It is critical to position your brand effectively. No matter how much you want to, you cannot be everything to everyone. So many brands fall into the trap of believing that everyone will want their products, but trying to target everyone is expensive and drains the valuable resources startups need. If you are unaware of who your target audience is and where to find them, you’ll throw a lot of your money out the window.
Three things to research for effective brand positioning
To successfully position your brand, you need to research three key areas. First, you need to know what your target customers want. Next, honestly explore and scrutinize your brand’s capabilities. Lastly, look into how your competitors are positioning their brands.
Understanding your target audience is key to brand positioning because you need to know what they want or need and why. You also need to understand them well enough to know where you can find them. Brand positioning can be summarized as determining your audience’s needs and placing yourself in the space to tell them how you can meet that need. Positioning your brand in that space before consumers even realize they have a need is the ultimate goal.
Knowing where to reach your customers is just as important as knowing what they want. This is especially important when it comes to digital advertising. Randomly assuming or guessing where your consumers spend their time and placing ads there is like gambling with your company’s money.
For example, let’s say your brand’s target audience drives all-terrain vehicles. In this case, positioning your brand online to an audience that spends much of their time offline has its challenges. Yes, you still want to develop a marketing strategy that fits the digital world, but it’s vital to narrow your target to specific outlets where those consumers spend time. In this case, advertising all-terrain vehicle-related products on Waze makes more sense than pushing the same ads on LinkedIn — especially if you have limited ad spend.
To effectively position your brand, you need to know your audience, but you also need to know your own capabilities. You need to describe what your brand can deliver clearly. Developing both long-term and short-term goals for your product or service will help you know where to focus initially.
Finally, examine similar products and services already on the market. Your competitor’s positioning has a major influence over that of your brand. What makes your service or product different than those your target audience has seen before? How can you stand out when positioning in the same market, and where can you best position yourself in areas or ways that they can’t? Don’t be afraid to try to meet the needs of your market in unexpected spaces.
Designing your brand positioning statement
When you know your target audience, what your brand can offer, and what your competition offers, it’s time to create a brand positioning statement. All of your careful research will ensure that this statement resonates with your target audience, describes your product accurately, and sets it apart from the competition.
If you keep your brand positioning statement short and sweet, you’ll likely stray from your pointless. The best positioning statements can be whittled down to three or four words. To make sure it stands out, steer clear of commonly used words such as “quality,” “unique,” and “affordable.” Don’t overthink it. Who do you serve, what makes you unique, and how will your market benefit from your brand?
Fundamentals of Marketing with Tim Fitzpatrick(Opens in a new browser tab)
Using your brand positioning statement to promote your product or service
When you develop a concise brand positioning statement that encapsulates your product or service by summing up precisely what you can do for your target audience, keep it at the forefront of all of your messaging. Make sure you’re using it everywhere you can to promote your brand.
As you market your product or service, it’s easy to keep stretching this statement to be longer, wider, and broader, but don’t fall into this trap. Broadening your positioning statement can be detrimental, especially at the earlier stages of your venture. Promising too much too fast — and without restriction — will cost you more than you can afford to lose.
Reflect your brand positioning statement in everything your company does. It should be apparent in your messaging, packaging, lifestyle images, products, service, and brand voice.
As you work to achieve effective brand positioning, keep it tight, go slow, and spend for ads in the right places. There is often a strong temptation to jump into every advertising opportunity that presents itself when you are excited to get your name out there, but too much too fast will leave you exhausted, tired, and out of money.
By Becky Bugger, Director of Business Development and Sales — StubGroup
