What is brand positioning?
Brand positioning is where your brand sits in your customers’ minds versus your competitors.
Successful brand positioning is when you stand out from everyone else in your category. You’ve carved out a position in the market where customers see you as reliable and trustworthy.
Your target customers immediately think of your brand when they need the product or service you offer.
Why is brand positioning important?
Your brand positioning is all about managing your image and reputation. It’s essential to position yourself in the market in a way that makes people like and trust you. You want them to think of you as the go-to brand in your industry.
When you create your brand positioning strategy, you communicate to your customers why they should choose you and what makes you unique. Effective brand positioning makes your target audience resonate with your brand and think positively of you.
If you successfully position your brand, it can also increase your brand awareness which can, in turn, improve sales and your bottom line.
How do you create a brand positioning strategy?
A strong position in the market can take years to establish.
Here are some things to think about for getting your positioning right:
What are you communicating?
When creating a brand positioning strategy, think about the stand-out element of your business you want to communicate to your customers.
For example:
- Price point
- Features
- Uniqueness (you do something nobody else does)
- Quality
- Creativity
- Value
- Convenience
Start with writing your brand mission statement. Include what you stand for, who your business helps and why people should choose you. Think about how you want customers to think and feel about your brand.
Conduct competitor analysis
To make sure you stand out, you need to know what your competitors are doing and how you’re doing it better. Do a deep analysis of your competition to understand what they’re getting wrong. How can you do it better?
Talk to your customers, and understand their needs and what they’re missing. What problems can your brand solve? Use this research to inform your brand positioning.
Go back to your customers after you’ve formulated the statement to see whether your positioning resonates with them. Use their feedback to reiterate and find your brand voice.
Once you’ve set your brand statement and position in the market, it doesn’t mean you can’t change as you grow.
Brand positioning example
92.49% of the world’s internet searches are through Google. The company is so popular that “to Google” is a verb.
How has Google positioned itself as the number one search engine in the world and the place people turn to when they want answers? Their brand tagline is “organizing the world’s information,” and they deliver on that promise.
Source: Google
When they started, Google spent a lot of time and resources understanding user intent. Doing this meant they could provide people with reliable answers.
Focusing on providing quality information built trust among its users. Building this trust meant people returned again and again whenever they wanted information.
