If you are considering launching a new brand, product or service in the market, you may be wondering whether your brand will stand out from the competition and whether potential customers will know about you, consider you and buy from you.
It is true that there is a long series of processes that you will have to develop in your business project, but at the beginning of the project you will have to define what you are going to offer and what strategy you are going to follow to position your brand in relation to the existing competition.
Brand positioning refers to consumers’ perceptions of a brand or product in relation to other brands in the market. Therefore, positioning is the set of associations that the customer has in their mind and indicates how they perceive your brand. It is important to develop a brand positioning so that the customer’s perception is consistent over time.
Define the purpose of your brand
Before finding out who your competitors are and defining a differentiation strategy, it is necessary to know the purpose of your brand, product or service. The purpose of your brand is why it exists, what it wants to contribute to society and what it is trying to achieve. In other words, what will you sell and what will your brand offer your customers?
Find out what’s already on the market
Once you have defined what you are going to offer, it is advisable to carry out an analysis of the existing offer on the market in order to analyse your competition, find points of differentiation and, if necessary, reformulate or orient your proposal so that it is unique. This process of studying the competition is called benchmarking. The idea is to draw up a table of all the elements that you wish to evaluate in 10 to 15 competitors in order to look for commonalities and differentiators, and then to analyse them.
Here is a short list of some of the things you could analyse:
- Location
- Opening hours
- Sales channels
- Products
- Services
- Prices
- Guarantees offered
- Quality of service
- Social network
- Strengths and weaknesses
Define your target audience
You can’t sell a product to everyone, because each customer has different motivations and needs. This is why it is necessary to know the differences between consumers and therefore to define and segment our target audience, also called target. A segment is a group of people with similar characteristics and preferences, who stand out from other groups and are more likely to buy your products.
Why is it important to define your target audience?
- This allows you to identify better business opportunities
- Help define your target audience
- Makes it easy to identify your most direct rivals
- Allows you to better adapt to the customer
How do I define my target audience?
There are different variables for market segmentation and you can make it as specific as you like. The most common variables for defining your target audience are
- Demographic variables: Place of residence, gender, age, marital status, household size.
- Socio-economic variables: Income level, occupation, education level, social class.
- Psychographic variables: Personality and lifestyle of buyers.
- Personality: Attitudes, habits and preferences of users.
- Lifestyle: this refers to the activities people engage in, their hobbies, interests and ideologies.
What are the benefits of your brand?
For a potential customer to end up buying a product or service from you, he or she must perceive certain benefits. The benefits of your product should differentiate it from the competition and be relevant to the customer. There are three types of benefits in total:
- Functional benefits: These are benefits related to the performance of the product or service. What the brand offers in terms of functionality and why it differs from others.
- Emotional benefits: These are the benefits the customer will receive once they have tried the product or service. In other words, how the customer feels after the user experience.
- Social benefits: What the brand does for the environment and society. Nowadays, it is very important that your brand is involved in society and actively supports a cause.
Establishing your competitive advantage
Once you have analysed and defined your product, service or brand, it is time to select the element or elements that make it a unique, original and stand out proposition.
To develop a brand positioning strategy, you need to consider what your competitive advantage is. In other words, what is your most obvious characteristic as a company that differentiates you from others, that puts you in a superior position and makes you more competitive. This is why the previous step of benchmarking is so important.
It is very important to find a differentiating factor from other competitors, as consumers choose the product that best suits their preferences when making a purchase. If they consider that there are two or more products with the same characteristics, they are likely to lose interest in one or the other. This is why it is important that your offer provides some kind of value or differentiation that sets your products apart from the competition.
How to develop a differentiation strategy
We have already seen some of the key elements you need to consider in order to develop a strategy to differentiate your brand and therefore stand out from your competitors.
If you feel that your project is not entirely clear or if you have any doubts, at Trucker360 we can help you develop your brand positioning strategy. We can help you find the elements that make your proposal unique and stand out so that you can reach your target audience.
We look forward to seeing you at Trucker360!
