What's up brand builder Stephen Houraghan here at BrandMasterAcademy.com and in this
video you're going to learn about the best market mapping template
to map a powerful position for your brand so you can better understand
your competitive landscape and expose the weaknesses of your competition
now if you're new to the channel and you want to build brands that go beyond the visuals and
the logo using strategy psychology and creative thinking then you're in the right place hit that
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now i recently created a video called what is market mapping if you haven't seen it yet
it dives into the details of what market mapping is their pros and their cons and how to use them
effectively but in a nutshell markup mapping refers to the mapping of your market landscape
it's the process of using a graph to visualize a given competitive environment by plotting
individual competitors using a set of two criteria now the right set of criteria used to plot the map
can help to uncover untapped opportunities or gaps in the market where consumers needs
are not being met in other words the market map in the right hands is a very valuable positioning
tool so in this video i want to give you a step-by-step template that you can use
to map your market effectively now like everything else in branding achieving the best results comes
down to robust processes that you can use time and again so here is a step-by-step template that you
can use to map your market or your clients markets effectively step number one segment your market so
before you go identifying variables and plotting competitors you want to get crystal clear on the
market segment that you're targeting every market is full of segments that differ from each other in
their desires their fears their challenges their motivations and of course their buying decisions
now as i said different market segments are different a buying decision factor in one market
segment that might be super important might not be even in the top 10 reasons to buy for another
market segment so don't stop at defining your market get clear on your target market segments
and exactly what they want step number two define your variables now as i've just covered in step
one buying decision factors differ from one market to the next or one market segment to the next now
the more intimately you understand the segment that you want to target the more granular you can
get with identifying the decision-making factors that are important to them now these factors
make for the most powerful markup mapping variable so if you can uncover a gap in the market based on
two really important decision making factors then you have the ingredients
for a powerful positioning strategy now remember the more variables and combinations of variables
you map your market with the more likely you are to unearth a unique opportunity step number three
score your competitors now before you create any markup maps you need some plot points to work with
now the best way to do this is to gather the data that you need in a spreadsheet so in the first
column you want to identify all of your market competitors and in each of the preceding columns
after that they should contain the variables that you've identified now each variable you use will
have a high point and a low point so for example you might be plotting the price variable in which
case you have a low price and you have a high price now for each variable you want to assign
a value out of 10 an extreme low point should be scored at 1 while an extreme high point should be
scored at 10. step number four plot your market landscape now once you have your variables scored
for each of your competitors mix and match the combinations across multiple maps so for
example if you've identified price and quality as important variables then you can use price on the
y-axis and quality on the x-axis now obviously the more variables you use the more combinations
there'll be the more maps you'll need so when you've created your maps using your variable
combinations begin plotting your competitors brands across each one of those maps now if
you've identified a laundry list of variables then this may take some time but as long as your
variables are buying decision considerations it is time well spent step number five identify gaps
and opportunities now after plotting a series of maps based on your combination of variables
you'll be able to see your market visually most likely for the first time now depending on the
combination of variables you've used you may find that some maps display your competitors spread
evenly across the map while some of your other maps might have certain segments crowded together
on one side or even one quadrant now there's a book by w chan kim called blue ocean strategy
now the name came from the idea that red oceans are full of sharks i.e your competitors while
blue oceans represent opportunity the congested areas on your maps represent the red ocean while
the free space that you have on your maps where there are no competitors they represent the blue
oceans and the gaps and the opportunities in the market maps that your market mapping provides
now as i mentioned earlier market mapping has been used for decades and in years past most
will be plotted with a pen and a paper and a ruler now today we tend to use software for pretty much
everything by brushing our teeth so here are some modern day tools that you can use
for mapping your market the first one is group map now group map is positioned as a real-time online
brainstorming tool for meetings workshops or any digital collaboration now the software allows you
to create all kinds of different maps and then to share those maps with clients or colleagues
another tool that i really like is mural known miro is positioned as a platform where teams
get work done in other words it's the ultimate collaborative tool to create unlimited numbers
or types of exercises activities or interactive maps you can use miro to not just create
positioning maps but to run entire collaborative brand strategy workshops now at the cornerstone of
every brand is a strategy and at the cornerstone of every brand strategy is a unique position
it forms the center point of the brand and everything else is created and expressed with that
position in mind finding a unique position is one of the most challenging aspects in branding which
is why you need as many effective tools at your disposal as you can find market mapping is not
rocket science it's not cutting edge technology and it's not foolproof now once you've mapped
your market landscape and identified a gap or an opportunity you then need to define your position
if you want to learn more about how to create a brand positioning strategy then this video
will help you out until next time brand like a master and I'll see you in the next video