What is brand positioning? How to have a clear position in the market?

Brand positioning is an individual or organization’s position in the customer’s perception. It helps the brand to distinguish itself from competitors easily. Brand positioning is implemented by marketing strategy, allowing the brand to make a difference.

When building a brand, we often hear the phrase brand positioning. But what is it, and how it creates an impact on businesses and customers?

In this article, Vu Digital will give you a panoramic view of and significant influence of brand positioning on businesses.

Let’s find out!

In the novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, there is a great quote describing brand positioning from author Lewis Carroll. When Alice asks the Cheshire cat which way to go, the cat replies:

“if you don’t care where you’re going, it doesn’t make a difference which path you take.”

In the new era of continuous communication campaigns, if you do not establish a position and focus resources on clear goals, your brand will not be different, and it is challenging to save its imprint.

What is brand positioning?

Brand positioning is an individual or organization’s position in the customer’s perception. It helps to differentiate the brand from its competitors. It is implemented by marketing strategy, allowing the brand to make a difference.

The mechanism of the human brain is to remember the necessary memories and then retrieve them when required to make a choice or decision. Successful brand positioning is about possessing characteristics important to customers in the brand’s field.

The customer’s mind is a real battleground for every business. We compete to build a brand position, which helps us invade, own and lead in the customer’s mind, then take the leading role in the market.

The legendary Walter once shared a great quote.

Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind

– Walter Landor –

Walter reveals to us how to build a successful brand. The answer is a unique and leading brand, which appears in customers’ minds with a precise brand positioning through a differentiation strategy.

When you have identified a characteristics as a “cognitive green area” that has not been explored and owned, you should quickly take action to influence customers’ minds. Becoming the first is the key to success. Then you would have the “uniqueness in perception.”

The brand that creates the first perception will become “unique in perception.” It is difficult to change this due to the psychological effect Einstellung effect. This research shows that human psychology is always afraid of being changed.

Branding is easier if you find the correct assumptions, create something “novelty,” and then position yourself as the only brand that owns this “novelty.” We said it is easy because Humans always yearn to live and experience new things before getting familiar with them.

Brand positioning is something similar to the switch. We know that our brand positioning strategy is successful when we refer to a keyword (brand characteristic); customers immediately recall and think of our brand. 

Example: A customer is planning to buy a car, and he has sorted out the five characteristics he wants: prestige, durability, design, price, and safety. Brands with these characteristics will likely be Toyota, Mazda, Hyundai, and Mistubishi. Customers will research, learn from those five characteristics, and then make decisions based on the critical elements. Ask yourself, what leadership ethos does your brand possess?

What is the role of brand positioning in brand strategy?

Have you ever wondered why there are businesses that constantly have customers ready to experience all services/products without regard to pricing? That’s thanks to brand positioning.

First, brand positioning helps companies quickly identify competitors and business trends. From there, brands could plan specific strategies to reach customers effectively and ensure manageable communication activities.

Besides, brand positioning is also a practical assistant to help expand the business in the future. You do not have to spend too much money to set up a brand strategy and still have a particular reputation for customers.

Good positioning means the brand has a specific place in others’ minds. Customers always choose a reputable brand over a brand that only talks about profits and profits. Therefore, brand positioning will bring loyal customers to businesses, which creates a solid foundation for future development.

What are brand positioning methods?

Brand positioning methods are very diverse, and each approach has different purposes. We can list down the nine most basic methods, including:

1. Positioning based on the problem, solution
2. Feature-based positioning
3. Positioning by quality
4. Positioning based on opponents
5. Positioning based on values
6. Positioning based on usage
7. Positioning based on relationships
8. Positioning based on wishes
9. Positioning based on emotions

You don’t need to use only one method obligatorily. Based on the brand strategy, we can transform the brand positioning to set a future business goal.

However, this process also requires consistency, which means brand positioning will become counterproductive if you greedily set too many goals.

Steps to successful brand positioning

Before developing brand positioning, you need to understand that it is a long process, and you need the foresight to anticipate any changes that might come in the future. Brand positioning is never easy, and it requires business leaders to understand the market and the purpose of the brand strategy.

1. Identify target customers

The first step in brand positioning is to define your target audience. Who they are, what their needs are, what problems they are facing, what they are interested in, and what solutions are suitable. Outline the customers the brand is targeting in the most detail, and it will help the brand not go astray in positioning.

2. Competitor analysis

You can’t win a game if you don’t know who your opponent is. Therefore, the next step to successful positioning is to understand the competitors.

You need to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your competitors and the market. Find a niche market to develop and create a clear mark on the brand’s direction.

3. Determine the appropriate positioning method

There are nine methods of brand positioning that Vu mentioned above. And the question now is how to develop a different brand positioning.

From product launches and brand identity design to media content, they all serve the ultimate purpose of brand positioning.

For example, if you choose to position based on emotions, then communication campaigns, content, and ads must integrate emotional messages cleverly. They must touch the insights, express the interests and concerns in modern life, and elicit the sympathy of customers.

It doesn’t matter which method you choose or how you implement it. Therefore, as long as you have a clear direction and specific purpose, your brand positioning will achieve the desired effect.

4. Put the brand on the brand positioning diagram

The positioning diagram includes a horizontal and vertical axis corresponding to the product attributes that the brand provides. For example, if a fashion brand focuses on two fundamental values: luxury and high-priced segments, we can describe them in coordinate axes as follows:

Members involved in brand positioning strategy will determine where competitors are, then compare similarities and differences in how they operate. You will quickly detect the niche from this diagram and decide on the brand position.

The most favorable position is the one that both promotes the brand’s difference and localizes the field the brand is operating. Do not focus only on the brand’s difference, and forget that customers also need to know your brand category.

In short, brand positioning serves as the “headquarter” of the brand strategy and signals other activities to follow. Competitors will surpass brands with wrong positioning. Therefore, you should slowly plan the positioning strategy to achieve the desired effect.

Conclusion

As can be seen, brand positioning signals your presence & breakthrough in the market. Whether the brand exists for a long time or whether or not customers have a long-term companion depends on the brand positioning.

To understand the world of branding and strengthen your knowledge of brand & brand design, you can connect with Vu through the links below:

• Website: https://vudigital.co/
• Fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/vudigital.co
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vu.digital/
• Behance: https://www.behance.net/vu-digital
• LinkedIn: https://vn.linkedin.com/in/vudigital 

Sincerely,