When developing a positioning strategy, take the following steps:
1. Identify and Understand Your Target Audience
The cornerstone of any successful product positioning strategy begins with an intimate understanding of your target audience. Knowing who they are, what they value, their pain points, and what they’re seeking in a product allows a brand to tailor its messaging and product offerings to align closely with the audience’s desires and needs.
Get very specific on the customer profile—demographics, needs, behaviors, etc. Understanding the market helps position against direct and indirect competitors. For example, if a brand identifies its audience as environmentally conscious consumers, it might position its product as not just beneficial to the user but also eco-friendly, tapping into the values and ethics that matter to its audience.
Conducting thorough market research, utilizing data analytics, and fostering direct engagement through social media platforms are vital in gathering the insights needed to form a precise picture of your potential customers. It’s this deliberate, informed approach that can transform a general product into a cherished brand.
2. Analyze the Competition
Conducting a competitive analysis is a non-negotiable part of formulating your product positioning strategy. This involves examining direct and indirect competitors to understand how they position their products, their strengths, weaknesses (SWOT analysis), and any gaps in the market.
Direct competition refers to brands offering very similar products. Indirect competition covers alternatives that customers might consider instead. By identifying these gaps, small businesses can gain a competitive advantage by positioning their product as the best solution to unaddressed customer needs or problems.
Analyze product features, pricing, marketing messaging, customer service reputation, and more across relevant competitors. Identify common themes and points of parity as well as areas of differentiation. Next, compare your findings to competitive offerings to find areas of differentiation. This information will feed into crafting a unique selling proposition that forms the core of your positioning.
3. Understand Customer Needs
Now with clarity on the target audience and competition, the next component is understanding customer needs, pain points, and the ability of the product to map to these. Techniques like creating customer personas and user stories help humanize quantitative data previously gathered.
Survey or interview questions about what factors drive purchase decisions, perception of different product features, and feelings associated with solving particular problems can prove insightful. Observing online reviews and mentions can reveal recurring themes about customer sentiments as well.
This knowledge advances a business’ grasp of what offerings and messaging will truly attract customers and where there are wells of unmet demand to tap into. The goal is positioning that captures what makes the target audience tick.
