“Your brand is the single most important investment you can make in your business”-Steve Forbes, US Editor-in-Chief of the business magazine Forbes.
To create a brand, you will need to understand the basic building blocks:
- Build a Brand
- Position your Brand
- Create Brand awareness
- Ultimately work towards brand recognition
- Achieve Brand loyalty
There are 6 steps in creating a brand positioning strategy that will ultimately strengthen a business overall plan and its commitments to customers. Ultimately, positioning a brand will find the rightful place for the brand in the marketplace but also in the customer’s mind. Any business should incorporate a brand positioning statement as it clarifies the brand’s essence, tone, and service it provides to its customers. In addition, a brand positioning distinguishes between the brand’s creative and special offerings to current and potential consumers. Brand positioning is concerned with how other individuals view your business, product, and service that you offer them.
Let’s unpack the Six Brand Positioning Steps
Identifying Your Market Segment – Understanding the specific segment will ensure that you communicate effectively, using the specific words, tone and unique offerings that will resonate with the target market.
Define Your Brand’s Purpose – Understanding the “Why” behind the brand. Conceptualising the goal of the vision for the company will ensure your target audience, employees and the greater public will understand and buy into the brand. This will inevitably create a sense of belonging for the employees, a shared vision for the customers and “more than just another company” to the public.
Know Your Industry – Understanding the immediate environment and the competitive analysis is an essential part of positioning the brand correctly within the market place. While analysing your competitors, you should know what you are looking for and how it can help your marketing plans.
Identify Your Competitive Advantage – After identifying and understanding your industry and peers, identify what differentiate you from the rest. That factor will result in the competitive advantage throughout the marketing strategy.
Develop a Strong Voice for Your Brand– To create a memorable brand, people need to see it , hear it and feel it. To develop a strong voice for your brand you will need to:
- Know your brand tone
- Create value statement and mission (stick to it)
- Be consistent
- Develop brand personality and credibility
Brand Advocacy– By treating your customers right, they become your marketing hero’s. Brand advocacy is a popular form of modern business marketing, it promotes the business through word of mouth. Positive reviews about the company’s products or services help to promote the company to new customers.
