In today's competitive markets, brands need to stand out to avoid a price war and a race to the bottom. The goal of brand positioning is to create a unique impression in a potential buyer’s mind so that the buyer associates something specific and desirable with your brand that is different from your competitors. Cheng says the best positioning makes a unique, compelling and credible offer to a potential buyer. Neither does "free" or "fast" shipping if all your competitors promise the same thing. Brands discover their uniqueness by focusing on the who, what, where, why, when and how of their offer. What do you offer? WordPress provided a content management system long before HubSpot got into the market, but HubSpot became a billion-dollar business by differentiating itself with services that supported sales and marketing teams. How do I make people believe my unique offer? Let your buyers try your product for free first. Instead create a unique, compelling and credible offer for your buyers.
In today’s competitive markets, brands need to stand out to avoid a price war and a race to the bottom. Your uniqueness is there; you just have to find it. Here’s how.
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There’s never been a more crucial time to differentiate your business, whether you sell on Amazon, drop ship, own an e-commerce store or even if you’re in SaaS. Technology has greatly reduced the barriers to starting a business, meaning you can only expect the competition to become even more fierce.
If there’s nothing differentiating what you and your competitors offer, buyers will only focus on price. From there, things can only go downhill as prices race to the bottom and profit margins become vanishingly small.
Brand positioning is what saves you from looking — and hence having to charge — like everyone else. The way your business differs from others tells potential buyers how and why you’re the right choice for them.
The goal of brand positioning is to create a unique impression in a potential buyer’s mind so that the buyer associates something specific and desirable with your brand that is different from your competitors.
There are a lot of positioning frameworks out there, but I particularly like the one offered by strategic planning consultant Victor Cheng in his book The Recession-Proof Business. Cheng says the best positioning makes a unique, compelling and credible offer to a potential buyer. To figure out how you can stand out from the crowd, you need to ask yourself three questions.
1. How do I make my offer unique?
The first step to avoid being like everyone else is to stop telling your buyers what everyone else is. Saying you’re “the best” at something doesn’t mean much if everyone else is saying it. Neither does “free” or “fast” shipping if all your competitors promise the same thing. Brands discover their uniqueness by focusing on the who, what, where, why, when and how of their offer.
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