Brand Positioning Establishes Unique Online Exposure
Brand Positioning, as its name implies, involves describing the competitive context of your brand.
It’s a marketing strategy that was introduced in 1969 and made famous by Jack Trout of Ries & Trout. And we think it’s an essential ingredient for good creative branding. Brand Positioning helps establish the unique benefits of your brand (rather than its features) within the context of the market. It’s about defining with great specificity who you are, what you do well, and why anyone should care.
7 Tips to Create A Brand that Resonates
1. Know your customers well
2. Know the personality and niche Of your brand
3. Be your industry’s brand that is generating Buzz
4. Focus first on your core service / product
5. Do not get too concerned with your competition; just do your best
6. Have an enticing brand tag line
7. Engage human emotions With your brand messaging
8. Market your digital brand with consistency
Invariably, many companies come to us assuming that they have no competitors. They’re convinced that they have created a new category of product with performance and features that can’t be matched. But this isn’t the correct mindset for grabbing market share with a new product. We immediately want to know: “Who are the people who are buying the inferior or cheaper version of your product right now? Why are they buying this version? Can this new product establish it’s own market?” Without strategic brand positioning, you risk diluting any and all further branding and marketing tactics. Customers will struggle to understand your product and its benefits, and won’t buy what you’re selling.
Brand Positioning to Match Buyer Personas
For example, if you’re a new fast food brand introducing a new hamburger to the fast food market, you’ll need to first understand how McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, etc., present their burgers and brands to the public. This means developing buyer personas (we’ll get to those later) for all your perspective customers and why they prefer one brand over another. It’s a process of evaluating the benefits of buying a hamburger from McDonald’s versus buying a hamburger from Wendy’s. McDonald’s might offer a cheaper quarter pounder while Wendy’s quarter pounder is more expensive but includes bacon. These are just two different, but important differentiators that will influence consumer choice. Other benefits might include food quality, uniqueness of the menu, family orientation, or number of health-conscious choices.
When we dig deeper into the fast food market share, we also have to consider a broader list of fast food providers, such as Taco Bell, Domino’s, Pizza Hut, and Popeyes, and decide what percentage of the total fast food market this new burger brand has the potential to capture. This list would change regionally and generationally and demographically.
Brand Positioning Statement
After the research has been gathered and completed, (part of the “Discovery Phase” of information gathering — covered in last week’s blog post) we begin the process of sifting through the impressions, personal statements, and documented competitive information. Our objective is to define the realities and opportunities for differentiation in the marketplace. We’re looking for differences that are important to customer engagement and purchase. The end result is a “brand positioning statement” that clearly defines who you are and the benefits behind your brand of burger.
Positioning a brand as the solution to fix a potential consumer’s need is also a powerful digital strategy. The goal is to demonstrate that your business has the power to answer customer questions on whatever problem they may be facing, that you can resolve — both quickly and efficiently.
With the right positioning strategy, branding creates an indelible impression that allows consumers to engage with a company on a more personal, emotional level. What’s more, strong branding elevates awareness of both the company and the products or services it offers. To create this degree of awareness, you can using one of a number of positioning strategies to which you can anchor your brand. ~ Small Business Cron
When we turn to creativity and branding, this new brand positioning influences everything we do and it provides our creative team with a strong backbone for storytelling, imagery, brand personality, and presentation. Stay tuned for part three of our Branding Series!
We are passionate to help our clients gain new brand reach. Call us today at 408–266–3162 if you are looking for a solid and exciting rebranding business strategy.
Originally published at HIVEMIND STUDIOS.
