The concept of positioning, or even brand positioning as the Anglo-Saxons say. Therefore, is a key element for the marketing of all those. Who want to communicate themselves or their business effectively.
As you will see shortly, it is important for both businesses and small business owners or freelancers.
Brand Positioning: what is it?
Kotler and Keller, the marketing gurus who have outlined most of the “immutable” laws of this matter. Therefore, have define the brand positioning as. The action of defining what the company offers and how this offer is perceived in the minds of potential clients.”
Therefore a brand positioning strategy implies the creation of a well-defined association in the consumer’s mind towards the brand itself.
But why is positioning so important?
Because thanks to a correct positioning you can guide the consumer’s preferences towards you.
Not only that, an excellent brand positioning strategy can directly influence the loyalty that customers feel towards a brand and the willingness to buy its products .
In other words, positioning yourself correctly will make it much easier to find customers and sell products. And if the positioning strategy is correct, you can even stimulate needs that were not previously perceived, thus positioning yourself as the only possible solution to satisfy them. An example of this is Red Bull, but we’ll talk about that later.
It goes without saying that a correct positioning list of india numbers strategy does not grow on trees, it takes time and planning.
But how do you proceed? In this regard, I want to show you a possible strategy to define the perfect positioning for your brand (or even for your personal brand ).
Find your placement in 3 simple steps
Step 1: Analyze your brand
To define the correct positioning of your brand, you should do the following analysis:
- Try to understand what your consumers want.
- Define what you are capable of optimally offering to your consumers.
- Study how your competitors have positioned their brand.
Step 2: Brand Positioning Statement
Here, once you have made the analysis of the 3 points indicated above, you must create a positioning statement that describes your brand and your offer and has the following characteristics.
- Be in line with the wishes and needs of your consumers.
- Whether your company or yourself are able to pass it on.
- The message is different from that of your competitors.
If you want to know a trick, or rather, an exercise to define your positioning correctly, it is to summarize it in three words.
For example: “vegan, traditional & feminine”.
Try not to choose too generic words such as: “product quality, uniqueness and success” because you risk not being able to convey the right values to your brand. You have to be specific, relevant and relevant (see, here’s the applied exercise!).
If you want to go even further, in addition to defining your positioning in words, you can also create a small graphic that visually encloses what you have extrapolated. This is an example of the chart I created to define my brand positioning:
In this way I have defined the macro-category to which it belongs, and then all the elements that make it up. Furthermore, this technique is useful because you can print the graph and always keep it under control, so as to have a well-defined guideline for your strategic decisions.
Step 3: Communicate consistently best database provider
Once the above is done, it is not over, there is one more important point that I could sum up in one word: consistency.
That is, now you will have to constantly communicate your brand correctly in all its aspects: from the packaging of your products to your posts on social media, from the visual identity of the site to advertising communications, etc.
When performing the above steps, many times we tend to underestimate the competitor analysis phases. Instead this is an important aspect to understand how to position yourself correctly, because it will be your goal to try to do it in a way that is unique and distinctive from others.
On closer inspection, this explains why some products, companies or people are successful in the market and others are not.
How to build a positioning map to analyze competitors
So when you analyze a competitor try to rattle off its communication at 360 degrees and to bring out how it is trying to position itself in the minds of consumers. These questions might help you:
- In which segment did they position themselves?
- Is the price of the products relevant to their strategy?
- How do they communicate?
- What is the material they have published that has been most successful?
- How do they use social media to communicate the values of their brand?
- What kind of graphics, colors and fonts characterize their communication?
Once you have created a clear idea of the composition of the market and how competitors are positioned, it is time to create a positioning map to have a graphic view and better understand which position to occupy with your brand.
To create a positioning map you will have to answer two more questions, this time relating to consumer perception:
- What are the main attributes perceived by consumers in the brands present in the target market?
- What are the attributes considered most important by consumers for the choice and purchase of the brands present in the reference market?
At this point you can create a matrix whose axes will be represented by two attributes belonging to the first or second group. In the first case, you will make a perceptual positioning map. In the second, a preference positioning.
Let’s take an example to clarify: let’s imagine you have a dropshipping shop that sells products that respond to the positioning statement seen above, “ vegan, traditional & feminine”.
Brand positioning examples
Let’s see some interesting brand positioning examples to better understand what we have seen so far.
Let’s start with two very famous companies and then let’s see how to apply the same thing to personal branding with the example of an influencer.
The companies I want to tell you about are real case studies, not only because they have done an excellent job in brand positioning, but because they have been so good as to be able to create markets that did not exist before, finding themselves in what marketing is. he calls the “blue ocean”, an uncut market without a competitor.
Let’s talk about Red Bull and Gopro.
Red Bull’s brand positioning
Do you want to know something interesting?
Before Red Bull, the concept of an energy drink did not exist.
So Reb Bull is a company that, by defining unprecedented positioning, has managed to stimulate a latent need, which was not previously perceiv.
In marketing, needs are not created but identify, with careful analyzes such as the one seen above. Therefore, some of them exist (the need for energizing drinks has always been there, think of coffee). But not in the modality or with the solution that a company can offer. This is what RedBull notice. Therefore, becoming in effect one of the most successful brands of our time.
To see the effectiveness of Red Bull’s positioning, just go for a ride on their Instagram account .
From a beverage manufacturer you’d expect to see at least a few photos of the products, but you don’t. The images that Red Bull publishes on its Instagram profile are photos of sporting events or extreme sports. This to emphasize the image they want to give to the public and the positioning they have chosen.
The brand positioning of Gopro
Gopro, just like RedBull, has managed to create a market that did not exist, namely that of action cameras.
But Gopro, thanks to its brand positioning. Therefore, has managed to position itself as a leader in an almost unexplored sector and to have. The undisputed trust of consumers. Therefore, who often do not have any of the skills seen above. But love to go around to resume their outings.