All businesses operate within a changing environment. Some firms are excellent at anticipating and exploiting the opportunities created by technological innovations and changing consumer demands, while others struggle and eventually go out of business.
As you try to position your new brand in this fast-changing market, ingrain in yourself from the start that everything can change and thus, your strategy must be able to adapt to this. Before anything else, you will need to research the market and determine your positioning – based on the marketing position, your target audience and competition. The point is that not everyone should like your product. Just the ones who belong to your target group.
State your position
Back in the 1940s, having a great positioning statement was relatively easy. If your company was in a less competitive market, you simply had to give some text that explains the features of your offering. A few decades later, things got a bit harder as images began to influence which products would draw the most attention.
Nowadays, marketing has come full circle again – since defining exactly what your product does is once again crucial in a world with numberless ads. Your own statement should be concise and concentrate on one or two key features. It must be able to differentiate your offering from the competition’s and target your ideal consumer.
Do keep in mind that the positioning statement can change over time, but at the beginning of your business, it will form the core of your marketing.
Research your competition
Exploring and analyzing your competitors helps you determine the strengths and flaws of your own product but also help you carve out your positioning in the market. Knowing the differences between a company and its competition is central to finding gaps in the market that can be filled. So, when you are viewing your competition consider the following:
· Competitor history – Cultural factors, past marketing efforts, messaging, market trends, and engagement.
· Competitor Audience – Engagement, social media, collaborations, features.
· Competitor goals – Growth rate and market share.
· Competitor strategy – Promotional campaigns, white papers, ads.
When you understand your competitors’ place, you will better know the direction you have to go towards to make yourself stand out. Why look like everyone else when you can build a positioning strategy that does the work better than your competition?
Marketing position
Positioning in ads is necessary since the presentation of your business is even more crucial than the product or service itself. Investigate your target audience – their demographics, age, interests, and other relevant factors. The content of your advertising, including value statements, keywords and design has to be in deep correlation with the audience research. If interested, you can follow this link to find out more.
Another fundamental factor for positioning is identifying the right marketing channels. Different products require different channels – you can’t anticipate the same product to have an equally effective promotion on TV ads and content marketing. It just isn’t an effective solution. Hence, put all your efforts into the research and the marketing afterward.
Identify the market or its segment
To position yourself as a new brand, you will need to specify the boundaries of the market in which you’re interested. First, find the consumer needs you wish to understand. You should broadly explore the products and services that satisfy those needs, so you don’t get blindsided by new technologies, fresh entrants or unusual offering that can take care of them.
Second, select the country or region you want to research. You should limit the scope of the investigation if customers, competitors and the way products are used differ broadly across borders. Finally, determine whether you want to track the entire market for a product or only a particular segment.
Reposition your brand if necessary
No matter how excellent your starting brand positioning is, people will have their own ideas of what your business is. Positioning isn’t something you do, but rather, a result of your customer’s perception of what you do.
Just like with other marketing efforts, you should be prepared to adapt and change your brand position if circumstances change. When you examine the core of what your business is and compare it with what the customers want, things might have to change.
Repositioning is when a company changes its current brand or product status in the marketplace. It is typically done because of declining performance or major shifts in the market. It is recommended to look at what worked and what didn’t in your prior marketing to best reposition yourself.
The market is prone to change. Even more than any other aspect of our world. When trying to position your new product, remember that something that worked, in the beginning, may need to be changed later on. The best plans are flexible, before anything else.