Master brand positioning: the key strategies for strong brand positioning
Pieter Steenkamp, PhD
Let's Brand Your Business for Success??Consultant & academic with a doctorate specialising in brand strategy ★ Consultation ★ Workshops ★ Coaching programme
BMW is positioned in the market as “sheer driving pleasure”. This tells us how BMW wants to be perceived and how they want their brand positioned in our minds. This also differentiates BMW from their competitors in our minds.
To have a well-developed brand positioning is a powerful tool for business owners and entrepreneurs to differentiate their products, services or organisations from competitors.
A strong brand positioning strategy is essential to any marketing strategy to make a strong brand promise that resonates with potential customers.
In this article, we examine the fundamentals of brand positioning so that you can position your business successfully.
Table of Contents
What is brand positioning?
Brand positioning seeks to create a distinct brand identity and perception in consumers’ minds of your brand.
Note: I make a point to underline that there are two types of brand identity : brand strategic identity is different from brand visual identity, which seems to be the first thing people think of when they hear brand identity or even branding.
Brand positioning is a process that involves developing a unique set of associations that differentiate your brand from your competitors and communicating it to stand for something specific in the market. To underscore, brand positioning is always relative to that of competitors.
Notably, a strong brand positioning strategy helps businesses connect emotionally with their target audience by communicating what makes the brand unique and memorable.
The benefits of effective brand positioning include the following:
Having a clearly defined brand identity can assist in acquiring new customers and retaining existing ones by conveying an understanding of your business’ purpose and values.
It also allows you to focus your marketing efforts on specific segments more likely to be interested in your products or services.
Messages should be tailored as part of your positioning strategy by segmenting potential buyers into distinct groups based on their:
Different types of positioning strategies:
Niche positioning strategy: Nike’s positioning is an option that requires specialised knowledge but can be highly lucrative if done right – i.e. focusing exclusively on one particular segment instead of trying to appeal across multiple segments at once.
Differentiation positioning strategy
Differentiation positioning focuses on making your offering stand out from competitors’ offerings so that customers perceive greater value when choosing yours.
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Repositioning positioning strategy
Repositioning positioning involves changing how people view a product, service or brand communicated through advertising campaigns or other tactics.
Repositioning goes beyond superficial tweaks, such as adding features or improving quality standards, to changing the positioning dimensions 9core brand associations) all together – i.e. changing BMW’s positioning from “sheer driving pleasure” to quality and luxury. If successful, BMW would no longer occupy the driving pleasure position in people’s minds but rather a quality and luxury position.
Effective brand positioning yields increased visibility, customer loyalty, improved sales and higher profits for businesses looking to create an emotional connection with their target audience by communicating what makes them unique and memorable.
Positioning a brand effectively allows businesses to differentiate themselves and make a lasting impression. However, devising a successful positioning strategy necessitates meticulous preparation, examination, and implementation – all of which will be further elaborated.
Turning your strategy into a strong brand positioning statement helps communicate your brand’s positioning to your team. Note: a brand positioning statement is used for internal purposes.
Forming an emotional bond with customers and distinguishing oneself from rivals are essential elements of successful brand positioning.
How to develop a brand positioning strategy?
A brand positioning strategy aims to use brand positioning as a tool to differentiate your brand from your competitors. So:
Unique selling proposition
Once you understand your competitors, it is essential to define your unique selling proposition (USP) that sets your product, service or brand apart from its main competitors. This could include customer service levels, price points, quality, innovation or delivery timescales.
Mission statement and values
Create a mission statement and core values for your business to ensure everyone within the organisation understands what it stands for and provides direction when making decisions about marketing activities.
Brand promise
Then, develop a strong brand promise which communicates why customers should choose your brand over others clearly and concisely. Use this in all marketing efforts, such as advertising campaigns or website copywriting.
Finally, an appropriate logo and visual identity system will help establish recognition with consumers while ensuring consistency across all platforms; this could include fonts, colours and imagery associated with your brand.
Developing a brand positioning strategy and wording it as a brand positioning statement (a single paragraph) is essential for any business to stay competitive and thrive in the market. Also, assessing the efficacy of your approach can give insight into whether it has been productive and if any changes should be made.
Next, we’ll explore ways to measure the success of your brand positioning efforts.
Developing an effective brand positioning strategy involves understanding the target audience, analysing competitors and creating a unique selling proposition.
Crafting a mission statement and core values and designing appropriate visuals are essential steps to building customer recognition.
How to measure the success of your brand positioning strategy?
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Quote
"Brand positioning is key to success: 1. Craft a unique strategic brand identity based on ideal core associations 2. Align communication to this 3. Stand out from competitors and succeed".
Let’s Brand for Success!
Pieter Steenkamp, PhD
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Markenpositionierungsexperte, Berater, Autor und Lead Partner of Ries Global
1 年Brand positioning is all about owning a word in the mind. The best way to do so: Create a new categroy that fits to the perceptions. It is that easy and that complicated at the same time. The main problem: Management likes to develop long lists of attributes, benefits and reasons that look great in the presentation. Customers prefer simple ideas that work in the mind.