The brand positioning is the position that our brand occupies within the minds of our potential customers. Before writing copy and doing marketing, it is necessary to know and have a clear understanding of our brand or product's market positioning.
The positioning must be:
- Competitive: meaning it should define the image and offer of the company in such a way as to allow it to occupy a distinct position in the mind of our target market
- Relevant for a certain target: the positioning will not be successful if it reflects characteristics that the product cannot offer or are not important for our target audience. The target group must perceive the benefits of our product; otherwise, the positioning will not be effective
- Distinctive compared to our competitors: the positioning must be clearly differentiated from the competition, and above all, it must be rich in positive aspects. Brand positioning allows us to enter into the minds of our competitors and position our brand by disqualifying other brands. In other words, it allows us to place competitors in a more unfavorable position than ours.
Furthermore, it is important to emphasize that positioning allows us to differentiate ourselves with respect to a specific target market, and not in comparison to the entire world.
How to do brand positioning?
Our brand positioning must be effective and long-term. To achieve this, we need to identify the strengths and weaknesses of our product by answering these simple questions:
- In what ways is our product similar to the competition, and how does it differ?
- What is its uniqueness?
- What impact will any differences from the competition have on the target market?
Once these questions are answered, there are 2 ways to position effectively, namely:
- Matching
- Mapping
Positioning through Matching
Positioning through matching allows us to pair the distinctive features of our product with the needs of the market we are targeting.
Steps for matching:
- Identify the characteristics that make your product/service original and unique compared to the competition
- Identify your main target market and its characteristics
- Identify the needs and requirements: what is the target market really purchasing that you wish to address?
- Match your product's features with the needs and desires of your target market
Positioning through Mapping
Positioning through mapping allows us to have a complete map of which are the key benefits of our product, namely benefits considered important by our target market and to classify the products of all our competitors.
Steps for mapping:
- Make a list of benefits attributed to your product in order of importance
- Create a ranking on:
a) The individual advantages of your product and the competition’s
b) The benefits your product can offer to the target market
c) The weaknesses of the competition
3. Decide the position of your product on the map. For the success of our company, it is important to define and perfectly know our brand positioning and our business positioning within the market.
Case Study
Below are two case studies related to positioning maps.
- The first case refers to the market positioning of some very well-known pasta brands and their respective competitors.
- The second case refers to a positioning map concerning the automotive sector, based on price differences and brand image, that is, the corporate image.
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