Product positioning. It's a process that many companies and brands overlook, but in fact, it's so incredibly important that when done well, your positioning can serve as the cornerstone for almost every marketing decision that you make. So, let's back up. What is product positoning? According to Reis and Trout who literally wrote the book on product positoning, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, it is the space that your company / brand occupies in the minds of your customer.
Okay, so what does that really mean? It means that when your customers think of you - what do want them to think? Say you're a jewelry designer, do you want to be the provider of low-cost knockoffs? Creative one-of-a-kind pieces? Bridal / special occasion jewelry? Jewels that celebrities wear? Jewelry that promotes a cause?
There are a million different ways to position a given company or product. Here are a couple of questions for you to ask yourself as your considering what YOUR positioning is.
Note: When answering these questions, be as specific as possible. As tempting as it is to be all things to all people, it usually doesn't work!
1. What category is your product competiting in and who is your competition? For example, say you're an interior designer. That's a big space - there are lots of interior designers out there. But if you're an interior designer in Atlanta, GA that specializes only in high-end office buildings, that's a much smaller space, your competition is more well defined, you have a better understanding of how you stack up against them, etc...
2. Who is your customer? Again, let's take the interior designer above. The target customer is high-end office buildings, but who's the real decision maker there. Is it the architects who work with the firms, the operations officer, the office manager?
3. And what makes them tick? What's REALLY important to them? Is it that they have a million other things to do and can't really be bothered choosing paint colors and coordinating fabric? Or do they have a real eye for design and want someone to help them achieve their vision for the space?
4. What solution do you provide to those customers that no other firm can? Are you the most creative in your industry or do you provide a simplified 'one-stop shop'?
An Example:
Company X is the interior design firm that specializes in creatively maximizing the space potential in small apartments in NYC.
Competition: residential interior design firms in NYC
Customer target: apartment dwellers who live in small spaces who feel confined and constrained in their current living quarters
Customer benefit: you'll maximize the space they have available in a creative fashion
By answering these questions clearly and specifically, you can really hone in on who your company is and what value you bring to the customer.
Still need some help or want to bounce an idea off of someone?
Contact Melissa Wildstein, Managing Director at The Matchstick Group.
Melissa.Wildstein@thematchstickgroup.com
