Do you truly know how your customers perceive your brand? When running a business, it can be all too easy to get caught up in day-to-day operations and to lose sight of what your customer is thinking. Unfortunately, if you’re not actively working to shape and communicate your brand position, the customer will simply make his or her own decision as to what you stand for.
If your brand positioning is not clear, your business will suffer from some or all of the following issues.
- You try to sell to everyone, and end up attracting no one in particular
- Customers don’t understand the problem you’re solving or the want you are meeting
- Unique features of your product or service will not be realised or understood
- Benefits you offer in comparison to other competitors will not stand out
- Reasons to believe in your brand are not crystal clear
As an example, a crack garden landscaping team may do a great job on the ground, but their website and marketing material undersells their particular brand strengths. A beautifully crafted gin maker has created a product of high provenance, but they still struggle to make their brand stand out in a sea of craft drinks competitors.
More established businesses can also slowly slide into brand confusion as elements keep being added to the mix and clarity is lost over time.
Whatever stage your business is at, it’s essential that you create and then review your Brand Positioning Statement on at least an annual basis.
A Brand Positioning Statement helps a business to recognise who the target market is. It makes you think about how you want your brand to be perceived in the market place. For brand clarity, it’s essential that this statement is in place before any further marketing activity is started.
In a nutshell, a Brand Positioning Statement will include the following:
- Target customer description – you can have multiple groups or segments
- Customer problem (needs or wants that will be addressed by your product/service)
- Solution – how your product or service answers the customer need/want
- Unique Selling Proposition – why your consumer chooses you over your competitors
- Competition – what are your competitors doing to solve the same want/need
- Reasons to believe – what aspects of your product or service prove that you can deliver
With a Brand Positioning Statement in place, you have significantly increased your chances of getting a good return on investment from your marketing budget.
For support with developing an improved Brand Positioning Statement for your business, contact our Brand Marketing expert Susanne Currid at Susanne.currid@lgbusinessadvisors.co.uk
