Brand positioning is the search for an individual and winning image that will highlight it in the eyes of consumers and help form an emotional connection with them.

It is with this process that the promotion strategy begins. That is why it is so important to find your own accents correctly and build a long-term communication with your target audience based on them.

Positioning means being different

To make your product a success, it is not enough to achieve excellent quality and set an attractive price. While people look at the cost, they reason and weigh the options. When they realize the value of the offer, it is not the financial aspect that decides, but the desire to have: and the money is always there. In our article, you can read more about brand positioning http://bsplayer.com/SESSIONFILES/w8e/sapar_karyagdyyev__tips_for_cr... .

Brand positioning aims to:

find and formulate his image;

identify channels of communication with consumers and establish rules of presence and influence for each of them that correspond to the brand image.

Do small or medium-sized businesses need to position themselves? Yes, if you want to conquer a market where dumping is not the only competitive factor. In fact, SME companies have more flexibility and excellent potential for personalizing communication with the target audience.

Make no mistake at the start

Already at the very beginning, you will be trapped by traps-misconceptions that you need to say goodbye to:

You need branding, because that's the way it's supposed to be. In fact, creating and promoting a brand is a serious job for many years. This is an attempt to influence the subconscious of people, and not always its results can be measured by financial indicators. Branding will require you to make certain commitments (more on this later). Therefore, for the sake of a tick, you should not start this process.

You need to show in detail all the advantages of your product/service. No, people can't remember a long story. The focus should be on 2-3 advantages.

To get more sales, you need to maximize your target audience. No, the desire to be a product for everyone will make your communication with potential buyers indistinct. In order for your message to "reach", it must be as personalized as possible.
Positioning and promoting is the concern of marketers. Yes, without professionals, you will not be able to conduct marketing research, draw the right conclusions from them, and develop a promotion strategy. But the image of the product will only be complete and successful if all the employees of the company work for it. After all, brand communication is not limited to posts on social networks and articles on the corporate website: the way your sellers or technical support communicate often decides whether your business will gain or lose a client.

Let's continue the idea of involving the entire company in the work on the brand image: you will definitely come to the conclusion that positioning requires the courage to be sincere.

Branding is a long and consistent process. If you are uncomfortable with the found image, you need to adjust it at the start. Falseness is sure to show up one day and can irreparably damage the reputation of your brand.

Positioning stages

The development of positioning is carried out in several steps:

Determine the most specific portrait of the target consumer.

Study competing products/services, identify their key consumer characteristics and how they are perceived by consumers.

Determine the current perception of the product (if it is already on the market).

Determine which characteristics are important for the target audience (attention: as a target audience, you should not consider those who already buy the product, but those to whom you want to sell it).

Compare the preferred characteristics and market positioning of the product. Determine its competitive advantages and the free positions that it can occupy.

Prepare a value proposition that specifies: target audience, market niche, pricing policy, and benefits for the consumer.

Select attributes: logo, slogan, corporate identity, character, tone of voice.

Develop an advertising and PR company.

Here's how subtly combined the Olympus ads are ("Fastest Autofocus») an indication of the competitive advantage and the target audience.

If we consider the positioning of a personal brand, then in fact the concept is built in the same way. Only as a product do you consider yourself and you will need fewer attributes. Like a grocery brand, an I-brand requires a clear long-term goal and a willingness to be open to people.

Criteria for evaluating the concept

To test the developed concept, evaluate it on a checklist of 5 points:

Brand positioning in the market reflects not the real, but the desired position — the one that will help to achieve the best sales and profits.

Your product demonstrates unique features that distinguish it from its competitors.

The concept of the product is based on the properties that are important for people and increases its consumer value. Moreover, these characteristics must remain relevant for at least 5 years. A striking example of the positioning of well — known brands is Apple: the company does not talk about inches of screens or gigabytes of memory, it sells a sense of belonging to the community of consumers of innovative and high-tech electronics.

The concept should be the same for all elements of marketing: advertising, distribution, pricing, packaging.

The image and communication of the product should be clear, unambiguous and understandable to the target audience.