Success usually demands standing out from the competition. To do this requires an effective positioning strategy, to be the foundation of your marketing plan. In order to select a positioning strategy, you should define the context of your market, identify specific competitors, focus on specific audiences, and then determine what to say to them.
The desired positioning for your company can usually be broken down into component parts, leaving you with multiple messages to convey to the public. By weighting the significance of the messages, appropriate ways to organize and inter-relate them can be found. This will give you the basis for a coherent communications strategy, with messages that will motivate buyers to select you.
Market research is used to determine a company’s positioning. It uncovers the factors that drive decision-making for your product or service, revealing your recognized strengths and what differentiates you from your competitors. Marketing research can also help you identify concepts to incorporate in your positioning that are not already over-used by others.
Following this strategy will produce a corporate positioning uniquely suited to you. It is built for you and will not work for your competition, playing to your strengths, especially those aspects where your competition is weaker.
To stay current with a changing competitive environment, corporate positioning should be evaluated at least every five years. Some of the questions you should ask while evaluating your current positioning strategy include:
- Does it still fit with the goals of our company?
- Does it differentiate us enough from our competition?
- Does it play to our strengths and our competitions’ weaknesses?
If you answered “no” to any of these questions, it is time to re-define your positioning strategy.