A successful brand positioning strategy is important to establish your brand and be successful in the market. A lot of businesses today are well-established and well-known, that said, there are plenty of new startups that are gathering momentum. However, with so many startups and established brands, it’s hard to be different.
For every new business, there is at least one other enterprise that already offers the same services. This is why there is so much competition in the market today, and most new companies have a hard time getting on their feet.
This competition not only affects new companies but all businesses generally, and those that have made a name for themselves are those that have taken the extra step and done something different from others.
What can you do differently, you ask? Brand positioning, for one, is an important tactic that every well-recognized organization has taken advantage of and used to boost the reputation of their companies.
What is Brand Positioning?
As the name suggests, it simply means projecting your brand to your target market in a way that can’t be ignored. Brand positioning entails you sharing the core and ideals of your business with the market such that they see the unique service you’re offering.
A successful brand positioning doesn’t end at showing your audience what you have to offer, it also entails showing how and why they need that service. Not everybody knows that they need what you offer, you have to show them how it can serve them and why they should patronize your business.
Lastly, showing them that they need the service you offer is not all there is to brand positioning. It was mentioned earlier that for every business, another company offers the same or similar services. This is where the third aspect of brand positioning comes in, you have to show the market why they should choose you instead of your competitors.
These three steps are essentially what a successful brand positioning is all about. There is more to know about this strategy, such as the how-to and where to, and we’re going to give you a thorough breakdown of everything you need to know about brand positioning.
Brand Positioning on Social Media
The world has taken a whole new turn in terms of technology, we can’t compare how things were done back then to how things are done right now. There have been a lot of technological breakthroughs and advancements, and strategies that were considered effective back then, are now obsolete or largely ineffective.
One of these technological advancements is in the form of social media. Social media is the new world order, the world has become a global village and different people from various parts of the world can now come together without having to leave their locations.
This is a very good thing for business because you can expand your reach to places that were seemingly out of bounds before. You can effectively position your brand, and get a larger target audience.
The use of social media for brand positioning gives you the best platform to reach your audience using written, audio, and even visual prompts. With a tool as powerful as social media and a well-planned and successful brand positioning strategy, there is absolutely nothing that can stand in the way of your company’s growth.
This is something that you see yourselves every day, each time you log in on your social media, you see large businesses like Coke and other well-recognized businesses, pushing their brand most creatively on your timeline. And now, these businesses have even become household names, and the market even uses their names to refer to other competitor products. There are also social media assistants designed to help you analyze your brand, such as Socialays.
How to Create a Successful Strategy?
We’ve established what a successful brand positioning is, and have explained it as placing your brand in the view of your target audience, such that they see what you have to offer, why they need what you’re offering, and why your brand is the right way to go.
However, brand positioning is not something that you can go about anyhow you like; if not properly organized and thought through, it can be ineffective and end up a big waste of time and resources. It is for this reason that you need what we call a “brand positioning strategy”.
A brand positioning strategy refers to planning and technical insights taken into consideration to produce an effective and appropriate brand position that captures the attention and interest of the market.
Creating a successful brand positioning strategy doesn’t have to be a difficult task if you know what you’re doing, and we’re here to show you how to do it, in the simplest and yet most effective way possible.
– Reevaluate your current strategy
Before you go-ahead to build a new strategy, you first need to evaluate the current structure on the ground, for those that already have one. You don’t expect to keep doing the same thing and expect a different result, this probably explains why you’ve not seen any difference.
It is normal to have made some mistakes with our first attempt at brand positioning, this is largely due to inexperience or bad advice. It will be an even larger mistake to keep building on this faulty foundation because the result will still be the same.
Don’t just keep trying to make the old strategy work, instead, take a step back and have a long look to see where you might have made your error, then you can make moves to correct them, or better still start from scratch.
– Understand your target market and how they respond to your brand
The next step is to gain insight into your audience. The whole point of a successful brand positioning will be a large waste of time if you don’t understand who your target market is. To effectively position your brand, you need to know what your audience responds to. Most of the time, it seems like our efforts are not bearing fruit, this is because we are not connecting with our audience on the level that will provoke their interest.
A general mistake that brands make is, that they don’t use their voices and ideas to present themselves, instead, they try to copy what they see the competition doing, this will not work. The audience has already heard the competition’s voice and you now using the same tactics to promote your brand just remind them of your competition.
It is important that you present your brand in a way that is unique to only you, and also attract the attention of the market. So when your target audience comes across your brand, they think of you and only you.
– Make a brand essence chart
Once you’ve identified your market and their interests, the next thing is fashioning a brand highlight that they can relate to and also express the core of your business. To do this, we advise that you create a brand essence chart, the chart makes it easier for you to express your brand effectively, without any unnecessary rambling or addition. The chart includes:
Attributes. This tells about the product or service that you’re offering, it can be better described as the properties of your product or service.
Benefits. Once you’ve outlined what your service or product is about, you need to show the customers how this benefits them or the advantages of using your product.
Personality. This part is very important because this is where you begin to differentiate your product from the competition. You can make use of adjectives to describe your product, you can also use catchy phrases. The whole purpose of this point is to show the audience the uniqueness of your services.
Source of Authority and Support. This aspect gives further relevance to your product, it shows the basis of your product and gives further authenticity. You can show facts about your product or business that will build the confidence of the market in your services. You can include facts like customer reviews, awards, acknowledgment by regulatory bodies, and more.
The Customers Perspective. This includes what your products say about your customers and how they feel about your product. Your brand should portray your products in a way that makes the customers feel empowered.
You can achieve this by taking into consideration customer reviews and using this to build a better strategy for your brand.
– Know your competitors
You must know about the competition. If you’re going to build a brand that will stand out, you need to know what you’re up against. Knowing your competitors’ strategies will help you develop a better and even more captivating brand.
You can identify your competition by;
- Interacting with your customers; ask your customers question concerning other companies they would consider in place of your own
- Check social media platforms where consumers of your type of service come together to share their opinions; surely, they will talk about other companies that are a threat to you.
– Research your competition
Once you know who the competition is, the next step is to research and analyze the competition. When researching your competition, you need to get some basic information such as:
- the products and services they render
- the areas of their strength and also their weaknesses
- the strategies they have in place to promote their products
- how accomplished they are in the market
– Gather information and develop something unique
Once you’ve researched your competition, don’t just have this knowledge and store it. Instead, you have to make use of the information that you have gathered.
As part of your successful brand positioning strategy, look at the weaknesses of the competition and work with them. The things the audience doesn’t like about the competition are powerful tools for you. All you need to do is build on that weakness and turn it into a strength for you. This will give you an edge and something more that you can include in your strategy to surpass the competition.
One mistake you would not make, however, is copying the strength of the competition. This doesn’t mean that you can’t get ideas from what the competition is doing right. Instead, don’t just copy the strategy and use it the same way. Build on the format and use it as a guide to creating your unique style. This will save you a lot of stress and extra work. At the same time giving you a better brand positioning than others around.
– Create your personal statement
The next step is creating a positioning statement. A positioning statement is quite simple. It refers to a sentence or two that tells the audience what makes your brand unique. It also talks about value, and what makes it different or a better choice for your competition.
Writing a positioning statement can easily go wrong. Because you have a limited amount of words, you want to keep it short and straightforward. Therefore, there are some things you need to have in mind to write a proper and effective positioning statement.
Knowing your target market, product class, the benefit, and the results are enough information to write up the perfect statement. Write a statement that addresses these four points and you are good to go.
– Test run your positioning statement
Once you’ve come up with a positioning statement of your choice, the next step is to do a test run. How? Simple, with your customers. Let your customers give you an honest opinion about your positioning statements. Ask them what they feel upon reading the statement if it piques their interest. This is especially effective with new customers. They don’t have as much sentimental attachment as old customers and are more liable to give unbiased opinions.
Brand positioning is an important aspect of any business. If you want to make a breakthrough in sales, you will inevitably have to adopt this tool. For those that have attempted brand positioning and have failed to accomplish the desired result, we have gone through some important points that will help you create a more effective brand positioning strategy.
By following all the points listed above, you will see a turnaround in your business.
Why Is It Important?
– Improves your brand presentation
This entails you understanding your target audience, the things that interest them, and such. This helps you to better strategize your advertisement tactics, you can now make more effective ads.
Sometimes in coming up with content, we thought can boost sales, it seems there is still no difference. With a good understanding of brand positioning strategy, you can make ads that are more readily received by them.
– It sets you apart
We mentioned that there is hardly any business out there that doesn’t have competition. In order to survive, you need to stand out and show the market that you’re different. This is easier said than done, however, with a proper brand positioning, this can become a walk in the park.
Brand positioning shows the audience your value and ideals as a business. It also shows the market that you’re indeed different from the competition. A successful brand positioning strategy will improve your sales, and that’s the goal.
– Brings insight
One limitation that prohibits brands from being successful is a lack of insight. The great thing about brand positioning is that it helps you discover your unique values. Discovering your unique value is a key aspect of effectively portraying your business and ideals to your target audience.
– Cuts away unnecessary noise
There are a lot of businesses that waste time and resources trying to reach their audience. However, the market is a large place and it is easy for the message to get lost in the crowd.
However, with a successful brand positioning strategy, you can cut through the crowd and get to your desired audience. This gives you an effective advertising power and you will get more returns from your effort.
– Builds your customer base
The main aim of brand positioning is to put an image of your service in the minds of your audience. As such, when they need service related to what you offer, they only think of your product.
An effective brand positioning will, without a doubt, cause your customer base to increase rapidly and hence more profit.
The importance of brand positioning is undeniable. If you want to take the next step and grow your business, brand positioning is the way to go. You can make use of Socialays, it is an effective platform to advance your brand positioning strategies.
