Globalisation has introduced a flurry of products, with each brand promising the best results. A strategic brand position helps customers relate with the brand for its unique selling proposition compared to the prevailing competition. Brand positioning involves establishing a solid relationship with the target audience. The mere mention of your brand should evoke the various characteristics of your brand—effective brand positioning results in a dedicated clientele.
Customers tend to draw a parallel between their requirements and how the brand fulfils them, becoming lifelong loyalists of the brand. Many national and international brands across industries have created a niche for themselves. Meaningful brand positioning occurs when a brand can weave a story of its key and unique offerings in a clear, crisp manner without making tall claims and target audiences find the brand products authentic.
Did you know?
One of the world’s best chocolate brands, Cadbury, was an outcome of not wanting to waste the cocoa butter leftovers that resulted from making cocoa.
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What is Brand Positioning?
Brand positioning is the creation of the brand in the minds of its diverse clients about its key offerings, setting itself apart from its competitors. Customers express a desire to buy only your specific brand as they consider it as having incomparable and valuable qualities. The credibility of your brand becomes deeply etched in the minds of customers, and they do not think even experimenting with other brands.
A successful brand positioning is about:
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Understanding the needs of your customers
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Understanding how competition is positioning their brands
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Understanding the strengths of your brand and how it can meet the requirements of your brand
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Creating a unique brand positioning that customers will resonate with immediately
An impactful brand positioning involves a highly effective 360-degree communication process that starts with the brand logo, design, identity, and product communication supported by expressive marketing.
Why is Brand Positioning Important?
Every commercial enterprise has a brand identity that is unique to it. There are various reasons which make brand positioning. Effectively communicating your brand identity to customers will enable you to capture a significant market share. It will help you understand where you have an edge and further strengthen the uniqueness of your brand. However, if you leave it to chance, your brand stands to get lost amongst the many brands that permeate the market space. Let’s understand the importance of brand positioning.
Enables Customers to Understand Your Brand’s USP
A strong brand positioning strategy that communicates clearly will offer customers immense clarity about your special offerings, what makes your brand unique, and how your goods stand out amidst competition in a qualitative manner.
Price Justification
The superior quality of your brand will enable you to charge a price higher than what competitors charge, irrespective of the quality of their products. When your brand communication affirms the exclusive quality of your products, customers become agreeable to paying a higher price.
Builds Clientele Loyalty and Lends Creativity to Your Brand
Some of the best brand positioning examples are Maggi noodles and Apple devices. Maggi noodle's brand positioning strategy revolved around saving time. Their famous tagline, 'bas, do minute', instantly connected with people across age groups. In a fast-paced world, Maggi noodles convey the message of a quick snack or meal that can be made in 2 minutes and enjoyed at any time of the day. Their creativity strategy has made Maggi noodles a preferred choice, and they continue to hold a significant market share. Apple devices are expensive, but Apple's brand strategy revolves around lifestyle. Its unique brand and constant technology innovations have made its clients want more from the brand from its inception.
A Brand Positioning Must Hold a Promise for Its Clients
Apple has a dedicated clientele around the world. Apple devices are backed with innovative technology, and the brand never fails to surprise its customers at regular intervals. Once you have a dedicated clientele, their expectations from the brand keep increasing. You have to be ready to serve them and fulfil their requirements. Businesses can do it with a strong vision that has credible plans to cater to the diverse needs of their customers. Brand positioning demands a commitment to your clients to secure your market position and share, and you have to ensure making it an engaging one at all times.
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How to Create a Brand Positioning Strategy?
There are various steps involved in creating an excellent brand positioning strategy. Some of these include:
Understand Your Current Status in the Market
- You have to critique your own business with competition. The research will give you an insight into what makes you uniquely different. You can hire agencies to conduct surveys, and it will help you understand the demographics and the popularity of your products. Examine the reasons and start working on your weaknesses.
- Gather complete information on your competitors and make a sharp analysis of the findings. You will learn about their brand positioning strategies, weaknesses, and strengths. You will also get an idea about their market shares, claims on their products and if they commit to it.
Position Yourself Against Your Current Competitors
- Draw a parallel (positioning map) between your products and those of competitors. It will clarify how and where you have the edge over them. You can start working on making these unique strengths more powerful to rival competition more strongly, which will help you leverage your unique strengths.
- Assess the benefit claims you make to your customers:
- Consider all the promises your brand communicates and then assess whether your products can fulfil the promises consistently
- Your claims on quality and delivery will have to be tested to ensure that your clients benefit from them.
The Brand Positioning Map
In case you are wondering how to create a brand positioning map, the following details will clarify your doubts:
A brand positioning map is a two-dimensional chart with horizontal and vertical axes. It showcases the exact positioning of prominent brand competitors concerning quality, services, and prices. Such a map gives you insight into how consumers perceive the brands of your competitors' brands and where a new product could fit into the market space. If your brand has the strengths to fill those gaps, you can strategise accordingly. Below is an illustration of a brand positioning map for chocolate brands regarding quality and price.
Brand Positioning Examples
Airtel
One of India's best brand positioning examples is telecom operator Airtel. Its initial campaigns were all about connectivity. Its advertisements showed how people travelling to the remotest parts of India can still stay connected with their loved ones and friends. The ads were about connecting people. Despite being a late entrant in the telecom space, it captured a significant market share because of its meaningful ad campaigns. Today, it is known to have the most extensive consumer base. However, the brand consistently innovates. The jingle 'haan mein crazy hoon' caught on like wildfire with the youth. Their earlier tagline of 'sab kuchh try karo, fir sahi chuno' was a clear message of its delivery commitment across the country. Moreover, the brand is on its toes when it comes to resolving telecom issues. It has made it the preferred choice for internet connectivity on mobiles, television viewing, and other devices.
Dabur
Dabur is another classic example of perfect brand positioning. From a tagline that states' Celebrate life' to 'live better with Dabur', its range of products has been authenticated and are made from pure ayurvedic products, Dabur is reputed as the largest ayurvedic as well as natural health enterprise across the world. Every product has a simple but powerful slogan e.g. the Dabur Red toothpaste which states 'keep dental problems away' or 'daant swasth, life mast'. The brand was able to make a SWOT analysis of its competitors that emphasised the usage of ayurvedic products. Dabur ensured that it used only the purest ayurvedic raw materials across its extensive range of products. Today, it has more than 250 ayurvedic offerings in its portfolio. Its herbal range caters to a diverse population's different types of needs. It has skin, hair, health, beauty, and a host of other products. Dabur refrained from spending on unnecessary large-scale promotions and advertising. Instead, it invested in developing infrastructure, tapped the rural regions of India, and expanded its product portfolios with competitive pricing.
Conclusion
This article explains how brand positioning plays a crucial role in developing any brand. You have to understand the market scenario, the competitors, and various aspects like the demographics of the people, their buying habits, and their preferences to make a practical comparison with your offerings. Once you can distinguish your competitive edge, price becomes secondary. When you realise that people are ready to pay for quality, you don't have to look back at cutting costs. A strong brand positioning strategy can pave the path to success for your brand in a big way.
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