Effective brand positioning places your company at the forefront of your target audience’s mind by highlighting what makes your products and services unique. Yet, carving out a niche is harder than it appears when the market is flooded with competitors that are all trying to do the same thing. Whether you realize it or not, brand positioning begins from the moment that you make your company public, and you can use this step-by-step guide to make sure that your brand takes a leadership position in the marketplace.
Determine Where Your Company Stands
Your first step is to conduct a thorough assessment of where your company currently is positioned in the market. Start by focusing on your brand’s attributes and how the target audience uses them to fit their needs. For instance, a customer may seek your services to fulfill an emotional need or to accomplish a specific task. Using this information, you can then begin to figure out how to align the core values of your business with those of the target audience.
Identify Your Competitors’ Position
You also need to know where your competitors’ brands are positioned. Identify your top competitors and assess their strengths and weaknesses. Are they excellent at keeping up with social media? Or perhaps they are known for tapping into the mindset of a specific type of consumer. Be honest and try to figure out what they do better and worse than your company. While digging into the competitions’ tactics may be tedious, you need to know how your company’s standing fits in with theirs to make a plan to stand out.
Analyze Your Target Audience
The market depends upon the actions of your target audience, and your brand should address a need that causes them to think of your company first. For example, they may want to know that they can get your products faster than the competition, or you may prioritize being the brand that always has the best price. You also want to make sure that your brand is positioned in a way that you can get the word out to the target audience about why your brand is the leader in the market. Whether they shop online or prefer to browse shops downtown, taking your marketing where the consumers go means that your brand is already in the first place that they look.
Create and Implement a Positioning Statement
Once you’ve gathered your information, it is time to put it all together. Contrary to popular belief, a positioning statement is not the same thing as a tagline. Instead, your brand uses the positioning statement to define goals and make sure that everyone’s plans are aligned with the core values of your company. Develop a brief statement that defines your target audience and niche market while following up with what makes your brand distinct and unique. Then, make sure that everyone in the companies aware of the statement and knows how to apply it to the marketing plan.
A proactive stance is the only way to ensure that your company’s brand is viewed as a leader by your target customer in a busy market. Now that you’ve got your strategy in place, be sure to keep tabs on it. With regular analysis, you will know how to tweak the plan to adapt to changes in the market so that your brand stays at the top.
