2.06 – Designing Your Own Positioning Strategy
Designing a Positioning Strategy
A positioning strategy emphasizes the emotional fulfillment and psychological relevance of building Emotional Selling Propositions (ESPs) over Unique Selling Propositions (USPs). The reason is that “unique” advantages are often unsustainable, as competitors with more resources or quicker time-to-market processes can easily replicate them. A successful positioning strategy focuses on getting customers or prospects to see your product for its emotional and functional values, trust your quality and service claims, and choose your products over competitors’ offerings.
Your positioning strategy should align with your ESP strategy. As you plan for growth, identify new markets where your ESP and positioning will stand out and appeal to consumers. Consider whether you need to adapt your ESP or how you position it for various cultures or demographics you’re targeting. The more you understand each market, the more effective your strategy will be.
Envisioning Your Position: An Exercise in Observation and Creativity
Good positioning ensures your product has mind share among consumers, which translates to market share. Your positioning statement should be believable and actionable, reflecting the core values of what you offer and highlighting how you differ from competitors.
As you conduct your competitive analysis, compare your positioning strategy against competitors to ensure your promise and emotional value truly stand out. Equally important, ensure that your product, sales, and service processes fulfill the promises made in your positioning statements, sales promises, and other marketing materials.
Aligning Your Positioning Strategy with Growth Initiatives
Once you’ve defined the emotional value you offer in addition to the product value or competitive difference that sets you apart, you can start building growth plans accordingly. For example, if you produce and sell organic healthy snack foods for children, your positioning could reflect the health benefits and emotional relief parents feel knowing they are providing nutritious snacks. This could allow you to expand into niche and specialty markets showing significant growth opportunities, such as geographical areas where health food and fitness services are popular.
For this type of product, you can target influencers directly related to health-conscious parents. Potential influencers might include allergists, pediatricians, youth sports clubs, and organizations focused on nutritional research and education.
In any industry, you can find a long list of organizations to build alliances with, whether for reselling your products, referring others, or introducing you to the right consumers. This leads to another critical strategy in today’s world of many options and confusing alternatives: growth hacking.
Growth Hacking
Growth hacking involves using innovative and low-cost strategies to help businesses acquire and retain customers. It often includes leveraging digital channels, social media, and viral marketing techniques to rapidly grow your customer base. Growth hacking can be especially effective when combined with a strong positioning strategy, as it allows you to maximize the reach and impact of your unique value propositions.
