Feel the Fear and Position Now
So much has been written about positioning – what is it? It’s not a tag line. It’s not a jingle. And it’s not a campaign. It’s a business strategy – a decision you make as to how you want your brand positioned in the minds of your most important target relative to your competitors. Positioning is a relative exercise – people see products and services in relation to other products and services. Stand for something that is different from your competitors and relevant to your core target. We guarantee that some prospects will not find you attractive. But those who do will find you really attractive. And that means they will frequent you more often, spend more than most, tell others about you, and be more forgiving should something go wrong. Just ask Apple, Lululemon, or H&M.
Developing a positioning strategy is both hard work and simple. It’s hard work in that you have to carve out the time to think, make some sacrifices, gain the support of team members, and then implement initiatives that reflect the positioning. You need to keep your eye on a host of variables that over time may suggest that you need to tweak or rework your positioning. However, it’s simple in that the decisions you need to make are most likely not that difficult – they are often common sense and right in front of you.
Where to begin? As an introduction to positioning, we recommend these four steps.
1. Identify a primary user.
The primary user is the segment that personifies your very best fans. Clearly describing your primary user will help you understand who you are going after first, and foremost and it will help to give your brand a personality. It’s not enough to say that your core user is “females between 25 and 49 years.” Instead, something like “women committed to health and beauty rituals to make the best of themselves,” begins to paint a clear picture. Your brand should be a reflection of that primary user. It will have characteristics and subtleties that current and prospective primary users relate to and find compelling. That doesn’t mean others won’t use your product or service – there is a very good chance they will. For instance, some will aspire to be like the primary users. Think of Nike – it wasn’t developed for weekend warriors (a big part of its market), but for real athletes.
2. Determine a battlefield.
Effective positioning creates a spatial relationship between you and your competition – it helps to show where your brand “fits” relative to competitors. A key part of establishing a positioning is to establish a battlefield on which your brand stands a good chance of winning. Remember to ask yourself “Where can we win?” Often this involves identifying a subset of an existing category – or even a new category – within which you will compete. For instance, we’ve worked with a retailer that competed in the arena of “gourmet” crackers versus basic crackers. We have worked with another retailer that competed in the arena of “outdoor living products” versus general gardening products. And another client competed in the arena of “sprouted grain bread,” versus all other bread. Identify your battlefield, and it will help you determine how to compete.
3. Determine your brand payoff.
The brand payoff is the primary benefit that the brand offers to the primary target. Perhaps you already know your brand payoff. If you don’t, think about the needs of the primary target and their expectations of the battlefield within which you have chosen to compete, and begin generating a list. Evaluate your ideas against the following types of questions:
1. Is it fact based?
2. Is it appealing and relevant?
3. Is it specific?
4. Will it differentiate you?
5. Is it singular in focus?
In our work with clients, one of the biggest challenges is to help them address the 3rd and 5th criteria above. For instance, “good value, service, and quality,” are NOT specific – they are the cost of entry in today’s retail environment. It’s also a long list. Something like “extraordinary attention to detail,” however, is very specific – and very singular in focus.
4. Putting it together.
Putting it together involves two steps. The first is fairly easy – link your decisions from points 1 through 3 above into a clear positioning statement. It could go like this: To (the core user), Brand X, is the (reference point), that (brand payoff) because of (factual support). You know you’ve got it when the statement is easy to understand and communicate to others. Consider what would happen if you were to cover up your brand’s name and show the statement to some primary users. They should unmistakably know it’s your brand.
The second step requires more thought and involves developing a plan for how the positioning will be brought to life in your organization and through all the touch points that affect the primary target. This is where positioning becomes more than a statement on a piece of paper in a binder somewhere, but a true strategic weapon. It’s where you answer both, “Where will we win?” and “How will we win?” – this will be a topic for another edition of Get Shoppers.
Committing to a positioning can be liberating. You will wake up each day with a clear focus and the confidence to allocate resources accordingly. Feel the fear, and position now!
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