Alp Mimaroglu. Krista Mashore. Max Pecherskyi. Julia Weikel. Skip to content Profile Avatar. Subscribe to Entrepreneur. Magazine Subscriptions. By Andrea Olson November 22, Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. More About Marketing. Alp Mimaroglu Nov 14, Krista Mashore Nov 12, Latest on Entrepreneur. With the right positioning tactic, you can create better marketing messages, shape your services better, and structure pricing plans so that you remain competitive.
Proper positioning influences how customers perceive your product or service relative to the competition. By doing this, you can claim your position in the competitive landscape, which helps you a lot to stay ahead of the curve.
One of the main goals of any business is to improve sales and revenue. By having a more relevant offering and communicating it more effectively, your company may be able to penetrate a new market, which can translate into new clients and additional sales. As a result, your value to prospects will increase significantly. Clear positioning in marketing also drives effective communication, provides healthier and stronger relationships with customers.
It not only helps to energize the product but also connects it to the specific customer that needs it. Tesla leaves price out of its branding and instead focuses on the quality of their vehicles. Therefore, Tesla is a luxury brand that is more expensive than its competitors. In addition, Tesla automobiles are long-range, eco-friendly, and electric.
Tesla differentiates itself from other gas-powered luxury and standard electric vehicles because of its high quality. The company established a niche market for itself and a fun brand to match it.
Coffee consumption in the U. Hence, Starbucks was extremely cautious in choosing its target market. Starbucks targeted office workers, from the middle to high incomes, who desired to purchase premium products. So, they were vigilant about their quality control to meet the high expectations.
In most of their advertising campaigns, they often highlight their identity by showing the following value proposition statements:. The company has focused its positioning on convenience and affordability, creating a relatable brand for the average consumer.
Even though their biggest competitor, Gillette, has a very masculine tone to their messaging and branding, Dollar Shave Club is more casual and cheeky.
While Gillette has a sleek look and features guys who look like models and actors, Dollar Shave Club features average-looking people across different ages, who are more relatable to consumers.
Nike started their business with a focus on performance and innovation. The company invented the waffle shoe and built their brand targeting serious athletes. Their offerings have now moved beyond shoes, and they offer athletic attire that promotes performance. Apple is literally a textbook example of a strong marketing position strategy.
Like Tesla, instead of price, Apple chooses to invest more in the value their products offer and form connections with their customers. Are you currently marketing your own product or service just like another item on the market, or are you marketing it as something distinctive? Your current position in the market gives you essential insight into where to go next.
It happens when more than one firm claim to number one on the same dimension or attribute. Companies pursue double benefit positioning usually intend to find a special niche within the target market. On some other occasions, companies may go for pursuing a triple-benefit positioning strategy. Some toothpaste manufacturers are found to pursue this strategy by claiming that their products can serve three purposes.
They try to convince the claimed benefits market by developing toothpaste that squeezes out of the tube in three color stripe. Brand identity in the marketplace depends on positioning. Better marketing positioning will give the company a competitive advantage over other firms on the market. The are plenty of products, and the number of firms delivering them is several. Positioning will help a firm to stand out in the crowd of sellers. A clear Brand Position enables you to efficiently and effectively communicate and reach your target audience.
Clear market positioning makes the brand and its product visible and attractive to the customers. Consumers want easy solutions and options to make purchase decisions. And positioning triggers an emotional response from your target audiences, giving them a quick way to trust you and increase the interest level of customers and increase sales numbers.
In the previous lesson, you were given ideas on differentiation. You have seen there that a company can try to differentiate its product in many different ways. No matter how a company tries to differentiate its product, it will not be considered different if customers do not perceive it differently. Adopting a policy of differentiating products involves a cost to the company, and it expects to realize such costs by increased sales.
But, there is no guarantee that sales will go up unless customers act positively. To act positively, customers look for something in a product claimed by its seller as different. A company should, therefore, be careful in selecting ways of differentiation and provide for the following criteria in its offer:. Experiences say that several companies could not meet the above criteria in their differentiation.
This resulted in the failure of and loss to the firms. To achieve this task, marketers use the positioning. Positioning may be an attempt to differentiate a marketing offer from competitors.
The task of choosing and implementing a positioning strategy involves three steps. The company must first identify a set of possible competitive advantages on which the position will be built and then select the appropriate competitive advantages. Finally, the company must find a way of effectively communicating and delivering the chosen position to the market.
For being successful, the company must choose a positioning strategy that gives it an advantage over competitors. Competitive advantage can be gained by offering consumers greater value, either through lower prices or by providing more benefits that justify higher prices.
But promises only are not enough to build strong positions. When a company positions its product as offering the best quality and service, it must ensure the delivery of promised quality and service. Gaining a competitive advantage by differentiating the offer may not always be possible. Some companies find many insignificant advantages that are swiftly imitated by competitors. These companies should, therefore, keep identifying new potential advantages, and they introduce them one by one.
The next stage is how to communicate the differentiated offerings to the identified niche market segments. This is possible by selecting the appropriate communication channels that are tailored to connect with their identified target audience when they will be most receptive to these messages.
Say for example, a sports car manufacturer position their products through communication via television advertisements during sports events like formula one. They also use print media by running full page high resolution color ads in sports magazines.
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