Studio18 Global

October 25, 2021

Brand positioning is a strategically planned action that places your brand in your customer’s minds in a particular place that distinguishes it from the competitors.

Brand positioning is one of the most critical elements of any professional brand strategy. If you get your brand positioning right then, you can be sure your brand will make headway in the market because your target audience can’t miss it.

Whatever industry you are operating in, it’s always inherently a noisy place full of competitors vying for the attention of your customers and stakeholders. You can’t just sit back and hope that your customers will understand your brand. You need to help them with the discovery. Ultimately the brand will find a permanent place in your customer’s mind and result in an actual purchase.

The objective of brand positioning

The foremost objective of brand positioning is to ensure that your audience associates with your brand and your brand alone. Once your positioning strategy is in place the supporting factors of brand strategy helps in placing the idea in the minds of the audience.

The entire positioning exercise will succeed only when the messaging is aligned to it. You need to define the idea you want your audience to associate with your brand and transfer that idea into a simple and easy-to-understand message. The more unique your idea, you can deliver it across various touchpoints with ease.

Develop a positioning strategy

Before every military operation, the officer in command will study the location, the structures and people present there, the movement, strength, and the position of the enemy. This aids in formulating an effective attack.

Similarly, when defining the objective of a brand positioning exercise a number of all-important factors are to be considered. The factors like your audience, your competitors, and your differentiators (the uniqueness of your product/service/company) should be taken into consideration.

The important steps in brand positioning

Successful brand positioning is the right mix of many predetermined steps which are synchronized to give the brand the right place it deserves in a customer’s mind.

Step 1: Study your target audience thoroughly

Develop your target customers’ persona with a close understanding of who they really are. Understand the pain points and all the associated emotions to help come up with a unique proposition.

Step 2: Study the competition

On a positioning map, you can plot all your relevant competitors in various markets and gather an insight of the market. You can then, for a while, step into the shoes of your customers and analyze the options available to them in the market. Note down how they respond to messages from the competitors and tick out their likes and dislikes.

Step 3: Zero in on your uniqueness

Using the study of competition, look for relevant gaps in the market that your brand can fill. If the audience is not satisfied, see if you can extend a unique offer to satisfy the pain point. To find out your differentiator is a very creative process and the most impactful results are obtained by thinking out of the box.

Follow the above steps to arrive at your brand positioning and thereafter blaze your own trail.