Have you ever wondered why certain brands just “click” with their audience whereas others are left on the sidelines? Often, it comes from the right marketing positioning. Think about it: stand-out brands took the time to create a place for themselves in the eyes of customers, to stand out from the rest of the pack, and resonate with consumers’ values. We’ll discuss the positioning in marketing, and where each of them can be deployed to create a brand that draws people in and survives, in this blog.
What is Positioning?
Positioning in marketing is the intentional, targeted attempt to build a brand, product, or service with its own identity in the consumer’s mind. Positioning is more than the product attributes; it’s the feelings, images, and sensations a brand creates. It’s basically the brand and where it will appear in your head when you think about a product or service.
One great case in point is Dove’s position as a brand of authenticity and not of traditional, impossible beauty. It’s a positioning that distinguishes Dove from other beauty brands and makes the consumer feel something. Positioning isn’t only about properties, but also an impression that sticks with the brand in the sea of competitors.
Why Positioning is Essential?
The consumer market is overcrowded and fierce, so positioning is now more important than ever. Why though is it so crucial?
Differentiation: With a million products that offer the same thing, differentiation by positioning creates a brand that is not to be forgotten and will be favoured by an appropriate market.
Retention: Good positioning enables people to feel at home and trust you. If a consumer experiences belonging to a brand, and it’s the brand’s purpose, they’ll stay as a loyal customer.
Pricing Authority: When branding as a luxury brand or superior, it will make a brand higher in price which leads customers to buy more for the quality.
Brand Messages Don’t Distinct: Positioning coordinates all brand messaging from ads to social channels to packaging to make sure all points of consumer interaction maintain the brand message.
More Market Access: Positioning can help brands identify with more segments in a market and capture more product access and market share.
Types of Positioning in Marketing
Let’s jump in and see what kind of positioning strategies brands can deploy to get noticed.
Quality-Based Positioning
Qualitative positioning is about a product or service’s superiority. This tactic works for companies who put a lot of dollars into materials, or craftsmanship, or processes that lead to good goods.
Example: Lulumon is all about durable, premium activewear. Its quality-first position has enabled it to cling to a powerful market share in the sportswear segment by bringing the prices down and maintaining exclusivity.
Value-Based Positioning
Value-based positioning appeals to the price-to-benefit buyer. It isn’t a race to the bottom if you have to buy something for less, but more value for the consumer’s money.
Example: IKEA is a value-centric positioning brand with affordable, yet beautiful and practical furniture. It has become known as a company who make modern design accessible, and are the best option for affordable, high-quality home furniture.
Benefit-Based Positioning
Benefit-based positioning focuses on a product’s benefit or benefit that addresses a particular pain point for the target customer. Brands who do this will point out how the product or service solves an end user’s specific problem in a novel way.
Example: Head & Shoulders argues as the all-time remedy for dandruff and is the #1 shampoo for those with scalp issues.
Problem and Solution Positioning
It is a way of identifying the brand’s contribution towards solving a problem, which is clear and immediate to the customer. Brands as problem-solvers are based on the customer pain point and their product stands as the solution.
Example: Grammarly is the best example, it’s able to solve the general grammar nagging issue for users, and helps to communicate and stay professional.
Why It’s Effective: Customers like to find a product that fixes a particular problem. Solution-solving positioning works because it fills a need, and attracts a loyal audience of users who feel the same way.
Lifestyle Positioning
Lifestyle positioning – Brands who are living as a lifestyle, culture, or character. They don’t sell something – they sell an experience or dream that people are dying to be part of.
Example: Patagonia brand message is adventure, sustainability and social responsibility. Patagonia is for people who live these qualities — and that’s how they choose to shop at Patagonia.
How It Works: Lifestyle positioning engages customers’ emotions and self-identity for a connection beyond product function and long-term brand attachment.
Price-Based Positioning
This positioning is most concerned with being the cheapest or the most economical. But the positioning based on price is always risky because brands do not want to appear shoddy.
Example: Spirit Airlines tries to be the cheapest airline, by providing “bare fare” rates that only provide the minimum. Then it is not luxurious but it is appealing to travellers who want to save money on flights.
Celebrity or Influencer-Based Positioning
Celebrity or Influencer based – This is positioning which leverages the popularity of celebrities or influencers and appeals to people’s liking for certain people. But you need to be authentic because consumers are getting tired of ad hominem attacks.
Example: Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty used her presence to reach different beauty enthusiasts around the world. She was so authentic and inclusive that the brand was able to become a huge beauty brand in no time.
Competitor-Based Positioning
This method puts a brand up against a rival by insisting that it is better or filling in where the rival lacks. It’s a nice trick, but you have to execute it well so as not to make any unhelpful comparisons.
Example: Lyft pitches itself as a welcoming, neighbourhood-based competitor to Uber. Because it’s focused on drivers and the customer, Lyft is a perfect fit for anyone seeking a trusted and responsible ride-sharing service.
Niche Positioning
Niche positioning targets a small, niche part of the market, and caters to specialized consumer wants not served by large competitors. This is a way that brands can claim a niche without fighting against mass-market giants.
Example: Oatly has occupied a special place in the dairy alternative space with the sale of their oat milk as an environmentally friendly and delicious product. Oatly is different from other dairy alternatives in that it is sold to eco-conscious consumers and is differentiated by its flavour and origin story.
Crafting Your Positioning Statement
A good positioning statement is short and focused on the brand’s value and differentiation. It’s usually a sentence or two, but that’s all the brand is about and what it can give you.
Integrating Positioning into Marketing Strategy
Know Your Customer: Every positioning approach starts with an intimate knowledge of your customers’ values, actions and requirements.
Competitive analysis: Research the competitors to determine what’s missing and what your brand can do differently.
Positioning means creating something special and very interesting for your target.
The Same Brand messaging: From ads to social media, packaging and so on, brand messaging should not change without the positioning strategy in mind.
Brand Personality in Marketing Positioning Types
Brand personality is also very important in the kinds of positioning in marketing, because it determines how the consumer experience and engage with the brand on a deeper level. If a brand is defined by personality — bold, creative, trustworthy, fun — then it’s easier to develop a positioning strategy that people will love. Brand personality infuses positioning and delivers brand experiences through its perception shaping.
Let’s see how brand personality is interwoven with the marketing positioning types:
- Brand Authority and Quality-based Positioning: Brands that have a quality-based positioning also develop an authoritative or corporate personality. A luxury watch company, for example, could adopt a classical, elegant image to reinforce its premium-value position with those who are looking for things based on quality and style.
- Benefit-Based Positioning & Empathy: A benefits brand might become sympathetic or supportive. A company that sells sustainable products, for example, could sell as loving and ethical and appeal to people who want to make sustainable choices.
- Lifestyle Positioning & Aspirational Identity: Brands with lifestyle positioning can be aspirational or upbeat personalities. Athlete brands, for example, have a tendency to communicate in positive, empowering language in order to reach out to ambitious, hard-working clients.
- Solution Positioning & Trustworthiness: Solution brands typically have a trustworthy or relatable personality and focus on solving a customer problem. A company that sells small business software might show up with an open and approachable character that tells people they can trust it.
How Brand Personality Enhances Positioning Performance?
Combine brand personality with positioning to strengthen brand recall and consumer loyalty. Companies can make the emotional connection with their customers and lay the foundation for loyal engagement by focusing on a brand personality to match the types of marketing positioning that are chosen.
Final Note: While working on your brand positioning strategy, also create an articulating brand personality to match. So, whether you want your brand to be elegant, open or cutting edge, the right personality will elevate your position so it will make a statement and stay with you.
Final Thoughts
And when it comes to the crowded, constantly changing landscape of marketing, the brands that position are the ones that leave an emotional, unique and memorable imprint in the consumer’s mind. Positioning types in marketing are a strategic tool for brands to create difficult to copy identities, that offer more than just the product. Positioning a new product, or rebranding an old one – both kinds of positioning will open up a space for people to come in.
Positioning well doesn’t mean being different – it means being something. That’s what brands are famous for and what keeps people coming back for more. So pick your positioning strategy carefully, let it change with your audience, and make a legacy brand that nobody can escape.
