7.1 Introduction
In this module you will learn about one
of the most important aspects of marketing: positioning.
You will also learn the right way to develop positioning strategies for a
brand, product or service. There are a number of tips and tricks to help you
write these strategies, and how you can improve your marketing plan both inside
and outside of your business.
7.2 What is Positioning in Marketing?
Positioning is an important aspect
of marketing.
It is so important, in fact, that without positioning, companies will fail to
create their unique place in the market and create a point of differentiation
from their competitors.
Consider this example of position marketing:
If a company offers marker pens that do not get dry when left open, then it
will position its product with the help of their product's unique feature. In
other words, every brand needs to find a unique feature in their product that
their competitors' products do not have. This is exactly what makes brands
unique and different from other similar businesses in the market, and thus, you
can put your product or service in a position to succeed.
However, a positioning strategy will completely fail if your target audience
does not know about this difference.
Therefore, every business needs to send a clear message to the customers about
what makes them and their products unique from competitors. When you set a
distinct position for your product in the market, the customers can easily
identify you. Positioning also allows businesses to grab the attention of the
right target market.
Let's say your target market consists of people who are modern and environment-enthusiasts.
You need to give them this message that your products are made using
environmentally-friendly materials. Similarly, if a company is trying to sell
mobile phones, then they need to tell their audience that their devices are
speedy and have a high resolution. The people that are fond of using mobile
phones with a lot of technology, want to spend money on phones that are
advanced and can work well with their usage requirements. Therefore, when such
a company needs to target their customers, they need to create a point of
differentiation by telling them about the amazing RAM and processor speed of
their phones.
Keep in mind, when designing a positioning strategy, marketers need to
ensure that everything is in line with their brand's message as well as
positioning. If a company that is positioned towards the upper-class and offers
only luxury products, starts to advertise their products as cost-effective,
then they will lose both their purpose and brand's image on a deeper level.
Defining Your Message
A brand's message plays an important role in setting up a distinct image in the
minds of customers, and every brand needs to have a clear message that tells
their customers about their values. The market is overflowing with brands,
products, and services, and in order to stand out from the competition, every
brand needs a unique brand message that their customers can remember.
Therefore, marketers need to design a positioning strategy with the firm's core
message in mind, and then combine it with their product or service. Brand
messages cannot only be in the form of slogans and taglines, but they can also
take other forms, including visual messages, copy, and storyline.
Take for example Nestle. Nestle's main message is that it manufactures
only healthy products because it cares about its customers. Therefore, if you
look at several ad campaigns by Nestle, you will clearly see its underlying
message.This is just one example of the art of positioning, and it can turn a brand
into a huge hit.
When a new brand is launched, of course, it needs the help of positioning
messages to make a distinct space for itself in the market. If it doesn't, it
will only get lost in the clutter, not to be seen by anyone.
Marketers need to devise a positioning message that is clear, unique, and
appealing. This message should also comply with the company's beliefs and aims.
If the marketer creates a message that does not define the company's belief and
image, then the customers will get confused, and the company might even lose
its credibility in the eyes of the customers.
Create Messages that Address
Customer Needs
Businesses not only require creative messages to position their brand, but they
also need to make sure that their messages are addressing customer needs. Keep
in mind that this means that your brand's message needs to be authentic to your
customers' real experiences. If you are giving away a message that your service
is the fastest, then you will have to prove it as well, or your brand will lose
customers' trust.
The key here is that you and your marketers make sure that any message you put
out into the world is memorable, short and appropriate for your customers.
When your messages are a reflection of your customers' experience with your
brand, they will easily relate to them. Marketers need to evaluate the target
audience's decision making criteria to design positioning messages that target
their exact needs. If your client sells biscuits, then you need to know whether
the audience visits stores to find the most nutrition packed biscuits, or do
they want tasteful biscuits. Once you come to know what your
target audience exactly needs, then you can easily come up with a solid
positioning strategy.
7.3 Positioning Your Message
Brand positioning is essential for every business that needs to create its
own unique presence in the marketplace.
Without a distinct positioning message, a company is unrecognisable. Victoria's
Secret, for instance, is a brand that is known for offering the sexiest
lingerie items. The brand's message is brilliantly positioned in the market, so
that even when you ask someone about it, they can tell what the brand is all
about. When someone wants to buy sexy lingerie, they have one name in mind:
Victoria's Secret.
The marketing team of the brand has done a great job in creating a distinct
message that everyone recognises and believes. It is also not only about
positioning a message, but it should also be associated with the brand
itself and the experience that the customers have with it.
If Victoria's Secret did not sell sexy lingerie, then its positioning message
would have been meaningless. This clearly proves that in order for a brand to
create a solid positioning message, it needs to make sure that it is true to
its customers' experience. Such a message is quite successful in making a great
impression on the audience.
In order to create an effective positioning message, marketers need to focus on
certain elements that are given below:
Learn About Your Customers
Any positioning message will be useless if it is not designed for the target
audience. Because these messages are used to attract the target audience, it is
important for marketers to understand their client's customers first and then
come up with a strategy.
Marketers need to research the target audience's attitudes, behaviour, and
demographic description. With the help of this information, it will become
easier for the marketers to devise a positioning strategy that works on the
right people. Because every brand is trying to attract and appeal to a specific
audience, it is important to understand their perceptions, beliefs, and
behaviours.
Once the marketers understand what
the target audience will be more attracted to, they can design messages that
are highly targeted and bring about the right reactions from the customers.
Give Importance to the Benefit
Offered by the Brand
Another important thing that marketers need to consider when creating a
positioning message is to find out about the benefits that their clients'
products provide to the audience. These benefits should be unique when compared
to their competitors' products. By getting to know these benefits, marketers
can easily come up with a message that differentiates their brand from everyone
else in the market.
This means that the promise that your brand makes to the audience can be used
as a positioning statement or message. If the marketer is working for a client
that sells napkins, then they need to dig deep into the product's features to
find out a unique benefit that it offers to the customers. Let's say that these
napkins are manufacturers using environmentally-friendly elements and
procedures, then this unique feature can be used as a positioning message for
the product.
Identify Competitors' Positioning
Message
Another important aspect of the positioning message is to identify your
competitors' message. Because your positioning message will be used as a point
of differentiation, it is important that you (and marketers) can understand what
you are standing against. If you are selling luxury vehicles, then you need to
thoroughly examine your competitors' positioning messages, to come up with
something better and unique. This is the only way that you and your marketing
team can design a unique positioning message and make a distinct reputation for
the brand.
If one of your competitors is giving away the message that they have the most
fuel efficient cars, then you can come up with a much better message to grab
the audience's attention.
Give Proof
When setting up your positioning marketing plan, you have to have both truth
and proof. For example, telling the target audience that what your brand offers
is more affordable than a competitor is not going to make them trust you.
Therefore, you need to make them believe in your words. You need to show them
the proof that your brand really does offer the most
affordable products, and only then will you be able to make them trust you.
Marketers need to provide realistic proof of their claims. If you are
differentiating your brand by telling the audience that you make use of
environmentally-friendly machines to manufacture your products, you need to
provide them with the appropriate evidence. You can make use of testimonials or
customer reviews to make the audience believe in your claims.
The reason that marketers need to provide evidence in the form of testimonials
and reviews is that the brand's target audience gets easily convinced.
Make Use of the Product's
Characteristics
Positioning strategies can be created for a brand or a product or service. When
it comes to designing the positioning strategy for a product, marketers need to
closely look at the characteristics of the product. If there is a company that
is introducing perfumes, then the marketer needs to look at the characteristics
of that perfume. Listing down the various characteristics of the product makes
it easy to decide which one is the best to use.
Consider Price to Quality Approach
Marketers can also make use of a price to quality comparison in their
positioning strategies. For instance, there are brands that offer superior
quality products by using authentic materials. Such products are named premium
because of their price to quality comparison. Marketers can make use of this
strategy as a solid positioning strategy for a product or brand and make it
different from its competitors.
On the other hand, there are certain products that are made using cheaper
materials, and are sold at affordable rates. Brands offering such products make
affordability their biggest trait and use it to position themselves in the
market. A real life example of such a brand is Tiffany, which aims at selling
premium quality jewellery and has created its distinct presence in the market.
Bottom line, when it comes to marketing a product or service, every brand needs
to set up a distinct presence in the market. If there are two brands offering the same thing and promising the same
benefits, then the customers will not have a brand preference. In order to make
more sales, marketers need to come up with a positioning strategy that is
unique and appropriate for the company's message.
7.4 Different Ways to Position Your
Message
Now that you know the definition of
position marketing and how to use position marketing, you should learn about
some popular ways to position your company's message.
Positioning Your Message in
Advertisements
Advertisements are usually the first place a company focuses on when looking to
position themselves. Imagine that you are working to market a cosmetic product.
You know, from the information above, that the first step is to determine the
target audience, and then what consumer need your product is meeting. Second,
consider that your target audience is African-British teens. What need should
your product meet?
Perhaps your cosmetics line is meant to help teens overcome
acne. One idea is to use an advert featuring a young looking African-British GP
who uses your products to teach teens how to battle their acne. Your target
audience can relate to this type of advert, they can see exactly how it meets
their needs, and your message is loud and clear. If your target audience was
middle aged Caucasian women who want to look younger, this advert would be
misplaced.
Positioning Your Message in
Sales Locations
Reaching your target customer is not just a matter of correctly advertising the
goods or service. Instead, it is also a matter of choosing the right methods of
distribution. Though this concept has been discussed previously in this module,
location has not, and location goes hand in hand with distribution.
If your target audience primarily lives in an urban area and uses a lot of
public transport, it would not work for you to place your adverts in rural
areas where a private automobile may pass them. Instead, focus on the location
where you can find the most reach to your greater target audience, such as near
the entrance to public transit or rail stations. You should also make sure that
you create a sense of cohesion by displaying similar adverts both inside and
outside of your business. For instance, if you have a shop and begin placing
adverts on the radio with a tagline, your customers should see the same tagline
on internal adverts.
Positioning Your Message
Through Price
Finally, you can position your message through price. It should be remembered
that there is a lot of research on marketing, and the psychology of how
consumers react to pricing in marketing. To put it simply, the price of any
good or service can tell the buyer much more about the item than most people
realise. Many customers will associate higher prices with higher quality, and
low prices with low quality. Furthermore, if a product or message is positioned
as an alternative to a high-priced product, the price must fall in the middle of
competitors' price points. You certainly do not want your products to be priced
along with the lowest priced items, as consumers may see them as low quality.
FACT
UK SMBs are actively using social media marketing to promote their businesses.
70% of SMB owners currently use social networks.
Source: slideshare.net
7.5 Creating Your Positioning Statement
One common mistake that people make
when working with positioning marketing is confusing the positioning statement
with a tagline or slogan.
A positioning statement is one that is used internally, and these are statements
that guide the operating and marketing decisions of business. A positioning
statement will help you and your marketing team make big decisions that affect
the customer's perception of your business.
A tagline, on the other hand, is a statement that is used externally, such as
in an advert. You can gain insight from your positioning statement and turn it
into a tagline, but you must distinguish between these two.
To create a positioning statement, follow these seven steps:
1. Make a
determination about how your brand is currently positioning itself in
the marketplace. If you cannot determine where your company is currently
positioned, you can start from scratch.
2. Start making a list
about who your direct competitors are. This should include even companies or
organisations thatmaybe a competitor, as sometimes minor competitors can
make a big impact on your overall success.
3. Take a look at your
list of competitors and start researching and determining what type of position
marketing they are using. Are they totally focused on location? Are they giving
a lot of proof about what their company does?
4. Look at how your
company is positioning compared to your top competitors. Can you identify how
your marketing is unique? If not, you should focus on making your adverts
unique and finding a way to stand out from the crowd.
5. Take all of this
information and develop an idea for positioning that is distinct and valuable
to your company.
6. Create a
positioning statement for your company. Remember, this is an internal statement
that you will use to enhance your overall marketing plan.
7. Test your
positioning statement by applying it to your marketing plans. Your brand
positioning statement should have four elements to ensure that it will work
when finally used in the workplace. These elements are:
o
A Customer Target - What is the summary of the attitudes and
demographics of your customer base? You must have some type of target in your
statement to ensure success.
o
A Market Definition - Your statement must also focus on a specific
market category. Ask yourself in what context is your brand relevant to your
customers.
o
A Brand Promise - Your statement also requires a promise to your
customers. What will it do for them? How will it improve their lives?
o
A Reason to Believe in Your Brand - Choose the most compelling pieces of
evidence that shows your brand delivers on its promise.
Module Summary
The positioning statement is a crucial element of any marketing plan. Learning
what positioning marketing is and what it does is imperative as you create your
plan to get your brand out into the world. The way you position your adverts,
and the way you use these statements will have a big impact on the success of
your marketing plan.
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