
Most prominent social media platforms offer different analytical tools that can help you see who is interested in your brand and how they are using it.
Finally, always keep this phrase in mind: “If something is not being said about your brand it’s because you’re doing something wrong.” Learn from all of your mistakes, update your strategy and try again.
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