How Positioning Unlocks Growth

Why? Why is positioning so important? Why can’t I just have good looking website, maybe even a great logo, and visually appealing marketing material? The answer to that is: You can and you should have those things, but failing to position yourself successfully – and by just having brand touch points that are only visually appealing and nothing more – is like having a one hundred trillion-dollar Zimbabwe note: It looks amazing but there is little to no worth behind it. 

Let’s start by what positioning is. To start simple, positioning is what you do to the mind of the prospect. That puts the term “product positioning” in an awkward spot since you’re not really doing anything to the product. What you do is addressing the solution to the problem your prospect has, through your product or service. Now this is a partial truth, since it doesn’t account for the dozens of competitors, with similar products, which are doing the same. That takes us to a deeper level. Positioning your product or service in such a way, that you will be the first he thinks about when wanting to address his problem. 

Now how do you do that? Let’s take it another step further. Wanting to be the first your prospect thinks about can be achieved by positioning your product not just towards his problems, but also in such a way that it clearly differentiates from your competitors who are also doing the same. 

Now, how do you do that? You do this by communicating the value you offer and not the features or benefits of your product. This value must be unique and you must be known to deliver on this value, otherwise how would your prospect ever trust you can help them – even when they would think of you first? This value must be rooted in truth and fully supported by your brand. This also answers the questions at the beginning of this blog “Why positioning is so important?” Because creating ads and telling them about your product is not enough to communicate to them the true value you offer, the reasons why they should believe you, the way you communicate to them, and how your brand supports your communication. 

So, now you have positioned yourself to be unique, you managed to become top of mind, and you did it in a way that the prospect knows how you can help them solve their problem (what’s in it for them). How come when brands have arrived at this point, their prospect still chooses a competitor over them? That might be because they didn’t have the reasons to believe to back it up.

What reasons to believe? I might offer you the best solution to your problem and in a way no one else can, and even communicate it to you in a way you see you will receive great value from it, but why should I believe that’s true? This is where authority comes into play: Being the expert and being known to be one. To be perceived as the expert, you can collect reviews of earlier buyers, maybe you’ve won awards, or perhaps you share your knowledge through video’s or writing blogs. 

This is another reason, linked back to the original question of the blog “Why is positioning so important”, since advertising alone cannot be of great benefit here. You need to have a customer journey mapped out in order for you to guide your prospect through it. While on his journey towards the end (buying the product), you can inform him on his problems (this is also a great way to exert empathy to build a strong connection), you can show him your authority (through some sample means mentioned above), provide the solution to help him overcome his problems, and to inform them on the better life they will be living if they use your product – or how their lives look like if they do not. 

Even when, up to now, you have done everything right, then still there can be reasons why he does not want to buy your product. Now we arrive at the point where the prospect is not your target audience. He might think your solution is way too expensive. Everything you have invested into this person might be for nothing. The solution here is to have (extensive) Buyer Persona(s). These personas will not only help you identify your target audience, i.e. who they are, where they live, what their interests are, what their pain points are, etc., but they will also tell you who you should not want to attract. 

Now that your customer journey, product value definition, reasons to believe, empathy, and buyer personas are in place, we still have one thing left: Your brand. Your brand is the foundation on which everything I have mentioned up to now is built. Your brand embodies everything else and is therefore most important. Brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room. It is not just the value of the product you offer, it is who you are, why you exist. What greater problem you solve to make the world a better place and why people should join you in that mission. It embodies you values, the way you communicate, your personality. 

All these elements come together in your logo. That’s why brands like Pepsi spend over a million dollar to have a great logo (and some brands even tens of million). The logo is the symbol where all interactions, experiences, connections, and feelings people have with your brand are stored. That’s also why your visual identity needs to support what you say and how you say it. 

To succeed in our overcommunicated society, a company must create a position in the prospect’s mind, a position that takes into consideration not only a company’s own strengths and weaknesses, but those of its competitors as well.

Advertising is going through a transitional era where strategy is king. In the positioning era, it’s not enough to invent or discover something. It may not even be necessary. You must become the first to get into the prospect’s mind. IBM did not invent the computer, for example. Sperry-Rand did. But IBM was the first company to build a computer position in the mind of the prospect. 

Don’t be like your competitors, where you look at what the other is doing and then replace the marketing text and creativity. This will create a barrier to getting the message into the mind of the prospect. A failure to communicate isn’t the single, most common, most universal reason people give for their problems. Now you know what to do in order to grow and be successful. Now go and do it. 

Stefan Kuijer