Brand Positioning: The Ultimate Guide for Founders

A simple definition for me on brand positioning is simply how your brand stands out from competitors and in the market.

Brand positioning is the process of strategically defining and promoting a brand’s unique value and place in the market to differentiate it from competitors. It involves identifying the core attributes and benefits that make the brand distinct and communicating these to the target audience. Effective brand positioning helps to establish a brand’s identity, build customer loyalty, and create a competitive advantage.

Here are the key steps to defining your brand’s identity.

1. Market Research: Understand the market landscape, including competitors, customer needs, and industry trends.
2. Target Audience Identification: Define who your ideal customers are, their preferences, behaviors, and pain points. Believe it or not but all your customers and target audience can’t be on all media platforms. If you are in B2B, majority of your audience will probably be on LinkedIn and if you are B2C, you will have large number on Twitter/Facebook. Read more on difference in B2B and B2C
3. Unique Selling Proposition (USP): Determine what makes your brand unique and why customers should choose it over competitors.
4. Brand Promise: Develop a clear and compelling promise that conveys the brand’s value and benefits.
5. Positioning Statement: Craft a concise statement that captures the essence of your brand positioning. This typically includes:
6. Brand Messaging: Create consistent messages that communicate the brand’s positioning across all marketing channels and touchpoints.
7. Visual Identity: Develop a visual identity (logo, color scheme, design elements) that supports the brand positioning and appeals to the target audience.
8. Customer Experience: Ensure that every interaction with the brand reflects its positioning, from product quality to customer service.
9. Monitoring and Adjusting: Continuously track the brand’s performance and perception in the market and make necessary adjustments to the positioning strategy.

Examples of Brand Positioning

• Apple: Positioned as a premium brand focused on innovation, quality, and user experience.
• Nike: Emphasizes athletic performance, inspiration, and empowerment, encapsulated by the tagline “Just Do It.”
• Tesla: Positioned as a leader in sustainable energy and innovative electric vehicles.
• Paystack: “Modern payment for Africa” is how Paystack positioned their brand
• Coca-Cola: Positioned as a timeless, refreshing beverage that brings happiness and togetherness.

By clearly defining and effectively communicating a brand’s unique value, companies can build strong, lasting relationships with their customers and stand out in a crowded marketplace.

Brand positioning goal

Brand positioning goal is how you define what you want to be know for. This can be based on type of product, the image of the brand, cheap vs high end e.t.c. You decide how you want to stand out and be known for. Here are some examples:

• Premium
• Good value
• The market leader
• The cheaper alternative
• The challenger
• Favorable

Brand positioning is vital in the EV battery market, Telsa has been the major market leader. So if you’re going to sell the same product, how do you get the consumers to pay attention to your product?

In BYD’s case, in developed countries, BYD competes with premium brands, focusing on advanced features and technology. In developing markets, they offer budget-friendly models with longer range for rural driving. Accordingly, the electric automaker uses multi-segment market positioning.

If you are generally curious on how you can improve and learn more about brand positioning, I am a huge Fan of April Dunford “a positioning consultant for growing tech companies, keynote speaker, and book author, knows “a little” about it” and her YouTube channel:

Brand positioning comparison

• Spotify vs. Apple Music

The Spotify vs. Apple Music has always been a topic from friends and online. Spotify is known for its high personalization, whereas Apple Music is known for a more premium song selection and, of course, the high-quality Apple brand and customers.

Though their offerings are strikingly similar in most cases, both brands use radically different strategies to position themselves in the market.

• Paystack vs. Flutterwave

Even though both payment companies serve the same customer segments and their gateway can be largely used by everyone, Flutterwave is strategically positioned for international payment acceptance and processing, and while Paystack is focusing strictly on payments for small businesses “locally”. Example, we at Yournotify have been using Flutterwave to accept payment from our Kenya customers, you have to register your business in Kenya with Paystack to do that.

Conclusion

Effective brand positioning can lead to increased brand recognition, customer loyalty, and a stronger competitive edge in the market. It can also significantly impact a brand’s success by creating a strong, favorable, and distinct image in the minds of consumers.

Most founders focus more on building products and launching it to the market without prior analysis on brand positioning and customer segments. Usually, you realize too late.

I have personally been studying, researching and executing effective strategies that helps position a brand to its right audience/market. In the coming weeks, I will be sharing more case-studies and comparison stats.

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Difference in B2B and B2C Marketing Strategies