Posts Tagged brand positioning
How to Compete Against A Goliath Competitor
Posted by Mike Paffenback in Brand Identity, Brand Touchpoints on August 13, 2010
Most of us in small business are looking up at a Goliath competitor. That big, dominant player which seems to effortlessly steal away our rightful market share, or keep us pent up as an ankle biter. Damn them.
The reasons they’re so dominant could be many:
- They were the first
- They listened to the wants and needs of the market and then addressed them better
- They have better, differentiated products or services
- They have a broader selection, better quality, better pricing, and/or better distribution
- They have better customer service
- They have a better warranty or guarantee
- They spend more on marketing and are more aggressive and sophisticated
- They have higher market awareness and preference
- They have deeper pockets
- They’re bigger
- Their breath smells better . . . or many more reasons depending on your perspective
If you’re faced with this kind of competitive dominance, you are a “challenger” brand. Being a ”challenger” suggests action. And, as a challenger brand, there’s plenty of opportunity for action on your part.
Keep this in mind as you plot your competitive course: as a challenger brand, what do you really have to lose by taking measured risks? The pressure’s on Goliath not to do anything that would jeopardize their market advantage, right?
So, what exactly do you do?
You may remember the classic challenger campaign waged years ago in the rental car market. The industry Goliath back then was Hertz. One ankle-biter challenger brand was Avis, and Avis set their sights on going toe-to-toe with the Hertz Goliath. Their branding campaign was simple: as the #2 player, we have to try harder to earn customers’ business. Avis committed themselves to offering the best cars, keeping them extra clean, ensuring the gas tank was full for pick up, and more. They also were able to promote their shorter lines — a result of being a less popular rental car brand. It was a great campaign which leveled the competitive battle field.
Like Avis, the key to successfully battling nose-to-nose with your Goliath lies in developing an effective brand identity platform that’s destinctive to your brand.
The process of developing this forces structured thinking about your brand strengths and weaknesses and those of your Goliath. It results in the formation of uncompromising brand mission and values statements that fuels the right business attitude. It enables your defining a clear and laser-focused brand positioning platform where you tell customers why they should do business with you rather than Goliath. It details your brand value proposition, the multi-level benefits users of your product or service will derive. And it defines the standards of performance when develivering the various brand touchpoints.
Dell, Virgin, Southwest Airlines, Apple, Hyundai, any popular musician or group — they were/are challenger brands. And each found just the right stone to throw at just the right place to knock down their Goliath. It wasn’t luck, it was considered planning and effort fueled by a challenger mindset.
You can do this.
Positioning Your Brand
Posted by Mike Paffenback in Brand Positioning on August 4, 2010
The folks at Sunkist, the well-established orange brand, are sharp marketers with their slogan, ”An orange is an orange … unless it says Sunkist.” The real genius of Sunkist is how they positioned their brand by repositioning all other oranges that don’t have a Sunkist label on them as being something less than a Sunkist orange.
Simple as Sunkist makes it sound, this ”being different” thing is usually pretty damn hard.
Defining the ways you can be different from competitors — in ways that your customers and prospects want and appreciate – is positioning. When you position your brand you demonstrate a decisive advantage over the other options that your customers and prospects have to fill the need that you can also fill.
But when you grow oranges, how different can your’s really be from those being grown down the street? How different can the kaolin clay you’re mining really be from someone elses? Or, your water? Tires? Zippers? Air conditioners? Brokerage services? Hospital? Lawyering? Etc.
Very few businesses have no competitors, and differentiation from yours is vital. Consider the following areas in which to differentiate, but keep in mind whether your being different in a particular area has any real relevance and value to your audiences:
- Pricing strategies
- Shipping/delivery services
- Post-sale services
- Product features/benefits
- Pre-sale process
- Promotional tie-ins, sponsorships, community goodwill
- Product quality
- Support services
- Guarantees/warranties
- Packaging
- Others…
The mission is to give your customers and prospects a clear reason to do business with you instead of a competitor. Position your brand distinctively, and actively communicate those points of distinction through your brand touchpoints and you’ll draw in customers who were able to easily separate you from the pack.
It’s not easy, to be sure. But if you don’t actively position your brand, your competitors are likely to do it for you. Just ask the marketers at Sunkist.
Starting a New Company = New Brand Opportunity
Posted by Mike Paffenback in Brand Identity, Brand Positioning, Brand Value Proposition on July 29, 2010
A blank slate. A fresh start. A new company. If you’re at the starting line for sure-fire success with a new venture, congratulations.
One way to pave the way for that success is to consider the kind of brand image you want to have. Do it today. Right now. Because whether you manage it now or not, the simple truth is that an image will start taking root of your company, product, and service. And unless you take control of this yourself right from the start, you might not be too happy with what that image is.
When you contemplated starting your new venture, you most likely decided what kind of company you wanted to be relative to the competitive solutions already available to your future customers. Ideally, you can identify several points of distinction between your company and your new competitors. Maybe it’s the products. Or the pricing. Or quality. Or service after the sale. Or … whatever.
Take all of this stuff rolling around in your head and spend some time writing it down for each of your brands. Then, sit back and craft a vision/values statement for each brand: the irrefutable truth about what your brand unconditionally stands for.
Next, write out your brand value proposition: the basic, functional benefits a customer will derive from using your brand; the emotional/feeling benefits a customer will derive; and, if appropriate, the self-image benefits a customer will derive. Think about the relative role your pricing will play in the benefits equation, too.
Then move on to crafting your brand position. This is what you’ll actively communicate to your prospective customers that demonstrates a distinctive and decisive advantage over your competitors.
Finally, map out the various ways you’ll likely interact with prospects and customers throughout the sales process: before, during, and after. The obvious ways, and the not-so obvious ways. Prioritize these relative to their impact on the sale or customer retention. Then, create a plan to proactively manage the delivery of these interactions — your brand touchpoints — so that they’re in sync with your brand position platform, your brand value proposition, and your brand vision statement.
If you do this, you’ll be in better control of what kind of image the public forms about your brand — because you’ve defined what you hope that image to be and you have a management plan to ensure it happens.
And a strong, positive brand image leads to a strong, positive growth chart for your business. Good luck.