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Sharpen Your Competitive Edge: A Guide to Brand Strategy and Positioning
Branding is much more than the business logo, tagline, or name. It is a blend of brand strategy, brand positioning, and brand identity. In today’s competitive markets, a business must rely on multiple aspects or channels to capture the audience’s interests.
Brand strategy and positioning are the core pillars of developing your brand identity. While strategy refers to detailed approach or blueprint created to build the brand identity, positioning deals with creating a unique image for your business in the market and in consumers’ minds. Brand strategy includes defining the brand purpose, its core values, personality, visual identity, and creative storytelling.
Statistics show that 92% of customers hesitate to buy a product without any reviews. 85% of customers consider product quality the top priority, while 84% check product convenience and value. 81% rely on brand trust when making a purchase decision. A whopping 90% agree they can pay more if the brand is trustworthy.
These are clear indications that your brand strategy and positioning can determine your sales and revenue in competitive markets. In this blog, we’ll learn more about creating effective brand strategies and positioning your business as trustworthy.
Understanding Brand Strategy
Brand strategy is a blueprint encompassing various elements like brand value, identity, storytelling, voice, and overall vibe or the image you wish to present to the audience. It provides ideas, guidelines, and a basis to develop different campaigns to promote and establish the business. It also helps employees understand how the brand behaves and reacts to certain situations.
Critical Components of a Brand Strategy
The brand strategy consists of the following key components:
Brand Purpose: This helps define the reason for the brand’s existence, which can be determined from the mission and vision statements.
Market Analysis: This helps understand your current position in the market, the gaps to explore, and the changes necessary to make the desired impact.
Target Audience: Knowing your target audience will provide the information to craft appealing campaigns and fine-tune your brand voice to suit their preferences.
Brand Consistency: In the long run, all elements of branding should be consistent across different platforms, channels, and modes of communication.
Examples of Successful Brand Strategies
Brands like Apple, FedEx, Nike, IKEA, etc., have nailed their brand strategies to become industry leaders in their niches. For example,
Apple has one of the best brand positioning strategies. It focuses on three major factors – simplicity, elegance, and innovation. The brand’s ecosystem reflects these by providing seamless integration between different products (iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, etc.) It creates an emotional connection with the customers through its personalized marketing campaigns. Moreover, Apple has positioned itself as a premium high-end brand catering to customers who value quality and status.
IKEA is famous for its affordability and practicality. The company’s brand strategy is based on its core principle of providing expensive-looking furniture for cost-effective prices. The brand has combined aesthetic appeal with budget-friendliness, which became a hit with the average consumer who prefers a great value for the price. Be it the location of the IKEA stores or its special care in reducing transportation costs, the brand has positioned itself as a go-to store for all kinds of pocket-friendly home care needs.
Defining Brand Positioning
Brand positioning is the process of defining and communicating your brand’s value proposition compared to your competitors. It creates a particular image of your business in consumers’ minds. The primary intent of brand positioning is to differentiate the company from competitors and stand apart from others in the industry. For example, the Brooke Bond Red Label tea brand has positioned itself as a real-life social network or the connecting element that brings people together. It focuses on the concept of togetherness and has come up with a campaign called ‘Swad apnepan ka’ (the flavor of familiarity/ togetherness) to promote inclusion.
The brand has also been pushing boundaries in its ads by focusing on social biases, gender and generational differences, prejudices, etc., to indicate how a touch of patience and a good cup of tea can sweeten relationships. In short, Red Label has made itself synonymous with the generic tea made in countless households.
Identifying Target Audience and Competition Analysis
The first step to brand positioning is to identify your target audience. Who are your prime customers? What is their age group? Where do they belong? What are their socioeconomic conditions? What are their preferences, likes, dislikes, opinions, and ideologies? Your unique selling proposition (USP) will depend on the answers to these questions.
Next, focus on competition analysis. Know who your competitors are and what presence they have in the market. What do your target audience think of your competitors? How did the other brands capture customers? Identify each competitor’s positioning by studying their brand values, USP, audiences, etc.
Strategies for Creating a Unique Brand Positioning
- Analyze your existing brand positioning.
- Thoroughly research your competitors and highlight the top three.
- Create in-depth comparisons between the competitors to identify gaps and opportunities.
- Define your unique value proposition based on your brand values, key attributes, features, etc.
- Develop a compelling message to establish the brand’s position in the market.
- Align the message with visual identities, voice, marketing channels, consumer expectations, etc.
- Be consistent across the channels and continue to deliver the promises made.
- Monitor the changing market trends to take advantage of opportunities.
- Continuously refine the brand positioning by measuring. Metrics like customer satisfaction, brand awareness, market share, etc.
Crafting Your Brand Strategy
Conducting A SWOT Analysis to Assess Brand Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats
To craft a robust brand strategy, you should first identify your strengths, weaknesses, market opportunities, and threats. This will give you a clear idea of navigating the volatile market using your strengths and finding ways to overcome your weaknesses. In short, your brand communication will be effective when your strategy is based on the insights derived from SWOT analysis.
Defining Brand Mission, Vision, and Values
The brand strategy has to align with your mission, vision, and values to create the correct brand position in the market. For example, Tesla's mission is to accelerate the adoption of sustainable energy for transportation. The company is committed to providing luxurious ways of travel through sustainable and innovative technology. By defining the brand vision, mission, and values, the company has positioned itself as a premium manufacturer while emphasizing sustainability.
Developing Brand Personality and Voice
Brand personality and voice refer to the tone and vibe of your communication with the target audience. From the logo design to the overall tone of the messages and the ideologies you support, everything plays a part in establishing the brand personality. This should align with the target audience's preferences and be consistent. It will help build trust between them and your brand.
Establishing Brand Positioning
Differentiation Strategies to Stand Out in the Market
Market positioning requires proper planning to ensure your ideas reach the target audience correctly. Your brand positioning strategy should set you apart from competitors and create greater brand awareness. Leading brands prefer differentiation strategies to minimize the risk of confusion in consumers. Just like how we dress and look different from others, brands, too, aim for the same. A few such strategies are –
- Quality-based positioning
- Customer service-based positioning
- Price-based positioning
- Convenience-based positioning
- Sustainability/ eco-friendly-based positioning
- Lifestyle-based positioning
- Innovation-based positioning
- High-end technology-based positioning
Communicating Brand Positioning Effectively
Creating the brand positioning strategy is just one part of the process. You will see the desired results only when communicating them effectively with the target audiences. This can be achieved through consistency (sharing the same message in the same tone across all channels over time). Storytelling is another effective communication method. Using visual imagery is another method. Most importantly, be authentic. It won’t take long for customers to detect fake promises, so practice what you preach.
Aligning Brand Positioning With Target Audience Needs and Preferences
Aligning your brand position with what the target audiences want is a must. It should never be an afterthought but an integral part of the process. For example, high-end and expensive products are not the first choice for consumers who prefer affordable pricing. Similarly, if you target people with specific dietary preferences, your products cannot contain ingredients they avoid.
Implementing Your Strategy
Once your brand positioning strategy is clearly defined and aligned with the brand mission, vision, and target audience needs, it’s time to implement and monitor the strategy.
- Write a brand story or narrative that includes the core aspects of your business. Discuss what matters most to your company and how you aim to achieve it.
- Try a few options before finalizing the brand voice. Certain words and phrases can be easily absorbed by the audience and help foster better relationships. Go with what works for your brand.
- Work on the brand identity design for the logo, color palette, typography, illustrations, packaging, etc. Visual appeal is vital for brand awareness.
- Define your brand vibe based on your brand values and keep it authentic. This should be reflected in your products, marketing campaigns, customer service, and every aspect of your business.
- Monitor the results and make the necessary tweaks to achieve your goals.
Case Studies and Examples
Airbnb
Airbnb is an online marketplace for booking vacation homes and stays when traveling. Almost every country has properties partnering with Airbnb to cater to tourists, travelers, etc. The company has positioned itself as a personalized service provider in each location. The properties aren’t just a place to sleep but have a personal touch, making them a preferred choice over hotels. Local guides are also a part of the service, further enhancing its reputation compared to other travel companies.
Haldiram’s
Haldiram’s positioned itself as an authentic, traditional Indian snack brand with an array of snacks available in different sizes with affordable pricing. Haldiram’s brings together culture, authenticity, quality, and taste to stand apart from the competitors. It regularly introduces new flavors rooted in a region and snacks to appeal to the modern consumer. The brand offers something for everyone, be it savory or sweet. The package design is consistent, making it easy for customers to recognize the products with just a glance. Haldiram’s also has a strong presence on social platforms, thus connecting with consumers of different ages, backgrounds, etc.
Conclusion
Brand positioning is an integral part of your business marketing and branding strategies. Every company should identify its unique value proposition to position itself effectively and attract the target audiences. Much of this process requires data-driven models and actionable insights. It also relies on expertise and industry experience, which are offered by Origami Creative, a boutique branding, marketing and creative agency.
Partnering with a reputed branding consulting company will help kick-start your brand positioning journey and achieve your long-term business goals. Origami Creative has shaped several national and international brands from diverse industries.