Your brand positioning defines where your business sits within its target market, including how it differs from your competition and where you sit in your customer’s minds. An effective brand positioning strategy can help to strengthen customer loyalty, reinforce your core values and set your business apart from the crowd. As many companies offer a similar service proposition, it’s the company’s brand strategy which will truly influence a customer’s decision to choose yours. So, how do you create a winning position?

Get below the surface  

Your company should have depth. When a customer spends money with a new company, they’re taking a risk. If they have nothing to substantiate why they should take that risk, they may well move onto your competitors. Your first step is to demonstrate why you are experts in your field, telling the story behind your business. Your next step is to go even further, showing your customers what you care about, why you care about it and who your business is aimed towards.

Dave Prince of Medium.com defined a four-step formula to defining your brand positioning, believing the combination of these factors will help you effectively carve your position in the market.

Mission (why) + differentiated approach + core customer + deep expertise = Positioning

Mission (why)

Your company’s mission should be defined with its leaders and spread across your employees. If you allow others to add their own interpretation of your message, this could leave it getting diluted or changed along the way.

Differentiated approach

Think about how your company does things differently in relation to your competitors. This doesn’t mean you to be controversial or only appeal to a niche market, there are plenty of ways you can stand out and retain mass-appeal amongst your target demographic. Is your customer-service something to shout about? Or maybe you use a new technology which isn’t commonplace within your industry at present. Maybe 10% of your profits go to a charity close to your heart, or you only use Fairtrade produce. These are the things to consider when determining what makes your business unique.

Core customer

Make sure that you are clear about who your target market is and make this as specific as you can. As much as you may want to attract as wide an audience as possible, by not aligning a relevant and well-researched market, you could lose appeal amongst those who will benefit from your service. For new businesses, if you have defined your core customer through assumptions, assure to stress test these before launch.

Deep expertise

Deep expertise arises when a combination of skills are brought together to create a product or service. You will then be able to lend these deep, specific skills to your customers. By combining this, with the three other factors mentioned above, your brand positioning will become increasingly clear.

Need help demonstrating your brand positioning? At Skein, our talented team will work with you to get your key messages out effectively through your marketing and design strategy - get in touch here.

‍

Photo by Julien Moreau on Unsplash