In today’s market, brand positioning is everything. Every company, from e-commerce platforms like Shopify to leading automotive companies like Tesla, streaming services like Netflix, and social networking platforms like TikTok, is actively promoting and positioning itself in its specific niche.
This is because millions of brands enter the market each year. And in this sea of options, you must give your target clients a compelling reason to choose your brand over competitors.
How do you go about doing so? Simple. By flawlessly aligning your brand with the interests and needs of your core audience.
If that sounds like a big hassle, don’t worry because today, we’ll show you exactly how you can do that, but first, let’s take a brief look at brand positioning.
What Exactly is Brand Positioning?
Simply put, brand positioning is your company’s position in the eyes of its customers. It’s the process through which your brand distinguishes itself from rivals, dominates a niche, and your target market recognizes, engages with, and establishes emotional connections with your brand and products. Every successful marketing plan requires effective brand positioning.
Automatic Brand Positioning
One fascinating aspect of brand positioning is that it happens spontaneously, whether or not you intend it to.
Potential buyers always categorize brands based on pricing, tone, communication, packaging, physical presence, or website design. This makes it easy for people to determine whether a business can meet its basic needs.
That said, the best method to prevent your brand from becoming a victim of automatic positioning is to actively design a solid brand positioning plan from the time you begin brainstorming or using a name generator to find a company name.
Trust us when we say that any brand not appropriately positioned from the start will ultimately need to be repositioned, which might be costly for your company.
Now that we’ve understood brand positioning let’s explore why developing a compelling brand position is crucial to your company’s success.
Why is Brand Positioning Important?
1. Distinguishes Your Brand
Positioning your brand is the most effective strategy for distinguishing it from competitors. Netflix is a fantastic example of a strong company that used digital transformation to execute an excellent brand positioning plan.
Netflix, for example, could have simply replicated Blockbuster’s positioning map but instead chose to forge its path, and the brand is now the most prominent worldwide streaming platform.
2. Has a Positive Influence on Your Audience
Your brand positioning plan must provide your target customers with a distinctive, authentic, engaging, consistent experience and a revolutionary product.
This will assist you in developing a robust brand-customer relationship that will leave your target audience comfortable and supported.
3. Demonstrates Credibility
Your brand’s position is critical in establishing your company’s reputation and dedication to providing superior services.Â
Building the credibility of your brand by consistently keeping your commitments can help you develop a firm foundation of trust with your target clients.
4. Maintains Relevance
Customers adore Tesla’s products, Apple’s iPhones, and Crocs. These items meet a specific requirement for their target demographic: luxury, versatility, or sophisticated technological features.
Developing a sound positioning framework will aid in increasing brand awareness and perceived quality, justifying your goods’ price and justifying your goods’ price.
Here’s How to Build Your Brand Positioning Framework
Now that we’ve established why brand positioning is essential for your business, it’s time to learn how to power up your organization by developing a robust brand positioning framework.
Let’s get started.
1. Examine Your Present Positioning Strategy
The first step is to examine your current brand positioning approach thoroughly. This will assist you in identifying your strengths and weaknesses and the critical measures you must take to make your brand appealing to your target clients.
Examine your brand name, goods, pricing plan, visual identity, and marketing approach carefully. Also, examine your brand’s goal, values, tone, voice, and identity.
Understanding these aspects of your organization will be critical to developing a successful brand strategy.
2. Know Your Competitors
Having a clear image of your present brand positioning can help you examine your competition and determine where they’re getting it right, where they’re not, and what you can do to keep your company fresh in your customer’s minds.
Begin by:
- Search rival businesses on Google that provide the same or comparable services as yours.
- Conduct customer surveys to see which brands your clients are considering.
- Look for similar items or services on social media platforms.
3. Perform Competitor Research
After identifying your rivals, spend some time researching what exceptional services they provide, how they do it, their marketing approach, and how strong their brand’s market position is.
4. Learn What Makes Your Brand Unique
Take time to analyze and understand what makes your company or items stand out. This will make it simpler to express your distinctiveness to your target consumers, whether online or in-person shoppers.
Peloton recognized that its key clients were young people who enjoy social media, so the firm strived to keep up with social media trends.
Meanwhile, Bowflex VeloCore devised a successful brand positioning strategy around affordability, understanding that Peloton’s price tag annihilates a vast section of people, and acquired many customers who wanted to stay active but couldn’t afford Peloton’s goods.
5. Make a Brand Positioning Statement
Your brand positioning statement is a concise sentence that describes what distinguishes your company from competing businesses. With this definition, you can see how important it is to your brand.
However, before you create your brand positioning statement, there are a few aspects you need to learn about your company.Â
These are:
- What do your target consumers desire, and who are they?
- What concepts do your consumers want or agree on?
- The personality and brand identity of your business
- The kind of products or services you provide
- The most significant benefit delivered by your products and services
- How your rivals’ brands are positioned
This information can help you focus on your target clients, your brand’s uniqueness and most significant value, and why people should support it.Â
Here’s what you should concentrate on while developing your brand positioning strategy.
- Recognize Who Your Brand Is for: Identify your target audience. Are they students, company entrepreneurs, athletes, or gym goers?
- Understand Your Products: Provide a brief explanation of your product. Begin by explaining your items in a straightforward and easy-to-understand way.
Understand Who or What Your Brand is Better Than: Identify your core rivals and demonstrate how your items outperform theirs.
Conclusion
Your brand’s positioning is the critical element that could help you transform your company from an average brand into a big household name.
In any saturated market, correctly positioning your brand will give you an advantage over other businesses. However, it will take some time for your customers to warm up to your new identity.
So, make it a habit to develop new and creative solutions to common issues. Customers value businesses that adapt and stay ahead of emerging trends.
Grant Polachek is the head of branding at Squadhelp.com, a 3X Inc. 5000 business and revolutionary naming agency. We are the world’s top business name crowdsourcing platform, serving clients ranging from early-stage startups to Fortune 500 corporations. We’ve also evaluated over 1 million names and compiled a list of the greatest brand names on the internet today.
