Marketing positioning: a decisive choice for your business

Marketing positioning: what is it?

What is marketing positioning?

Marketing positioning corresponds to how your offer and/or your business is perceived by consumers. It corresponds to the way in which it is understood by consumers in the face of competitors and in relation to the reactions it elicits.

Marketing positioning therefore coincides with:

• The way the business Wants to be perceived by consumers and the place it wants to occupy in its market. It is the positioning aimed at by the company, the objective to be achieved, but which does not always correspond to reality.
• The place occupied by the offer/company in the minds of consumers on the market and against competitors. This is the result of the actions and decisions taken by the company, this is the real market situation.

As you will have understood, your marketing positioning is an important choice. If the first point (The objective of the company) actually corresponds to the second aspect (consumer perception), so the company succeeded in transmitting its ideal positioning to its target audience. And that's great!

Your marketing positioning will allow you to Define orientation of your actions and decisions. By determining THE right positioning, you will gain consistency in your choices, whether it's prices, distribution channels, communication strategy...
Be careful though! The aim is not to be the “best” on its market. Each company has its own vision of things, and depending on the needs of consumers and the image they have of your business, the goal to be achieved will not be the same.

So, it's best to focus on How to differentiate yourself of the competition by thinking about a unique and different offer that has real added value, an exclusive competitive advantage for your customers.

The golden triangle of positioning.

By placing your positioning at the heart of this triangle, you will be able to more easily represent your offering, to determine your target and to identify the concurrency, or:

• Offer: What are your assets, your expected benefits?
• Target: Do its same benefits meet the expectations of your customers?
• Competition: Their advantages? Do they stand out?

In conclusion, your main objective in choosing your marketing positioning is to impress the consumer through a well-thought-out and relevant positioning !

💡 Namely, to go further, you can work on your MVB (minimum viable brand) See on a Branding more ambitious to develop your brand capital.

Why is marketing positioning important?

Marketing positioning for the company

Defining the marketing positioning for a product or brand is an important step in its development. It is an essential element To establish one marketing strategy efficient. The goal is to highlight your offer so that it stands out from the others.

Positioning will help you to make a place for yourself in the market, while identifying the target audience most likely to be affected by your offer and by establishing The right price according to your customers and the image conveyed by your company.

You will also be able to maintain your strategies consistently. Your positioning will help you define a communication strategy, which in turn will tell you what actions to take to reach your audience easily and attract customers.

You will thus reduce your expenses by avoiding making targeting errors and marketing tactics. And, you will be able to better analyze the evolution of your strategies and improve them if necessary.

Marketing positioning for the customer

Good marketing positioning does not only benefit businesses. Customers are also affected by the latter. And especially nowadays, consumers are increasingly interested in the products they buy. They will necessarily judge your positioning, whether negative or positive.

On the one hand, a well-designed positioning will allow a potential customer to say If the quality of the product/service and The price is adapted to its budget. And on the other hand it will allow him to avoid brands that are not suitable for him, and therefore to save time by opting for those that correspond to him.

So the image you convey is very important. You certainly know the expression “judging a book by its cover”, for consumers the logic is the same in their interactions with businesses. They must therefore have a clear vision of your marketing positioning in order to allow them to make the right choices.

The criteria for a good marketing positioning

1. Clarity

Consumers should be able to have a clear, succinct and fast vision of your marketing positioning in the face of the competition. It should be able to be summed up in a simple sentence. It's not about making it a slogan, but about building the message you want to get across to your target audience.

2. Relevance

In addition to being understandable, your message should meet the needs and expectations of consumers. Your positioning must therefore be in harmony with the image of your company and the message transmitted. Customers should be able to find your offer easily, without having to make any special effort. You have to be in the right place at the right time.

3. Credibility

The customer must be convinced by your positioning, which means that the latter must match the attributes claimed by the offer. Your marketing positioning must be both realistic and honest, the aim is not to deceive consumers. You therefore need an effective communication strategy!

4. Different

Your business and your offer must stand out from the competition. You need to ask yourself the right questions: does your competitive advantage offer you a real advantage over your competitors? Does it allow you to differentiate yourself? If yes, then you have managed to stand out and catch the eye of your consumers.

5. Profitable

Your offer should allow your business To develop and To live financially. A good positioning is a positioning that brings a plus to the company! If this is not the case, it is imperative to rework it. This is why you must first conduct a thorough market study and carefully choose your target.

6. Durable

Choosing your marketing positioning is a long-term commitment. Indeed, it is better to be sure of your positioning from the start, because change within a company is perceived as instability by consumers. So make sure to choose a solid and lasting positioning !

7. Authentic and sincere

A good marketing positioning must be transparent, consistent and without overestimation. You must constantly listen to your customers in order to properly understand their expectations. And above all, you must make sure to fulfill the promise sent to your consumers, nothing more, nothing less.

The seps to define your strategic marketing positioning

Market analysis

The first step is to identify the sector (s) on which your company wants to position itself.

For any strategies, you will not be able to launch until you know the market in which you want to operate.

By collecting relevant information on your field of activity, you will be able to:

• Evaluate whether the market is big enough to fit in and if the demand is large enough for the offer you are offering.
• Determine if the need/problem of the consumer is indeed present and if there are alternative solutions.
• Evaluate whether your offer is differentiating enough to compete and attract consumers.
• Find the right price, that is, the price that will allow you to be profitable and that customers will be willing to pay compared to the average market price for your offer.
• Calculate the investment required to create your offer, the manufacturing cost and determine if your budget will be sufficient to reach your goals.
• Define the speed of evolution, if you are able to produce quickly, to renew your offer easily, etc...
• Set related offers, decide on strategies to put in place to acquire new customers and prospects.

All this information is the starting points for your marketing positioning strategy.

Identifying your competitors: the positioning map

Once the first step is over, you will have to identify the other actors who are present there. Indeed, you are certainly not the only one in your field of activity! This umpteenth step will allow you to analyze what differentiates you from the competition.

The aim is to better understand them. by studying their positioning on the market, their strengths and weaknesses, their competitive advantage, etc... Once all this information is collected, you will be in a better position to stand out among the crowd.

To help you do this, do not hesitate to make A benchmark by listing your competitors. You can then create A positioning map and place your offer according to the competition. This perceptual map will allow you to have a better general vision of the different positions.

You will have to select two elements, two graphic axes, which will make it possible to evaluate the positions (example: price and quality). By combining these two criteria, it will be easier to place your business in the face of the competition and to make the necessary adjustments according to the image you want to reflect on the market.

Understand your offer

The third step may seem absurd to you, but yet it is necessary to have a clear understanding of your offer. It is the heart of your positioning, it will guide you to identify your target and position yourself in relation to them.

In fact, your offer is the starting point for your marketing activity. To be able to establish a positioning worthy of the name, you will have to go through a careful description of your product/service that is called the Marketing mix or marketing plan.

There are the following elements, which will allow you to attract consumers:

• Product policy : composition of the product, patent, packaging...
• The price policy (Price) : pricing policy, promotional price...
• communication policy (Promotion) : advertising, sponsoring...
• distribution policy (Place) : distribution circuit, merchandising...

Each of these elements corresponds to one of 4P of marketing (Product, Price, Promotion, Place). Thanks to this method, you will help your consumers to better understand your offer and therefore to adopt it more easily.

Determine your targets (segmentation or marketing targeting)

Your positioning must be in line with your target. In order to better understand the needs and problems of consumers, you must first build your Buyer Personas. This will allow you to know your target, understand it, etc...

You will be able to collect socio-demographic information, on the areas of interest, on the needs and expectations of your potential customers, but also on the motivations, obstacles, preferences of your targets and their purchasing behaviors.

However, be careful not to make a mistake by thinking about who and what rather than Why of your target. A person who wants to buy a product or service does not do so by chance. She has Motivations very precise.

To build a positioning that holds up, you need to ask yourself why your target is: what are the reasons behind the intention to buy?

You need to make her understand why your offer is necessary for her, and why she should choose you and not another company, regardless of the price!

By digging into the problems your target is experiencing, The why of his motives, you will be able to show him concretely what your offer can bring him. And it is only thanks to the identification of why that you can define your positioning.

Define competitive advantage

Finally, the fifth and final step will allow you to focus on the added value of your offer and on your positioning strategy. The aim here is to find your competitive advantage, the thing that will set you apart from the competition.

To help you identify this competitive advantage and determine the appropriate marketing positioning, there is The 5 P's or the 5 why's. It allows you to find a solution, by identifying WHY a situation is problematic.

Here, she will assist you for Define your competitive advantage. One by one, you will remove the layers of your questions to discover the answer: either what is your competitive advantage and, in addition, how to establish your positioning.

Because without added value, your customers will have no interest in being interested in your business over another. And a competitive advantage does not come out of nowhere, it can be worked on! Let's take the following positioning example: you write articles for your customers, why?

1. Why: to improve their natural referencing,
2. Why: for prospects to discover that the business exists,
3. Why: to prove that the company's expertise can be useful to it,
4. Why: to increase the company's sales,
5. Why: to make the business prosper.

Once you have asked the 5 P's, you can clearly define your positioning: “I help businesses thrive, thanks to increased sales because prospects are assured of the expertise of the businesses they discover via quality blog articles that are well referenced on Google.”

And so your competitive advantage is as follows: you write quality blog posts that are well referenced on Google. However, a competitive advantage is never a given. The market is an environment that is constantly evolving, and you are not immune to meeting new competitors.