What is Brand Positioning and Why It’s Important?

Before taking you through what is brand positioning, I would like to enlighten you with neuro study of human brains 

Amongst everything the brain is good at its subconscious function is to help an individual to first survive, second thrive and third self-actualize- MASLOW HIERARCHY OF NEED

Hence, any information not pertaining to these three sections tends to be ignored by humans. The major reason why brands fail is that they fail to position their product or services to help customers achieve these three different stages (survive, thrive, and self-actualize) in their life, in the easiest and clearest way to be understood.

Now coming back – What is brand positioning and why is it important?

Brand positioning is the value a customer perceives when they hear your brand name – to own that tiniest yet most expensive space in their minds that differentiates you from your competitors. To me, it all boils down to one question i.e.: what value proposition is required by your customer persona and how can you fulfill it?

In this competitive era where millions are selling the same thing, it is of a most essential requirement now than ever to stand out in the market to own that tiny space within consumers’ perspectives.

To elaborate it further – Let’s take an example of Burger King and McDonald’s.

Burger King

Burger King is a familiar name, this chain of hamburgers operates around the globe. They started in the year 1953 with a commitment to providing the best recipes, premium ingredients, and cordial dining experience. With charbroiled burgers on the go (flame-grilled meat), being healthier than fried burgers.

What did they do?
They built their target audience around individuals who are health conscious and perceived charbroiled better option than fried burgers. People who still want to enjoy a juicy beef Pattie differentiating themselves with McDonald’s. (Although, both McDonald’s and Burger King uses frozen not fresh meat)

According to The American Heart Association – it considers broiling is a healthier cooking method than frying, which adds fat and calories and thus increases the risk of weight gain and coronary artery disease.

McDonald’s

On the other hand, McDonald’s started in 1955, with their value preposition being” Low-Priced, Quality Hamburger with Quicker Delivery”. No doubt they are standing tall by it. With a recent backlash on Mc Donald’s burgers having a life on eternity (I have to say that video went viral- and I was in shock too).

Burger King took it to their advantage and if you have noticed all their campaigns, the one thing that they try to project is the credibility of the firm. They try to position themselves across to people that Burger King cares about its customers and provides them with premium charbroiled burgers. The idea was to prove to its customers that their food does not contain any preservatives. In this case, they proved it by utilizing the heat in the market against Mc Donald’s

So now when I hear Burger King, I perceive it as fresh high-quality burgers with value for money as compared to McDonald’s (even though both are made of frozen meat). That is what brand positioning does. 

But the positioning doesn’t end here- From your logo to your mission statement, your packaging, advertising and even customer service all should align with what you want your customers to feel and strategize accordingly. 

Below is the chart of the perceived value of fast-food burger chains in my mind

Do you have a great brand positioning strategy in place? 

Try answering these questions to yourself about your brand

1. Who is your target audience? 
2. How well can you align yourself with your audience? Identify what drives their wants 
3. What are your target audience’s pain points and what benefits are they looking for? 
4. What unique feature can you bring to the market to outdo your competitors? 
5. What value can you add to your customer’s life through your product or service?

Your positioning strategy can be anything between these 

• Quality positioning – focusing and differentiating through quality
• Price positioning – Standing yourself out in a competitive market just by price differentiating yourself, providing value for money (I personally do not recommend this in long term, but is often opted by huge brands who built themselves through a loss leader strategy) 
• Unique seller preposition positioning – Identifying customer problems and wants and coming up with a solution to them in a unique way
• Celebrity driven positioning – positioning yourself in the market through influencers and celebrities mainly
• Customer service positioning – providing first-class customer service and going out of the way to solve their problems
• Status, lifestyle positioning – Making customers perceive how different and yet better their lives would get or be if they bought your product or service 
• Disruptive positioning – standing out, turning the market upside down by creatively thinking and shaking things up

Understanding the power of positioning would enable you to enter a much-saturated market with an opportunity, if you do it well, you are bound to see amazing growth.

If you need assistance in creating one! Then the first step would be to hop on would be 40 mins call with us! 

How are you marketing your brand positioning?