What is product positioning, and how to use it as a marketing strategy? The name implies it’s the way a product is physically displayed. While product placement can be one aspect of product positioning, it’s much more involved than that. It’s the way target audiences and competitors perceive your products or services. Learn in this comprehensive guide how to nail product positioning for marketing optimization, and improving your strategy.
The key to ensuring successful product positioning is to present your products in the most honest, impactful way possible. The whole point is to stand out and be unique. You need to capture your audience’s attention and hold it.
Successful Product Positioning Guidelines
Before positioning your product or service, let’s look at what you need to do.
Undergo Market Research
The very first step is to do some market research. This process is quite different for a large company compared to a small or personal business.
A large firm or corporation can hire a market research service to run focus groups, collect data on competitors and create marketing comparisons. Small businesses or freelancers can do the same by talking to their clients and their surrounding community.
The main idea of market research is to pinpoint the target market and end-user. The more detailed the analysis, the easier it will be to position your product. For example, is the range of your services geared towards coaches? Define what kind of coaches; life coaches, business coaches, family coaches. Are they mainly women or men? Are they located in a specific region, are they of a certain age?
Define your Differentiators
With the help of the market research and your business knowledge, it’s necessary to define your differentiators. A differentiator is that special thing that makes you stand out from the competition. A differentiator must cover three key factors:
Firstly, it must be the truth. Simply making something up will not work in your favor. Secondly, important and relevant for your target market and customer. Finally, you must be able to prove it.
Your key differentiator will be a ruling factor for how the product positioning evolves. It’s what gives the whole process an anchor. In some cases, you might have two differentiators that apply to two different target markets. This happens when your product line or service is of good value to more than one target market. Use differentiators for A/B testing, then stick to what works.
Craft a Positioning and Marketing Statement
After the market research and a defined differentiator, it’s time to craft a positioning statement. This is similar to a mission statement or brand statement. The above positioning statement is an example statement from Amazon.
It’s part of a great list of examples published by Hubspot. So, create your own positioning statement. You can follow a simple guideline. Firstly, fill in the info below, then write is as a paragraph: Keep reading to learn How nail product positioning.
- The name of your company or brand:
- What you do:
- Who you do it for:
- Your differentiator, why customers choose you over others:
- Proof to support the claims in your statement:
This statement is an internal tool that sets the mood and anchor to every following step in your product positioning and marketing strategies. It’s not a text meant to be shared as a marketing slogan but rather an anthem for your team. Use it for inspiration and reassurance that your strategy is on the right track.
Branding to Improve Product Positioning
Once the product positioning statement is ready, it’s time to review your branding. If you haven’t done your branding yet, then use the work you did for product positioning to guide the branding strategy. Learn in this comprehensive guide how to nail product positioning for marketing optimization, and improving your strategy & results.
Knowing the target market and your differentiator will help you choose the right colors, fonts, and slogan. On the other hand, if you already have a branding scheme in place, simply review it to see how it fits with the product positioning statement.
In most cases, you won’t need to change anything but in others, you might need to undergo a full rebrand. For example, if you are a one-person business and the name of your brand doesn’t represent you or your customer, you will need to change it. That’s why many designers and developers simply use their name as their brand, to maintain a sense of personality and dependability.
Ads Strategies + Marketing Tactics to Improve Product Positioning
Now it’s time to do the actual positioning of your product. According to your market research, price your products and services accordingly.
This process is not about overcharging or undercharging but more about how to price. Many people react positively to numbers that end in .99 while others might find it irrelevant. Are your products worth $200 or $199? Does your target market care about the difference?
When it comes to advertising your product, you need to know where your target market is spending their time. If they are watching YouTube videos, then you should be advertising there. Do your customers sell handmade products? Buy ad space on Etsy.
Are you a former rock musician who designs websites and knows exactly what a musician needs from a website? Go and do PR at concerts. Give your card to the musicians and their managers, look for online communities for musicians and do some friendly PR.
All the work you did for your product positioning for marketing will mean nothing if it’s not implemented correctly. Don’t stray away from your target market and talk to them in a personal and emotional way with your marketing.
Usage In Real Life
Below are some common product positioning marketing usage examples. Take a cue from these but also find a way to be unique and original. If the video ad for your WordPress development business is one in many on YouTube, how will you make it stand out?
Maybe you need to advertise on smaller platforms instead. Learn in this comprehensive guide how to nail product positioning for marketing optimization, and improving your strategy & results.
- Firstly, Fast food, cars, and beer commercials during football games.
- Makeup ads in fashion magazines.
- Divi video ads in YouTube design tutorials.
- Household product commercials during daytime television.
- Children’s cereal at eye level in supermarket aisles.
- Classic snacks at store checkout lines.
- Pet product posters in pet adoption centers.
- Tour operator brochures at hotel reception desks.
- Freelance services showcased in an online portfolio and shared on Linkedin.
- Finally, mention during a podcast.
