How to Position Your Company in the Minds of Consumers
How to Position Your Company in the Minds of Consumers
There are three steps to positioning your company: understanding the competencies that lead to success in your industry, evaluating your top competitors in relation to those competencies, and defining your space.
Establish the Criteria
The first step in positioning your company is understanding the competencies that lead to success in your industry. Consumers demand different things in different industries, but a few of the most common things people will pay for include:
Customer Service
Sales Support
Speed
Innovation
Customized Products/Services
Pricing
What are the most important criteria for your industry? Take a second to select the top three or four.
Evaluate Your Company in Relation to the Competition
The next step is to evaluate your company in relation to the competition. Visit your competitors' websites to see what they are saying about themselves. Are they touting their expertise? Are they a low-cost provider? For the four or five criteria you selected, give your competitors a score on a scale of zero to five (zero being the worst, five being the best). It is helpful to put this information on a graph so you can see where each company stands.
Now that you have an idea of how your competitors are positioning themselves, evaluate your own business using the same criteria. If you put the data on a graph, is there a section that looks crowded? In other words, is there a group of companies defining themselves in the same way?
Define Your Space
Next, select the single competency that you will tout to your target market. One of the best things about this exercise is that it opens your eyes to opportunities that will help you differentiate your business. For example, if your top competitors are all vying for the low-cost market, there is probably a place for a company that offers the best customer service.
Once you have latched on to your competency, get the message out on all of your marketing material and talk about it in your sales presentations. To use an easy example, WalMart's slogan is "Save Money. Live Better." Those four words say a lot about the company and how they are positioning themselves in the marketplace.
Defining who you are and what you want consumers to know about you makes it easy for them to make a buying decision when they are ready. Decide to be different and start carving your niche today.
How to Position Your Company in the Minds of Consumers - To learn more about this author, visit Bill Tamminga's Website.
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In most industries there are no heroes, just choices. So rather than try to be all things to all people, business owners need to proactively position their company and define their points of differentiation to the consumer. Positioning draws the attention of your target market and reduces the chance that your competitors will define who you are, a situation no business owner wants to experience.
There are three steps to positioning your company: understanding the competencies that lead to success in your industry, evaluating your top competitors in relation to those competencies, and defining your space.
Establish the Criteria
The first step in positioning your company is understanding the competencies that lead to success in your industry. Consumers demand different things in different industries, but a few of the most common things people will pay for include:
Customer Service
Sales Support
Speed
Innovation
Customized Products/Services
Pricing
What are the most important criteria for your industry? Take a second to select the top three or four.
Evaluate Your Company in Relation to the Competition
The next step is to evaluate your company in relation to the competition. Visit your competitors' websites to see what they are saying about themselves. Are they touting their expertise? Are they a low-cost provider? For the four or five criteria you selected, give your competitors a score on a scale of zero to five (zero being the worst, five being the best). It is helpful to put this information on a graph so you can see where each company stands.
Now that you have an idea of how your competitors are positioning themselves, evaluate your own business using the same criteria. If you put the data on a graph, is there a section that looks crowded? In other words, is there a group of companies defining themselves in the same way?
Define Your Space
Next, select the single competency that you will tout to your target market. One of the best things about this exercise is that it opens your eyes to opportunities that will help you differentiate your business. For example, if your top competitors are all vying for the low-cost market, there is probably a place for a company that offers the best customer service.
Once you have latched on to your competency, get the message out on all of your marketing material and talk about it in your sales presentations. To use an easy example, WalMart's slogan is "Save Money. Live Better." Those four words say a lot about the company and how they are positioning themselves in the marketplace.
Defining who you are and what you want consumers to know about you makes it easy for them to make a buying decision when they are ready. Decide to be different and start carving your niche today.
How to Position Your Company in the Minds of Consumers - To learn more about this author, visit Bill Tamminga's Website.
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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