Take a stand to prevent bad marketing
3 Reasons To Lock Down Your Positioning
The Skinny
Have you asked yourself, “why would my customer buy from me?” Does your marketing material and end-product or service meet or exceed expectations? Communicating your positioning is incredibly important, and it begins with the answers to those two questions. It is not the merely “my product or service is best, or cheapest, or fastest.” Everyone claims to have a product doing those things. You are filling a need in someone’s life, and they have the ability to benefit from it if they know what to expect. When you position yourself properly in your marketing material, you free yourself to deliver great value to the customers who expect it, love it, and tell others about it.
The Fat
- Inconsistencies in marketing and value drive customers away
If you are communicating the wrong reason for the customer to buy from you, your credibility and business are in jeopardy. While deceptive marketing is illegal, extreme puffery is not. Your positioning serves as the launch pad for your marketing strategy to communicate value to your customer in a way that doesn’t over, or undersell your business. If you market yourself as a cheap alternative in your town but at the end, you still charge more than the shop down the street, you’re in trouble. Even if unintentional, bad marketing is costly. If you don’t do anything else, make sure you nail down your positioning in your marketing to make it congruent with the delivery of your product or service.
2. Customers Need to Know What They Benefit
Uber is using technology to take the waiting game out of getting a ride so that people can “get what they want when they want it.” It’s not about how Uber can be faster, but how the customer can eliminate waiting. Another case is Facebook “make the world more open and connected.” There are over 1.6 billion people on Facebook because it allows them to share and watch news, funny videos, but the ultimate benefit is Facebook users connecting with others. Customer benefits are marketing basics, but must never be lost when thinking about what you communicate in marketing materials. In the end, the customer who receives the best customer service in the market should be reminded of the huge benefit they receive from their pleasant experience and the same goes for all unique market positions.
3. Customers Need Something to Get Behind
The reason your customer buys from you doesn’t have to be a gigantic mission, but it does have to be easy to rally behind. The mission of your business must be congruent with why your customer will choose you because that builds a genuine group of people to rally behind you. For example, your why could be, “strengthening your community by creating a friendly atmosphere to receive quality hair cuts near the University” and you have successfully met all of the “why” criteria. Your price doesn’t have to be lowest, nor your service the fastest, but in this case, you had better deliver a darn good final product and an experience that leaves your customers saying, “that’s my shop!” That’s how you build tribes that get behind the places where they spend their time and money.
The Takeaway
Acknowledge the strengths in your business and position yourself to leverage those strengths. When you communicate great positioning, you produce better marketing materials, tell the potential customer the benefits of buying from you, and ultimately create a reason for your customers to rally behind you.
