What's up brand builders Stephen Houraghan here at BrandMasterAcademy.com and in this
video you're going to learn how to create an effective brand positioning strategy
so you can identify hidden opportunities in your market
and entice your audience to ditch your competitors and choose your brand
now if you are new to the channel and you want to build brands that go beyond the logo using
strategy psychology and creative thinking then you're in the right place hit that subscribe
button and the notification bell if you want to fast track your results make sure you grab
the pro brand strategy blueprint it's a free download and the link is in the description now
it doesn't take a brand specialist or a brand strategist to know what a successful brand
looks like we all engage with these successful brands on a day-to-day basis the likes of
nike or apple or harley-davidson or coca-cola these are all examples of exceptional brands
and although they're all completely different from each other there's a common thread here they all
have very strong brand equity which stems from a very strong market position so what is brand
positioning well it's the strategic process of helping your audience to remember your brand
for something specific and in doing that giving them meaning as to what your brand is all about
so in other words brand positioning is helping your audience to understand and remember what it
is you want your brand to be remembered for so why is brand positioning so important well you'll know
this as a consumer because when you go to market to buy something whether it's a product or service
there are no shortage of choices for you to choose from and you need to make
a decision as to what brand you're going to choose what product or service you're going to choose
and the actions of the brand will influence the choices that you make so it's really important
that you don't go into the market with a brand to just make up the numbers if you go in there
and try to match your competitors match what they're doing match their offers then you're
just going to at best match what they're offering you're not going to stand out from the crowd
you're just going to make up the numbers and that is the best way to blend in your positioning
strategy is absolutely critical because you need to stand out from your competitors and you need
to give your audience a reason to choose your brand over them now one of the more effective
ways to identify a position to take in the market is by analyzing your competitors and plotting them
on a positioning map now positioning map is a traditional marketing tool but it's still very
very effective because it allows you to see who your competitors are and what they're doing using
a couple of different variables to see where they're sitting and to identify gaps and
opportunities in the market that you can go in and fill as a business and as a brand to give
your audience something different so how do you go about creating an effective brand positioning
strategy well there are no shortage of articles and videos that tell you that you need to stand
out in the marketplace as a business owner or a business leader and they all make it
sound very very easy just go out and whip up a differentiation strategy but as i mentioned
before when you sit down to do that it can get overwhelming very very quickly unless of course
you have a framework and a system to follow to develop a positioning strategy for your brand and
that's exactly what i'm going to show you right now step number one identify your target market
now your position is all about positioning your brand in the mind of your audience and in order
to do that effectively you need to understand the mind of your audience you need to understand
who this group of people are what they're trying to achieve what challenges are standing in their
way and when you understand that that's when you can develop a positioning strategy that will give
them what they need and give it to them in a way that is different from your competitors but step
number one is critically important you need to understand exactly who that target audience is
and really understand the nature of their lives and what they're going through emotionally as well
tip number two identify your competitors now your audience will be going out into the market looking
for a product or service whether your brand exists or not and in the marketplace are your competitors
waiting to fulfill their needs so you need to understand who these competitors are and what
they're offering so make sure you really dive into exactly who is out there in the marketplace
and what your audience already has as an option in the marketplace when they go into that market
if you understand that competitive landscape then you're in a great position to identify gaps and
opportunities step number three conduct market analysis and competitor research so you want
to understand as best as you can the competitive landscape that's out there you want to understand
who this audience is and what opportunities what offers they already have in the marketplace and
this is where your positioning map will come into play by analyzing who your competitors are
and where they stand using those variables you can quickly see what they're good at and what they're
not so good at and you can also see what offers already exist out there in the marketplace and
where your audience is being left short as well step number four identify gaps and opportunities
so through your analysis and your research you're going to come across various different gaps you're
going to see where the congregations of your competitors are and where they're not so where
they're not serving your audience or when where those unmet needs are and when you take the time
to identify these gaps and opportunities you really have the ammunition then to go on and
develop a compelling differentiation strategy step number five uncover your differentiator so this is
where you're going to take the work that you've done before you're going to take those gaps and
you're going to take those opportunities and you're going to develop out a differentiation
strategy a gap on its own is not enough it's not enough as a compelling offer for your audience
these are just gaps and opportunities that exist for you to go in there and create something
special something unique and that is how you go in there and develop out a differentiation strategy
take the time to understand exactly what the audience wants and exactly where their unmet
needs are and then develop out a compelling offer to meet that need step number six write
a brand positioning statement now this brand positioning statement is going to clarify
what your position is in the market now i've created a video before and exactly how to write
a brand positioning statement i'll leave a link in the description below but essentially what
this document is is an internal guide yes you can post this on your website if you like you
can post this on your social media account if you like but really it's an internal document to guide
decisions and actions so take the time to write out your brand positioning statement to give you
that clarity and that guidance in decision making step number seven write a communication framework
now by the time you've written out your brand positioning statement you'll have
a number of key elements that are really important when it comes to your communication you have
who your audience is and what it is that they desire what they're driven towards what
their goals are you have the benefits that you offer your audience in the marketplace and how
you're going to do things differently from your competitors these are all really important key
pieces of information that you need to use within your communication strategy as you communicate
to who your audience is you want them to know this critical information so take the time to develop
out a communication framework so you're feeding them that information every time you speak to
them step number eight design a brand experience now the position that you want to own lives in
the mind of your audience and it's important to remember that how your audience positions
your brand will be based on the experience that they have with your brand whether they
speak to somebody over the phone or visit your website or receive an email from you these are
all part of your overall brand experience and all contribute to the position that you want to own
in the mind of your audience so take the time to map out a brand experience so that each and every
single touch point contributes to the position that you want to own in the mind of your audience
now i think i was pretty clear in that video that creating an effective positioning strategy
is not a walk in the park it's not something that you whip up in two seconds it really does
take a bit of time and a bit of finessing and a bit of research and analysis to understand
what's going on in the marketplace before you can develop a compelling offer and a compelling reason
to give your audience to choose your brand over your competitors but this framework is the key
this framework will give you the step-by-step instructions the step-by-step guidance to go
out there and identify the key elements that you need so you can create an effective positioning
strategy for your brand now if you're just about to jump into positioning your brand and creating
that brand positioning strategy and you're looking for some inspiration then this video will give you
nine approaches of brand positioning used by some of the biggest brands in the world to get those
creative juices flowing until next time brand like a master and i'll see you in the next video