Brand positioning: an overview of the main strategies
Brand positioning is about creating an image of a company that differentiates it from its competitors and helps it achieve its business objectives. It is about how the consumer perceives the brand and what associations the customer makes. The main objectives of positioning are:
- to form a particular attitude towards the product or company;
- to make the brand memorable;
- to communicate the core values of the company to the target audience;
- to enable communication with consumers.
Correctly communicated brand positioning makes it possible to differentiate the company from its competitors and to demonstrate its advantages to consumers. Thanks to this, it is possible to get an audience of loyal customers who will buy goods or use services for a long time.
Brand positioning strategies
There are different positioning strategies, each designed to achieve specific objectives.
- The desire to demonstrate your advantages to other marketers is at the heart of competitive brand positioning. It is often the case that the comparison is between your product and a competitor’s product. A prime example is the advertising rivalry between BMW and Audi. The tool of this strategy is the development of a unique selling proposition.
- Consumer positioning means that the basis of advertising is to focus on a specific target group. The company sends out the message that its product is designed for a particular group of buyers, for example, only for women or men. Often, such campaigns involve celebrities to create a strong association between the product and success in the minds of consumers.
- Benefit positioning: the brand clearly explains to the target audience the benefits of buying a product or service. It is worth noting that this strategy works in a rather limited number of cases. Such positioning is ineffective in highly competitive markets where companies often adopt each other’s advertising approaches. As a result, the brand cannot draw consumers’ attention to unique benefits for long.
- Attribute positioning emphasises the company’s distinctive features without comparison with competitors.
- Price positioning can be either low or high. For some companies, it is essential to present their product as inexpensive but of high quality, while for others, it is important to present a premium product.
- Use positioning. In this case, advertising focuses the consumer’s attention on the fact that a particular product is ideal for use in certain situations. This approach is quite complex as it requires specialists to analyse the market regularly. As we know, consumer habits can change, and the demand for the product can change with them.
The choice of positioning strategy depends on a number of factors. Firstly, it is important to outline the brand values and business objectives and to analyse the market. The better a company knows its competitors and target audience, the more likely the advertising will be effective.
