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How Positioning Can Make You a Rockstar (Literally!)
[/mk_fancy_title][vc_column_text responsive_align=”center”]Happy Hump Day, everyone!
Last week, in BrandSight’s inaugural entry, we touched upon a few topics that are critical to how we do things here at Prodigal. One of those was the work of Al Ries, and how his ideology in the realm of marketing has played a crucial role in the development of modern branding. His concept of positioning, and how a brand’s strengths come into play in the minds of consumers, relative to their competition, is one that has stood the test of time. If a brand isn’t playing to its strengths within its marketplace, it will surely have a more difficult time finding a way to stay relevant amidst competition that does.
Today we’ll be going slightly further in-depth on the topic. For those interested in further reading material, we recommend picking up his book. We promise we’re not sponsored by Mr. Ries, we just have so much respect for his work that we have difficulty at times not coming off as somewhat obsessive.
Let’s take a moment to set up an example of how positioning works and can work for your brand.
Imagine, for a moment, that you want to start a rock band. Okay, who hasn’t? Let’s say, hypothetically, that you actually do start a rock band. You invite a few friends over, start jamming out and you realize that hey, you’re not too bad. You’re pretty good, even. Some folks might even say great, though some folks exaggerate so let’s not go there just yet. You’re just good enough to start playing some shows and develop a small fan base. This fan base, while fond of your work, also enjoys the tunes of a few other groups in the area, who are competing for the very limited time slots provided by local venues, as well as your fans’ money for tickets.
So why should they come to your show and not Band B or Band C? What does your band have to offer? Were you the first band in town? No? Are you the most technically sound in terms of musical talent? No? Do you create the loudest, most neighbor-wakin’ riffs and rock into the wee hours of the evening? No? Okay, well, do you charge people considerably less to come see you play? Yes? Great, now that is a position you can own.
The mindset of positioning recognizes that it’s almost never possible, or at the very least feasible, to be the best in every category. It states that if you’re not first in your market, then you have to carve out a niche to establish your spot in the mind of the consumer, or you’re essentially fighting a losing battle. If you want to gain more fans for your band that doesn’t necessarily rock all that hard, but you’re trying to sell yourself as the rowdiest band in town, you’re not positioning yourself to play to your strengths.
And therein lies the importance of recognizing your brand’s strengths and weaknesses before developing a marketing or branding strategy. Your idea of what people think of your brand may be completely different from what they actually think, and that could be the difference between a successful business and a failed business (or band).
That’s where the Brand MRI comes in.
At Prodigal we recognize that quality research is imperative to developing a cohesive, effective strategy. We help you communicate the message that optimizes the position of your brand, and we are able to do so because we do the research to acquire a deeper understanding of your company, your clients and your marketplace. Once we have that, we have the ability to get to work on positioning your brand in a place that plays to your advantages and affords greater opportunity to succeed.
The beauty of positioning is that its core concepts are equally applicable to Fortune 500 companies as they are to local rock bands, whose marketing budgets tend to be just a bit smaller. It’s the application of those concepts that gets tricky, and that’s where Prodigal can help you. Reach out and let us know if you’d like to learn more about how we can help your business. Or send us a copy of your demo.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
