Brand Positioning: Definition, Benefits and How to Determine It

Brand positioning plays an important role in determining business success. Through the process of brand positioning, companies can differentiate themselves from competitors and build a strong identity that stands out in the marketplace. This helps companies build customer trust and loyalty.

These initiatives are needed so that the company's brand has a strong image compared to its competitors.

Brands with a strong image have a greater chance of excelling in the market.

In fact, companies with a strong brand image experienced an increase in revenue of 33%.

So, what is meant by brand positioning? What types of strategies do marketers need to know?

What is Brand Positioning?

When you go to a supermarket, you will see many display cases that are neatly arranged. Each product is grouped with its own type. This is intended to make it easier for buyers to find what they want. Apparently, a concept like this can be applied in an effort to build a business.

With this technique you can understand the position of the brand or product in the eyes of customers. The result is that the brand you have can be built better.

From this we know that the brand positioning strategy is useful as a technique for finding loopholes so that the product or brand that you build can be accepted by the public.

In general, brand positioning can be done in several ways, starting from positioning games on price, promotion, distribution, packaging, and others. The purpose of this is to create a unique impression in the eyes of potential customers while at the same time attracting their interest when they see it.

The basic principle of brand positioning is the process of positioning the company's brand in the minds of customers.

More than just composing a fancy tagline or logo, brand positioning is a strategy used to differentiate a company's business from its competitors.

By shaping consumer preferences, brand positioning strategies are directly related to customer loyalty and consumer-based brand equity.

Not only that, the perception formed by the company towards customers will indirectly increase brand awareness and other things that have an impact on business profits.

Preparation in Making Brand Positioning

The stages in developing brand positioning, the most basic thing is to identify what makes your brand different from competing brands. Next there are seven further steps to strengthen the brand's position in the market, the following are:

• Determine where your brand is now.
• Do some research on who your brand's direct competitors are.
• Identify the position of each competing brand.
• To identify the uniqueness of your brand, do a comparison between your brand and direct competitor brands.
• Finalizing the idea of determining different positions based on values.
• Design and create a brand positioning statement.
• Do a trial run to check the success of the brand positioning statement.

The difference between a Positioning Statement and a Tagline or Slogan

Before moving to the next stage, you need to remember carefully that a brand positioning statement is not a brand tagline or slogan. Many people equate the two terms, even though the two have clear differences, namely:

positioning statements

Making a positioning statement aims to guide operational decisions and business installations. In other words, a positioning statement can guide you to make appropriate and appropriate decisions.

The benefits will shape decisions that can improve the perception of your brand in the eyes of the target market.

Moreover, if the positioning statement is made carefully, intelligently and well, this statement can be a powerful weapon to win and dominate market share.

Because this tool will provide clarity on marketing strategies, promotional methods to the right advertising campaigns, and make it easier to make the best decisions to attract the target market and differentiate your brand from competing brands.

Taglines and slogans

While the tagline itself means a statement or statement that is used as a marketing medium for a brand.

From this process can produce insights that can be transformed into a brand slogan. So it's clear, a slogan or tagline is not the same as a brand positioning statement.

Types of Brand Positioning Strategies

This strategy is widely used by various companies to build a different image in the eyes of consumers, when compared to business competitors. Even so, not all applications have the same goal.

Likewise with the work process, this strategy has several types that are tailored to the needs of the company.

For example, a goods company has a different strategy from a service company. The types are as follows.

1. convenience-based positioning

The type of strategy that is often implemented by companies is convenience-based positioning.

This strategy highlights the reasons why a company's product or service is more convenient and should be an option compared to its competitors.

This sense of comfort can be obtained from the location where the goods are made, the ease of accessing the goods, the effectiveness of their use and support from various platforms and so on.

In fact, in this modern era, the external appearance of a product can be an indicator of consumer convenience.

Placing the most comfortable product image will attract many consumers. Because not a few people prioritize comfort over other things.

2. Quality-based positioning

Quality-based positioning is a strategy implemented by a company if it wants to be seen as having the best quality than its competitors.

This company wants to emphasize the quality of their products even at a premium or higher cost.

The quality of this product depends on the extraordinary manufacturing process, fantastic costs, produced in small quantities, has super quality materials and the presence of advanced processes that make these products expensive.

On the other hand, the quality of the service or product can also be shown from the high ROI value and positive feedback from consumers.

Companies that implement this strategy usually target the upper middle class because the selling price tends to be expensive.

3. Price-based positioning

The price-based positioning strategy is usually used by companies that dare to offer products at the lowest prices on the market.

This strategy is of course the most effective if your company wants to target a wider audience.

Basically, there is no one who is not tempted by cheap prices. But, that does not mean the company does not need to pay attention to quality.

It would be better if you can reduce prices but still guarantee the quality that consumers get.

This strategy is widely applied by local brands such as skincare. When compared to foreign brands, local brands offer lower prices with the same ingredients as foreign brands. That way, consumers will be more interested in trying it.

How to Determine Brand Positioning?

Here's how to determine brand positioning, namely:

1. Market and Competitor Analysis

Do an in-depth analysis of your market and related competitors. Understand who your target market is, their needs and how your competitors are positioning their brands. Identify gaps or opportunities that you can exploit to differentiate yourself from the competition.

2. Identification of Target Markets

Understand who your specific target market is. Identify the demographic, psychographic and behavioral characteristics of potential customers. By understanding your target market well, you can position your brand effectively according to their needs and preferences.

3. Choose a Differentiation Strategy

Define unique ways that differentiate your brand from the competition. Is it product quality, competitive pricing, superior customer service, or technological excellence? Choose a differentiation strategy that is relevant to your unique added value and according to market needs.

4. Monitor and Evaluation

Brand positioning is not static. So it can change over time and changes in the market. Constantly monitor market trends, customer feedback (feedback), and changes in competitors' strategies. Thus strengthening the brand positioning of your business.

How to do a Brand Positioning Strategy for Business

The strategy for successful product placement is to pay attention to a few very important things.

There are specific steps that you should pay attention to in implementing this one strategy. So that your brand has a unique value while attracting customer interest.

1. Pay attention to the product name

Even though it sounds trivial, the name of a product greatly affects its sales. By finding a name that is unique and easy to memorize, the product will be easily remembered by consumers.

2. Pay attention to Product Attributes

The product attribute here refers more to the packaging. For example, ready-to-drink coffee or packaged drinks, this coffee is different from the coffee that people usually drink while doing their assignments. This packaged coffee is designed to be more practical to carry as a traveling companion.

So a different impression is created like the example above, between brewed coffee and packaged coffee (bottles, cartons, or glasses). This is what makes a product more memorable to consumers, even though they are both coffee but the time or moment to drink it is different.

3. Product Prices

This is also the main thing to pay attention to. Surely there are many competing products that sell a product with the same ingredients.

4. Pay attention to product benefits

Associate a product with a particular benefit, even if it has the same function as another product. For example, detergent X states that the detergent is able to remove stains without rubbing them.

5. Product Category

A product has a position as a leader in the product category. This business strategy is carried out by specializing one product, even though the company has several types or variants of other products.

6. Watch Competitors

In the course of a business there will be so much competition that occurs in the market. So, as a good business actor, you must learn to understand how competitors work and make more progressive plans in order to compete more optimally.

7. Develop Ideas

As previously mentioned, innovation in business is something that must be done. You have to follow the ongoing trend so as not to be left behind by the times.

After developing an existing idea. Next, you can make a statement or statement regarding the brand positioning that you will use.

8. Test the Market

Finally, after creating a brand positioning statement, you must test it on the intended market or target market. Is it effective enough or is there still something lacking? If the results are still below expectations, it means you have to evaluate the right strategy.

So, please note that a positioning statement is not a slogan or tagline that is usually found in a product. A positioning statement is a way to guide marketing decisions and internal business operations. Positioning statements are important to help make decisions in brand positioning to be more precise in determining customer perceptions.