There is a lot more to your brand than the colours used and what the logo looks like and one important aspect is how your brand is positioned within the marketplace. Think about the difference between high quality expensive brands compared with cheaper high street brands – what makes them distinct from each other?
The answer is positioning. It’s about creating a perception in your customers’ minds about what makes your brand different and what its worth compared with competitors. It’s important to get it right which is why it should be a key part of an overall brand strategy.
If you position your brand incorrectly, it could cause serious problems for your business. For example, if you try to position it as a high-end luxury expensive product but customers see your product as an everyday essential item, they won’t buy from you.
Likewise, if you position your products as too cheap, they can be perceived as being of poor quality potentially, so how you position your brand from the outset, can have important repercussions on your sales figures.
At Frost Creative we work with all our clients to develop brand strategy, which helps to meet their business objectives, before we look at any of the design or creative aspects to branding.
When launching a new product or service, or even a new business, you need to be clear what type of position you want to occupy in the market. Is your brand a luxury, expensive item for a few discerning customers, or is it going to be a cheap, mass-produced product?
But it’s not just about price, it’s also about perception of quality, company values – what does your brand stand for? If you position your brand as caring for the environment for example, but then none of your packaging is designed to be recyclable your positioning won’t work.
Every aspect of the brand has to work coherently together so the positioning is accurately reflected in any design work and within the messaging, as well as in the products themselves and the way they are sold.
How does brand positioning affect my customers?
When done well, brand positioning helps to create particular associations with your products in your customers’ minds. You are helping to shape their perception which in turn, will have an impact on customer loyalty and how willing they are to re-purchase from you.
It’s important to get it right as if you try to position your brand in a way that doesn’t match customer requirements, it will fail as they will perceive it as too expensive, or too low quality. You need to understand your customers well before you start to develop your brand positioning.
Once you have chosen your positioning then it is crucial to ensure the position is reflected across all marketing and communication material. It’s no good choosing a luxury position only to have cheap looking packaging and messaging which says the product is widely available.
All of your imagery, messaging and the channels you use to market your brand need to be carefully chosen to reflect the positioning which you have decided upon and this approach needs to be carried out consistently.
Developing a strong brand strategy and choosing your brand positioning can be challenging for new businesses so if you need some help then it is advisable to seek the support of a brand agency like Frost Creative.
The danger is, if you get your positioning wrong customers won’t respect your brand and it could create negative perceptions when you are just starting out – and this is a hard position to come back from.
If you would like to talk to our brand experts about brand positioning or any other aspect of developing your brand strategy, please do get in touch with us today.