This is one of the most important actions you need to do which will enable your business to be successful and I do not over exaggerate by saying that in the short and also a long term how you position your brand will be the difference between success and failure.
Why is it so important?
There are thousands of offers which are targeting potential customers day in day out, standing out and attracting customers to you will be key to your survival. You have to be on top of the mind when people hear the category where your business belongs. For example – “Computer- Apple”, “Coffee – Starbucks” etc. If you manage to be first in your category you will not need to spend large sums of money on marketing and sales.
So in order to do this you first need to define the category you are in. What is it you are offering? If it is new kind of organic face cream then your category is organic face cream . If there are already many businesses competing in your category be clever about it and try to invent a completely new category where you will be first.
If the name of your business or your slogan somehow points to the category where you want to position yourself, it will also make it easier for you to make a bridge in your customer’s head between the category and your company.
All the communication written or oral has to be consistent with the position and the category you have chosen. Do not make it more complicated by adding additional categories,concentrate on one and communicate to be the first and best in it. It will make it much easier in the head of customers to identify with your product and make a purchasing decision.
You can see this by big brands as well. For example Samsung is offering everything from smartphones to vacuum cleaners and Apple which is top of category for a laptop. Apple sells much more laptops than Samsung. If you want to compete in another category it is better to do it under a completely different brand.
There is a good exercise you can do in order to develop your positioning strategy and make it more to the point. To do this take several customer groups which you have already identified and make a small brainstorming session. Take some post-its and for each the group write up keywords, each keyword on a separate piece of paper. It is more fun to do it in a group, but you could also do it alone.
Top of mind: what should come up to the top of mind when this group hears about you, your business
Qualities: Which qualities should they associate your business with?
Benefits: What are their benefits from using your service?
Territory: Where do you imagine this person, if it would be a advertising campaign targeted at this group where would it be staged?
Values: What is the value of your service to this group?
Role: Who are you to this group? What is your role?
After you have came up with several keywords, choose the most important (up to 3) for each group for each question. Write it up on one piece of paper, you will straight away see the main points what you should be communicating on your website.
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