Marketing agencies have a lot of buzz words for Marketing Positioning. You may know it as things like Brand Values, Brand DNA, Brand Promise (I think this phrase gets used to try and make marketers feel giddy and sign off on budgets), Brand Personality and more.
Ultimately it is about what we need our product or service to be for our customer. We need to try and think about it from the customers’ perspective. When marketing, we need our customers to know we exist, but also for them to think certain things when they see our product. How do they feel about it? Do they want it?
Positioning, in the marketing world is The Battle for Your Mind
Al Ries and Jack Trout
Marketing Position is, as they explain not about what we as a marketer do to the product, it is what our marketing can do in the mind of the customer. See how I keep coming back to the customer in in everything I’m blogging about with marketing? It is what you should be doing with your marketing.
To understand how you can get your positioning right, think about your Customer…your Competition…your Company.
Customer
Are you offering what the customer wants, not what you want to offer? Just because you like something, doesn’t mean the customer does.
Competition
How do you stack up against the completion really? Yes you are in love with your product, but how do you really stack up in terms of price, value, and what you can do?
Company
What is the reputation of your business? Can it deliver on its promise?
How do you work out your brand promise?
What do you offer and to who? What problem are you solving for your customer? Your brand promise is not what you do or offer. That’s a given. It is what the service or product you offer can do for the customer. Starbucks for example is To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup, one neighbourhood at a time.
This is ingrained in everything Starbucks does. They create spaces not just for people to go and drink coffee. But to socialise, to create, to have a home away from home they can go to and enjoy. It is an experience beyond just the coffee. Starbucks cafes are a place to feel inspired. All for the price of the coffee. And that ‘one cup at a time’ thing? It refers to the donations they make from their profits that they invite all customers to be a part of.
A brand promise is all about the customer. Walmart in the USA is “Live Better”.
Walmart: Save Money. Live Better
Walmart isn’t about buying goods at a cheap price, it is about doing more with the savings they offer as this ad campaign from them demonstrates: