In order for consumers to recognize a brand, it is important to correctly present it to the target audience. This can be achieved through positioning. We will tell you what it consists of.
What is brand positioning
The Importance of Brand Positioning
What are the types of positioning strategies?
Stages of brand positioning
Criteria for successful positioning
Expert advice
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What is brand positioning
Table of Contents
Company positioning is a marketing strategy that aims to distinguish a brand from its competitors and make it memorable for consumers.
Able to say that situating could be a metaphorical shell, a way of transmitting brand thoughts utilizing diverse implies. It should be felt at each point of contact between the brand and the shopper:
within the title, visual picture, promoting campaigns, social systems.
The promoting situating of a brand or company can alter over time as new competitors develop, the target gathering of people and its needs alter. For illustration, the Domino’s Pizza chain clarified its situating within the Russian advertise in 2020. The company included an passionate advantage to the interesting offering recommendation of pizza conveyance in 30 minutes:
“There’s something to be shocked approximately!” Presently, in expansion to quick conveyance, clients can be astounded by modern flavors, costs and advancements.
The Importance of Brand Positioning
In the event that a company and its items don’t have a clear situating, the shopper will most likely pass by and select another item or benefit with a clear situating. In case a company does not construct its positioning deliberately, it’ll create suddenly, which implies that this prepare will gotten to be wild. This may lead to a drop in request or being constrained out of the showcase by competitors. Here are many more reasons why situating is vital:
● Helps to differentiate from competitors
to declare unique characteristics of the product that no one else has. For example, Bank Tochka positions itself as a “Bank for entrepreneurs and enterprises” and does not work with individuals.
● Highlights the benefits of the product
and draws customers’ attention to the unique characteristics of the product. For example, the Morfeus brand positions itself as “Bedding for those who don’t like to tuck in the blanket” and sells “super-duvet covers.” For example, one of the models unzips along the contour and the blanket is inserted into it, like a pizza box.
● Increases the value of the product for the target audience
makes a difference to fathom the issue of a particular bunch of buyers. For illustration, the chain of hairdressing salons “Tak i Khodi” is centered on a contract target group of onlookers – individuals with wavy hair.
Understanding how a company positions itself within the advertise is critical not as it were for trade proprietors or marketers, but also for publicizing pros. Within the course “Web Advertiser“, understudies learn to create publicizing techniques beneath the direction of experienced tutors.
What are the types of positioning strategies?
When marketers develop brand positioning, they rely on four main components: points of differentiation from competitors, defining unmet needs of the target audience , identifying market trends and the strengths of the product or service.
● By competitors
Brand marketers analyze the strengths and weaknesses of competitors to emphasize their own unique characteristics and differentiate themselves from other companies. For example, this is what Tele2 did when they changed their corporate style and slogan. Instead of “Honestly cheaper,” the slogan “Other rules” appeared. They focused not on cheapness, but on the preferences of subscribers and introduced a new service on the market: transferring unused minutes and gigabytes to the next period.
● By audience
This strategy is used if the brand or product has a narrow group of consumers. This could be a very expensive product, such as a Dyson hair dryer, or one designed for only one target audience, such as slings for mothers with babies.
● By conditions of use
This strategy is suitable for products that are associated with a certain occasion or event. Positioning by conditions of use is often found in confectionery brands. For example, Snickers is needed “when you’re hungry,” Merci candies are for a gift, and KitKat is needed “when you’re taking a break.”
● By benefit
Based on the benefit that the customer will receive during the process of using the product. The benefit can be rational, for savings or safety. For example, marketers of a company that produces dishwashing detergent emphasize the rational benefit – 2 times more clean dishes.
Emotional benefit emphasizes the feelings that the consumer will experience while using the product. For example, emotional benefit is emphasized in advertising for mayonnaise, which will make holiday dishes tastier, or ice cream, which will “delight the taste buds.”
Positioning by benefit is the simplest strategy option, because any product has benefits. In niches with high competition, benefits quickly lose relevance and are copied by other brands.
Stages of brand positioning
Brand positioning is both a capacious phrase that a company uses in its communications and the process of introducing this phrase into the market. If we talk about positioning as a process, then the order of actions will be as follows:
1. Preparation.
Positioning is developed for both new and existing brands or products.
At the planning organize, you wish to set a objective, for case, to enter the showcase with a unused item, increment deals, draw in a unused section of the target group of onlookers. The objective makes a difference to assess the viability of situating.
After setting the objective, choose who will work on situating. You’ll be able enlist an office, do everything in-house, or utilize a cross breed organize. For illustration, the office takes on as it were the inquire about portion, whereas the company’s marketers perform information examination, brand bundling, and situating execution.
2. Brand research.
At this organize, marketers and brand directors assess the current position of the brand on the advertise, consumers’ states of mind towards it, competitors’ positions and communications. Amid the investigate, they essentially consider their claim items, their qualities and shortcomings.
To get it what put a brand possesses within the minds of clients, studies are conducted. For illustration, clients can be inquired what items or administrations they like most, what they think almost the brand, what feelings the company title inspires. In case the exterior see contrasts from how the brand proprietors see themselves, maybe it is essential to rethink the objectives or alter the item line.
3. Data analysis, idea generation.
The data obtained during the research is analyzed and key points are highlighted. After that, marketers define positioning strategies, put forward hypotheses for the final formulations, test them and select the best ones.
As a result, a positional statement is formulated, which is built on the formula: “We (the company or product) with such strengths (list) offer (the target audience) to receive such a benefit or solve such a problem, unlike competitors who cannot offer this, in such and such market conditions.”
4. Brand “packaging”.
Once the positioning is formed, the brand platform is created. This includes the mission, values, vision of the company’s future, its character and style.
5. Implementation of positioning.
Once the positioning is developed, the brand must rely on it and broadcast it at every point of contact with the buyer. Usually, 6-12 months are allocated for the implementation stage. During this time, ideas from the positioning become the main advertising messages. Then, when communications with clients are developed, the positioning remains the “highway” along which the movement continues.
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Criteria for successful positioning
To ensure that the positioning is developed correctly, it needs to be checked against several criteria:
● Desired position
This means that the positioning reflects the position the company wants to occupy in the market. If consumers really think about the brand as planned, then the positioning was chosen correctly. For example, in 1979, Sony released portable Walkman players and expected that such a product would be interesting to teenagers. It turned out that this target audience preferred full-fledged tape recorders. Marketers were disappointed, but later it turned out that compact players were in demand among “white collars” because they easily fit in the pocket of a business suit.
● Unambiguity
If a brand communicates the same values in different communication channels and uses the same tone of voice, the consumer will have the correct perception of the company. For example, in the Teremok restaurant chain, it is customary to address customers as “gentlemen and ladies.” The brand uses the same address in social networks.
● Significance for consumers
Positioning should reflect the real benefit that the client will receive if he/she uses the brand’s product. For example, a company positions itself as a manufacturer of tables with the smoothest surface. But for the buyer, this is not a benefit or an advantage, but a criterion that should be the default.
● Competitiveness
The brand and its products should not be a copy of competitors. If the company does not have strong advantages, it will not be possible to build a positioning and gain consumer trust.
● Long-term
Positioning can change over time, but it’s important that it doesn’t happen too often, otherwise consumers will stop distinguishing the brand from its competitors.
