21/01/2021
There are no shortcuts to building a strong brand. In the next few post, we’ll look at how to use brand mapping to position your company in a competitive market successfully.
(1/5) What Is Brand Positioning?
Brand positioning is the strategy behind how to situate your brand in your customers’ minds and differentiate your products and services from competitors.
This is achieved through things like analysing the market you are in and determining where you position yourself in the market. Are you competing in a red ocean market with a higher quality, cheaper or faster product, or are you alone in a blue ocean? (More on that later.)
As well as the position of your brand in the market, brand mapping takes into account other variables like brand personality, brand symbols and more. All of this comes together to create the brand essence.
Differentiating Your Brand From Competitors
Here are some approaches to setting your brand apart from your rivals.
Define your unique selling proposition (USP): Your brand and its offerings should be easy to understand. Think of it as trying to explain what you do to a six-year-old. The easier it is to grasp what makes your brand different to other brands in the market, the easier your customers will recall the differences.
Appeal to emotion: Before selling your product, you need to tug at your customers’ heartstrings. You should take time to learn about your customers, learn what their pain points are, and how your brand can help with those concerns.
Focus on gaps in the market: Your main goal in marketing is to help the customer overcome a problem in a way that existing products or services can’t. Some products may be high quality, but too expensive. Some services may do the trick, but not frequently enough. Be clear on what your offering does differently to competitors, in a way that resonates with your audience.
Be consistent: Branding isn’t something that you just tack on to a product. It’s the customer’s entire experience. From the way a product is promoted to the way you provide after-sales support to the customer, the experience should be consistent with the image you want your brand to project.
Now that we know what brand positioning is, we’ll look at how to create your brand positioning strategy.
