Stephen Houraghan here of BrandMasterAcademy.com and in this video we're
gonna look at how some of the best brands in the world strategically
positioned their brands and how they use creativity and strategic thinking that
you can take into your own brand to inspire your own brand position.
now when it comes to defining a position for your own brand one of the first things that
you should do is a little bit of research now I'm not talking about going
out and researching your competitors you're not at that stage yet although
that is part of the brand positioning process I'm talking about going out and
researching the biggest brands in the world how are the biggest brands in the
world gone about positioning there brand have a look at the positioning they've
taken in the market and how they've used the understanding of their audience and the
problems that they have to carve out a unique position in their mind have they
used creativity have they used strategy in most cases they've used both because
defining a position for your brand is really a creative game so first things
first have a look at what the biggest brands in the world have done and take
some inspiration from that so you can bring that into your own brand when
developing your own positioning strategy now I've used some big brands and
some medium-size brands as examples here but forget about the budgets involved
forget about the size of the brand the innovation the technology and step back
and think more so of the high-level idea their understanding of their marketplace
their competitors and more specifically who their audience is and the problems
that they have and then you'll be able to look at how they've gone about
positioning their brand in the mind of their audience and you can take that
strategic thinking into your own processes now the first brand
positioning example I've got for you is Chipotle now for years Taco Bell
ruled the roost of the Mexican fast food restaurant industry within the US but
then Chipotle came along and they really put a focus on quality using the tagline
Food With Integrity to help associate the brand with quality and earn that
position in the mind of their audience they're now well-positioned to ride this
growing wave of conscious eaters the position enhancing tagline
is far more than just a branding message as well as it clearly communicates the
beliefs and the values of the internal brand of Chipotle from its use of fresh
local products and prepared meals Chipotle is brand with substance and it
does follow through on the values that it says it has earning loyal customers
and brand advocates along the way when it comes to fast food there are plenty
of options out there in US market but when it comes to fresh locally produced
handmade Mexican food there is only one Chipotle and that is sitting in a strong
position in the market now this is a great example of niching down by being
specific about who the brand is and what they do and who they do it for as the
saying goes the riches are in the niches and Chipotle have carved out a
substantial position in a niche that's growing rapidly now the second example
of brand positioning I'm gonna use here is Tesla and Tesla is a company pioneer
in the way forward to sustainable energy and when Elon Musk came along and took
over in 2008 he repositioned Tesla as the new technology for clean energy
with engaging storytelling a prestige pricing strategy and a target market
segmentation they've created a demand and a subsequent market for a premium
all-electric luxury car Tesla is not the only brand providing luxury cars it's
not the only brand providing electric cars and it's not even the only brand
providing luxury electric cars but it is the only brand exclusively providing
luxury electric cars and in turn its setting the pace in this new industry
another unique aspect to the position it holds in the market is the purpose from
which that position stems Tesla's mission is to accelerate the world's
transition to sustainable energy and their new technologies are pushing the
industry forward specifically with the range of their cars and what range those
cars can accomplish as they move into the affordable car market space they
bring with them this self-esteem that comes from their association with
high-end exclusivity and luxury Tesla is a trendsetter and a pace setter within
the luxury electric car sector and it's pioneering spirit sprinkles an element
of magic across the whole brand brand positioning example number three is
Apple now Apple is just about as close as you
can get to the picture perfect example of what a strong brand looks like with
their unapologetic premium pricing innovative technology and an end-to-end
experience that their customers actually salivate over Apple knows that they're
more than a company that sells computers now we all know the story of Steve Jobs
his vision of a brand that could help to change the world is now stuff of legend
and it fits in almost poetically with the position that they now hold since
Apple encouraged their customers to think differently they've aligned
themselves with an idea that those who think differently can actually go out
and change the world by purchasing Apple products their customers align
themselves with this innovative imaginative and creative characteristics
that they hold in such esteem Apple are the kings of technology and although
their technology has helped to change the world it's the strength of their
brand that's given them the freedom to continue this innovation for so long
whether it's your brother your mother or your best friend we all know somebody
that owns an Apple product they self associate with Apple characteristics and
they proudly deem themselves as an Apple advocate now a position like this is not
exactly replicable but you can certainly aspire to mean more to your customers
than just the transactions that you share with them now the fourth example
of brand positioning that we're going to run with is the Dollar Shave Club now
the Dollar Shave Club came into the market and executed an against position
almost to perfection now an against position is when the brand positions
itself as an alternative to a specific brand or a group of brands in the
marketplace and they're often well established brands without the
benefit of a budget a marketing agency or even a marketing department the
Dollar Shave Club set in place a series of business practices and marketing
tactics that catapulted the founder to stardom and riches Gillette had been
sitting on their lofty perch with about 85% of the men's razor blade market when
the Dollar Shave Club came along now they told the frustrated market segment
what they already knew and they needed to hear they didn't need to pay inflated
prices for overdevelop razors just to have a smooth shave there were better
cheaper and easier ways to do that and of course
that's exactly what the Dollar Shave Club offered the Dollar Shave Club
caught Gillette resting on its laurels and went on to steal over 50% of the online
mens razor blade market before Unilever came in and swooped down with a
1 billion dollar takeover yeah that's 1 billion dollars with a capital B all
from a start-up with no money the fifth example of brand positioning is Nike now
Nike was born from a competitive track and field heritage in Portland Oregon
and it was built on old school innovation that involved a story of a
household waffle iron now if you don't know it go and grab yourself a copy of
Shoe Dog by Nike founder Phil Knight I really enjoyed that book and it tells
the story of how Nike was born and how it became the brand that it is today
they're competitive and innovative characteristics have become part of the
DNA of the Nike brand and has led them to become one of the undisputed
heavyweight brands of the world though the brand began as a business selling
running shoes they've leveraged their reputation on quality and association with
winning to expand the brand into broader athletic wear and fashion as well since
1987 when they ran the Just Do It campaign for the first time
Nike has transcended beyond just a business that sells running shoes and they've
amassed an army of loyal followers who share the same competitive play to win
attitude their alignment with the most successful athletes on the planet in key
sports such as NFL NBA soccer and tennis and many many more ensures that their
brand is associated with moments of triumph the position of the brand has
now evolved beyond a differentiation strategy and it represents a much
broader idea and that idea is that Knight is a brand for winners the sixth
example that we have of brand positioning is HubSpot now a HubSpot began as an
email marketing tool and it coined the term that's now become synonymous with
content marketing which is inbound marketing while many of us like to use
individual or specialized brands that stay in their lane and don't give us
something half-baked as an add-on on the web the name of the game is integration
now anyone in the online business world can attest to losing days or even weeks
trying to get one piece of software talking to another piece of software so
it just works HubSpot have evolved organically to
meet the needs of their customers with software and a platform that's
integrated out of the box with everything from marketing automation to
CRM to sales and service their early market advantage has given them a head
start on their competitors that have come late to the party and the nature of
their business means that their customers can't just up and leave without
some series effort to do so so they've got a really long lifetime
customer value these factors along with their customer focuses approach and the
ability to evolve has seen HubSpot's position grow in strength and they're
without a doubt one of the dominant digital marketing platform brands the
seventh example that we have of brand positioning is JetBlue now before
JetBlue came onto the scene the idea around air travel was that competitive
fares and comfortable travel were mutually exclusive you either sacrifice
the comfort for the savings in cost or you sacrifice the dollars for the
comfort you couldn't have both you had to choose it was either one or the other
JetBlue came onto the scene with a refreshing focus on bringing fun
comfort and value into the US domestic air travel market so perks such as
extensive in-flight entertainment comfortable leather seating and
additional legroom disrupted traditional budget air travel and earned JetBlue a
reputation and a strong position as the go-to airline for value within the US
this is a classic example of a brand going against the grain of industry
norms to give their audience a fresh alternative now let's be real here
you're not gonna be able to go out straight away and pull off a positioning
strategy like Apple or Nike and these are brands that are much much broader
positions in the marketplace and these positions weren't just owned from the
get-go they didn't come out of the gates and own these positions straightaway
these positions evolved over time based on the success of that brand and they've
evolved into a much broader idea so it's not something that you'd be able to
implement straightaway but definitely something that you can think about
longer term but the other examples the Dollar Shave Club JetBlue
Chipotle these are all positions that have been taken in the marketplace
based on an understanding of that marketplace and an understanding of who
their audience is what they want and the problems and challenges that they have
and these are definitely ideas that you can take into your own brand and apply
to your own positioning strategy so take a step back look at your overall
marketplace look at your audience and the challenges that they have and what
your competitors are doing and what you're gonna be able to do differently
and that is a great place to start when defining your own brand position but I
really would love to hear from you what is your favorite example of brand
positioning have you seen anything out there in the marketplace have you seen
anything that has grabbed your attention have you seen a brand that you've
thought to yourself wow that's something different I haven't seen anything like
that before if you've got examples of that let me know in the comments and if
you're building a brand as well are you building it for yourself or you're
building it for a client and if so what are your biggest challenges when it
comes to positioning to building and developing a brand position let me know
in the comments if you have any questions at all let me know as well I
will do my best to answer all those questions if you liked this video please
give it a thumbs up and hit that subscribe button to see more videos like
this until then go forth take inspiration look at what the best brands
in the world are doing to position their brands take that into your own processes
put your own spin on it and position your brand effectively until then I will
see you in the next video!