With well-informed and digitally savvy consumers, the need to differentiate oneself has become increasingly important for any brand in a competitive market. Businesses constantly strive to refine their offerings and upgrade their processes including payments, customer service and so on.
It is also necessary to let the consumers know what truly sets the brand apart. A well-defined brand positioning can effectively help achieve that. Most successful businesses in addition to their great products also master the art of brand positioning.
Here’s a look at the importance and advantages of brand positioning and how it can help your brand reach its target audience.
What is brand positioning?
American marketing author and consultant, Philip Kotler has defined brand positioning as “the act of designing the company’s offering and image to occupy a distinctive place in the mind of the target market.”
Brand positioning is about establishing a standing for your product that positively impacts the customer and their perception of the brand.
While carving out an image and positioning most businesses stop at differentiating themselves from their competitors. But brand positioning entails going above and beyond to create a unique identity for your product/offering.
Why is brand positioning important?
Brand positioning is important because it is a foundation on which several decisions pertaining to the brand are based. A strong positioning helps create a personality and character of the brand within a vast market. It is easier for the business to communicate with its audience when the brand positioning is well-defined.
Even within the organisation, it helps gain clarity on how a particular product is to be viewed and portrayed. Without a credible identity businesses often put out a confused image of themselves and fail to reach their potential audience.
What are the different brand positioning approaches?
Businesses opt for various approaches based on their products and offerings. Here are some of the commonly adopted ones.
Customer service: As important as it might seem, seamless customer service is hard to find. And hence for any brand positioning itself through flawless customer service is a brilliant strategy because most customers are highly sensitive to the response and communication they receive while dealing with a service or product.
You must have also observed how brands that are known for impeccable response and support usually belong to a premium category or vice versa. It indirectly helps the brand justify its value and cost in the market.
Customer service is a great enabler but it takes a considerable time and effort to build one. Nevertheless, it is also an equally great tool to get your customers to organically promote your brand through word of mouth.
Cost: Companies turn to a cost or price-based brand positioning when they are confident of offering a product that beats their competition on the pricing front. This strategy works well when your audience base is large enough for you to retain an appealing price point without loss in revenue.
Several brands especially in the retail space including food and fashion have risen to popularity because of their lowest pricing offers. It is also a tricky positioning because sustaining competitive prices for a longer period can incur losses after a point and also motivate others to lower their prices leading to a stiff competition.
Quality: It goes without saying that any brand cannot really aspire to succeed without giving sufficient importance to the quality of its product. However, using quality as a brand positioning involves a particular focus on the standard of products being offered.
Businesses that position their brand based on quality are usually the niche ones with exceptionally premium products. They usually target a smaller section of the audience that is capable of investing in the product and do not mind the high costs.
Unique offering: A business whose brand positioning relies on a unique offering is usually focused on continuous innovation of its product. It comes up with exclusive solutions that the competition is unlikely to offer and makes them the core of its brand positioning.
A unique offering need not be about the entire product or service but a small aspect of it that can potentially prove to be the biggest differentiator.
How can you create a strong brand positioning?
Here are a few steps and questions to ask when arriving at an effective positioning for your business.
Evaluate your brand image: The first task is to be aware of how your brand is currently positioned and perceived. You will need to evaluate your buyers and their persona, your brand placement in the market, price comparison and so on. This will allow you to reach a specific goal that you would want to focus on while creating a brand positioning.
Understand your competition: Competitor analysis can be a detailed process and help you understand what they are doing right or wrong. It also clarifies your position within the market through a thorough assessment and helps build on your strengths.
Some of the common ways of analysing are to conduct in-depth research of their processes, interact with their products and analyse their marketing-sales strategies.
Create a value proposition: Having followed the above two steps, you will be able to get closer to the qualities that resonate most with your brand and add value to it. You should now zero in on a specific identity that can help you arrive at the appropriate value proposition for your product.
A value proposition justifies the product for your consumer and motivates them to buy it. Eventually, brand positioning is an extension of the value proposition.
Positioning statement: It is finally time to collate all the qualitative data to filter and extract the gist that will define your brand. Having assessed your value proposition, target audience, brand image, and competition in detail, you shall be able to arrive at the final positioning communication for your product.
A brand positioning statement outlines what you do, how you intend to do it and the difference you aspire to make, in very few words. It is the crux of all your research put together that eventually decodes your identity for your target audience.
Conclusion
Crafting a compelling brand positioning is a long yet rewarding process for any business. Its step by step approach to arrive at the final strategy also helps the business evaluate and understand the market and competition better. Brand positioning is a journey that every business must embark on for a long-lasting relationship with its audience.
Along with the above-mentioned initiatives, it is equally important for your business to build a credible and strong payment process to turn the audience into loyal customers. Paytm Payment Gateway is a robust solution to ensure quick and smooth transactions on your website. Trusted by India’s leading unicorns as well as startups, Paytm Payment Gateway offers quick settlements and industry best success rates.
