Why positioning is important for brands
One of the questions I am asked by friends and clients often is “what is positioning and how does it work?”. Today I realized I have the answer in my phone.
Before I carry on, I want to thank IFBB Pro Josh Lenartowicz. Through your kindness this blog post is made possible. This weekend I had the opportunity to participate first hand in one of the most celebrated events in the fitness industry, the Arnold Classic Australia. I probably would be wasting your time by telling you who Arnold Schwarzenegger is, so I´ll shortcut it right into “he runs the show” and he´s been bringing it to Australia for 17 years now.
Moving on, the simplest answer I can give to the question of how positioning works and relate it to an every day instance, is by asking you the difference between the photo on the left and the image on the right.
Here´s how positioning works. Notice the rough quality of the photo on the left? See how skewed it looks in comparison to the image on the right. Also notice the blurred corners on the left make it hard to read and you could guess that it was taken with a mobile phone from a perspective that made it impossible to be straight, like the image on the right (which was taken straight off the website). The overall quality of the image is much better on the right. So far so good.
So, now think that both images convey the same message, both speak to the performance of supplements and how they rated according to a survey among consumers. However, knowing that one was taken from a dark room at an event that is considered a mecca for the bodybuilding industry, only accessible to a few who visit the event, you can start drawing some conclusions. By knowing that the room is reserved for final judging and that only really interested participants of the event care to pay the extra entrance fee to be in the plenary room, we start having a clearer picture of who might have taken the photo.
Let´s arrive at some more conclusions from the photo above. If you are a follower of the event, you´d know that the final judging took place inside the plenary room of the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC). Furthermore, if you see that the angle at which the photo is taken, you have to conclude that the viewer was under the screen. And just about in front, that it must have be positioned high on the wall. That´s why the lines of an otherwise rectangle are so accentuated. If that is true, it is also true to assume that the general seating is unlikely to have produced such an angle, because general seats are positioned further back in the room (as indicated by the general floor plan).
At this point, you know that the photo was taken by an interested person in the event. Enough to attend the final callouts and was sitting close to the stage, where usually the VIP seats are placed. This also lets one conclude that the person who took the photo must be well related to someone in the organization of the event, as the seats are usually reserved for those patrons.
Conclusion: if you were a fitness industry business with a service or product and you wanted to pitch to the author of one of the 2 photos, which would you chose? Nr 1 or Nr 2?
Think about it… Have you figured out how positioning works?
“Behind door Nr 1 you have a VIP attending member of the event, Mr Photo Person who either is a) Person of Interest or b) has a relationship with someone of relative importance in the event” — interesting to have a conversation with on a strategic level.
“Behind door Nr 2, you have Mr Fan / Fitness Enthusiast who cares about supplements and is looking to optimize return on investment and therefore checks Australian Supplement Awards website for quality references. — Your every day consumer.
Positioning is a bit like doing detective work, figuring out the clues to put together a narrative, according to the perspective of the end target market / user and lead a process of steps to that conclusion. Then tell that story in such a way that appeals to the right user. In marketing, it is usually the action with which a cycle concludes at. Usually a sale. In other words, it´s working strategically to construct a desired result rebuilding it so that it serves the medium or user you want to attract with your marketing.
I hope this was useful to you. Let me know what you think of this train of thought by commenting below.
