Understanding Brand Positioning

Brand positioning is much more than how well your company’s logo stands out from the competitors. It is how your brand’s vision, product, and identity are strategically position in a saturate market. And, more crucially, it’s what you’re recognize for in the minds of your customers. Your audience ultimately determines where you stand in relation to your competitors. If you want your customers to think of you first when they’re ready to buy, you have positioned your brand strategically. To support you in arranging your brand positioning strategy, you will require tools that will make your task easier and more productive. As technology advances, there are tools that will support and aid you in optimizing your brand. As a result, Hashmicro is one of the solutions that may help your brand with their advanced technology.

HashMicro’s Retail Management Software, the most comprehensive retail management system for optimizing stock control, employee efficiency, customer management, and corporate financial monitoring, can help you grow your business. With those advantages, it is easier to establish your brand positioning. You can download the price model to learn more about the expenses involved with using Retail Management Software in your business.

What is Brand Positioning?

Brand positioning is the process of establishing your brand’s perception in the minds of consumers. More than a catchy slogan or a flashy logo, brand position is the strategy that differentiate your business from the competition. When a brand is successfully positioned, consumers may perceive it as favorable, valuable, and credible. The combination of these three identifies your business, and as a result, your customers build a psychological space for your brand.

This is crucial because being “different” from the competition is not enough to win in the market. According to brand positioning expert Will Barron “You can only position your brand if you’re doing something extraordinary. Anything else is just a comparison”.

The Importance of Brand Positioning

You have a reputation whether you develop it or not, so you may as well create a brand positioning plan that will assist you in taking charge of your reputation and brand image. Brand positioning enables a business to differentiate itself from competitors. This differentiation enables a company to increase brand awareness, communicate value, and justify pricing, all of which have a positive effect on its bottom line.

However, not every brand positioning strategy is identical or has the same objective. Your positioning and messaging will vary depending on the characteristics of your product and your industry. Let’s examine a few common positioning strategies that will help you get started.

Also Read: Why You Need Retail Automation Software for Your Business?

How to Make Brand Positioning Strategy

The process of creating an effective brand positioning strategy must be carefully mapped out. This is due to the fact that brand posting will impact the future of the business that you manage. Therefore, use a measurable and effective strategy to manage the strategy. Here are the seven steps involved in developing a brand positioning strategy, Explain it to You.

Assess your current brand positioning

To know where to start, you must first know where your brand currently stands. Unless you are a new brand waiting to launch, you should not wait to launch. Your main challenge is to recognize and identify what this is.

This is easily accomplished by observing your customer and gaining a better understanding of who they are. Do they relate to your target market? Which products or services are their favorites? How do they interact with your brand, and what do they think of its image?

If, according to your clients, your brand’s position is not where you want it to be, it is time to reevaluate your brand’s voice, company’s objectives, and mission statement. Besides that, you must evaluate your products and services.

Identify and research your competitors

You have to pinpoint exactly your competitors and identify those who are most similar to your brand, share the same vision, or target the same audience. After identifying them, it is time to conduct comprehensive market research. In order to analyze your competitor’s strategy, you must consider what their customers have to say about them, study their marketing strategies, and observe their behavior on social networks. A SWOT analysis is a strategy for researching how you compare to competitors. 

This procedure will help you identify your brand’s strengths and weaknesses.Discovering a market invalidated that your brand is prepared to fill and gaining an understanding of how your clients perceive your competition are critical stages in developing a successful brand positioning strategy.

Compare your positioning to your competition

After having an insight of what your competitors are offering, now you can start to compare your brand to theirs. You may use what you know about other brands in your industry, the target demographic, and the market in general to improve the positioning statement for your own brand.

After determining the market position of your competitors’ brands, you may analyze how your own brand fits in. Finally, choose the recommended strategy for moving forward.

Identify what makes your brand unique

There may be an element in which you succeed and your competition does not. For example, you may offer a product at a greater price than your competitors, but you know that your business customer service staff is something that your competitors lack. Here is where you can position your brand to address a market gap.

In an ideal situation, your brand will hit all the correct points. You will be able to present yourself as the most cost-effective product that also provides the greatest quality, best service, and most convenient option. In actuality, this is probably not the case. Focus on one or two areas in which your brand stands out. As your positioning strategy improves, you will be able to implement more techniques to push your brand to the top.

Create a brand positioning statement

The positioning statement for your brand is an important requirement that emphasizes your intentions and objectives throughout the process.

There are some important factors to think about while developing your brand positioning statement. Answering these questions will ensure you cover all of the following:

• Who is my target audience? When crafting your positioning statement, put yourself in the shoes of the customer. Consider what they want to hear and use language they would be familiar with.
• What is my unique market position? Analyze your competition and ensure that you can clearly articulate how your brand is superior.
• What is my brand’s greatest benefit? There is no reason to be modest. Note precisely what the best aspect of your product or service is, and continually emphasize it to your customers.
• How can I demonstrate this benefit? After highlighting your brand’s benefits, ensure that you can deliver. Whether you use a guarantee or statistics to support your claim, show that what you say about your brand is accurate.

Your brand positioning statement should clearly, concisely, and enticingly address the key questions anticipated by potential customers. 

Implement your new brand positioning

Like any other type of marketing plan, your brand positioning strategy must be implemented effectively to be successful. To accomplish this, you must ensure that all methods of client communication reflect your brand’s position statement. You may begin by distributing your positioning statement to employees, stakeholders, and even customers. Long-term, this may lead to a reevaluation of the messaging, tone, and voice used in other marketing materials and social media. You must be modify, if it no longer align with your new positioning.

Evaluate your statement and measure success

The final process is reviewing your statement after the implementation, it is to measure its success. Look at the following four aspects of your brand to determine if your branding has improved:

• Visibility: Does your audience recognize your products or brand better than in the past? Listen to what customers are saying in online reviews and social media to evaluate if they find your brand to be more relevant.
• Uniqueness: One of the objectives of your brand positioning was to differentiate yourself from the competition. Now that your new positioning has been revealed, have you completed this?
• Ask your customers: You can conduct surveys to figure out the effectiveness of your strategy. Ask if they have seen any changes or differences in your marketing campaigns or overall branding, or if their views or feelings about your brand have changed over time.
• Measure marketing campaign: As your brand positioning plan should impact your marketing campaigns, you will need to measure the growth. Do you notice an improvement in conversions, sales, and engagement following implementation? If so, your positioning plan lacks impact with your customers.

Brand Positioning Map

If you want to see how your brand compares to others in consumers’ perceptions, a brand positioning map can help. A brand positioning map consists of features that are significant to your target market. It is best to have numerous copies of the map based on distinct sets of attributes for accurate mapping. By placing your brand and your competitors on a map, you may determine who is more competitive in a certain region.

The map’s properties are derived directly from the values that your consumers hold dear. Your product or service’s perception is intimately tied to these ideals. In the end, brands that focus on shared values will prevail.

According to Harvard Business Review “Create brand loyalty based on principles shared with your consumers. It is not the quantity of interactions a consumer has with your brand that matters, but rather the quality and relevance of those interactions.”

Also Read: Quick and Easy Guide to Retail Management Software

Brand Positioning Example

There are numerous companies that have excelled at brand positioning over the years by developing a competitive positioning strategy. Here are brand positioning example:

Bumble vs Tinder

Whitney Wolfe was established bumble in 2014, following her departure from Tinder, as an app that empowers women to initiate interactions with new people.

In addition to its initial focus on improving the experience of female users, Bumble has expanded outside the dating category, allowing users to make friendships and professional connections within the network. Tinder, on the other hand, prioritizes fleeting connections.

Bumble’s vs. Tinder’s Positioning Strategy

The positioning strategy of Bumble is differentiation. According to the brand’s website, “Bumble form to challenge the outdated standards of dating.” Indeed, its strategy was significantly different from any other app, as women rather than men were the initiators.

Tinder’s positioning approach is centered on leadership; the brand exploits its existing history and popularity to get users to join. Although the brand does not proclaim itself as a leader in online dating (such a tone wouldn’t be appropriate for the business), it indicates its leadership status by emphasizing its large user base and nearly decade-long history.

Spotify vs Apple Music

The Spotify versus Apple Music dilemma has garnered huge attention. If you search for it on Google, you will find almost twenty-six million items only in the news section. Apple music premium app is known for its premium song selection and, of course, the high-quality Apple brand, whereas Spotify is known for its extensive personalization. Even though their products are very similar, both brands present themselves on the market in totally different ways.

Spotify’s vs. Apple Music’s Positioning Strategy

Spotify uses a strategy centered on pricing. Although its premium alternatives are priced similarly to Apple Music’s, it offers a free plan that makes it more accessible.

Apple Music uses a quality-based strategy, with its 60 million-song archive serving as its primary attraction. It also includes special content such as films and on-screen lyrics. Comparatively, this capability is only available for a handful of tracks on Spotify.

While evaluating brand strategies like Spotify and Apple Music, there are also other categories showing similar competitive dynamics within technology services. For instance, the music industry is expanding with tools allowing artists to have direct control over distribution. An exciting example of this is when users choose to install the DistroKid app. With its ease of use and innovative features, it offers musicians inclusive services like tracking stats or managing uploads from mobile devices, illustrating another way technology enhances brand power.

Google Meet vs Zoom

The year 2020 changed our way of living and working. As virtual communication became the new standard, Google Meet and Zoom were at the forefront of everyone’s mind. While both serve a similar aim — bringing people together over the Internet — their positioning is significantly different.

Google Meet vs. Zoom Positioning Strategy

Google and Zoom have a similar quick time to value metric due to the fact that both platforms require an app to function and offer limited, but free, usage. Despite Zoom’s prominence in the media as the solution for work-from-home meetings, Google Meet was not far behind as the connect-from-home alternative for relatives and friends who were unable to assemble in person. As a result, Google’s brand positioning strategy was more focused on defining itself as a tool for the interactive socialite than Zoom’s convenience-based branding, which became the saving grace for isolated professionals.

Conclusion

You now understand what a brand positioning plan is, the benefits of having one, and have a framework to begin developing your own. Brand positioning needs collaboration, consistency, and an abundance of material. And managing your content efficiently requires the right tool. As technology advances, there are tools that will support and aid you in optimizing your brand. As a result, Hashmicro is one of the solutions that may help your brand with their advanced technology. 

HashMicro’s Retail Management Software, the most comprehensive retail management system for optimizing stock control, employee efficiency, customer management, and corporate financial monitoring, can help you grow your business. With those advantages, it is easier to establish your brand positioning. You can download the price model for the Retail Management Software from HashMicro to learn more about the expenses or try a free demo to feel the benefits of the software.