Creating an effective marketing positioning strategy is essential for your brand to stand out in today’s competitive business landscape. By clearly defining your brand’s unique value proposition and communicating it to your target audience, you can establish a strong and memorable brand image that resonates with customers. In this article, we will explore the key steps involved in developing a successful marketing positioning strategy for your brand.
By following the strategies outlined in this article, you can create a marketing positioning strategy that not only strengthens your brand’s position in the market but also connects with your customers on a deeper level. With a well-defined and effectively communicated brand voice, you can successfully differentiate yourself from competitors and build long-lasting relationships with your target audience
What is Marketing Positioning?
Market Positioning is the consumer’s perception of a brand or product compared to competitors in the industry. It is the process of building a positive and memorable brand image. Positioning defines how unique a brand is, as well as the distinct benefit this brand offers customers. An effective market positioning strategy is crucial to any business’s brand development and sets successful companies apart from their competition.
It is true that perception can vary from person to person. Even so, many PR and marketing professionals use strategic positioning in a way that benefits companies. A good marketing positioning strategy can result in:
- Heightened awareness
- Differentiation
- Premium pricing
- Customer-centricity
- Helping companies bounce back from crisis
- Increased brand equity
How to determine the best market positioning strategy
Before a company or marketing professional creates a strategy, they need to determine which one is best suited to their needs. A successful positioning strategy relies heavily on having a deep understanding of the marketplace.
Customers appreciate a clear positioning strategy that presents a distinct goal. In order to build a good reputation for your brand, you must deliver on the promises you make in your positioning. For this reason, there needs to be a cohesive effort between a company’s business strategy, and its sales and marketing tactics.
1) Positioning based on product characteristics
Products and services are usually created to meet consumers’ needs, which means that a positioning based solely on a company explaining the features of a product or service is not good enough. By talking about product characteristics or benefits, you can highlight elements that are beneficial to your target audience.
2) Positioning based on price
By using price positioning, you are associating yourself with competitive prices in your target market. With this strategy, you can aim to be the most affordable brand in your market, and value becomes your position.
Fashion brands like Shein and Wish are prime examples of companies that choose pricing as their positioning strategy by providing consumers with fashion items that are very affordable in price but may lack quality.
3) Positioning based on quality
In the mind of a consumer, high prices should be associated with high-quality products. Combining both aspects, products positioned in this way are focused on high quality rather than price. To create a burning desire to obtain the products, you should withhold information like price point so that high quality and prestige is the main topic of conversation.
4) Positioning based on product use or application
In the current economic climate, consumer behavior has changed as people try to save money. This means that you need to use your best effort to prove to consumers your product or service is worth buying and there is an actual use for it.
5) Positioning based on competition
By doing prior research and understanding your competition, you can highlight the critical difference between your product/service and other offerings in the marketplace.
How to create an effective marketing positioning strategy
To create an effective market positioning strategy, you must first identify what makes you different from your competitors. You need to do the appropriate research and gain insight into the current market. To do that, you need to determine how your brand is currently positioning itself, identify your direct competitors, understand how each competitor is positioning their brand, develop a distinct and value-based positioning strategy, and craft a compelling brand positioning statement and test the efficiency of your message.
1) Find the current market position
If you’re already established in the market, then you may need to focus on “repositioning” your brand. Rather than moving forward without understanding your current positioning, you need to gain valuable insight to position yourself higher than your competition.
You need to go back to your original message and make sure you know what your brand stands for, who your target consumers are, your mission and mission, what makes you stand out, and your target customers’ pain points so that you can solve their problems.
You should also look at previous content to see what keywords appeal to your target audience. In order to do this, you can take note of what content worked and what didn’t. This way, you can create content that resonates better with consumers. If you are not sure about how to create appealing content, you can reach out to PR and marketing professionals who can guide you through the process.
PR agencies like Pressfarm help startups, entrepreneurs, and existing companies create new content or revamp their original message. By writing articles with a creative spin and crafting the perfect email pitches, Pressfarm’s PR professionals and writers work with companies to create a memorable brand image. With an extensive database of over 1 million journalists, Pressfarm can also help you find your perfect media match. They also have experience helping companies increase online visibility by optimizing branded content to show up on relevant search results.
2) Analyze competitors
Once you understand your positioning, you need to analyze your competition by performing competitor analysis. It is vital to see what you are up against to know what you can do to better position yourself.
You can conduct market research by using relevant keywords. Alternatively, you can use customer feedback to ask consumers which brands they would consider shopping from. You can also search online communities and forums to see what your target audience says about you and your competitors.
3) Develop a unique position
Once you have decided on the ideal market position for your brand, you need make sure it will help you stand out from competitors. This process gives you the ability to outline who you are as a company and who you aren’t.
While conducting market research, you will see strong and weak points in every business; what may be a weakness for one may be the strength of another.
4) Drafting a market positioning statement
Often mistaken for a company tagline or slogan, a market positioning statement is a declaration that a company makes to communicate its unique value to the customers.
The four essential elements of any effective positioning statement include; target customer, market definition, brand promise, and reason to believe. The statement should provide a concise summary of target customers’ descriptions, clearly place a brand in a specific category, have a compelling benefit to the company’s target audience, and provide evidence that the brand will deliver on its brand promise.
5) Testing the effectiveness of brand positioning
Once you’ve developed a marketing positioning statement for your company. The final step is to test it out within your target audience and industry. By running a full analysis that features all forms of research, from focus groups.From i-depth interviews to surveys and polls, your company can collect enough data to strengthen your market positioning strategy.
Conclusion
Regardless of your expectations, having a compelling market positioning strategy is essential for your overall business success. After all, your brand’s positioning in the market determines where you stand relative to your competition. It is crucial to actively seek out your unique strengths and emphasize these with your marketing in a highly saturated landscape. Whether on your own or with the help of PR and marketing professionals. You can change your positioning and use your past failures to drive your future success.