Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
If you were asked to recommend a shoe store, a manicurist, or anything else, you would remember a few familiar representatives. Every business wants to be known and recommended. But strong associations in your mind arise for a reason. Positioning is an effective way to take and consolidate a certain position of your business in the consciousness of potential customers.
What exactly does “positioning” mean? How can you create a positioning that will resonate with the target audience’s request? How can a company establish a clear image and become the No. 1 association in a niche? In this article, you’ll find answers to these questions and more to increase your own recognition and attractiveness to your target audience.
The essence of the word “Positioning”
What does your positioning mean, you may ask? Let’s take it one step at a time.
Entering the query “Positioning is…” in Google, you will find many different definitions. We suggest you consider the author’s term from Solve Marketing CEO Serhii Soloviov, which is used by the agency’s specialists.
Positioning is a method of finding a free category in the consciousness of buyers that is profitable to associate a company or product name with.
Let us explain with a simple example. Imagine that the customer’s mind is a closet with product categories. Some of the shelves are already occupied, while others are still free. We’ll tell you in confidence that your company can take one of them, and here’s how to do it.
You can easily name computer manufacturers. Now think of computers made by Ukrainian brands. This is more difficult, isn’t it? Few people know that they exist, so the category can be considered free. By developing a strong positioning, a Ukrainian manufacturer can take a “shelf” in the minds of customers.
We’ve dealt with consciousness and categories, but there is one more important point. Your offer must bring the customer a benefit. To generate demand, the chosen category should have a commercial basis. Otherwise, you won’t be able to sell the product and make a profit.
Now you have a proven formula for successful positioning:
To find all the components, solve this equation, and get the result, let’s move on to the positioning development algorithm.
Step-by-step instructions for developing a positioning
The process of developing a positioning can be divided into two stages: information collection and positioning synthesis. Here are the steps to be taken at each of these stages.
STAGE 1. Collection of information
1. Make a list of your products, dividing them into several groups if they fall into different categories.
2. Determine the value that the customer receives. What customer problem can your product solve?
3. Create a detailed portrait of your target audience. If there are several segments, describe each one separately.
4. Also describe the audience segment that is not your customer. Think about whether there are consumers you don’t want to work with.
5. Identify the factors that your client pays attention to when choosing your offer among competitors. We’ve told you more about the choice factors in this article.
6. Separately describe the customer’s expectations from the interaction with the brand and the purchase itself. Imagine yourself in the customer’s shoes and find out what will make them happy.
7. Formulate your key difference. What is your highlight?
8. Find the answer to the question: why did your existing customers choose you?
9. Research the positioning of competitors. If there is a well-known leader in your field, analyze it.
10. Do you want to be ahead? Follow the innovations that are happening in your field, what is changing, what are the prospects for tomorrow.
STAGE 2. Positioning synthesis
In the first stage, you have formed the basis, so now you can move on to the actual formation of the positioning. The answers you get are a guide to building a successful positioning.
The authors of the positioning concept note in their books that “it takes two to play the positioning game (at least).” Your own ideas can be either brilliant or effective, but very rarely brilliant and effective at the same time 🙂
Objectively assessing the appropriateness of your positioning and its strength is a difficult task. Therefore, it is important to consult with experts and your team and choose the option that will really stick in the minds of consumers.
As part of the Marketing Strategy service, the Solve Marketing team will work on developing a positioning for your business. Contact us to get a positioning that will distinguish you in the market.
And if you want to learn how to build a positioning yourself, register for a workshop by Serhii Soloviov, CEO of Solve Marketing.
It’s always easier to perceive information by example, so now we’ll show you how we worked on positioning for one of our clients.
Our case study: development of positioning for a CRM system integrator
We were approached by CRM Solutions, an integrator of CRM systems. At the briefing stage, we determined the following: for CRM integrator clients, it’s not so much the implementation stage that matters as the subsequent use. They need to not be left alone to deal with the software.
Request. Make it clear to the company’s clients that they can fully rely on the integrator not only at the stage of selecting the best system, but also during the setup and adaptation of employees. It is necessary to assure that the investment in the solution will not be in vain, that the system will bring results.
Result. We identified the main business advantages: individual approach, staff support and training, and personalized analysis of the accounting system for the client’s niche. Based on this data, we developed the final positioning option:
CRM Solutions — selection, implementation, and training in CRM that you will actually use.
Disclaimer. Positioning is not a magic wand. It’s not enough to just develop it and put it in a long drawer. It takes time and effort for your positioning to be perceived.
The first step is to develop a marketing and communication strategy. It, of course, takes into account the positioning created. And then the most important part begins — the process of taking a free slot in the minds of the audience, which we described at the beginning of the article.
Here are some tips from our content marketing department to help you succeed:
- Conduct an audit of all available communication platforms and determine in which format and where you need to work first. The purpose of this work is to update information about the business and add positioning everywhere. The closer the positioning is to the brand name, the more likely it is to be remembered.
- Update the company descriptions on social media, landing pages, and a website. We’ve already told you how and why 😉
- Organize a mini-workshop on working with positioning for your team. The main listeners are the marketing and sales departments. Every message they send to the client should contain positioning. Therefore, it needs to be understood and accepted.
- Appoint a person who will be responsible for implementing positioning in communication. Ideally, this person should be responsible for checking the texts of posts, articles, descriptions of goods or services on the website, presentation materials, and commercial offers. Checking these materials for the presence of your brand positioning is the key to success.
- Be patient, because the struggle for the consciousness of the audience is a long work that requires consistency. Actually, like all marketing 😌
Conclusion
We hope that our article was useful to you and this guide will help you create a powerful positioning. And if your business needs professional marketing support, Solve Marketing is always here and ready to take a comprehensive approach to the issues of recognition and success of your project.
