When’s the last time you reviewed your company’s position statement? Can all members of your team explain the unique benefits of your company in a sentence? Businesses that don’t take the time to position their brands run the risk of being positioned by their competitors.
Fortunately, developing a solid brand positioning statement does not have to be a painful process. Try these four steps to begin to brand your business today.
IDENTIFY YOUR IDEAL CUSTOMER
It is likely that you’ve given this step quite a bit of thought while developing your brand. So it should be easy.
Identify the person you feel would be most likely to buy and benefit from your brand. Be specific.
For example, if you run a dating app, it would be a disservice to position yourself as a tool for all singles. That would be too broad and be uncharacteristic of your typical user. Instead, you might say something like, “BMC Dating app is for the busy, tech-savvy, metropolitan young professional, who seeks fun, casual dating experiences.” With this example, you can see how you might tweak your customer identity based on the age and/or interests of your desired market.
PUT YOURSELF IN YOUR AUDIENCES’ SHOES
You will need to dig a little deeper in order to get this step right.
Brand loyalty is down. In many cases, the internet allows consumers to choose from hundreds of comparable products within seconds.
In order to highlight your business’s benefits for your target market, you will need to talk to your audience. Learn how your target audience views your industry– your company. Try to understand where your competition is falling short. Get an understanding of problems that your competition does not solve.
HIGHLIGHT YOUR BUSINESS’S BENEFITS
Once you’ve identified your audience’s unmet needs, you can start to draft your list the services company has to addresses them.
Your list can be long and general to start. However, as you work through it, you must begin to get specific about exactly how your company solves your consumers’ problems.
Consider the cost of your services in terms of your audience’s time and money. To use the dating app example again: Can your company guarantee a date in less than 30 days? Is it easier to sign up for than other apps? Does it use a special vetting process to qualify matches?
Once you’ve listed the ways your company addresses your customers’ challenges, frame your services using language similar to the language that your audience uses.
BACK UP YOUR BRANDING
No amount of branding will be able to save your business if your company cannot deliver on its promise. Does your business have a well-documented track record of success? Is your staff comprised of industry leaders? Can your company deliver services faster or cheaper than your competition?
You provide your audience with sound proof that you will be able to do exactly what you are hired to do.
Ultimately after following these steps, you should be left with a statement like:
(Your product/company) is the (service/offer) that (unique benefits) by (supporting facts).
Example: BMC Dating App is the members-only singles networking tool that makes finding fun dating experiences pain free by using proprietary software to match young professionals based on their interests.
Remember: A great positioning statement will be able to detail how exactly your brand addresses your target market’s needs more effectively than your competitors.