Consider this: There are thousands of different companies offering the same products or services as you and promising, if not delivering, similar results. And they are probably well-positioned in your target market.
So, why exactly would a consumer pick you over your competitor?
The answer lies with your target audience: They don’t want to purchase a product because it can solve all of their problems. They’ll purchase a product because it solves one specific problem over and over again.
This is why market positioning is important. A clear, concise positioning statement is at the heart of every effective marketing strategy and influences your brand identity.
Market positioning requires focus and a strong commitment to a specific niche or target audience.
Marketing Positioning: Definition and Importance
Your brand’s market positioning strategy is affected by plenty of variables related to consumers’ motivations and requirements, as well as by your competitor’s actions.
The purpose of market positioning is to create an image that consumers recognize for representing a specific characteristic, idea, or concept to more effectively position your product within a target market.
Developing a sound strategic positioning can:
- Reduce churn
- Heighten brand awareness
- Give you the ability to charge premium pricing
- Increase brand equity
- Improve market and customer-centricity
- Increase recall
- Increase revenue per customer
These are just a few of the advantages of an effective and brand-centric market positioning strategy.
The Different Positioning Strategies
Researchers discovered that positioning in marketing is predominantly determined by hard criteria and relationship-building factors. Some other considerations, such as company structures and degree of integration, also play a part. The study also noted that a high level of brand awareness is a contributing factor to perceptions of the pursued positioning in marketing strategies.
Here are just a few of the most common types of positioning in marketing:
- Product price: Associating your product, service, or brand with competitive pricing.
- Product attributes and benefits: Associating your product, service, or brand with certain characteristics or with certain beneficial value.
- Product quality: Associating your product, service, or brand with high quality.
- Product use and application: Associating your product, service, or brand with a specific use.
- Competitors: Making potential customers think that your product, service, or brand is better than that of your competitors.
Examples of Big Brands’ Market Positioning Strategies
Need a few examples? We’ve got you covered. Here are some great examples of big brands’ marketing positioning strategies to inspire you:
- McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s position themselves as a place to get quick and cheap meals.
- Starbucks positions itself as a source of upscale, top-notch coffee and beverages.
- Tesla and Audi position themselves as a luxury status symbol.
- Microsoft and Apple both like to establish and position themselves as a tech company that offers user-friendly and innovative products.
- Dove positions itself as a simple yet good-quality soap, appealing to women’s natural beauty.
To Start Creating Your Own Marketing Positioning Strategy: Conduct a Competitive Analysis
In order to create a unique and effective marketing position that will lead to a higher conversion rate, you must first compare yourself to your competitors.
This can be achieved through strategic competitive intelligence, which assists you with understanding important aspects of your competitors within your target market. Some of the questions you should consider include:
- Who are your primary competitors?
- How much influence does each one of your competitors have on each other?
- Are certain competitors thought of more favorably? What about unfavorably?
- How is the industry performing?
- Where do the opportunities lie? Where do the threats lie?
- How does your company compare and contrast amongst others in your category?
Once you have the answers to the questions listed above, your competitive positioning will become much clearer.
Explore Who Your Target Audience Is, and Who You Want To Be To Them
Now, you need to learn who your target audience is. By analyzing their characteristics, you can easily separate one customer from another. You can accomplish this by creating user persona cards that help you narrow your target market even further.
Start by looking at different target audience demographics like location and gender to define some of the most important factors you need to know about your potential customers.
By understanding things like who your customers are, where they come from, and what their problems are, you can get ahead of your competition by creating a top-notch marketing positioning to show consumers that you are the best solution for their needs.
Common Mistakes and Oversights To Avoid
Products that aren’t positioned properly in the target market can end up struggling to generate revenue with customers who don’t have the problems you’re looking to solve. If you want to formulate a good product positioning strategy, here are a few of the most common mistakes that you should avoid:
>> Mistake #1: Diversifying products in unrelated markets.
When a new product or service is launched, always keep your target audience in mind. Make sure your product or service is related to what customers associate your brand with.
For example, a popular high-end women’s skincare company venturing into the fast-food industry may struggle to connect with fast-food consumers. Your brand positioning strategy should reassure that customers can trust you to offer best-in-class products.
>>Mistake #2: Adopting a cheap strategy.
Adopting cheap marketing strategies that don’t prioritize the customer journey is not sustainable in the long term. When you decide to market your product as having the “lowest prices”, you hardly need any marketing. Most revenue generation is fueled by purchasing power. However, you’ll always find a competitor who is selling for less.
Using the lowest priced route can be your quickest way to failure. So whatever you do, stay away from adopting a cheap strategy. Take your time to put together a strong, effective marketing positioning strategy that will truly take your brand to unimaginable heights.
>>Mistake #3: A lack of insight and a lack of an “idea” in your brand positioning statement.
A great brand positioning statement captures an idea that is either based on a unique insight or that resolves an inherent tension. Weak positioning statements, on the other hand, usually capture an “ideal” but a rather boring summary of everything the consumer desires.
Yes, moms want their little ones to be happy and eat all of their veggies. Yes, parents have chaotic lives. And yes, Millennials want to “do good” — these are not insights. These are generally accepted truths marketing researchers have known for years.
The concept of “insights” in many cases is often misunderstood.
Executing Your Product Positioning Strategy
Executing your own marketing positioning strategy involves digging deep into the details of your brand and discovering what you do better than anyone else.
These steps listed below will help you to create a product positioning strategy that’s unique to your business:
- Determine your current product positioning.
- Identify your competitors.
- Conduct competitor research.
- Identify what makes your product, service, or brand unique.
- Create your positioning.
- Evaluate if your positioning statement works.
- Establish an emotional connection with both your prospects and customers.
- Reinforce your products’ differentiating qualities during the sales process.
- Create value.
- Ensure that customer-facing employees embody your brand.
The Takeaway
Understanding how to market your brand will become much clearer once you know where you stand and where you want to go. By implementing an effective and well-researched marketing positioning strategy, you position your product for reduced churn, more conversions, and repeat customers.
Need help? Kissmetrics makes it easier than ever to track your customer conversion process and discover areas where you’re losing potential customers. It can help you identify data and trends which directly contribute to your bottom line — like which marketing channels produce the most valuable customers.
All of this information is crucial to the success of your business — request a demo with us today and see for yourself.
Sources:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/38176126_Positioning_strategies_in_business_markets
https://www.unilever.com/brands/personal-care/dove.html
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeancase/2014/06/18/millennials2014/
