How to Build your Brand Positioning

When you stub your toe, do you reach for an adhesive bandage or a Band-Aid? Successful businesses like Band-Aid and Coca-Cola have one crucial thing in common: a strong brand positioning strategy. So much so that their brand names have almost become generic terms for all similar products in their niche.

Brand positioning refers to the "mental space" a single brand takes up in the consumer's mind. When implemented correctly, this strategy can change how consumers perceive your brand. Knowing how to build a brand strategy and successfully implementing it is key to any good commercialisation plan and a key plank in the IP strategy. Let's explore how to create a strong brand positioning strategy so that you can leave a lasting impression on your customers.

What is Brand Positioning?

Brand positioning involves distinguishing your brand in your target audiences’ minds by differentiating it from rival companies in meaningful ways. It’s every change, observation, and attempt to develop lasting impressions of your business so customers come to associate your brand with something unique - something competitors cannot offer. 

Positioning is about winning a market share - finding that angle no other brand has taken and running with it. While you may be able to find that angle into the minds of your target market, they are still the ones who’ll interpret what you put there. In this sense, brand positioning is a collaborative effort between the company and the consumer. So, the question is: how can you build brand positioning in collaboration with your target market?

Types of Brand Positioning Strategies

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to how to build your brand strategy; it depends on your business, industry, and target market. You want to tailor your approach to focus on advantages your product or service has over competitors. Here are four basic examples of brand positioning strategies.

Quality or Product Leadership Positioning Strategy

This strategy emphasises the quality of products or services – a quality that usually comes at a premium cost. When your prices are higher than competitors, customers must know the price tag is justified.

Budget-conscious customers may bypass your brand in favour of cheaper options, but this is where target markets come into play and will determine whether this is the right approach for you.

If you go for this strategy, your everything about your offering must have that premium quality about it – from the features and durability of the product itself to the after sales service and everything in between.

Price-Based Positioning Strategy

Price-based brand positioning presents products as the more affordable option and can generate a large customer base because no one likes to spend more than they have to! However, this strategy comes with its fair share of risks – potentially giving prospective customers the impression of lower quality.  It can also lead to a race to the bottom if there is an aggressive competitor following the same strategy.

Convenience-Based Positioning Strategy

Convenience strategies highlight what makes your brand more convenient than competitors, whether it’s due to availability, design, or ease of use. Even if your product is of a higher price point, its convenience can make it a more attractive option for customers than less convenient competitors.

Customer Intimacy Positioning Strategy

Where your industry often suffers from poor service and support, adopting customer intimacy can set you apart, making it an effective brand position.  Customer intimacy involves a continuous process of getting close to customers, or very narrow customer segments, learning their specific needs and wants, and consistently delivering on those.

Creating Your Own Brand Positioning Strategy

Knowing how to build a brand strategy involves deep diving into your brand's DNA and discovering what exactly sets you apart from the competition. These steps will help you navigate the tricky waters of brand positioning and come out the other side with a well-formed strategy.

Discover How Your Brand is Currently Perceived

It's hard to know where to begin if you don't know where you currently stand. Your brand already holds a position in the market – the first challenge is figuring out what that is. Start by closely examining your existing customers to better understand who they are and what they want. These questions will give you better insight into your current brand position and where to go from here.  You could consider surveying existing and prospective customers about their existing perceptions of your brand.

Understanding Your Competitors’ Brand Positioning

Assessing your competitors’ strategy involves looking at what customers say about them, learning from their marketing tactics, and being aware of how they behave on social media. Competitor research will show you where your brand shines and where it may fall short compared to the competition.

Understanding how your competition is perceived and finding a gap in the market your brand can fill is crucial to formulating your own successful brand positioning strategy.

Identify Your Business’s Unique Value

Building a brand strategy is all about identifying what makes your brand different and what works best for your business. Where your competition lacks may be precisely where you excel and where you should aim to position your brand within the market.

Construct a Brand Positioning Statement

It's now time to take what you've learned and craft a brand positioning statement. A positioning statement is a brief declaration that communicates your brand's unique value to your customers. There are a few critical points to cover when making this statement. Answering these questions in your statement will ensure you touch on all of them:

·       Who is my target audience?

·       What is my unique position in the market?

·       What's the benefit of my brand?

·       How can I prove this benefit?

From here, you should be able to craft a simple yet compelling position statement that will inform the implementation of your brand positioning strategy.

Implement Your Brand Positioning Strategy

Like any plan, your brand positioning strategy needs strong implementation to succeed. Start this process by sharing your positioning statement with staff, stakeholders, and clients. The implementation process may lead you to re-evaluate current messaging on other marketing materials or social networks. If the existing content no longer aligns with your new position, it’s time to adjust. 

Don’t forget to check your brand protection against your new brand positioning.  For example, if you have updated your logo or created a new social media tile, you might consider a new trade mark application to protect those elements.  If you are creating a totally new brand, then don’t forget to first conduct trade mark clearance searching to ensure your chosen brand identity is in fact available for use and registration and won’t infringe third party rights.

The Benefits of Brand Positioning

Break Through Market Clutter

Consumers are confronted with 4,000 to 10,000 marketing messages daily - from Facebook and Google ads to commercials and billboards; the list goes on. This bombardment has made us very good at ignoring most of these messages, and it is this de-sensitisation your business is up against. A good positioning strategy cuts through the noise and ensures you leave an impression on people trained to be unimpressed.

Create Market Differentiation

While there is no standing out in a market saturated with products just like yours, brand positioning helps you articulate how the value you offer is different to competitors. Strong differentiation can create demand and allow your business to compete on value rather than price.

Adopting a brand and brand positioning statements that are not directly descriptive of your products or services will not only clearly set you apart in the market, they will be easier to protect using registered trade marks. It is not possible to register a mark that is directly descriptive of a characteristic or quality of the goods or services to which it will be applied.  

Make it Easier for Consumers to Buy from You and Stay Loyal

Ultimately, consumers want obvious and easy decisions. Effective brand positioning will help consumers decide who to trust and what to purchase more effortlessly. After all, if you have implemented your strategy correctly, you will be speaking directly to the right target market and in a manner that appeals to them.

Position Your Brand for Optimal Growth

Knowing how to build a brand strategy can make all the difference when entering or competing in any market. Strong brand positioning will ensure you get and keep your target audience’s attention and successfully grow your brand. Use the strategies outlined here to position your brand for optimal growth.