What is Brand Positioning?

What is brand positioning?

Your brand position is all about identifying your unique position and figuring out exactly where you sit in your intended market, against your competitors and through the viewpoint of your customers. The customer is key here, so it is important to think about how they will perceive your brand, how it fits their needs and what their expectations are — then you can move on to how you meet these.

Why is positioning important?

In the same way, you wouldn’t hit a golf ball without first positioning yourself in the right direction, you don’t want to blindly drive your brand in the wrong direction either. Positioning helps align your brand with your value points to reach your intended customer and optimising your market position.

What do I need to know to position my organisation?

Audience; Take a look at your current customer or intended audience (if you are just starting out). What do they value, what are they looking for and what do they need? When you look at your target audience it helps to collect information in all of the four customer segmentations: demographic, geographic, psychographic, behaviour.

Competition Landscape; This is where you review competitors as a whole. Who is your direct competition, what do they offer in terms of product or services, where do they excel and where do they fall short? What perceived value do they bring to their (your) customers? How do they look? Where do you fit in or stand out?

Customer Value; This is the value based promise from your brand to your customers. It is an easy-to-understand reason why they should buy your product or service. What kind of customer needs and wants does your product or service fill? What are the specifics of its added benefit? How does it appeal to their strongest decision-making drivers? We need to look beyond just the tangibles, and consider emotional and self-expressive benefits too.‍

Brand Differentiation; Considering both your audience and competitors, you can use this insight to better understand your key brand differentiators. Is it your product, your service, or your company ethos? What is it at the core of your brand that makes you truly stand out? Defining this allows you to help position your brand in the best way to meet your goals.

Having positioned your brand, you'll be able to create a positioning statement that brings together all these elements and serve as an internal guide to make better decisions.

Learn more about positioning in our brand building newsletter. Sign up and get free insights on how to build your brand.